Given that COVID-19 has put the world at a standstill, we prepared for our spring productions to be postponed or cancelled. Western Reserve Academy thought otherwise: they were asking for an uplifting video to engage the community.

After speaking to many of the students, we understood that the overall sentiment was that of sadness. Using existing footage was not an option as showing happy students would surely come off as tone deaf. When brainstorming a topic for a video in the time of Coronavirus, nearly every idea sounded opportunistic in its approach. We wanted something that was sincere, warm and that would, ideally, bring some joy.

When in conversation about something unrelated, it occurred to us that while this is a difficult time for humans, pets (specifically dogs) have never been happier. People are home, spending time with their pets every day. It clicked: what if we made a video from the perspective of the animals?  Rather than try to assure the community that “everything would be alright,” we looked to simply highlight that there is some happiness to be found at knee level. Approved. Next, how would we film in Ohio while everyone was in self-isolation? Also, we’re currently in Australia.

Creating a video from a distance was not necessarily on our professional bucket list, but was added retroactively. We were in direct communication with the community and assigned different scenes to individuals, gave them a detailed storyboard and technical directions with visual examples of the frames needed. Several of the students’ families were either in the video or helped film it.

Then there were the voiceovers. Luckily, WRA has an enthusiastic Chief Innovation Officer who set up a space where campus resident faculty could safely record their lines, one at a time. With some written directions sent ahead and a sample recording of how the lines should be read, we got what we needed.

Pet Project doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t. The video takes on a different approach to the seemingly hollow inspirational messaging found in the majority of COVID-19 era commercials. With the help of our friendly quadrupeds, the WRA community show a different perspective and, hopefully, bring smiles. We could always use some of those.