We had an ambitious shoot day with a tight budget. 5 hero still shots and 5 animated stories in one day.
When we were planning and executing our shoot, we committed our production to Universal Design and learned 5 awesome things from the kids @Holland Bloorview;
1. Everything is always consent based. This includes touching somebody’s wheelchair. It is an extension of their body.
Ask before you jump in and feel inclined to touch people or their things. The same goes for crew equipment, my camera and talent’s wardrobe. A great way to approach someone on set can start with “ Hey can I ……”. It keeps the vibe respectful, positive and fun!
2. Many photo studios call themselves accessible but aren’t fully….
Toronto hosts over one hundred studios, out of which ONE !!!, met our accessibility parameters. Lots of the others had partly accessible locations although they missed key elements that make them fully accessible. 1/100 is very bad.
3. Accessible washrooms don’t just need big doors. They require handles, grips, sink accessibility and better motorized doors, touch sensors.
Accessible washrooms are always a must for our talent and even better for our crew living in a covid world. Doors, sinks and toilets that operate with sensors and no touch benefit our entire team.
4. Cable wells and cable mats are nearly impossible to navigate a wheelchair over. They are not accessible and require us to think outside the box.
We didn’t want cable wells creating roadblocks. Instead, we ran power cables in the lighting grid.
This meant our talent could move quickly around set and so could our digital station and set makers! This was also great when it came to getting our props and talent to set quickly.
5. Having a parking loading area away from traffic but close to the studio was essential for our talent to arrive in style and comfort.
This also is great for our grip and lighting truck to unload the equipment quickly and happily!
