Seven Days To Go!

The heat is on. It's on the streets. Actually it's on the screen. This is the last stretch of a seven-plus year marathon. Last night we finished filming the last sequence of our production. Yes, a little late... but this was a sequence that needed to be in the production. Adaptive Gaming.




We filmed the sequence at the Sorenson Unity Center. Their event specialist, Charles Earl, helped set up the projector and screen. In addition to serving as our lighting crew. Just prior to the shoot our original participant called Jeff (the producer/DP) and said that he wasn't feeling too well. Jeff quickly scrambled to locate another participant. No easy task, considering that we needed C5 Tetraplegic who uses a sip and puff power chair. As luck would have it, Jeff finally tracked Mike Hanna. Mike came with his father, Mike Hanna, Sr.


Jeff assisted both Mikes with the attachment of the adaptive gaming device. An electronic video game controller that lets users with limited or no arm function play video games. It's like a joy stick for the mouth. All controls can be accessed using lips, tongue and chin. It's a rather amazing piece of technology. Once attached, we fired up the projector, readied the camera and light and positioned our talent.




We used a Bode Miller game to simulate skiing. The idea is to integrate this gaming sequence into the alpine skiing sequence.


Charles

The shoot took over two hours to complete. Not too bad. After finishing Mike's shots, we reviewed the footage together and then let the talent split... with the gaming system! It's all his. Jeff, Charles and I the finished getting some screen shots.




Mike Sr.

This gaming is an incredible option for many individuals with high levels of SCI. "Continue" focuses on the entire range of paralysis, but until now, it hasn't included C5 Tetraplegia (Quadriplegia). I'm really excited to have this new footage.


Now... time to edit. The plane tickets for D.C. have been purchased, so there's no turning back. We present to the PVA at 10 AM on Friday July 31st. This is crunch time.