Mini Documentaries for Organizations

Organizations tell their stories using the documentary filmmaking approach. San Francisco Bay Area video production company, AVC Video, provides scriptwriting, narrators, filming and post production editing to craft these engaging videos.

Documentary Film Approach Engages Viewers

San Francisco is a center for documentary filmmaking, and organizations can take advantage of the talent in the Bay Area, including that of professional video producers in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, the peninsula, Alameda County, Contra Costa County and elsewhere. Oakland video production company, AVConsultants.com has produced several short documentaries, that we call “mini-docs,” for nonprofit organizations and corporations.

Audio Visual Consultants’ owner-director, Stu Sweetow, writes about the use of the documentary style in his book, Corporate Video Production.

While a documentary may consist mostly of interviews, it usually includes a voice-over narrator–at least at the opening and closing and perhaps at transitions between different segments. When writing scenes for an on-camera narrator, or for the voice-over segments, use an informal writing style with easily understood words. Write in the second person, so the narrator is speaking to “you.” Remember that the viewers have only one chance to view the video; they can’t reread your script because they never see your script.

Corporate Video Production, Page 122

Documentary Planning and Producing

Audio Visual Consultants’ Stu Sweetow, met with the client, determined their objectives, defined their audience and wrote the script. The client revised the script with wording that spoke to their audience. We chose a narrator and a studio for the soundtrack. AVC’s post production editor, Mitch Silver, gathered client’s film clips, photos and other elements to create visual variety. He created motion graphics and added music during appropriate scenes.

Videos For Your Organization

A good place to start is to download our production planning guide. Use it to determine objectives, outline your program ideas and list visuals to be included.

Then we develop, what the industry calls, a “treatment.” A treatment is a scene-by-scene description of what we imagine the video to be. We include as much about the visuals–what the audience will see, as well as what they will hear. A creative partnership with our client, is our goal. Once changes are made to the treatment, we write the first draft of the script; it includes all the visual descriptions as well as the words. Together, we refine the script until we get everything right. We are pleased to share client testimonials about our work.