We’re often approached by non-profit organizations who say they want to produce a video about their organization but they can’t seem to answer why.  It’s the main reason why we’ve recently developed a questionnaire that we bring with us on all initial client meetings.  It came as a bit of a surprise to one client we’ve had for several years who looked at it and joked, “what’s this, a personality survey?”  And we responded, YES! It’s a personality survey for non-profits to try to get them to articulate who they are, what their story is, what they want to achieve, and why.  Below are five of the most important questions non-profit organizations should ask themselves before commencing a video production:

1. Who are you in one line or less? While seemingly a simple question, I can’t tell you how many non-profits struggle with answering it. Often, it takes them a good 5 minutes when it should really only take one single sentence.

In the film-making world, we have what are called log-lines, essentially short synopses that give the audience a sense of the subject of the film and tease them into watching it. Log-lines are hard business but they make all the difference in how many people will want to see a given film. As an example, I’ve listed the log-lines for two of this year’s Academy Award nominees for best picture. Read them over and think about what each tells and teases about the film:

• The Artist: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Most striking is that each tells the who, what, where, when and teases the why.  The “why” will be learned by watching the film.  Each description is simple and direct while also not providing too many details.  It’s also active, using verbs like “sparks” and “searches.”  Using this model as a guide, let’s look at how the following new and innovative non-profits log-line their story:

• Charity Water: charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects. Learn more or donate.
  
• Pencils of Promise: Pencils of Promise builds schools in the developing world and trains young leaders to take action at home and abroad.
  

Just like the log-lines in the films, these non-profit loglines tell us the who, what and where.  Yet, instead of teasing the “why” they tease the “how” by directing us to areas of their website or videos that demonstrate the “how” in more detail.  And just like the log-lines in films, these descriptions use verbs like “bringing” “build” “combat” and “expand”.  Log-lining or synopsizing your organization’s story is the first step before you can really begin to think about telling your story in film or video.  It’s the first step for filmmakers, so why not non-profits?

2. What’s At Stake? Why Now? 

This question gets down to why others should care about the issue you are presenting. What is the alternative if this issue is not addressed? An example: If we don’t provide clean water to x by x time, then x number of people will die.  Whether its in words, in film, or on the stage, all stories are driven by some degree of tension.  In the story of your non-profit, you must also demonstrate what the tension is and be able to answer the question “what’s at stake?”

3. What’s your goal? If you were a puppet master, what would you audience do? 

The answer to this question can be a tangible action such as having viewers sign up for a newsletter, donate money, volunteer, or become a citizen lobbyist. It can also be a feeling, a connection, an inspiration, which may lead to action, involvement or awareness about a specific issue. You need to determine exactly what it is you want your audience to do and make sure that you have the tools and resources available beyond the film to help them do that.

4. Who Are You Speaking To? Who Is Your Primary Audience? Secondary Audience?

A lot of organizations will say that they want to appeal to everyone, but we ask them to narrow the field. Your biggest supporters may know a lot about your issue while outsiders may not. The young are apt to favor short and energetic communications while the old may favor stories that take time to unfold. Potential donors may be seeking information about the impact of their contribution while potential volunteers want to know what role they’ll have in your organization. Certainly there should be an element of universality to your story.  However, to be most effective non-profits need to identify primary audiences and secondary audiences because there’s no one size fits all approach. Instead, communications should be tailored by the audience to which they are speaking to.

5. What will be the distribution method? Exhibition format?

Once you identify who your audience is, the next step is to identify how you plan to reach them. Is it through an embeddable video in your newsletter, on your website, at a conference opener or in a screening event coupled with audience discussion? The format and distribution method often drives length. For example, a web video should be three minutes or less (ideally under 2 minutes) while a conference opener might extend as long as ten minutes. And a short film screening coupled with a discussion would do well at a length of about 20 minutes. The goal of the project and the intended audience should always drive the content of the video and the exhibition format, which ultimately determines the length.

I think about Billy the Kid, the story about an autistic boy living in Maine who dreams of that Hollywood love story.  But as he says, “I’m not black, I’m not white, not foreign… just different in the mind.” And so he’s yet to save the damsel in distress, both his mother who has chosen abusive mates and the teen girl he’s sweet on.  But his ambition to do so is heart warming, not in a quaint way but in a way that you want to emulate yourself.

There’s unrequited love, perhaps the most tragic.  In Hollywood, the person who desperately loves is never let down in the end. They find someone even more fantastic and good looking than the person they originally pined for. But in stories like Man On Wire, an admirer of dangerous tight-rope walker Phillipe Petit goes long unnoticed.  While she loves him for his art, his dare-devil and ambition, he is more in love with himself.  And years later she shares her pain in film.

There’s love lived in the face of intolerance, as seen in The Loving Story, a documentary about Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple living in Virginia in the 1950s when their marital union was illegal.  It was their landmark Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia that changed the course of history.  Hopefully this film, which will be screening on HBO this month, not only warms the heart but will provide continued fuel for our country’s continued fight against marriage inequality and intolerance.  This film shows that love and acceptance prevail, perhaps the Hollywood ending we’re seeking after all.

Independent Film Work:

We are in the midst of production and grant applications for a half hour documentary, tentatively called Fate of a Salesman.  This is title number 2, but we may try out one or two more for size.  Willie Carswell is fighting to keep his store alive. After 60 years of business, Men’s Fashion Center now faces its toughest challenges. A sinking economy and a gentrifying neighborhood may spell the end of this once iconic storefront in the African American community of Washington, DC. We’re currently in the middle of production and are applying for funding to complete the film by the end of 2012.

