Shoot Once for Multiple Films and Save

Let suppose that you an NGO / non profit organization and you are working in a community development situation.   You have decided that you want to do a film on your project and have two target audiences and each has its own objectives.

For illustration purpose suppose you have the following audiences:

• Local Community Members: You plan to expand your program to other communities and want a short film that will introduce the benefits and impacts of your program in your initial pilot area.
• Donors and Sponsors: You want to show how the program has worked in your initial community and show how beneficial it has been and your vision for the future.  You also want to include your needs to expand or support the program.

Let’s take each of those and look at the best type of film to suit the purpose.

For the Local Community Members you would plan to have the film in the local language and with community members talking about and showing the before and after, and the benefits and problems that they see.  There might be some interview with the local community leader and someone from your organization.  The film if it includes any graphics would take into account the local culture and literacy level.  If there was any need for translations it would be with a narrated voiceover and not sub titles if the audience was not of high literacy rate.  The film would be shown on DVD in community meetings, at local gathering places such as clinics and maybe schools. 

For the Donors and Sponsors you would plan to use the community members but would want a translation – eithe with subtitles or narrated voiceover in English or whatever is the national language.  You might even do 2 different versions if you had English speaking and German speaking donors, for example.   This film would have more information about the plans and vision for the future and could include more interviews with officials.  It is important to show the community and the work on the project.  This film might be shown on DVD at board meetings, or on TV Channels if there was a public aspect to the fundraising for support.

On the surface these look like 2 very different films and they are.  However from a planning and budget point of view it will likely save you money to shoot both of these at the same time.  You may need to add some additional time at the community level to ask a few additional questions, and in your interviews to have questions that will be appropriate to your content needs for both audiences.

The post production (edit) phase will be separate for both films but at least you would have the footage that you need for both.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.