We all want to tell great stories and get them to a broad audience. We'll work with you to make this happen by focusing in on these three ideas...
THE STORY
The true power of this medium is how it affects people on a deeply personal level. Even a piece about health insurance should strive to tell a story with a strong emotional connection to the audience - and all of our decisions should be in the service of that connection. What story do you want to tell? Why do you want to tell it now? What's unique about your story? What are three things you absolutely want people to take from this experience?
THE AUDIENCE
We always set out to tell amazing stories in authentic ways, but the intended audience can absolutely change the approach. For instance, if this is a project that will be expected to make a cultural splash, gain large-scale editorial coverage, and win awards - you’ll need to make very specific decisions early on. If it’s an internal piece that is a rally cry for the brand, you would approach it in a very different way. Are you trying to reach people under 25? Women in their 30’s? Are you attempting to re-define a brand to the public? Are you creating a large-scale public screening around an event? We want to know these things at kick-off to start understanding the best way forward.
THE PLATFORM
Second to making the film, distribution is the absolute hardest nut to crack in the process. Now, sometimes this isn’t an issue. If you are a museum looking for installation pieces for your new exhibit, the distribution is built in. Same goes for pieces directly commissioned by The New York Times, or PBS. In these cases, we’ll all just need to understand formats and deliverables. But often times, we are making incredible pieces for clients that have no distribution arm... and big dreams. It’s good to start realistic conversations about this early. If this is branded storytelling and you want this to be all over social media, you’ll likely have to pay for it and that should be part of the budget. If this isn’t branded, consider that the production company or a PR company will have to spend time reaching out to editorial partners and working social media contacts, that also takes time and money. We all want the work seen, we just have to be extremely smart about how we make that happen.