Locally made fall prevention video series wins international award

A group of Stratford residents has been internationally recognized for the work they’ve done to spread the important message of fall-prevention awareness.

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The team of Kelley TeahenJordan Mah and Brian Tree worked together to create a video series of five extremely short films for Parachute, an injury prevention charity, that inform viewers of the different hazards that may cause falls. Last month, these clips won gold in the ultra-short video category at the biannual International Safety Media Awards.

While a very niche communications award, it was a “great honor” and a fun project to get recognized for, said TeahenParachute’s vice-president of communications and marketing.

“This is what you can do when you live in a creative community like Stratford,” Teahen said.

Not having a large budget, the videos were shot at Teahen‘s home with Tree, who retired after 27 years on stage at the Stratford Festival, serving as the actor, and Mah, a current Festival performer, providing the videography. The videos show different scenarios that could lead to falls, such as a loose rug causing Tree to trip or the actor opting to not use his glasses. One of the videos also features local pharmacist George Jansen to encourage viewers to consult their doctors or pharmacists on potentially helpful medications.

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Now in his 70s, Tree said he was already thinking about risk prevention when Teahen approached him to be a part of the series.

“My wife has forbidden me now to do any ladder work. . . so when Kelly approached me about this, I thought, ‘yeah, this is good. It has to be out there.’ Because of this, I am more aware of where I tread. I’m no longer 17. I’m 77 now. I’m getting up there to when these things happen, so I think it’s a good message to get out there,” Tree said.

While the videos, shot in 2022, were produced just after Mah started his journey as a videographer, he also was eager to participate, given that he was raised to “rrespect the elders, and do everything you can to give back to them.”

“I think for this, it was a no-brainer. I can help out that community and kind of use my skills to do it. . . and flex that creative brain in a different way than what I’m usually doing,” he said.

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The series was shot in an ‘old-timey’ style, taking inspiration from the silent films of Charlie Chaplin, the widely known actor who rose to fame in the 1910s and 1920s with classics like The Gold Rush and Modern Times. The short Parachute films employ slightly over-the-top acting and sped-up sequences to help drive their message home.

“The message was super easy to digest and it’s that humorous, ‘Oh yeah, that reminds me of this,’ and (the viewer) would think about it more,” Mah said.

Each of the videos, which range in length from 20 to 36 seconds, provide something completely different to what viewers are used to when it comes to short videos, Teahen added.

“We all know what it’s like when we’re on social media now and we’re scrolling, and it’s flip, flip, flip, flip. whereas, if something’s like, ‘whoa, what’s that?’ It’ll catch your eyes. So it was to add to some of that sense of humor that we decided in production to create it in a silent-movie style,” she said.

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Beyond the award, the series has made an impression on social media, garnering more than 350,000 impressionswith some 11,700 people then visiting Parachute’s fall-prevention website. While some of the messages, such as preventing a rug from becoming a tripping hazard, may be obvious, the aim was to raise awareness without doing so in an overbearing way, Teahen said.

“One thing I have learned, I’ve been with Parachute now for seven years, and if you’re trying to convince people to do what’s good for them, nagging does not work because they tune it out. We’re really good at that as human beings,” she added.

While he knows it’s not something he’ll become famous for, Tree said the work — and the award they received — were for a great cause.

“I think is such a great course, and if it helps somebody not just doing something stupid like falling off a chair and hurting their tailbone, (that’s) good,” he said.

All five videos can be found on Parachute’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@parachutecanada/videos.

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