When you have an opportunity to create a fundraising video for an organization with the history and legacy of the Boys and Girls Clubs of East County (BGCEC for brevity’s sake), you jump on it. So when we received that call from Sam Olsen, the BGCEC’s Director of Development, that is exactly what I did. What follows is a short production breakdown of the fundraising video we produced with the Boys and Girls Clubs of East County.

The Job:

The project they needed our help with was a short fundraising video for their fall Auction Stampede event.  They wanted the video to highlight the winner of their Youth of the Year award and invite the viewers into the club to see the day to day goings on.

The Team:

One of the best parts of any job is the team of people that you get to work with and Sam Olsen and Forrest Higgins from the BGCEC are two of the very best people in the County. Sam was our main contact person for the organization. She played an integral role in helping us navigate the 4 different communities the BGCEC operates in. Forrest is one heck of an indoor soccer player that also happens to be the CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of East County.

The Infrastructure team was comprised of the following people:

• Chris (me): handled the producing and project management of the project.
• Victor: as the primary camera operator.
• Carlos: acting as second camera and editor for the project.

Execution:

The job was fairly straightforward. Multiple pre-production meetings helped us understand Sam and Forrest’s vision for the project. The plan was to interview the organization’s Youth of the Year nominee, an impressive young woman named Kyra and cut that footage together with b-roll that we filmed after her interview. We thought that would be enough footage for a 3-4 minute video.  To achieve the “look into a club” aesthetic we planned on using an action cam stabilized by a hand-held gimbal. This would bring our viewer down to eye level with the kids, capturing the energy of a building of young children.

• Complication: We hit a snag on the project when our initial interview didn’t yield the types of answers that would allow us to create a full video.
• Resolution: After sharing our concerns with Sam and Forrest we decided to film an additional interview with Forrest Higgins to help better frame the video. Sam and Forrest both appreciated our honesty and the project greatly benefited from the additional footage. This created a win-win situation and really strengthened the video.

From there everything else kind of fell into place. Carlos and I worked on a script for the video and he took that script and worked his editing magic. A 7 minute first draft, ultimately became the just under 4 minute video that you can see below:

Favorite Moment:

We captured alot of great b-roll in the making of this video, mainly due to the fact that the subject matter lent itself so well to active, vibrant footage. There is this amazing follow shot we captured using a handheld stabilization device that had a GoPro sized camera mounted to it. The shot is a little kid entering into the soccer court and joining the action. Combined with the other lively, fun footage we captured it really helps the video move and I think it is what helped us successfully deliver our client’s goal of creating a fundraising video that brings the viewer into a day at the club.

If you or anyone you know is looking to have a high-quality, effective fundraising video produced for their favorite non-profit organization have them contact us via our website so we can start the planning process now.