Samaritains du Nord vaudois, 1 August in Yverdon-les-Bains

On the evening of 1 August, we followed the Samaritans of Northern Vaud to their first-aid post on the beach at Yverdon-les-Bains, from dusk until the lights went out.

The documentary offers an inside look at the evening. A drone shot shows the location of the tent and the set-up, an on-site interview gives a voice to the volunteers, and motion graphics punctuate the incidents: heatstroke, blisters, grazes and falls, all whilst several thousand people share the same lawn.

We filmed from a distance whilst the first-aid post was in operation, taking care never to hinder the rescue efforts, over the course of a single evening with no opportunity for retakes. The short, vertical, subtitled format provides a concrete insight into what a first-aid team does during a festival. An organisation or local authority can reuse this type of video to recruit volunteers, thank its teams or highlight its work on the ground.