“Wash your hands!” is such a simple but effective life skill that is important in our world now more than ever. It is a quintessential skill that we in the first world often take for granted: the fact that we have access to clean running water and soap makes us a privileged society that is able to proactively reduce the likelihood of dying from infections caused by viruses and harmful bacteria. This pandemic has me remembering how privileged we truly are. With great privilege comes great responsibility.
9 years ago, we created Noj Noj & Friends Pilot TV Show “Wash Your Hands” in the hopes of getting young kids and their families to get excited about learning and practicing their self-care routines. This was obviously our first time creating such a show and passion project on an extremely low budget (please laugh with us more than at us…actually at this point, if you are laughing at all, then we have done our job). In the wake of this pandemic, we hope this at least brings a little more joy and light-heartedness into the world!
We went to Banff World Media Festival to sit down with executive producers from various broadcasters around the world and pitched our Pilot to as many people that would listen to us. We were among hundreds of other producers and content creators and a little overwhelmed with learning the ins and outs of the entertainment industry. We were given the feedback that the concept was good and that we should release it on the web to gain some traction and real-life viewer testing. Our team was a little discouraged considering how many hundreds of hours put into this 12-minute episode, 5am meetings and countless collaborations/rehearsals.
Why did we wait to share it with the world though? Because it wasn’t quite perfect yet? Because we got rejected from major broadcasters? Because there were no sound effects and background music edited in just yet? No, because of fear. Fear of it not being good enough or fear of it being rejected by the world or worse yet, fear of it not being liked by children and their caregivers.
Three weeks ago, I spoke with my co-creators of Noj Noj & Friends, Sam Pathirana and Kris Hendricks, telling them that now, more than ever is there a need to share our Pilot Episode because hand washing is important and at the very least, it is light-hearted and good help boost people’s spirits. They agreed but both thought that the video needs to be re-edited to include sound effects and musical scoring. I committed to taking a stab at becoming the sound designer and musical composer for the video and after about 12 hours of editing, we released the World Premiere of Noj Noj & Friends on YouTube.
Is it perfect? Nope. Is it good enough? I’m not even sure of that. Is it something that comes from our absolute heart and soul with the intention of helping children and their caregivers become more interested in a life skill such as handwashing? Absolutely without a doubt. I do not believe that this pandemic is the end of the world, but I do believe that it is the end of the world as we once knew it. I am inspired by the words of the late Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, “Don’t die with your song still inside you.”
