Video: OPB'S Oregon Field Guide Airs "Adventure Wheelchair" Episode Filmed at Smith Rock
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) Producer Jule Gilfillan and videographer Kristen Henderson had their work cut out for them filming at Smith Rock State Park during the hottest July on record. For 24 days, the temperature exceeded 90 degrees. The filming for this part of the “Adventure Wheelchair” story on AdvenChair for the OPB show, Oregon Field Guide, had already been postponed once. Both the film crew and the AdvenChair team decided to go for it by getting an early start.
A weekly TV news magazine exploring the ecological issues, natural wonders, and outdoor recreation of the Northwest for over 30 years, OPB’s Oregon Field Guide has been coming to Smith Rock State Park to cover a range of stories, from rock climbing to geology. This time they needed to add oppressive weather to the logistics of filming mobility challenged subjects navigating conditions that can pose an issue to a lot of visitors to the park.
OPB Producer Jule Gilfillan and videographer Kristen Henderson capture AdvenChair inventor Geoff Babb in one of the two AdvenChairs headed into Smith Rock State Park down the Canyon Trail.
With an objective to show the responsiveness to all-terrain conditions for “the wheelchair that thinks it’s a mountain bike,” all set out down the paved, then “scree”—or pea-size gravel, Canyon Trail to descend the steep slope into the river canyon below. As the AdvenChair is human-powered, this required stopping and starting a team of human “mules” to lead the two wheelchairs down the slope, stop, and reshoot for lighting, angles, etc, all as the sun begins to shine more intensely than anticipated with the weather app.
A challenge for any producer is to keep on schedule for all sorts of timing reasons. In this case, Jule had to get the shots she wanted to demonstrate the breadth of the AdvenChair while being aware that one of her non-mobile film subjects couldn’t regulate his body temperature on his own. She constantly checked in on them, adjusting locations to keep everyone close to the shade and hydrated while getting proper light for the shot.
In the end, Jule and Kristen have captured some great footage at Smith Rock to help tell the story of how AdvenChair opens up wild spaces to those with mobility challenges.
Their episode “Adventure Wheelchair” on OPB’s Oregon Field Guide covers interviews with the team behind this all-terrain wheelchair, the assembly process, and culminates with the AdvenChair in action on the trails at Smith Rock State Park. Great job Jule and Kristen!
When OPB’s Bend correspondent Emily Cureton aired a radio story about Geoff Babb’s “AdvenChair” in 2019, I knew the Oregon Field Guide audience would be as intrigued as I was to see the chair in action. I reached out to Geoff and the story was born!
Working with Geoff, Yvonne and the whole AdvenChair crew was eye-opening in ways I hadn’t expected. Not only had a community collected around the project, but had also generated a powerful bonding experience that is easy to miss in our busy lives. Working on this story reminded me to slow down and savor everything that life brings.”
— OPB Oregon Field Guide Producer Jule Gilfillan