Videos with heart

There’s a saying, “Teamwork makes the dream work”. Nothing could be closer to the truth than when Recovering Oklahomans After Disaster took on the task to rebuild Carolyn Shockey’s home in Slaughterville. Bewley Productions had the honor to document the project from start to finish.

Carolyn’s home was seriously damaged in a tornado. She described the walls in her mobile home as breathing during the storm. It caused the walls to separate from the frame of the home resulting in wide gaps and unsafe conditions. ROAD stepped in to help build her and her adult disabled son a new home.

We’ve produced several projects with ROAD and each time we want the story to be a little different. This time we decided to focus on how much ROAD needs partners to accomplish its goals. A construction project like this goes through many different stages so we decided to the best way to tie those stages together was to use a voiceover. It allows us to write a script that can succinctly tell the story without worrying about getting the perfect soundbites to tie each thread together.

When I’m writing a script that uses a narrator I like to have the voiceover tell the facts and information and then use the soundbites to convey the emotion. If there’s no narrator we need soundbites to do both, that usually makes the story a little longer because we don’t have as much control over how long it takes the interviewee to tell the facts.

This video was shot over six month span. We started a few days before the mobile home was demolished and then came back to site several times to record the progress.

I’m thankful to organizations like ROAD that see the value in telling a good story. This kind of project lends itself very well to video because of the action taking place and then the emotion from Carolyn when she gets to see her new home.

I’m very proud of how this video turned out. I certainly couldn’t have done it with my talented partners.

A friend of mine once said when talking about video projects, ‘Fix it in planning.’ I can’t think of a better way to sum up this video we produced for Youth Services of Tulsa.

Youth Services provides life changing services and programs for children and young adults. We produced this video for their annual fundraiser. Our goal for the project was to show real life examples of how Youth Services impacts lives. We decided to profile three former clients but instead of the traditional sit down interviews we asked each former client to write a thank you letter to Youth Services and read them on camera.

By telling the story in this style we’re allowing the former clients the opportunity to say anything they want to say in any way they want to say it. It gives the tone of the video a sense of authenticity and realism.

We started planning for this project nine months before the actual event. The first step was to identify the three former clients. Because of privacy issues that role fell solely to Youth Services. They took about two months to properly vet the right people. During that time I scouted some locations to shoot the “interviews”. We wanted something that was simple, friendly looking and not too busy. After considering a couple of homes with nice living rooms we eventually decided on a studio in downtown Tulsa. We liked the look of the brick wall plus from a production point of view it had plenty of space for our equipment.

Once Youth Services found the former clients I did a preinterview with them to find out more about their story. During that preinterview we talked about their letter and I made some suggestions in terms of its structure. It’s important to note I didn’t tell them what words to use or what emotions they should convey. That was left entirely up to each person.

We shot them reading their letters about five months before the fundraiser which gave us plenty of time to edit. It took a few months to put everything together and make sure the video was polished and looked the best it could be. It was very nice having that much time to edit. I pride myself on being able to turn videos around quickly but given the choice I’d rather have a few months to get everything done. It just makes the video look all that much better.

In addition to this full length video we also delivered three vignettes. Each vignette featured just one of the former clients and told only their story. Youth Services of Tulsa had four pieces of content to share with the vignettes and full length video

This video took a lot of work but it was more than worth it!

Client review-

“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Dan! He is a consummate professional, flexible, creative and an excellent storyteller. As a non-profit that works with vulnerable youth, there is no one I'd rather work with. Dan tells stories sensitively and conscientiously, puts our clients at ease, and helps us share these important stories with our community.”

Caroline Olsen, Youth Services of Tulsa

We started this project with our Video Marketing Workshop to determine what the video should look like but more importantly how Utica Capital wanted the viewers to feel after watching it. The result was they wanted a video that showed how their clients trust them to make serious financial decisions, to illustrate how comfortable their clients are around the advisors and that Utica Capital is helping their clients build a legacy.

Due to compliance issues in the financial advising world we decided the best course of action was to feature the three main partners of Utica Capital in an interview setting, greeting clients with a smile and a warm handshake and talking to the clients in an office or conference room. We also had to be careful about what the partners could say on camera because of compliance. For example, they could not discuss how they specifically helped a client by using a certain product. We decided to have them keep it simple and talk about what Utica Capital means to them and why having the trust of their clients is so important. Sometimes, to be frank, simple is better!

The video took one full day to shoot. We interviewed the partners in the morning and shot video of them in their office. After lunch, we shot video of the clients (one couple at a time).

I’m really proud of how this video turned out. I think it brings a sense of authenticity and shows how the partners really do care for their clients and their financial well being.

The Tristesse Grief Center is a one of a kind nonprofit in Tulsa. It provides counseling to adults and children who have lost a loved one. It provides individual and group therapy as well as unique therapy designed specifically for children.

We produced this video for its annual gala and helped raise more than $150,000. We started this project with our Video Marketing Workshop where we discussed goals and the best way to achieve them through video. Our plan was to profile two families who lost a loved one and used the Grief Center to help navigate through the pain. We shot video of both families at the Grief Center using some of the counseling services. We also shot video of a group counseling session.

Our goal throughout the production was to be sensitive to the emotions of the family members. We made sure that a representative from the Grief Center, specifically a therapist, was present during the interviews. We talked with the families before the interviews as well to explain how the process worked. We also made sure that they saw the video before the gala so they knew what to expect on the night of the event.

In the end, the video helped the Grief Center raise more than $150,000 at the gala. It will also be used for other fundraising efforts moving forward.