PHOTO BY STACY CHANDLER
Frank Brechbiel, left, and Kyle Messina's video public service announcement about bike safety won first place in the high school category of an annual contest sponsored by law firm HensonFuerst.
Budding filmmakers Frank Brechbiel and Kyle Messina put their heads together for a video that reminds bicyclists to protect theirs.
The 29-second video from the recent Sanderson High School grads won the high-school category of North Carolina law firm HensonFuerst's annual cycling safety public service announcement contest. They won a $1,500 prize that they immediately cashed in for more video equipment.
The Raleigh duo - friends since their freshman year at Sanderson - filmed three videos to enter in the contest. A video Frank made for the 2010 contest won honorable mention, but he was hungry for more.
"We figured we'd improved a lot over the span of one year," he said, "so we figured that we might be able to do a lot better."
"Yeah," Kyle added, "and then both of us together would probably get a better chance at winning."
Their winning entry features fast edits of Frank giving statistics that quickly go from simple to sobering against a backdrop of Raleigh parks and city buildings.
With Kyle behind the camera, Frank shares that while anyone under the age of 16 is required to wear a helmet when biking, people between the ages of 6 to 18 are the least likely to do so. The video gets quickly to the "so-what": 630 cyclists died on U.S. roads in 2009, and of those, a whopping 91 percent had not been wearing a helmet.
That's the stat that stood out for Frank and Kyle, and they think that's what viewers of their video will remember most as well.
They're grateful for the stunning statistic, because they didn't have much time to spend getting their point across.
"It was a challenge to make that size" project, Kyle said of the strictly enforced time limit.
"I hadn't ever made a 30-second commercial before, so that was kind of cool just working with something that fast-paced, just crunching that much footage into such a small timeframe," Frank said.
This challenge was new, but Frank and Kyle have years of experience making movies.
In elementary school, Kyle said, "I got a video camera and just started filming with my friends, some short films that we just made up on the spot. I've been doing it ever since, and have just progressed."
Frank started in middle school, finding a hobby that springs from his love of watching movies others have made.
"I've always loved just watching movies, and just making them is a lot of fun," he said. "Seeing the finished product is just such a good feeling."
The finished project for the HensonFuerst contest could be seen by local television viewers as part of the top prize. Kyle and Frank's PSA aired on the local Fox affiliate in prime time earlier this summer. (It's also online at tinyurl.com/bicyclepsa.)
"It was pretty cool," Kyle said. "I've never had anything that I filmed on TV, so that was a first."
After that exposure, Frank and Kyle got a taste of the power of both the medium and the message.
"After some kids brought it up, said they saw the commercial, I'd be like 'Oh, well do you wear a helmet now?' And they'd say 'yeah, '" Frank said.
And they practice what they preach in their PSA.
"I haven't ridden a bike without a helmet since I made it," Kyle said.
