FILMMAKING SERVICES
Short films can show us not only what is, but what is possible.
It has been an amazing, soul-satisfying journey. We have worked with purpose-driven organizations in more than 30 countries to tell the stories of people working for a better tomorrow for all of us for generations to come.
Possibility trailers of sorts, our films have inspired audiences to give generously and senators to move legislation forward. They have been shown among the gigantic screens of Times Square, on stage at Carnegie Hall, in the theaters of film festivals, on television and on millions of screens around the world. Celebrated purpose-driven innovators count on us to engage their audiences with visual stories that move hearts and inspire positive action.
Increase reach and donors
READ Global increased donors to its year-end campaign by 54% by landing its short film in blogs and news sites.
Meet with the president
Living Goods was invited to meet with President Obama after its inspiring short film was selected to be shown to a meeting of world leaders.
Feed one million children
FEED & Clarins raised funds to feed 1 million children when they featured their short films at a concert in Carnegie Hall.
Increase thought leadership
By producing original content that spoke to their audience's specific interests and aspirations, Cisco became a trusted publisher.
Get tens of thousands of views
Tiny non-profit Ripple Effect got exceptional media coverage and viewership by targeting and pitching key bloggers and film festivals.
Let’s Get Street Smart explores the ways out of the San Francisco Homelessness crisis and has reached an expansive organic and broadcast audience.
OUR METHODOLOGY
As much as we love our craft of filmmaking, what we're here to do is collaborate with you to move hearts & to inspire people to support your vision for a better world for all of us for generations to come.
A proven process for creating short films that make a difference
Having produced so many films around the world, we have had the opportunity to go through many iterations of our process to make your films more authentic, affordable and actionable. For us this is an ongoing practice of innovating in order to help you advance your missions more successfully.
Our process is designed to ensure clear alignment on project objectives with you and clear direction for our filmmaking team, while leaving just enough space for spontaneity and the unexpected gem we might uncover.
- Strategic session
As much as we love our craft of filmmaking, our highest commitment is to help you move your mission forward. Before starting production, the team walks you through a strategic planning session to gain clarity on your audience and the film’s objectives. From there we collaborate to uncover the most effective storyline to support those goals and the best distribution strategies to get the film seen.
- Pre-production
Instead of painstakingly wordsmithing a script that can take weeks to review, our team takes a more journalistic approach. We develop a narrative arc for the story along with a series of interview guidelines the filmmaker will use to guide the featured person through filming. You then review and provide feedback on the narrative arc and interview questions. With a concise pre-production document in hand, we have clear alignment between the client, the filmmaker, the editor and the post-production and distribution teams, and we are ready to film.
- Filming
Generally a single one of our documentary filmmakers arrives on site with the equipment in his or her backpack and films for a few hours, capturing the featured person and the work to be highlighted. When appropriate and possible, we prefer to film during the golden light of early morning or evening to add lovely (and affordable!) natural light to the scene. Unlike the typical set of video production companies, we will have no lighting, makeup, storyboards, sound or catering personnel.
- Editing
The filmmaker sends footage to our editing and music team, which brings the story to life out of the best footage in order to accomplish the film’s goal and narrative arc. The team adds appropriate music to support the mood of the story, mixes sound and adds graphic elements. A couple of rounds of reviews enable the client to provide feedback and collaborate in the final cut of the short film.
- Delivery & distribution
Post and pray is not the way. If your films are going to have an impact they need to be seen. For this reason, at Micro-Documentaries we have put together a distribution program to help you extend the reach, viewership and recognition of your films. It’s no surprise that social innovators who experience the best results with their films are as committed to distribution as they are about production. Instead of our job ending with the production of a compelling film, like would be the case with typical video production services we are committed to supporting you with distribution. If your team can handle distribution internally, we will deliver your film to you along with our detailed distribution and search engine optimization (SEO) guides that share the most effective ways to post, title, describe, and distribute your films. If you prefer our more active involvement, we can help develop the strategy and then execute on the distribution plan from targeting blogger and media channels, to preparing and making film festival submissions to sharing the film through paid channels.
"This was by far the most effective campaign we’ve run. In a tough economic year, we’ve had a significant spike in donor participation. They provided a cost-effective way to produce and refine web video for use in our email solicitations. I’ve recommended them to many other departments on campus."
Scott Jahnke
Stanford University
"A smart production team, a great interview process during filming, seamless editing, and great follow-up getting to the finished product, made working with Micro-Documentaries a really fabulous experience. If you want a professional, very well executed, and brief story told, you should talk to Micro-Documentaries."
Jillian Darwish
Vice President, Organizational Learning and Innovation, KnowledgeWorks
"A great team, quick and responsive, resulting in an amazing final product. They have worked hard understand the JCF as a client and in doing so, they have developed a keen sense of exactly what we want to see and are able to execute on that time and again."
Lori Warren
Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, Jewish Community Federation
WHERE WE WORK
Social innovation is happening around the world, so we have set up a global program to go on location wherever you are and tell your story in a number of languages. Our worldwide services sprout from the San Francisco Bay Area in California, although we’ve never had an office nor office hours, relying instead on a culture of extreme flexibility and ongoing innovation to fuel our purposeful mission.
Depending on the project we may deploy filmmakers from San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Santiago, Cape Town or New Delhi.
TRAVELPOOLING
In order to helps you save costs while reducing travel emissions, we designed our Travelpooling program.
How It Works
When we plan travel, we add the trip to our Travelpool. If you have production, training or nature retreat needs in one of the regions listed, let us know and climb aboard. We can then film several projects or lead different workshops on the single trip and travel fees get split accordingly while reducing the environmental impact of the trip.
PLEASE NOTE: In order to increase their access to field productions, small nonprofits will be encouraged to piggyback on travelpools, meaning that they will cover costs particular to their travel needs, rather than sharing in the common travel costs of the travel pool.
