Ten-year-old Peyton Madden lives with an extremely rare and life-threatening allergy to sunlight called xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), which highly restricts his ability to engage in typical daytime activities without extreme head-to-toe coverage, and with summer temperatures around 105°F, he can easily overheat—a devastating limitation for a child who loves to play outside, ride his bike, and swim. He has never been to the local pool with his friends.

On August 4, 2017, the entire town of El Dorado, Kansas came together to transform evening into morning for Peyton: inviting him to engage in all that the community has to offer, but under the safety of darkness.

In a town of just thousands, nearly 500 people showed up for “Good Morning Peyton,” giving him the “day” of his dreams. To cap it off, the mayor presented an official town proclamation, declaring the evening of August 4th to be “Peyton’s Morning.”

In Good Morning Peyton, we told the story of how one Kansas town transformed night into day for a boy living with a rare allergy to sunlight. What made this film unique, however, was that our “cast” was all part of a large-scale, community-wide event—each person playing a different, authentic, and very necessary role.

For the surprise (and ultimately film) to be successful, we needed to involve nearly all of the major players in the town of El Dorado, Kansas. This meant starting with the mayor, Vince Haines, to get the town’s backing and support for Good Morning Peyton weeks before our August 4, 2017 event. With Mayor Haines’s blessing and commitment to producing the official town proclamation, we approached the Parks and Rec department (to secure the pool, our location for the event), the local clergy, schools, and YMCA (to help advertise and gain support), the motorcyclists from the local American Legion Post 81, a Wichita-based drumline, local businessmen and women who dedicated their time and supplies to our event, and hundreds of others who were there to witness a big moment in a small town.

With a population of just a few thousand, nearly 500 people showed up to surprise Peyton with the “day” of his dreams.

In “Good Morning Peyton,” we had to authentically capture an emotional, personal story, while orchestrating a massive, participatory event that had an important element of surprise to it. Additionally, we needed to film in the darkness with a child who is allergic to light.

The project was technically and organizationally challenging from day 1. Our director and production company worked for weeks to impeccably time each micro-moment of the event, secure a safe lighting plan that worked for the cameras as well as Peyton, organize local vendors, produce signage, and procure Nerf guns and cereal.

On August 4, 2017, we knew we made magic happen: the wonder on Peyton’s face as he rode up to the event, the smiles on the faces around him, the pride beaming from the mayor as he announced the official “night to day” town proclamation—all captured in “Good Morning Peyton” for everyone to see.