THE POWER OF DOCUMENTARY

TIMELESS OR FLEETING?

The power of having at least one signature documentary is something that more and more conservation organizations are beginning to embrace.

As use of video grows, the web is becoming a crowded place of TikTok videos, short smartphone videos, and one-minute videos on social media. In a matter of minutes, these videos sink further and further down the timeline and fade in days.

A signature documentary is an entirely different beast. And a powerful one. Its shelf life is timeless. It’s not just confined to use on social media. In fact, it’s often more powerful off social media. It’s featured at a variety of events and conferences. Maybe your local film festivals. It lives and breathes as a signature destination film about your organization and what it does. It is often leveraged for use in fundraising campaigns, pitches to funders, or donor and volunteer campaigns. It can even serve as a powerful recruiting tool because it inspires the graduates and experienced professionals who view it.

Best of all, a professional documentary about what you do takes viewers along for the intimate journey and the storytelling behind your work in the field and why it matters. It inspires. It makes people care.

When you tell your conservation story in a documentary format you spark a connection. Documentaries help make us human. It is through storytelling that we learn lessons and shift perspectives. Stories help humans learn what is right and what is wrong. Documentaries about conservation can change minds.

DOCUMENTARIES INSPIRE CHANGE

Take advantage of this powerful medium to advance your organization’s goals, research and education toward preserving species, programs, sustainability, landscapes and threatened ecosystems.

Millennials watch documentaries more than any other age group and many are inspired to change their lives after viewing them, according to the results of a 2019 survey.

Conducted by the documentary streaming service MagellanTV, the survey shows that more than half of millennials — ages 25 to 34 — who watch documentaries were inspired to change their lives in some way.

In addition, 34% of millennials say watching documentaries is better for their mental and emotional health than news, reality television, or fictional dramas. This latter claim is supported by a recent study conducted by the University of California Berkeley that found nature documentaries reduce stress and improve mental health.

 THE RIGHT FIT FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?

WorkCabin Creative conservation filmmaker Gregg McLachlan is already connected to the same conservation-minded audiences as your organization and has spent years building those same social connections. But there’s more. Beyond the creative aspects of his work, he can also function as a value-added advocate. His deep experience as a journalist can also help you with input and new perspectives to your organization’s approach, creating more effective and efficient ways of communicating your conservation message.

WHAT IS THE COST?

MOST ORGANIZATIONS LEVERAGE GRANTS

Yes, a documentary is a big investment. But it is also an investment in elevating your organization’s profile.

Most conservation organizations utilize grants to cover the cost of documentaries. You can expect a ballpark range of $5000 to $50,000 depending on the length of your documentary, the amount of time needed in the field to capture your stories, and how much work is needed to produce the film.

True story: One organization that I worked with used grants to cover the cost of a film, and the organization then leveraged its film to gross more than $10K through special screening events.