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