As a biology major, color fascinated me. Neuroscience can describe how color is received into the brain: specific wavelengths of light are refracted onto the retina where rods and cones send neural signals to the primary visual cortex, with a whole lot more detail in each one of those steps than anyone wants to read in this story. Scientists can even tell you all sorts of research about how colors play into our cognition and memory. My son may have synesthesia, a joining of the senses, in which he associates colors with certain smells. Really, this nerdy stuff is so amazing! But you know the most incredible part of color? It only exists as a perception. It’s not really there and it can be experienced differently by different people.

If a person with total color-blindness can’t see this concept we call color, it doesn’t really exist and therefore doesn’t have meaning…right? With the understanding that philosophical arguments don’t have right or wrong answers, I’m going to do my best to tell you why I think that color has a lot of meaning. 

When you strip color away from a film, you also strip away part of the realness of that memory. Artistically this can serve a purpose when you want to draw the viewers attention to a specific item, expression, or dramatically lit scene. I used this technique when I volunteered for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, an organization providing the gift of remembrance photos to parents who will never get to bring their baby home from the hospital. All of the images created were in black and white to help the parents focus on the love for their child, and less on the pain and realness of remembering the loss.

In family filmmaking, color plays a crucial role when you want to portray the full depth of a memory. It makes it feel more real, almost tangible. It’s as close to reliving the moment that you can possibly get. Color creates an important link between our memories and emotions. THAT, I would argue, means that color also holds a lot of meaning.

You may be wondering…why oh why did I then make half of a film in black and white? The answer, of course, lies within another story.

The discussion of skin color is a hot topic, and I have found it incredibly difficult to speak up about my thoughts without fear of saying something wrong. At the same time, silence has not felt like the right solution either. The lack of discussion leading up to recent events is the primary reason our culture is in this position right now. The best way I can find to express myself is through my art. I asked this family specifically if they would do a session with a purpose. Their family is made up of different colors, yet the experiences that they have are so relatable to any family. Without color and with color, the film expresses the same love and joy. We can’t change skin color, but what would happen if we changed our perception of its meaning? What if the presence of varied skin tones brought vibrancy to life in the visual esthetic of our uniqueness? What if we saw color as nothing other than a pigment, an ancestry, a beautiful history of people who lived, laughed, and loved? I don’t want to ignore color. I want to embrace it.

Pam’s Story

Every family has a story that deserves to be remembered. Many people take out their cameras like crazy when the kids are little and as the years go on family photos become less and less common. A 60th birthday is just as important as the first. While celebrating Pam on this day, it really struck me how much I could connect to the stories her mother told.

To her grandkids she is known as “Bubee”, to Pam she is known as “Mom”. She drew me right into her storytelling throughout the day as she made people laugh in ways that no one else could, and when it came time for the gifts I was blown away. The thoughtfulness behind each item reminded me of how my own mom finds gifts for their meaning far more than monetary value. The most powerful one from Bubee was a hat that Pam’s grandmother wore to her wedding. Her gentle spirit and loving nature reminded me so much of me Meme, and when she shared the story of Pam’s birth like it was just the other day I reconnected to my children’s birth stories.

Seeing life unfold across the generations struck me in a really powerful way. All in one day we talked about birth, life, and those who are no longer with us. It made me look backward and forward in time, remembering my own experiences and wondering what I have yet to explore.

Babe & Christina’s Story
When I first met Christina four years ago, we were waiting for a Memorial Day parade to start. We had children around the same age so we naturally started chatting with each other. As we got further along in the conversation I started talking about my photography and she got really excited. Her and her husband had recently purchased a farm and were happy to share the space if I ever needed a location. As I pulled up to their property for the first time I was blown away with the beauty of the gorgeous lake, landscape, and historic buildings.

Since that day they have grown the property into a brewery, a wedding venue, and arguably the best Christmas tree farm in the area. They also own and operate a well established landscaping company. It amazes me to see how they have worked so hard to make their dreams a reality.

When Christina and I sat down for her Scriptwriting Session (6 feet apart at the lakefront might I add!), the vision that we created did not include any of the grand achievements that I just listed. She wanted to surprise her husband, Babe, with a film for Father’s Day. We were going to film little snippets throughout the day of the things she loves most about him as a father and husband – making pancakes for Sunday breakfast, helping the kids learn the responsibilities that go along with having farm animals, setting up the family for popcorn and a movie before bedtime, and throwing giggling, crazy-haired children on the bed after tubby. That was our plan and we were ready! That is until the day went into an entirely different direction.

One of the kids slept at Oma’s house and wasn’t back in time for breakfast, so the first scene we planned was scratched. Then, I quickly realized that it was going to be challenging to surprise Babe with a film staring himself. It felt intrusive to follow him all day with a camera in his face when he didn’t really know what we were creating, so I stepped back and followed a different story. One that was beautiful, deep, and real.

I saw the story of a couple who have big dreams and support each other in any ways they can to make it happen. Christina takes on a lot of the farm chores, does a ton of outreach and coordination for events at the farm, and probably 1001 other things that she does behind the scenes for their family and business every day. Babe does a lot of work with his hands – cutting, building, digging, trimming. His days are long and physically exhausting. When there is still work to be done and not enough of themselves to go around, they call on Christina’s mom (also in the film) who will swing by in a heartbeat to lend a hand. The song in this film speaks to this family’s dedication to be there for each other through thick and thin, and the visuals focus on what all of their work is really about – the love for their children, each other, and family that supports them. The beautiful moments they spend together make all of the challenges of entrepreneurship worth it. These children will grow up knowing what it means to keep moving forward in life even when there are huge mountains to climb because they see their parents doing it every day.

Vanessa & Brendan’s Story

Love permeates all stages of life. As a midwife, Vanessa brings her loving voice and healing energy to moms while they go through a time of intense pain and even greater joy – the birth of their baby. She carries with her the unfathomably immense love of God that is evident through the work of her hands and the gifts of compassion and comfort that she brings to others. With her clients and with her family, love is the center of it all.

Love. It is such a small word with so much meaning. It is a feeling, an action, an embodiment of God living among us. While guiding Vanessa and Brendan through writing the script for their film, this word became central to everything we wrote together. In writing a message to their children, they undoubtedly knew that the love of Christ is the foundation upon which their family is built, and it is the reflection of that love in us that brings so much beauty into the world.