What Nobody Tells Nonprofits About Making Videos: Part 1, Pre-Production
Wondering what videos have to do with your next fundraising campaign? Maybe you’re thinking, “We’re a small nonprofit and what you filmmakers call ‘affordable,’ we call superfluous.” Well, you could be correct AND there is a way to make an impact, and garner funds, with low-budget videos.
Two of the key elements that might be overlooked when producing a low-budget video for nonprofit fundraising or awareness campaigns are not technological. They are: 1) in-depth preparation (pre-production) and 2) emotionality. This update will focus on #1 and we’ll go over #2 in the near future.
- Devote enough time to preparation. This will help you be effective and on-budget.
- Allow enough time to schedule (and reschedule) shoots, write drafts and revisions of your script and book time with C-level staff and clients.
- Script writing is for documentaries (fundraising videos, etc) too! You don’t need special software to write it. Convey in words what the viewer will see and hear when the piece is complete.
Legal Information for Families Today (LIFT) wanted a video for their annual gala that did it all – share information about all of their programs, communicate their mission, connect with funders, and act as a resource for visitors to their website.
We worked with LIFT to:
- Shape the video around three people who have used their services – who had stories to tell.
- Set up over-the-phone pre-interviews, reviewed the questions with the clients and talked with them about the filming process. This helped us ask better questions, have specific stories in mind to ask about, and put the clients at ease and made the on-camera interviews much shorter.
- Schedule the interviews with clients and staff far enough in advance – at least 2-3 weeks – but not too far so that they would forget!
- Bonus tip: Offer a modest “reward” such as a $75 gift card for clients to participate if you have trouble booking them quickly.
Finally, practice and planning will help a lot in the production and post-production phases. And the whole process will be less stressful!
Watch the LIFT video below!
