We were very excited when we won the job to produce The Jewish Board of New York’s storytelling video for their annual gala. Ultimately, the whole project seemed spectacular! Like something out of the ordinary, and for a good cause too!
The Brief
The job was to tell the story of Tom, a person whose life was transformed by the support he received as a young man. He was helped by the Jewish Board of New York, a charity that provides support to people regardless of faith.
The Story
The starting point for the script was an interview with Tom where he talked about his experiences. Finally, the script reflected this narrative very closely, as we wanted to keep it authentic.
Creative Direction
We set out to create a hand-drawn style, as opposed to a more common vector-based look. The reason for this is that we felt it would help us bring out more emotion. Similarly, we felt it helped with the historical narrative for this storytelling video. We collected photos of the Bronx during that time, and photos of Tom too. Afterwhich we started working internally on a few styles. Eventually, we approached a young Zimbabwean artist, Lance, whose work was subsequently chosen by the client. Luckily, Lance now works for us. 🙂
Here are some style frames from Tom’s storytelling video:
Voiceover
For authenticity reasons, the client felt strongly that Tom needed to do the narration himself, even though he had no voiceover experience. We duly arranged a recording in a studio.
The Big Reveal
We raced to hit the deadline and finally the video was complete. The date of the annual gala arrived and we waited in anticipation.
Success! Ned from Jewish Board had this feedback for us:
“I wanted to follow up with you now that our gala has wrapped and let you know that the response was incredible. The room was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Afterward, the applause was heartfelt and sustained …. and we capped the video off by having the real Tom in attendance. He stood up to be acknowledged and was joined by Vivian’s daughter (as sadly we learned that Vivian had passed away a few years ago). They hugged and it was a fantastic moment. I’ve received SO MANY wonderful compliments about the video subsequently and I just wanted to say a proper thank you.”
What a great email to receive! We were very pleased that the video went down so well. And what advice do we have if you’re thinking about making a storytelling video? Do it! (if you have some budget). People love a good story.
An Update: Storytelling Video #2
Since publishing this article, we had the huge honor of working on yet another video for The Jewish Board of New York. It was another storytelling video, this time about Cortnie and her journey with the Jewish Board. Read all about that project here. Alternatively, watch the final video below:
