Visit Vimeo On Demand to purchase.

California’s Central Valley produces more than half of America’s produce. But the summer of 2015 marked the fourth year of what has become a monumental drought. Small family farmers like Jesus Ramos are in trouble. And when the farmers are in trouble, the country is in trouble. “No one is going to want to spend $5 on an orange,” Jesus’ daughter says. Faced with stifling water restrictions, caused in part by environmental concerns over sea life, farmers like Jesus have few options. Compounding the problem is the reality that without water, their trees will destroy the soil. So farmers uproot their trees and wait. But re-growing citrus trees takes years. Or they can gamble, hoping that this season will be the last one without water. California’s Central Valley is in crisis and if it doesn't rain soon the rest of the country will be soon feeling the effects, too.

Published: February 28th, 2016

Credits

Verse

Commissioned by

MediaStorm

A film by

Brian Storm | MediaStorm

Executive Producer, Editor & Producer

Andrew Michael Ellis | MediaStorm

Director, Cinematography, Editor and Producer

Eric Maierson | MediaStorm

Editor & Producer

Additional cinematography by Alex Miskei and Ryan Youngblood

Recognition

Pictures of the Year International
Year: 2016
Place: First
Category: Multimedia Photographer of the Year - Andrew Michael Ellis

Pictures of the Year International
Year: 2016
Place: Award of Excellence
Category: Multimedia Issue Reporting Story

NPPA's Best of Photojournalism
Year: 2016
Place: Third
Category: Multimedia Portfolio

Client Case Study

The Goal

MediaStorm was hired by Verse, a new interactive storytelling platform, to create an original story which could highlight their interactive technology.

We chose to focus on California’s current, unprecedented water shortage. Our aim was to create a timely, personal, yet universal story.

The Challenge

The challenges on this project were to first learn about the issue, and learn what story needed telling. With divisive political opinions covering the issue it was hard to know what elements to focus on.

After reading all the current events on the issue and a bit of California’s tumultuous water history, Andrew traveled to California in order to find a subject for the film. Following the trails from local public radio, he was lead to Terra Bella California where he went door-to-door meeting farmers and hearing their experiences with the drought.

After visiting dozens of farms, fruit packaging plants, and farmer advocacy meetings, he finally selected Jesus Ramos, who stood out as both a first generation Mexican immigrant and a farm owner. Charmed by Jesus and his family, he conducted a short interview and sent to the footage back to New York for approval and insight.

While the MediaStorm team was excited by Jesus’ personality, a new challenge arose: how could person articulate the importance and complexity of such a multi-faceted issue.

The Solution

We spent four days filming with Jesus and his family. The final day was dedicated to capturing drone footage in order to show the scale with which the drought had affected Terra Bella’s farming community. After returning with the footage and putting the film together, we identified three experts who could provide context and interactive storytelling components for Verse. We showed a rough cut of the film to the experts and they were able to understand Jesus’ story and to speak to his situation directly.

The Results

The short film and interactives were showcased on the Verse platform to create a non-linear interactive documentary about the impact of the drought on a farmer.

The film highlighted the toolset of the Verse interactive platform, and served as an example of how the platform could be used for interactive storytelling.

About The Client

Verse is an interactive platform with a toolset that showcases non-linear multimedia storytelling.

See more at MediaStorm