Since COVID, we’ve worked hard to reimagine our work as storytellers by utilizing existing footage in fresh ways, creating animated stories and asking subjects to record themselves remotely. These approaches were drawn from early experiences pivoting our content creation during the pandemic.
Often a failed video comes as a result of unclear goals and audience. Without clearly defined goals and audience, it’s easy for the video to lose its way – it’s confusing, long-winded, lacking emotion and overstuffed with information. Revisit the client’s original goals and audience and ensure that those remain when beginning to tackle the project.
We’ve been thinking a lot lately about creativity, specifically taking creative risks. As we get older, we become more fearful of taking creative risks while at the same time having more confidence in our creative ability. It’s a strange mindset, but one we’re willing to bet is faced daily by creative professionals.
A video production has many moving parts, each incurring its own cost with many variables affecting that cost. Clients often approach us, asking: “how much does a 3 minute video cost?” And we’ll answer, “well, it depends” and then we’ll ask questions. Often, they’ll pause on the answers. So we thought it would be helpful to break down the questions every organization should ask and answer before budgeting a video production.
Organizations often approach us requesting a single video that will do everything for them. It must communicate the nuance of what they do and how, in an emotional and engaging way. “Oh, and can you do it in 2 minutes or less?” Instead, we recommend a collection of video assets that can serve different purposes on multiple platforms. That means using different approaches. Here are 5 types of video every organization needs and why.
Authenticity and intimacy are the qualities in our work we are most proud of. These qualities can come from real moments we film as well as interviews we capture during production of videos for non profit and corporate clients. For interviews in particular, we’ve honed a visual approach over the years that we think results in high-quality imagery that feels authentic and intimate. Here’s how we do it.
There are no hard and fast rules to storytelling. This is especially true when using video as the medium. The opportunities, tools and platforms we as production companies have to tell visual stories rapidly change, especially in the last decade we’ve been doing this work.
This June, we had the unique opportunity to collaborate on the creation and instruction of an intensive documentary film course at Georgetown University’s Villa Le Balze in Florence, Italy. The Villa holds a special place for us as we were both students there almost 14 years ago. Now professional filmmakers, we teamed up with Georgetown Film & Media Studies Director and College Dean Bernie Cook to develop a program that would unite film theory and hands-on storytelling practice.
It has been a while since our last update, but we are happy to share that we’ve finally reached the finish line with The Guardians. Picture lock in hand, composers Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico are currently working on the original score. And we will soon begin submitting to film festivals. We’re also waiting to hear where the film will land on PBS through our co-production agreement with public television funder ITVS. So stay tuned for updates. In the meantime, we thought we’d share a few takeaways from the production experience:
As a small production company specializing in authentic storytelling with real people, the equipment we purchase needs to work in a very specific way. Namely, it cannot get in they way of gaining access and intimacy with the people we film. This presents some unique challenges when selecting a camera package. It can’t be too large or cumbersome to set up, lest we miss an important moment or the subjects of our films get intimidated by a huge camera. Many filmmakers have successfully shot intimate stories with larger cameras, but we’ve found that we work much quicker, quieter and closer when our camera system is as unobtrusive as possible. Enter the Sony FS7.
We’re excited to be partnering with our alma mater Georgetown University and the Dean of the Film and Media Studies program Bernie Cook, to offer an intensive 3-week course on documentary filmmaking in Florence next summer.
A nondescript northern Virginia rest stop seems like an unlikely place to help bring back the monarch butterfly. But that’s exactly what’s been happening at mile marker 155 on I-95. For the past two years, VDOT has planted upwards of 9,000 native plants and milkweed to help the monarch on its migratory route through the area.