St. Louis-based photographer John Fedele created a compelling video about John Deere’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity to rebuild families’ homes after Hurricane Harvey struck Houston, Texas. John documented volunteers working on Tiesha Waddy’s home as she explains what it’s like to endure a natural disaster.
Can you tell me more about this project?
We shot run-and-gun over four days, capturing as much footage and as many stories as we could throughout the rebuild and transformation. We were sure to capture impromptu interviews of the team and [home] owners to communicate the destructive effects of the hurricane/flood and their experiences rebuilding their lives. It was certainly emotional to hear the stories not only from the homeowners, but also the John Deere team in the area who were also affected. There were many acts of heroism during the storm and it was inspiring to hear about strangers selflessly helping one another before, during and after the disaster. Shooting for four days allowed us to capture many stories from all of the people on site and weave them into versions telling each person’s unique experience in the time surrounding Hurricane Harvey.
Disasters like this are horrific but they can bring out the best in humanity as we put away our differences and lend a helping hand to others in need.
Did you face any challenges with this project?
Each and every project presents a unique set of challenges that need to be overcome. It takes weeks of preparation to ensure things go smoothly and we can pivot quickly when things go wrong. The biggest challenge I felt was the task of accurately telling the story of this family’s tragedy and how others have helped them rebuild. Even with all of the chaos happening on the work site it was still important to keep perspective that this is someone’s home we’re rebuilding and most of the people giving their time were also affected by Hurricane Harvey in many ways. It’s very inspirational to see so many people come together to help complete strangers after these types of disasters.
As with any run and gun production editing, a story from a massive amount of raw interview footage can be quite daunting. It takes many hours of review to craft the narrative from each interview’s key moments then select the b-roll footage to best illustrate the VO. It’s like putting a complex puzzle together. We actually ended up cutting multiple unique versions because so many participants’ unique experiences through the destruction. There were emotional stories from the homeowner and also other John Deere team members in the area.
What has the reaction to the video been so far?
The reaction from John Deere was beyond positive and the entire team was extremely happy with the final delivery of all the edits. I had creative lead so we kept in close contact through the entire edit process, bouncing ideas off each other. It truly ended up being an enjoyable collaborative effort that everyone was able to see evolve into a production that makes us all thankful to be involved.
What were the shoots like?
We had a large crew there of about 30 people at one point all assigned different roles in the rebuild so it was certainly wise to keep well aware of any dangerous activities I was shooting. Plus with all of the hammering, sawing, heavy equipment, etc. (oh, and a busy nearby airport!) capturing our interviews proved to be quite the challenge. We certainly ended up with a lot of botched takes from background noise so we’d just keep asking the same questions. Persistence pays off in these locations!
What was your favorite part of the project?
My favorite part of the project was, by far, capturing the homeowner’s reaction when she arrived home to see it nearing completion. She was so thankful to all of us for our efforts and was truly moved by the generosity of the team. I can only imagine living through this type of tragedy with such a feeling of hopelessness only to have total strangers give their time, talents and materials to help you back on your feet.
See more of John’s work on his website.
Further Reading:
Read more about John Fedele on our blog.