The seeds of the Gabriella Foundation project were planted back in the 90’s. I was shooting a lot for Fallon — which meant opportunities working with writer/creative director Mike Gibbs and account manager, Kevin Berigan.
Fast forward and Kevin is now a Director at a school in Ventura CA, he and Mike are working together on a fund raising campaign and asked me to direct the spots.
A few weeks later, Kevin tells me that he’s recommended me to The Gabriella Foundation, an LA-based non-profit which brings the transformative power of dance and artistic expression to thousands of inner-city kids — they needed help crafting their fund-raising message, from the ground up. When I approached Arcana Academy about the opportunity to develop the creative, both Shane and Lee said “we always love a chance to be involved with something larger than ourselves” and so we all jumped right in.
Over the course of 3-days, we met, filmed and photographed ten students who have brought dance into their lives, and have found themselves transformed. Rounding out the video was an original score crafted by music composer Sven Faulconer with lead vocals by Briana Lee.
A real creative force that thing called chance.
Arcana Academy; Lee Walters, Shane Hutton, Creative Directors; Jessica Darke, Producer.
With a little BTS here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV2xsKxPcXg
