A film for Hope Above Fear · Red Ribbon Week 2026
More to the Story
Opening statement from the creative team
Most prevention films show kids what to say no to. This one shows what they say yes to: a track, a dance floor, a court, a saxophone, and the adults who keep showing up for them.
The kids are real, not actors. The places are theirs. We are not telling viewers that these teens have perfect lives or never struggle. We are showing that when life gets difficult, connection, purpose, positive relationships, and healthy outlets can give young people somewhere to turn.
Hope Above Fear already runs on this idea. Choose Your Story, the Hope House, the Youth Advisory Council. This film puts it on screen in two minutes.
Prevention isn’t only about saying no to drugs. It’s about saying yes to something worth living for.
The idea
The kids tell it.
In their own words.
“My story doesn't end with ___.”
Primary · the opening question
“There's more to me than ___.”
Alternate · recorded too, same idea
Every teen is recorded off camera, answering questions in their own words. Nobody is handed a script and nobody is prompted. Three to five of the strongest answers to the opening sentence start the film, layered over quick, close shots that don't reveal anyone yet.
We also record an alternate: “There's more to me than ___.” It lets a kid answer with a label, like their grades, where they live, or what people assume, instead of something they'd rather keep private. Whichever lands better goes in the cut.
That's the title too. There's more to every one of these kids than you'd guess from the outside, and more to the story than the hard part.
The shape of it
About 2:00 · the kids' own answers carry it · scripted lines as a backupOpening: “My story doesn't end with ___.” Alternate: “There's more to me than ___.”
Scenes 2–4, every teen gets the same three questions:
- When life gets hard, what do you do to cope or feel better?
- How has [their activity] positively impacted your life?
- What advice would you give another teen who may be struggling?
The strongest answers are laid over their own scene, or over someone else's, so it plays as one collective story instead of separate profiles.
If an answer doesn't land, a teen who's comfortable reads a line on camera, or we record it as voiceover.
- “People think being strong means never struggling…”
- “Home isn't always easy.”
- “People see me dancing. They don't see what I'm dancing through.”
- “Music became the place I could breathe.”
- “I learned discipline instead of destruction.”
- “I used to run from things. Now I run through them.”
- “When I'm here, I'm free.”
- “This is how I'm writing my story.”
- “What's yours?”
We let it land where it feels right. A strong 1:50 beats a 3:00 that lingers. If a kid gives us something truer on the day, we work it in. Letting the edit breathe based on impact.
01 · Track & Field · Golden Elite
One athlete, one rep, in real time.
The coach says something we don't hear. She goes, and we stay with her the whole way. At the finish: hands on knees, and a teammate's hand on her back. The team is there, but the story is hers.
- Voice
- A teen's answer to one of the three questions, over natural sound: spikes, breathing, the coach's voice.
- Scripted option
- “I used to run from things. Now I run through them.” On screen or VO.
- On screen
- Adrenaline lands on the burst out of the blocks.
- When
- Sun Sept 27, 3:00 PM · UWF track, shot tight so it doesn't read as UWF
02 · Volleyball
The team is the character.
A player hits the floor on a dig. Her teammates pull her up before she's even tried to stand. Next rally, she makes the play. The coach can be on camera in her gear; the players aren't in school branding.
- Voice
- A player's answer to one of the three questions, over the calls, the ball, the gym.
- Scripted option
- “When I'm here, I'm free.” On screen or VO.
- On screen
- Confidence lands on the play she makes after getting pulled up.
- When
- Sun Oct 4, time to be confirmed · PHS gym, school marks kept out of frame or blurred
03 · Dance · Soulful Movement
The one place we show someone get it wrong.
Fallon demonstrates. One dancer is off, and the room laughs with her, not at her. Fallon walks her through it. She runs it again, and again. The last time she lands it, and the room reacts.
- Voice
- A dancer's answer to one of the three questions.
- Scripted option
- “People see me dancing. They don't see what I'm dancing through.” On screen or VO.
- On screen
- Expression lands on the moment she gets it right.
