Last year, we received an email from the good folks at Soul Pancake, a production company started by Rainn Wilson in order to create content that celebrates the good stuff of life like souls and pancakes.
They created the Kid President series, for example.
In 2018, Disney partnered with Soul Pancake to produce content in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and they wanted to feature Maya’s work with The Cozy Collection.
They had a plot twist, too.
They invited actress Jenna Ortega to surprise Maya at our house. Then, while Maya and Jenna were away at Mercy House, we set up a surprise celebration in our backyard.
Side Note:
One of my favorite parts of the story is contrasting this taping experience with the one we we had when Dave from Camfel Productions came by.
Dave was a soloist. He set up the gear, directed the shoots, worked off a script, edited and delivered us a hard copy of the video. Camfel uses the video as part of the character education assemblies they conduct throughout the country.
Here’s a picture of Dave, Maya and Joaquin.
Here’s the 5 minute + video he produced:
When Soul Pancake produced their :90 second segment, it involved two scouting trips to make sure our house was suitable.
Suitable for what?
Try 20 crew.
I’m talking catering, security, set teacher, 3 cameras, 2 ACs, a medi manager, a DP, a director, 3 execs from Disney, a couple of soul pancake producers and a couple of PA’s. They had to rent the parking lot at a local elementary school for Jenna’s Star Wagon.
Oh, yeah. We invited 20 friends and family over for celebration, too.
It was LIT!
Here’s a video of the video bc the video never got uploaded to the video machine. (Soul Pancake, if you’re reading this, hollar!)
In 2018, The Cozy Collection gathered over 14k pairs of socks. Like whoa.
How are we going to top that this year?
With your help!