We have also begun researching a new feature documentary about the anti-science movement, which we we see as a pervasive problem in the United States. It affects environmental, health care and education policy in a dangerous way.  While other films have tackled the individual effects of this growing movement: the challenge to teaching evolution, the anti-vaccine movement, among other issues, few films have addressed the movement as a whole. This will be our first issue-driven film, but we plan to draw on our experience producing character-driven films by focusing on the individual stories of people who are negatively affected by this movement.  We’re looking forward to the challenge of making this film, and hope that it will contribute to an important national discussion about the need to make decisions based on science and reason.

New Collaborations:

We are also really excited to announce a new partnership with DC-based motion graphics animator Joe Moccia.  Joe’s animation and designs are inventive, visually striking and are helping us to tell stories even more effectively.  You can check out some of his pre-Eidolon work on his website.  Our latest collaborations will be posted on our site soon!

New Office Space:

Last, but certainly not least, we are excited to announce that Eidolon Films is moving into offices within the beautiful Josephine Butler Parks Center.  The old yellow mansion, which was originally built as a possible site for the Vice President’s home, is managed by Washington Parks & People and is home to a host of non-profits and organizations committed to advancing green spaces and rebuilding communities within the District of Columbia.  We anticipate that the energy of the space and the beautiful greenery of nearby Meridian Hill Park will serve as refreshing inspiration for our work going forward. We’ll be posting pictures of our new space when we are finally settled in March. Stay tuned!

“Dulles Sunset” 2012 DCist Exposed Winner

We’re really excited to announce that our own Ben Crosbie’s photo “Dulles Sunset” was selected to be included at the 2012 DCist Exposed Photography Show at DC’s Long View Gallery from March 21-April 1. The photo is among 40 diverse depictions of DC-area life and locales that were selected from over 650 submissions. This is Ben’s second year in the DCist show. In 2011, his photo “Wharf Afternoon” was selected and exhibited. Thank you to the DCist for making this event possible and for providing local artists an opportunity to showcase their work.  Check out the rest of this year’s winners here.

Some of the locations were nearly ideal.  One subject was filmed in his modern house.  A simple staircase in the background served as the perfect abstract shape when blurred out and accented with a few simple shafts of light.  Other times we only had a white wall to work with, so in those cases we usually shot a shaft of light across it, or positioned the subject in front of a corner to create lines and an interesting shadow.  In one case, we found a wall that had some great texture to it.  In color the wall was nothing special, but when seen in black and white the texture really came out and made the background the perfect contrast to the subject.  In all cases we always looked for abstract shapes, lines, shadows or textures that would take an otherwise plain wall and turn it into a nice modern background for our black and white interviews.

When lighting the subjects, we went with a relatively contrasty look, using just one soft light from the side with a silver reflector as the fill.  We never used a back light.  We relied on the background shapes and lighting to create that additional separation from the subject, trying to position the lit side of the face against a dark area of background and vice versa. Lighting the subjects this way allowed them to pop more in black and white.  We also always turned our monitor to B&W mode to know exactly what we were getting ahead of time (the interviews were shot in color and converted to black and white in post).  We think the results turned out well.

After completing a successful national broadcast on PBS in the Fall, our film Keeping the Kibbutz was made available on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube and Snagfilms.  In 2011, the film also continued its public screening series at several venues, including the Manchester Jewish Museum in the UK, the Basel Jewish Community in Switzerland, the University at Albany, the Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum in the Netherlands and the Center for Contemporary Art in Glasgow, Scotland. We call this “the little film that could.”

Meanwhile, we continued to produce documentary-style videos for our non-profit clients, enhancing the value of these videos with heightened storytelling and production techniques. It didn’t hurt to have a brand spanking new Panasonic AF100 to play with.  Coupled with great lenses like the Zeiss 50mm, we’ve been able to enhance our cinematography tremendously.  See our work here.

With the support of a DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities Grant, we completed 73 Cents, a short film about a local artist advocating for better health care.  The film will soon make its film festival rounds and we’re exciting about sharing this story with others.

Fulfilling a dream of ours, we spent the late summer and early Fall in Southeast Asia visiting silk weavers in Bangkok, playing Seepak Takraw in Chiang Dao, offering alms to monks in Luang Prabang, touring the waterfalls of the Bolaven Plateau by motorbike, marveling at the temples of Angkor Wat, sailing past the misty limestone peaks of Halong Bay and trekking with the Hmong of SaPA.  We also snuck in some time to produce this short pro-bono film about an inspiring Lao man who is working to educate the young people in his community.  Our eight weeks of travel was followed by a client project in Israel and a side-trip to stunning Jordan.

But our travels didn’t end there. Work brought us to corners of our own country we had never explored, including this recent jaunt to Colorado.

We took a leap of faith by redesigning our website and are thrilled with the results: a showcase of our independent work, client work and FOUR years of blog posts. We also reluctantly joined the twitterverse but were excited for the opportunity to connect with filmmakers, content distributors, non-profits and change-makers.

It’s been a tremendous year but we can’t wait for what 2012 will bring. Lots of great new projects and collaborations in the new year.  Stay tuned!

To reflect our style and local family business mentality, we decided to make a collection of homemade gourmet sweets.  We made a huge batch of Mrs. Field’s Chocolate chip cookies, a longtime favorite in my family. Next we made Aflajores, a delicious South American cookie filled with dulce de leche that we discovered in our travels to Argentina.  And finally, we made a savory treat of caramelized bacon cashews. We wrapped the treats in pretty cellophane bags with silver-coated twist ties and attached simple stamped labels. Nestled in white tissue and accompanied by hand-written notes, we sent them along in flat-rate boxes to arrive the following day.  Below are pictures from our day of baking this past Sunday.

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