On any day at One Floor Up you will find a wide variety of video projects happening.  We may be helping a tech company teach you to use their product, directing a Bronco’s player to act silly, or animating the insides of a body part to explain a health issue.  With each project we learn something new and find something to love within the work.  I personally had the chance to work on a project that I fell in love with this summer.

Gamma Phi Beta’s national headquarters are in the Denver area and when they first called us, I was really curious about what kind of idea we would be developing.  I was immediately struck by the sincerity and philanthropies of the organization.  Here is an entire national organization that holds a strong value in building, empowering and nurturing young girls to be honest friends and believe in themselves.  The more I learned, the more inspired I felt.

One of the greatest things that happens in video production is that we collaborate.  Over the last few years I have met women who I have wanted to work with, who have inspired me, and who I hope to be like.  A light bulb went off for me to do something I’ve always wanted – let’s create a piece with an all woman crew.  To know production is to know that this is a real challenge.  We women in this industry have made our way into a space full of incredibly talented men.  And lots of them.  So as I started to reach out and talk about this idea, I witnessed a different type of investment and interest.  We all strive to do great work, but this time, something felt more personal for each of us.

Here’s what I’ll say about this experience. For the most part, it was like any other successful shoot.  We planned, we came up with good ideas, and bad ideas, we prepared our questions and lighting diagrams, and we ran into hiccups that we had to overcome.  This stuff always happens.  At times, it didn’t seem at all different from any other shoot day, or any other project.  But when we sat with each of our interviewees, that was where one could feel the difference.  Each girl, each woman, that spoke about someone who inspired her, who believed in her, who changed her for the better, was surrounded by a crew of women who could relate, or wanted to be that.  It’s kind of intangible to describe this difference, but it was real to experience.

Thank you Kira, Melinda, Emily, Mary Grace, MaryAnn and Maureen for being so dedicated to this project.  I am proud that we have created something that can be inspirational to many.

She is a director of photography, a producer, a gaffer, an audio tech, a creative director, a makeup stylist, an artist, a business woman, a leader, a friend.  She is me.