Silicon Valley Video Production Company Documents Local Heroes

Bay Area production company Creation Ground Media produced videos celebrating the heroic deeds of honorees of the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter’s Annual Heroes Celebration.

Sergio Jimenez recounts the story of rescuing an unconscious driver from his burning vehicle

Our goal is to leverage the power of video so that every member of the audience gets a sense of, ‘that could have been me,’ ‘what choice would I have but to act?’ and ‘am I prepared?

Mountain View, AR (Vocus/PRWEB) June 01, 2011

For the fourth year in a row, Bay Area business video company Creation Ground Media produced video vignettes for the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter’s Annual Heroes Celebration. The fundraising event, held at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara on May 5th, celebrated local individuals, businesses and governments whose extraordinary actions and readiness for disaster serve as an inspiration to the Silicon Valley community. The videos produced by Creation Ground introduced each honoree to the event’s audience, giving attendees a clear picture of who the person is, what they did, why they did it and how they were able to do it. The powerful videos put viewers in the shoes of the heroes, making the audience wonder what they would have done in the same situation, and moving the attendees to an awareness of the need to be prepared.

“Our goal is to leverage the power of video so that every member of the audience gets a sense of, ‘that could have been me,’ ‘what choice would I have but to act?’ and ‘am I prepared?’” explained Creation Ground Media owner Marilyn Ritter.

“As we are filming each story, we encourage them to describe in their own words what happened,” Ritter said, “what was going through their minds when the situation presented, how they reacted and what they felt as the crisis unfolded.” The videos, though brief, are powerful because they involve the audience in the story and generate a response both emotional and intellectual. Everyone wants to live in a world peopled by heroes who step up to help others in crisis.

Sergio Jimenez, Justo Magaña Garcia, and James Myers were honored as Good Samaritan Heroes for rescuing an unconscious motorist from his burning vehicle that had crashed into an electric pole on the side of the Capitol Expressway. In the video, Jimenez describes the feeling that overcame him, telling him he had to go help: “I thought he’d feel the fire and, you know, jump out of the car.” When the driver didn’t move, Jimenez ran over and jumped into action. “I started to try and kick the window open.” His thought was simply, “if we don’t help him now, he’s gonna die.” Myers and Garcia joined, and they were able to break the glass with a pipe wrench and pull the driver to safety.

Other Good Samaritans honored at the event include a Gilroy man who rescued a neighbor from a fire, two YMCA employees who performed CPR on a member having a heart attack, and a COSTCO employee who performed CPR on an elderly shopper having a massive heart attack.

The American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter’s Annual Heroes Celebration also gives an award for Innovative Preparedness to local businesses, organizations, or governments that have gone to superior measures to ensure safety in a time of disaster, or who has gone above and beyond or made the most progress during the past year to incorporate disaster preparedness and safety into its core mission and values.

Cisco Systems Tactical Operations received the Innovative Preparedness honor for their revolutionary method of disaster response; a communications team that is able to respond quickly to disasters locally or across the world. In the video, Catherine Nelson explains that Cisco’s goal is to “bring technology to a level where first responders can use it,” giving responders access to voice, video, and data communications.

The City of Palo Alto, exemplifying the spirit of the innovation that the Silicon Valley region is known for, received the Innovative Preparedness award for having one of the most comprehensive disaster preparedness plans in Santa Clara County. The video shows how the engaged citizenry, strong neighborhoods, future-oriented city council, and technologically-minded city government work collectively to create Palo Alto’s emergency preparedness program. “One of the great advantages that our city has is that we have a combination of forces or factors in our community that have all converged to allow us to be as well-positioned to protect our community as we are,” said City Manager James Keene.

Barbara Larkin, CEO of the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter, said the honorees exemplified the mission of the organization. “Everyday emergencies happen and there is nothing we can do about it but be ready. The Red Cross is focused on preparing people ahead of time, that's what we're all about.”

The American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter is a non-profit, humanitarian organization that provides services and programs that help Santa Clara County residents and companies prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. To make a donation, or for more information on disaster preparedness, health and safety classes or volunteer opportunities, visit http://www.siliconvalley-redcross.org or call (877) 727-6771.

To view the video interviews with Good Samaritan Heroes and Innovative Preparedness honorees, visit http://creationgroundmedia.com/arc2011.

For more information about Creation Ground Media’s videos of the Red Cross Heroes, or any of Creation Ground Media’s other videos or services, call them at (650) 946-1354 or visit them on the web at http://www.creationgroundmedia.com.

About Creation Ground Media

Creation Ground Media is a full-service Bay Area video production company with a success-driven system that provides pre-production: discovery and planning; production: following the plan and capturing it on video; post-production: bringing it all together and adding finishing touches and delivery. They are fluent in all the technologies, from traditional television format to web video marketing, to assure that clients’ videos are delivered efficiently, appropriately, and correctly whether it is for broadcast television, corporate websites, social networking sites, PDAs, or DVD, and can also create business videos. Creation Ground Media serves the San Francisco Bay Area.