- When
- Tue Sept 29, 6:30 PM · Mt. Zion, their Tuesday practice space
04 · Basketball · Dequarious
Just him and the work.
An empty court in the morning. Dequarious trains alone: ball-handling drills, footwork, a shot, a miss, the rebound, reset, again. No team, no crowd, nobody keeping score. This scene is about what he does when no one is watching.
Plain training clothes, no school anywhere in the frame. He plays AAU, and this keeps it that way on screen.
- Voice
- Ideally his own answer, over one ball on concrete, sneakers, his breathing.
- Scripted option
- “I learned discipline instead of destruction.” On screen or VO.
- On screen
- Teamwork lands on the last shot dropping.
- When
- Sun Oct 4, 8:00 AM · Corinne Jones Park
05 · Reed · the thread
We hold his face until the end.
Reed runs through the whole film. Early on we only see the case across his knees, his hands on the latches, the back of his head. Between scenes we come back to him for a second or two, and the case is still closed.
At the end, the other teens each finish “When it gets hard, I…” with their own word. The last word is Reed's, and instead of saying it, he opens the case. He plays over the track that's been under the film the whole time, and for the first time we see him.
- Sound
- Reed improvises to a reference track we send ahead. Sean mixes his live sax over the score as the closing moment.
- Scripted option
- “Music became the place I could breathe.” On screen or VO.
- When
- Target Mon Oct 5, after band practice · Hope House. The Schmidt's Music loan runs through Oct 6.
What they found
1:15 · the music drops out · nobody performing“Everybody needs somewhere to go. Somebody who shows up. This is mine.” Reed, after the last phrase clears
The people in it
The teens Five outlets
Track, volleyball, dance, basketball, music. Each scene follows one kid, with the team around them as context. That's how an audience puts themselves in someone's shoes.
The mentors On camera, on purpose
Golden Elite's coaches in their shirts. Fallon. The volleyball coach. The adults who make these places exist are half of what the film is about, so they get real moments, not background.
Reed The thread
A Choose Your Story regular and a Youth Advisory Council member. He carries the voice of the film, and the last frame is his.
How we film kids
- Faces only by opt-in, confirmed with a parent on the day. Everyone else is hands, feet, profiles, backs, soft focus.
- Nobody performs their pain. Interviews are off camera, five minutes, a parent nearby. If a kid freezes, we move on.
- A second yes for anything personal. If a kid says something about their family or their past, the kid and a parent approve it before it's used.
- No school on screen. No logos, no mascots, no signage. PHS marks blurred. Dequarious in plain clothes, off campus.
- Partners in the credits, not the frame. Golden Elite, Soulful Movement and Schmidt's Music are thanked at the end.
- Every kid on camera has a signed release. The coaches send the forms home, and Stephanie collects them on set.
How it looks and sounds
Honest light · close on hands · one track under everythingLight
What's there, shaped a little. Diffusion under the 3 PM sun and the gym overheads whenever we go tight, so faces and hands read soft rather than harsh. Mornings for the court.
Camera
Handheld but composed. Close on hands, shoes and gear; wide for the teams. Shallow focus does the anonymity work so nobody has to be hidden awkwardly.
Sound
Natural sound carries three of the four activity scenes. One piece of music runs under the whole film. Reed plays on top of it at the end, so the score and the kid become the same thing.
Words on screen
The district's words set small and quiet over the last beat of each scene. Never a full-screen card, never under a spoken line. Part of the picture, not a checklist.
For the ones who didn't get the chance to write theirs.
1:50 · four seconds, silencePrevention isn't just saying no to drugs.
It's saying yes to something worth living for.
You choose the next chapter.
2:00How it ends
It ends by handing the story to them.
The film says “drug” once, plainly, on the card. It doesn't have to say it again. A teen has just said “this isn't how my story ends,” so the last card turns it to the kid watching: you choose the next chapter.
It premieres at the gala on October 24 and reaches classrooms for Red Ribbon Week.
The shoot plan →Gray frames are placeholders for reference images. Every frame of the film will be shot by us, with the kids and mentors named above.