My favorite projects meld history and memorabilia with the plans and efforts of today.
Recently, I had the opportunity to collaborate on a series of assignments celebrating a client firm’s 90th anniversary. The highlight: creating a video that explained “the story behind the story” of the company’s founding in the early 1930s. The project required a smorgasbord of skills, and I absolutely loved it.
Project 1:
Storytelling with History
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I created a Ken Burns-style documentary short celebrating the client organization’s origin story.
The project team and I, partnering with the grandson of the firm’s founder, decided to highlight a treasure trove of new materials recently donated to the Corporate Archives. These letters, photographs, and documents dated as far back as 1918 and offered new insight into the activities and thoughts of the founder in the years leading up to the organization’s formation. It was a particularly tumultuous time in world history making the tale dramatic and compelling.
Excited to tell “the story behind the story” of the first years of the firm, I wrote a video script based on the historic materials and the timeline they helped reveal. Working with the video producer and partner archivists, we filmed the grandson -- virtually -- as he narrated the story (using an app we discovered in 2020 when all filming had to be remote) and then intercut that footage with closeups and collages of the many donated materials. I found era-appropriate music and stock photo images to help us enhance the story, and, approximately three weeks later, delivered a finished product to our stakeholders for review. The response was off-the-charts excited! We announced the video at the virtual, organization-wide 90th year celebration in late July, and the clip became one of the most-watched pieces of the year.
SKILLS
Brainstorming – individually and with colleagues
Researching – examining collected materials, finding “the nuggets,” following up with questions, reviewing related documents
Storytelling – identifying themes, creating an arc, crafting a script, highlighting emotion, incorporating quotes
Interviewing – guiding the interviewee through the script, answering questions and making adjustments in real time
Collaborating -- sharing input, gathering feedback, negotiating differences
Editing – tweaking text, offering solutions, tracking changes, performing QA
Promoting – creating a plan, writing copy, monitoring reactions, assessing analytics, sharing results
ASSESSMENT
Along with the 15 oral histories I recorded for the client firm during 2021-22, this was one of my favorite projects. It demanded creativity, collaboration, knowledge of the subject matter, and quick problem-solving as the deadline loomed. Terrific fun!
