In "Stephanie," a lanky young girl is seen swimming and playing with her brothers. She says she loves to read. Her comment seems unremarkable, until you consider the fact that Stephanie is deaf, which makes learning to read a very difficult task.
Glastonbury, Conn.-based advertising agency Cronin & Company teamed with director Peter Sillen of Washington Square Films, New York, to make "Stephanie," a spot promoting the New Britain, Conn.-headquartered American Savings Foundation (ASF). The ASF is a charitable endowment founded by the American Savings Bank, which has 47 branches throughout the state.
Cronin & Company is the American Savings Bank’s agency of record. Last year the foundation asked the agency to come up with a spot that would "build awareness about how its ASF contributes to the community," recounted Lester Ayala, the agency’s director of broadcast production. The Foundation’s president/COO David Davison and community affairs director Maria Falvo worked with Cronin & Company creatives to develop a list of foundation-supported programs that would best convey the bank’s commitment to the community.
So in the fall of 2000, staff at the agency, including creative director Steve Wolfberg, copywriter Kristen Ehrlich and art director Eric Panke, spent several weeks interviewing prospective subjects. Said Ayala, "We decided that the American School for the Deaf would make a great story."
The American School for the Deaf (ASD), in West Hartford, Conn., is a nonprofit, state-aided private school whose 240 students range in age from pre-kindergarten to high school. ASD’s director of institutional development Tom Missett related, " This past year, we asked specifically for support for the Together We Read component of the [ASD] early childhood program." Together We Read helps parents of deaf preschoolers prepare their children to read, and in ’00, the Foundation gave $10,000 to the initiative.
Seeking a deaf student who had benefited from the reading program, the Cronin & Company team found 11-year-old Stephanie Durand. Ayala recalled, "When we met Stephanie and her two brothers, we knew that we were going to feature them. They’re so close, and they have such energy. …" She added emphatically, "We didn’t want to show pity. We wanted to paint a picture of who she is—a terrific little girl."
Cronin & Company approached documentary filmmaker Sillen [the ’00 feature Benjamin Smoke], who had previously directed the Connecticut Lottery’s "Millennium Millions" and "Library" via the agency. Sillen had never directed a hearing-impaired person before, and he relied on several people— including Stephanie’s hearing father and two brothers, as well as an interpreter—to communicate with Stephanie. Sillen and his crew also "studied basic signs, just so we could be able to communicate on some small level. The bottom line is, sign language is another language. We had a good time entering that world."
Like Ayala, Sillen was charmed by his subject: "You realize that Stephanie is a little girl first and a deaf person second; she’s not defined by being deaf. It just came across so clearly in her camaraderie with her siblings—she was a normal kid, just having fun. I think that’s important, because a lot of people look at people with disabilities as having really limited lives. But Stephanie’s deafness does not hinder her life."
Sillen was struck by how difficult it is for deaf children to acquire reading skills. As he pointed out, "A hearing person learns to read by sounding out the words. How do you even begin to learn to read when you can’t hear? I wanted to get people to identify with how hard it must be."
Interviewing Stephanie on camera took Sillen some time. First, Sillen would ask a question, and though Stephanie can lip-read a little bit, the interpreter would sign the question. Stephanie signed and spoke. But since those not accustomed to hearing deaf people speak are unlikely to understand Stephanie, her interpreter then translated her responses.
Although it is easier for an interpreter to translate sign language simultaneously than consecutively, Sillen was adamant: "I wanted to capture Stephanie’s natural sounds. I think it worked a lot better because there wasn’t anyone stepping on her words," he observed.
"Hearing her speak was so powerful," Sillen marveled. He decided that if viewers heard Stephanie’s broken syllables, they might begin to comprehend the challenge that the hearing-impaired face when learning to read. In the final cut, Stephanie’s words are subtitled. The footage of Stephanieflin the school library, swimming with her brothers and talking to the cameraflis interspersed with art cards describing ASF’s work, and voiceovers about Stephanie, provided by her brothers.
The spot has the improvised feel of a family movie, complete with the siblings jostling one another at home. Sillen avoided the testimonial-style approach often seen in "real people" spots: "She’s an 11-year-old, and you don’t want to stick her in a conventional interview setting," noted Sillen. Instead, part of the spot was filmed on the stairs in the Durand house. "Shooting in the Super-16 widescreen format, I just felt that the hallway and the stairs played so nicely with that framing," Sillen offered. The spot is in black and white, which the director chose because he thought it "was elegant, and allowed Stephanie’s personality to show through."
The spot has been running on CBS and NBC affiliates in the Hartford area.
