Lights, camera, action!

Jun. 28—HENDERSON — It's not every day you see film cameras and boom microphones set up on Henderson's sidewalks. For the next few weeks however, you might.

Big Bam Productions is producing a short film called "High Hope," which will explore a family in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, their struggles and their resilience, Executive Producer Crishna Murray said.

The film crew shot scenes outside of Perry Memorial Library on Monday.

The film's plot comes from a personal place for Murray, being a community health worker herself. It's important to her that the film is produced and filmed in North Carolina, specifically the areas in which she works, such as Henderson. Further, her family contracted COVID around Christmas time.

"I thought it would be a great reflective piece to be able to say this is like real life," Murray said. "Even though we're bringing a fictional piece to you, this is our real life, this is what we've done, these are the challenges we went through and this is how we were resilient in the process."

The choice to name the main character Hope was a deliberate one.

"During the pandemic, regardless of people's faith, right, it was a time of uncertainty, and so you had to pull from somewhere," Murray said. "But during the pandemic, when things got tough, everybody pulled from somewhere, wherever it was, it was some kind of glimpse of hope."

"The title of the film is 'High Hope,' " she said. "Her name is Hope because you have to have hope."

Murray is shooting some of the film in Henderson to "give back to the community," as well as to "Henderson be known for positive things."

Alan Adeleke is directing the film. He has four other films with Big Bam Productions under his belt, including last year's "Finding Me," which sought to raise awareness of domestic abuse and resources for those who needed them.

The two met in a film group and "connected instantly, kind of talked to each other about our goals and dreams and what we wanted to achieve. And so we pulled together to make that kind of manifest."

Murray and Wallace Morgan, director of photography, are also in the process of filming a documentary about community health workers across the state. Murray found his Instagram page, which has somewhere in the ballpark of 35,000 followers and 100 videos. She asked him to join Big Bam Productions this year.

Community health work is a "new buzz" in North Carolina, Murray said. Those in the field, called community health workers, serve as intermediaries between a given community, of which they are a part or are at least familiar, and health care services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services expanded the state's Community Worker Program, expanding the number of organizations that recruit, train and manage said workers, in the interest of increasing COVID vaccination rates.

When principal photography wraps up the crew will move to post-production — editing, cutting content, and so on. When the film is finished it will be distributed by one MegaMind Media, a media publishing company that has worked alongside other companies like Black Entertainment Television to produce works focusing on faith and family.