at&t homework gap sacramento

production

What is it?

This is a short documentary about the homework gap, an issue that has a deep impact on communities all around the US. An estimated 17 million children don’t have access to an Internet connection or a device. And without those connections, they won’t have the tools and skills they need to be competitive and succeed in today’s world.

This short piece captures the inspiring stories of resilience and hard work of the teachers of the Robla School District in Sacramento, California, and shows how they worked together with the non-profit Connected Nation and AT&T in order to get Internet connectivity for the students in their community, and how this helped them get through online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, and expanding their learning opportunities when they were back to the classrooms.

What did we do?

We were involved in all the stages of the project: from pre-production: creating a director’s proposal, contacting the interviewees, creating questionnaires and doing pre-interviews through Zoom; to the production shoot in Sacramento; and lastly to the post-production phase, including: creating a script after visualizing all the interview footage, editing, color correction, sound design and audio mix.

Who else was involved?

We worked closely with McClatchy’s Creative Lab creative director’s Eric Brandner and Jason Smith, and also with Hearts & Science’s team, as well as AT&T’s communications team.

What gear did we use?

For this project we wanted a camera that allowed us to move from place to place quickly, so we chose to use two cameras Canon C500 Mark II, matched with different lenses and filters.

What was the result?

The result is a beautiful, emotive and inspiring story about the resilience of teachers, and how getting together for a common cause can create opportunities that benefit our communities, especially those in need.