Nicholas Serpa

The story behind the making of Flash Point

In April 2023, I was tasked with leading the production of a documentary chronicling the history of the Peoria Fire-Medical Department, which has been operating in Peoria, Arizona since the 1920’s. Prior to this project, much of the department’s history only existed via scattered documents and photos, and in the memories of several now-retired firefighters. My task was to chronicle as much of the history as possible in a narrative-driven format; what was initially pitched as a series of separate interviews eventually evolved into the 45-minute film viewable above.

In April, preproduction began. I began the project by identifying possible interviewees, performing outreach to them, and scheduling interviews with them. I also leveraged my connections within the City of Peoria to identify possible locations for the filming of the interviews.

In May, we began filming. I was the lead cinematographer for the project, and led the technical and creative setup of all cameras, lighting and audio equipment for each shoot; I also conducted the interviews with the talent. I was assisted by Blessing Jona, who operated B-cam for each interview and also helped with filming b-roll. Various members of the Peoria Office of Communications team also helped with transporting equipment and setting up lights on a few of the shoots. By the end of the month, we had filmed approximately 17 hours of interviews with a wide range of current and retired firefighters.

The editing process began in May and lasted about 5 months. (During this time, I was also contributing to other video projects in the City of Peoria in addition to this project.) Blessing contributed heavily to the early stages of the editing process, including interview logging and initial stringouts by subject/topic. From June- late September, I was the sole editor on the project, and responsible for not only the narrative flow of the piece, but also the sourcing of all music, footage and historic imagery. I also handled the color grading and audio mixing. The project went through several rounds of restructuring and polish as is common with a project of this scope.

The following people were instrumental the the success of this project during the editing stage:

• Tim Eiden, my supervisor, who granted me remarkable patience and creative freedom to tell the story of the department as authentically as possible.

• Bret Edson, who helped me digitize fragile historical documents that had never been digitized before (some over 100 years old!)

• Monty Hoffman, who gave feedback and insight on the various drafts of the film.

The film finally premiered on January 25, 2024. We debuted the documentary to a crowd of over 125 firefighters, government officials, city staff and their families. The film was premiered at Fire House Event Center in Peoria, Arizona - the same building that housed the original Peoria fire station many decades ago. Flash Point: The History of Peoria Fire-Medical Department was shared online shortly after the screening.