We love to create, tell stories, and make change. However, there’s one thing that fulfills us more than anything else. Seeing a client overjoyed with the results of a project. It doesn’t happen on every job, but the feeling of collaborating on pre-production through editing and getting to show a client a final product that is everything they wanted and more is better than every other part of the process.
In the spring of ’25, we had the chance to shoot for Grand Junction’s local non-profit Adaptive Heroes. What they didn’t know is that we had already been working on a documentary with one of their clients, Cleo Wayt. Not only was Cleo a part of the commercial, she operated our B-camera during the filming of the interviews. Cleo was born with Cerebral Palsy and will spend most of her life in a wheelchair. Cleo hopes to work in film and animation as a full time profession. Although we might not be able to get Cleo into a director role on a big feature, yet… We had the chance to bring Cleo on to work as a camera operator on this large commercial and get paid in her debut film job while still studying in college.
Our story with Cleo goes back two years, where we began a feature documentary with her and the Wayt family. We had filmed things with Cleo that had already involved the Adaptive Heroes crew without them even knowing. When we put together the commercial for Adaptive Heroes, we used footage from the documentary as a surprise to really tie the commercial together. The founder of Adaptive Heroes, Lincoln Folkers, had an emotional reaction that brought the room to tears.