Martin House hospice care for children and young people
Every client has different requirements for video. Depending on their organisation this could be a promo video, a product demo, animation, corporate video…the list goes on and on!!
Being familiar with an organisation and having an understanding of what they do instantly informs us of the type of video they may be after but going into an unfamiliar environment can be difficult.
Last summer we were contacted by the marketing team from Martin House, following the initial meeting we put together with them a plan outlining how we were going to achieve the two videos they were wanting.
For those of you who may not have heard of Martin House, they are a hospice that care for children and young adults for West, East and North Yorkshire. They care for over 420 children and young people with life-shortening conditions and their families, as well as 150 bereaved families.
The project really was a collaborative one between our two organisations and we very much relied on them when it came to who and what we could film. Every step of the way the families who use Martin House were consulted with.
The end product was two films, a fundraising video and the other is aimed at healthcare professionals. We shot footage for both over 3 days, capturing general footage of the location, families who were staying as well as interviews with some of the families, young adults and the care team. We knew from our pre-production that we wouldn’t require any over the top filming equipment, the stories that were being told were very much the focus.
On the first day we were introduced to two families who were going to feature in the fundraising film. We didn’t really know what to expect from the filming other than it would probably be quite a hard situation to go into. The misconception for us and many people is that a hospice is a sad place but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The way that the parents and young adults spoke of Martin House and seeing the children being cared for brought home that it is on the whole a happy place.
Fiona and Jonathan were two of the parents featured from the two families. They both spoke of their families journey and told us a little bit about their world and how Martin House help them. One phrase which was mentioned continually that ‘it feels like a family’. We got a sense of this when it was lunchtime, all the families eat together. In the home environment this may not even be possible for them to do however having the care team there whilst they enjoy a meal together seemed irreplaceable.
We were privileged for all those involved at Martin House to let us in and share their stories with us. We were deeply saddened to hear that one of the children that we had filmed had passed away whilst we were editing the video and were are very grateful that the parents allowed us to still use the footage. It did bring it home to us how massively important this organisation is, the work they do and the families they support it is truly heartwarming. We hope that the videos show just how positive and warm the place is.
