We’ve been producing videos for local high school Every 15 Minutes drunk driving awareness programs since 2009 (and been on shooting crews for them going back to 2001.) And though we’ve been producing them for Santa Rosa high schools since 2010, it wasn’t until March of 2016 we produced our first for Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, which we are pleased to present here.

For those unfamiliar with the program, a full-scale simulation of a fatal drunk driving accident is staged on a high school campus in front of the whole student body, complete with fire, police, ambulance and even a helicopter responding. We create a backstory video prior to the crash scene, then capture the unfolding action of the simulation, including following the student actors as they travel to the hospital ER, the county courthouse, and even the morgue. The resulting footage is edited overnight and the finished video is shown to the students at an assembly the very next day. The idea is to have them live (at least as much as possible) the tremendous level of response from the community and the serious consequences of a drunk driving accident.

Warning: contains graphic images designed to simulate the consequences of a fatal drunk driving accident.

Produced by Visual Story Media, LLC. Directed and edited by Alan Fitch. Camera operators: Robert Talbot, Breana Pozzi, Michael Nistler, Sheralise Burnett.