The Background

If you live in Southern Maine, you've probably heard of the Portland-based non-profit, Maine Needs. And in case you haven’t, they have a branded Evergreen Video now that you should go watch. (It’s okay, I’ll wait until you get back. It’s only 2 minutes long .)

Now that you’re back, I hope you enjoyed it and that if you live in Southern Maine, you feel compelled to follow them on their journey (and maybe even get involved ).

Behind the scenes: Camera test before filming

The Primary Objective

I originally met with Tara from Maine Needs in mid-January about the current goals of the organization, as well as the road blocks that were getting in the way and the ways in which video content could potentially help. Some of these goals were:

Growing the general awareness of the organization
Recruiting more volunteers to help sort & fill requests
Community awareness of the various ways to get involved, other than just volunteering (although volunteering is GREAT!)
Saving time for the shift leaders in the training process. A lot of valuable time was spent training new volunteers, and they wanted to give their shift leaders more time to do other tasks

The Primary Solutions

We decided that the best way forward would be to create a few different types of videos:

An Evergreen Video to help spread the word about Maine Needs & their mission. This video would also encourage more people to volunteer & donate. The Evergreen Video takes away any mystery individuals might still have about exactly what Maine Needs does and how they do it.
A “Ways to Get Involved” Recruitment Video that would encourage viewers to think outside of the box when considering ways in which they can help. This video succinctly addresses all the major ways community members can contribute to the cause, with actionable steps on how to begin! This video is created for traditional viewing as well as vertical viewing (optimized for social media).
Training Videos to shorten the time it takes for shift leaders to train new volunteers. This allows shift leaders to spend more time joining their team in doing the work, and spend less of their time training others on how to do it.
An event recap of Rising Tide Brewing’s “Kegs for Causes” featuring Maine Needs, where we filmed b-roll of Maine Needs members out in the community, collecting shampoos & conditioners to restock their shelves. We also repurposed some of this footage in their Evergreen Video.
A 5th (bonus) deliverable that I decided to put together was something I call “Personalized Stock Footage”. Maine Needs has much of their online following on Instagram, so with some of the b-roll that I filmed while making the other videos, I created little clips (6-10 seconds each) that could be used as moving backgrounds for text to be overlaid. This way, when the algorithm pushes videos over still-image posts, they can use those from time to time to change things up. This personalized stock footage was essentially created from repurposed b-roll, originally filmed for the Evergreen Video.

Behind the Scenes: The setup for the interview portion of the Evergreen Video

The Filming Process

The videos were all filmed over the course of 1 full day and 2 half day shoots. During the full day, we took care of all interviews and training videos, and the 2 half days were spent filming the event at Rising Tide, and getting additional b-roll of volunteers working in the Maine Needs space. All of the videos were then edited over the following 2 weeks!

Behind the Scenes: Filming of Training Videos

The Result

We were able to successfully create all of these deliverables for Maine Needs, and I’m really happy with how they came out. I hope the videos can keep working for Maine Needs for years to come!

Here’s what Maine Needs had to say about the experience:

“We couldn't be more thrilled with the result! Nate is an absolute joy to work with - the perfect balance of professional and down to earth. He made our team feel comfortable in front of the camera & really captured the spirit of Maine Needs.”

If you’re in the Southern Maine area, consider volunteering with Maine Needs. It’s a truly uplifting experience working with them.

If you’re wondering how video could help your organization, send me a note to book a free discovery call! I’m looking forward to meeting you.

-Nate