Subject: Making web videos for your non profit? How do you tell your story?

Hi Ravinol and thanks for the course.  I work for a small charity and we want to start using video but we have very limited resources. We have lots of ideas for videos but unsure how to put them into practice successfully, we've found it's really easy to become over ambitious! I was wondering if you could post a few links to some recent charity videos that you think are powerful, tell the story in a logical way and are good quality from a technical point of view. So basically a few examples of good practice from the sector. Some sort of benchmark for us would be very useful. Thanks.

Hi Luis, good to hear from you. 

It is very easy to come up with lots of ideas and run before you walk if you like, it is important to get the key skills down and make sure you have a clear structure and message and then experiment and get more creative as you develop your capabilities.

What type of charity do you work with? I will have a look for some good videos that I think might be relevant for you and that would not be too difficult to make from a starting point.

Are you planning to make your videos yourself or hire a production company? 

In terms of a powerful simple short video to promote a charity check out this video made by Rob Capener, Head of Marketing and Communications for Railway Children http://www.youtube.com/user/RailwayChi1dren#p/a/u/1/7a7_CL2wJaA

The key thing is terms of structure here is that he addresses the issue/problem first and then explains how they can help, it also has a clear call to action at the end. He actually created this video on our one day video training course.

Get back to me on the other questions and I will see what I can find that might point you in the right direction.

Rav Chambers

www.learntocreatevideo.co.uk

Hi thanks for getting back so quickly! I work for a small organisation that offers a safe and fun environment for children with disabilities to play. We want to reach out to carers and show them the enjoyment the children have at our centres, whilst also demonstrating the positive effect of a little break and some support can have on the carers themselves.

Do you think the goals might be too wide and we should offer a more simple and emotive 'call to action' like in the excellent Railway Children film?

We don't have the funds for a production company sadly but we have a decent camera and staff who are keen to learn more about the editing side of things.

Thanks.

http://www.insidejobproductions.co.uk/our_work

I have enclosed a link to some of the work our company creates at the moment, which aim to get the heart of the issues.  This may be useful to give you some good ideas.  Good luck with your project.

Wow! That film was excellent, thanks so much for showing it to us. Can I ask you quickly how long it took to put together and what the budget was? You obviously got some really good actors as well, were they volunteers or paid?

Thank you to everyone on this forum for being so helpful.

Hi Ravinol,

Thank you for this training. I work for NUS (National Union of Students) and I am very passionate about multimedia as a whole and really want to push video, photography and audio into everything we do. In your traiing videos you mention about cameras, what do you think about DSLR cameras that can do both HD video and geat quality pictures?

Thanks again, Karl

Hi Luis,

Sorry for the delayed response, we have just been so incredibly busy lately.

You are half way there if you have an enthusiastic team and a decent camera, what kind of experience do they have at filming? Any experience of editing?

Often the most important part is good planning and getting a very focused story with the key points you would like to get across and who would best get those points across. Its always best to hear from the end users if possible as this shows real transparency and authenticity.

If you are planning to make your own films, it really is worth experimenting and seeing what works for you. 

Your key messages seem to be:

1. To show carers how much fun the children have when they come on your breaks

2. To show carers how much benefit the carers also get from coming on one of the breaks with the children

I would focus on hearing from some of the young people if possible and also from some of the carers who have come on the breaks about what they liked about it and what they got from it. You can supplement these interviews (which essentially form the basis for your key messages) with visual shots/cutaways of the activities in action, having fun, taking part in play etc.

You can download our FREE 3 part guide on creating effective videos for the web from either of the links below.

I hope this helps, let me know if I can be of any more help.

Ravinol Chambers

www.beinspiredfilms.co.uk

www.learntocreatevideo.co.uk

Hi Karl,

Sorry for delayed response, things have been super busy lately.

Great to hear you so excited about using multimedia for NUS, it is such a powerful way to communicate and can reach so many so quickly.

Mostly on our course we mention cheaper cameras for people getting started on smaller budgets but if you have the budget and someone who can make the most of having a DSLR, they can certainly achieve some wonderful results.

Essentially to buy a video camera that shot in HD and had exchangeable lens would have cost a fortune before the DSLR cameras with HD video function came along. The only issue is it is most likely in order to get good sound you will need to record the sound separately to something like a Zoom sound recorder and then sync it up with the video in your editing software. We shoot a lot of our stuff on Canon 7D or 5D cameras using this method.

Let me know if I can be of any more help. Cheers.

Ravinol Chambers

www.beinspiredfilms.co.uk

www.learntocreatevideo.co.uk