Most of our work with charities is repeat work with the same teams over several years.

Supporters want to see what their money does. People using your services want to recognise themselves and feel reassured. Funders want evidence, politicians want a reason to act, and volunteers want something worth sharing. Corporate partners want to be seen alongside the cause.

Most charities commission for each of them separately, against a deadline. We can work with you to plan it as one system, so every piece sounds like the same organisation.

We start with the outcome the content needs to achieve: move people to act, prove what a service changes, explain what can’t be filmed, tell the story behind the work, or keep channels full all year. Each job has its own format, process, review rounds and published investment range. Formats can combine, and scale within their range to suit the budget.

That’s what the first call is for. We listen to your audience, your objective and your channels, then recommend a format. We’ll tell you the investment it needs, or suggest a smaller first step if that serves you better.

A crew shoots what it’s briefed to shoot, and for some jobs that’s the right service.

But a crew is rarely still involved three projects later. Tone, quality and trust drift. Contributors meet a new team every time. Brand guidelines, clinical sign off and safeguarding get rebuilt from scratch, along with who actually says yes. And your team spends as long managing suppliers as making decisions.

We stay. Our first documentary for BHF Scotland’s annual research lecture is now a series in its fourth year, and each film asks less of their team than the last. We carry what we know about your organisation from project to project, and we’ll tell you when a brief or a budget won’t do the job it’s meant to do.

The things that stop charity projects starting are production problems, and production problems have solutions.

• Lived experience. We agree the approach with the charity first, then brief every contributor and offer them a call to meet the crew before anything is filmed. For The Circuit, that meant cardiac arrest survivors across all four UK nations, filmed in their own homes and where their lives were saved.

• Sensitive subjects. Some stories need more care than others. All of Us, for Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, tells the centre’s story through its Director, its service managers and the staff who deliver it every day, with the approach agreed with the centre before anyone was asked to take part.

• Dates that don’t move. Awards nights, receptions and appeals don’t move, so we plan around confirmed elements: script approved, contributors named, access confirmed. All eighteen videos for the 2024 Living Wage Scotland Awards, from the opening film on the night to explainers on accreditation, were delivered on schedule.

• Budgets under scrutiny. Charity budgets answer to trustees, funders, supporters and the press, so the spend has to show up on screen. The Power of Physical Activity for Parkinson’s UK was filmed in one day in Inverness by a two-person crew, and still delivered a flagship film, a trailer and two social reels.

Standard on every charity project

• Single and secondary points of contact on our team and yours for direction and approval.
• Contributors briefed in advance, free to withdraw at any stage, and nothing used without your approval.
• Consent and safeguarding agreed for every contributor.
• Structured review rounds through our online review system, with time built in for clinical, legal or safeguarding sign off.
• Captions and subtitles as standard.
• Purchase orders and supplier onboarding when you need them.
• Crew are first aid trained, and production is risk assessed and insured.
• We’re a Living Wage Employer and Cyber Essentials certified.