Greg Grygiel and Thomas Bryant have worked together for about a decade. Grygiel does the videos and Bryant takes care of the pictures. Their latest project is a 30-second video encouraging New Yorkers to wear a mask.

“Based on what had happened with the situation with COVID, we know we wanted to make an impact now based on what was going on,” said Grygiel, who’s a co-owner and videographer for Skyline99 Studios.

The video features Bryant’s son, who’s wearing a mask, walking up to an elderly homeless man, played by Bryant’s father, and giving him a mask to wear.

“Maybe he doesn’t have one because he chose not to wear one. Maybe he doesn’t have one because he just can’t find one. Maybe no one is there to help him. But this child is there to help him,” said Bryant, co-owner and photographer for Skyline99 Studios.

It was filmed two weeks ago at the Hall of Springs and entered into the Wear a Mask New York ad contest. This week, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daughter Mariah, who’s leading this effort, announced the five finalists. Bryant and Grygiel’s video was one of them.

“It’s such a meaningful thing we had created, and people, someone, chose us,” Bryant said.

“Happy and humbled that something, a little short production that we created, had that much of an impact,” Grygiel said.

It was selected out of more than 600 submissions. They say the goal was to keep the message simple, something people could relate to. Now, they hope more people will latch on to it, and get it chosen to be the PSA for the state.

“By wearing a mask you’re not necessarily just saving yourself, you’re saving other people, you’re helping other people,” Bryant said. “You’re giving compression and you’re giving hope to others.”

Votes can be cast at wearamask.ny.gov. The winner will be announced on May 26.