Short films are one of the most effective ways to grab media attention these days. The stories editors and journalists create, in turn, result in ever-wider distribution for the short film. That’s the kind of positive feedback loop we all want to be part of. Becoming part of this cycle and grabbing the attention of your favorite magazines or online sites starts with the quality of your short films themselves. Let’s look at the success of ReadyForZero's microdoc, which recently landed in Fast Company magazine, for some key takeaways. 1) Get yourself out of the way: One of the principles we use to evaluate the quality of a micro-documentary is to determine whether it leads to the solution rather than leads with the solution. Short films that lead with the solution often feel overly promotional. The reason for this is that they tend to put the audience on guard - what are they trying to sell me? What do they want to get me to do? Instead, keep your featured solution for last and use it as an example to reinforce the education and inspiration you offer your audience. In ReadyForZero’s video, rather than lead with their product, they start with the widespread problem of debt in today’s society and how anyone, including the co-founder of the company, can get overwhelmed by the challenge of climbing out.
“The writer reduces and the illustrator expands.” - Amy Novesky, children’s book author
Amy Novesky shares how she finds inspiration and brings her children’s books to life. In our world, which can feel frenetic at times, Novesky sees the ongoing value of books to slow time down and help us be present. She likes to focus her own work around real experiences of real people like Frida Kahlo's visit to San Francisco and Georgia O’Keeffe's time in Hawaii.
We all have our own waves to ride. For some of us, that means literally strapping ourselves to a board and hitching a ride on the ocean’s surf – something I would like to try someday in warm waters. Influenced by Yvon Chouinard’s Let my people go surfing, at Micro-Documentaries we actively try to create a work environment that lets people pursue their own waves, whatever or wherever they are. We operate on the belief that fulfilling yourself personally enables you to better fulfill yourself professionally, and renews your commitment to the work you produce. In this piece, you can live vicariously through the spectacular surf trip Adam Warmington, our director of Post-Production took to Indonesia. The experiential video that resulted is stunning and makes me more than a bit homesick for my native Caribbean!Overworking is a problem. Not only is it unhealthy (increased stress, lack of sleep, fatigue, unhealthy coping behaviors), it can decrease your effectiveness and lead to burn out. At Micro-Documentaries, we’re creating a work environment that affords us time off to explore other passions and hobbies – whether it’s a surf trip, meditation retreat, or time off to spend with family.
"Hokule'a is our tool to remember." Nainoa Thompson, Master Navigator, Hokule'a
The crew of the legendary Hokule'a requests a blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for their worldwide journey. Their traditional canoe will create a symbolic lei as it sails around our island Earth without modern navigation tools in an effort to remember what we have forgotten — our oneness with nature and with each other.
"The word Aloha is very easy, but implementing the real meaning of Aloha is not easy." His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Dalai Lama visits Hawaii to celebrate the many connections between Buddhist compassion and the Hawaiian spirit of Aloha. In a global world grappling with many complex, interdependent, and dire challenges, both of these peaceful philosophies remind us to approach fellow human beings and the planet with empathy and a warm and hopeful spirit.
“We are just a big human family, that is the reality.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Eight thousand high school and college students are treated to a talk with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In it, he stresses the importance of interconnectedness, compassion, and empathy. Educating the mind is important, but so to is educating the heart so that we can use our skills and wisdom in a constructive way for society.
His Holiness visits Hawaii
The coming together of two native cultures. He calls it compassion, we call it aloha.
It's rare these days that I personally get to work on the front lines of a production, but today I am very happy to be reporting from the field, here in Oahu in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Pam and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, are hosting His Holiness the Dalai Lama to launch “ Pillars of Peace Hawaii: Building Peace on a Foundation of Aloha.” The program aims to bring global peace leaders to Hawaii to share ideas about actively practicing peace and aloha in our daily lives, both at home and around the world. We are producing a series of micro-documentaries and releasing them as the event unfolds, to enrich the experience of participants as well as to capture a taste of the Dalai Lama's visit itself. Our bodies are challenged from little sleep, but our hearts are filled as this exchange between Tibetan wisdom and the spirit of Aloha has been a deeply meaningful project for us to be involved with. Our intention is for the audience to be inspired to incorporate the essence of these native intelligences into their modern lives. In learning more about the spirit of aloha, which teaches us to be in harmony with our surroundings and our fellow humans, I have come to be very proud of my Hawaiian heritage - even without being Hawaiian! The first two micro-documentaries, which were released yesterday morning, were shared on the stadium-sized screens of the Stan Sheriff center in the afternoon for 10,000 people and streamed live around the world. I hope you enjoy them. aloha, natasha Student Talk: Educating the Heart
The importance of complementing academic studies with compassion.
