We got a bit behind in some interesting psoriasis news while we were finishing our video contest. We'll work through the backlog in the next several days.
Last month, for example, PhotoMedex, the company that markets the XTRAC excimer laser for psoriasis (and vitiligo), announced several additional major insurance carriers will now reimburse XTRAC treatments. While millions of Americans have trouble accessing medical treatments because they lack health insurance, many psoriasis patients with insurance face unfair hurdles imposed by some insurers that limit coverage of some psoriasis treatments that have been proven effective. The XTRAC is one such treatment that has been blocked by some insurers. But as this news release notes, they have made great headway in getting insurers to cover these laser treatments for psoriasis.
Brendan Hayward Wins 2007 Psoriasis Cure Now Video Contest
Brendan Hayward of Santa Monica, California has won the $7,500 Grand Prize in the 2007 Psoriasis Cure Now Video Contest for his entry "Psoriasis Emotional Cure."
Brendan edged out an impressive list of Finalists, which made the judging difficult. But only one could win the Grand Prize, and Brendan sounded pretty happy when he heard the news.
Brendan grew up in Cranston, R.I and attended the University of Virginia, where he majored in physics but found himself more interested in filmmaking. After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles, where he navigated the film scene until he secured a spot in the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC, from where he graduated with an MFA in film in 2004. Since then, Brendan has been trying to break into directing, both by making commercials and writing his first feature film project. Click here to visit the Brendan Hayward website.
We had a few questions for Brendan and this is what we learned:
Psoriasis Cure Now: How did you come up with the concept for your video?
Brendan Hayward: The origin of the idea was my belief that a large part of the difficulty with psoriasis is public ignorance. Of course there are the painful physical symptoms, but beyond the physical are the feelings of loneliness and misunderstanding. Using the POV angle, I wanted to convey to the viewer what it is like to be stared at, to have others point ... and then, in the reverse shot, I wanted to evoke sympathy through the innocent face of a child.
Psoriasis Cure Now: How did you shoot this in a public place and get those reactions on film?
Brendan Hayward: We shot it in 3 hours. For a half hour, I had a sign up under the camera that said "I am an idiot fathead." It didn't work, the stares were too quick ... nobody was gawking. So I changed it to: "I'm and idiot fathead and if you are reading this so are you." This made people stare longer and even added some pointing, snickers. It was perfect. I auditioned 20 to 30 kids and found Mark and Mackenzie to be the most magnetic and cute.
Psoriasis Cure Now: Any final thoughts before you go spend your prize money?
Brendan Hayward: I've entered several video competitions. None of them were as well run, sincere and just plain fun as this one. The other finalists were all outstanding and, to be honest, I kind of wrote off my chances of winning. The competition was just too stiff! I am happy to be a part of something that raises awareness about this disease and I hope that my commercial causes people to reconsider gawking at those who look different than them. Sympathy/understanding is the first step in the road to curing psoriasis.
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Congratulations and thanks to Brendan, the Finalists and all the contestants for making this contest so successful. We hope you will be seeing several of these videos on TV and the web for many months to come and we'll keep you posted on these videos and the artists who made them. You can see all the Finalist videos here and all the videos entered in the contest here.
We got a bit behind in some interesting psoriasis news while we were finishing our video contest. We'll work through the backlog in the next several days.
