Two Videos Win 2024 Telly Awards
The documentary videos produced by Edit House Productions for Astronaut Harrison Schmitt’s 50th anniversary of Apollo 17 were awarded gold and bronze Telly Awards in the 45th annual awards. Matt Smith and Ed Smith of Edit House collaborated on the videos, including filming on the floor of Houston’s original Apollo control room at Johnson Space Center.
The productions were nearly a year in the making, with research including the review of nearly the entire Mission Control communication with the Apollo 17 spacecraft. Among the interesting things that we learned from Dr. Schmitt: the moon smells like gunpowder, and there are active moonquakes that take place.
Much of the video production was completed in Mission Control, now a museum. Ed and Matt traveled to Houston to record an extensive interview with Dr. Schmitt which was later transcribed and edited. Several versions of his story of preparing and traveling to the moon were produced for different audiences he spoke to, leading up to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in December 2023.
While they were in Houston, Dr. Schmitt asked if they could record another interview with a friend of his. The friend turned out to be Astronaut Fred Haise of Apollo 13! Haise was the lunar module pilot on the mission, which was aborted after an oxygen tank ruptured two days into the mission. The crew looped around the moon before returning safely to Earth on April 17, 1970.
Ed and Matt say this production is one of the high points of their careers. “It was an honor to work with Dr. Schmitt and tell his story,” said Ed. “What an amazing man and what an amazing time for Americans in the space race.”
This is about the 35th Telly Award that Ed and Matt have been awarded. The first dates back to 1990 when Ed won a Telly for a Pizza Hut “College Recruitment” video. The awards honor excellence in video and television. Each year, more than 12,000 entries from six continents and all 50 US states are made. Works are judged by industry leaders representing television networks, production companies, global marketing companies, and streaming platforms around the world.
