Parkinson’s TV Campaign – The Role Reversal

Paula with her two daughters Greta and Mary

A new TV commercial is about to be aired to help raise awareness for Parkinson’s Disease. The ad is going to give younger people living with Parkinson’s the opportunity to tell their story, whether they are sufferers of the disease or are close family members to those who are. The idea is to educate the public and let people know that it is not just a disease that effects the elderly, but can effect people as young as their 20s.

Peter Brown at Blue Desk advertising agency was brought on board by Parkinson’s to come up with an idea/theme for the campaign, and because of my long-time relationship with Parkinson’s as a director and producer of many of their previous campaigns I was brought on board to direct, film and edit the television commercial, and the accompanying radio campaign.

The TV commercial stars Paula Argy and her daughter Mary, and is a touching insight into the lives of families who deal with Parkinson’s disease on a daily basis. Paula herself is a sufferer of Parkinson’s and first experienced the symptoms of the disease on her wedding day at the age of just 23 years old. Today, she lives with the disease and thanks to recent breakthroughs in medication, she is able to live a relatively normal life with her two daughters (Mary and Greta).

Moving onto the technical aspects of the TV commercial; it is now the 2nd production I have shot using the Canon 5D MK2 digital SLR camera. Once again, Justin Fisher was the camera operator just like in the previous production of the Peter Fitzsimonds Unity Walk TVC. The types of shots and story being told in this campaign called for a very intimate composition of imagery, and the shallow depth of field and colour depth with the 5D worked perfectly on the day to achieve the perfect representation of Peter’s original storyboards he drew up in pre-production.

For the time being, the ad is currently being finalised for broadcast and will be airing on television within the coming weeks. But in the meantime, please enjoy a few still shots I have captured from the final version of the TV commercial and stay posted for the final video which I will host here as soon as it has officially launched.

For more information about Parkinson’s disease, please visit: www.parkinsonsnsw.org.au.