Micro-documentaries being shown to 10,000 people at Stan Sherif center gathering to listen to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
When clients ask me for tips to increase viewership of their short films, I often say, “Don’t forget about print.” With so much excitement around online channels these days, it’s easy to focus squarely on distributing your film through your website, blog, on YouTube, Facebook, etc. However, good old-fashion print materials can be leveraged very nicely to showcase your short films. Just think about all the different printed pieces that you create: newsletters, brochures, business cards, signage, posters, acknowledgement letters to donors and annual reports that capture the impact you are creating. All of these materials are a great place to make reference to your short films. And your short films, in turn, can enhance the impact of your print materials. Recently I was reminded of this when I picked up last month’s issue of Stanford’s Alumni Magazine. The Stanford Travel/Study program had smartly embedded QR codes on the printed page, so that readers could scan the codes on their mobile phones and watch related short films, which we produced with them. Stanford is usually at the vanguard of innovation, but if you look around, you’ll start to spot QR codes all over the place—on newsstands and in store windows, on posters at conferences and in promotional materials that show up in your mailbox. I especially like QR codes because they’re easy to get and getting easier to use and they do a great job connecting the print world to the digital. When inserting a QR Code, it’s best to include the URL spelled out on the page. That way non-smartphone owners (the number is shrinking each day!) can still access the video on their computers. In terms of other best practices, be sure to provide readers with simple instructions on how to use the QR code, as the Stanford Travel/Study did in the magazine, thus increasing the chance that readers will actually end up watching your short film. With these tips in mind, QR codes can enhance your next batch of print materials and ensure that your film finds the audience it deserves. Don’t forget about print!
Sometimes people have a hard time appreciating the great differences between commercial and documentary approaches to video production. Part of the difference stems from the historical need of the documentary filmmaker to adapt to the realities of working within limited budgets – budgets that simply wouldn’t work within a traditional commercial approach. Since much of the work done in the documentary domain has been labor of love, it has been a situation of “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” For example, it’s typical for documentary filmmakers to rise before dawn so they can film in beautiful early morning light, rather than set up huge lighting. They tend to focus on a well-crafted interview and capture people in their natural element in conversation rather than spend weeks developing scenes with scripts and storyboards. You may recall Mark Plotkin’s book, Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, where the Harvard ethnobotanist is surprised to learn how the Amazonian shaman, with no access to modern medicine, is able to diagnose diabetes. Simple. He tastes the urine of the patient for sweetness! Luckily, we don’t have to go to these lengths, but we are often as perplexed as the shaman was by the complexity and cost of the approach that our commercial production cousins take to filmmaking. Watch the “Making Of” video of this 30-second commercial Mango spot featuring Kate Moss to see what I mean.
The momentous release of the 30-minute online documentary KONY 2012 has been an exciting one for changemakers and documentary filmmakers alike. Its unprecedented reach, its astonishing conversion of inspiration to action, and the global conversation it has sparked all highlight the power of short film. Here, our head of Narrative Guardians, Preeti Deb, explores what we can take away from KONY 2012 from a storytelling perspective for short films:It’s been less than two weeks since the San Diego advocacy group, Invisible Children, released their KONY 2012 video. Already the 29-minute documentary has had a staggering 84.5 million hits on YouTube. It’s been hailed the most viral video of our time. It was most liked, viewed by and shared by people aged 18 to 29 years old. Critics and humanitarian workers have criticized it for using outdated information and creating an over-simplified depiction of the current threat of Joseph Kony. And to make things worse, filmmaker Jason Russel made national headlines last week for what seems to be a nervous breakdown from the intense attention of praise and critique after the film was launched. And though I see many problems with the content of the video, I’d like to put the backlash aside for a few moments and use this opportunity to comment on what we can learn from KONY 2012. The video has done some things very right. It’s made people feel empowered. It’s mobilized a generation that may otherwise feel disconnected from many world issues by focusing on the power of YOU. It’s given viewers a clear pathway to become part of the solution. It’s taken a complex issue and broken it down into a way that can offer a taste of the situation, so that anyone who watches the video feels like they should and can do something to stop the injustice. Let’s see how filmmaker and co-founder of Invisible Children, Jason Russell, has done this:
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