Why does real matter?

In an increasingly virtual world, real matters. It’s always mattered, but it’s even more valuable now.

This is particularly true when you’re making a short film about your business – especially on the web, where you need to make content people want to watch and share, rather than buying ad time to push your message to people who have probably just gotten up from the TV to make a sandwich anyway.

So you can write a script that has all the right words, delivered by just the right voice, using just the right images and music, and it will remain unnoticed. Or you can have a real person, who’s really used your product or really benefited from what you do, and let them simply tell their story.

We recently created a short web film for a client who builds and operates wind farms. We could have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring a beautiful celebrity to beautifully perform a beautifully written script, and created images with just the right lighting on just the right actors looking like just the right people. Instead, we immersed ourselves in the town, got to know the people, and then simply asked them what it meant to them. We watched them work, play, and build. We talked to them about why it mattered and how bringing a wind farm to their town had made a difference.

Watch this video from First Wind about the benefits of the Milford Wind Project and decide for yourself, but we think that after you watch, you’ll come to the same conclusion we did, that wind farms are good for rural America – and our country.

Let me contrast that with We Can Solve It (whose mission we completely support, by the way). They’ve spent millions making commercials and running them on television. It’s a great message, and they’re beautiful pieces of art, with nice images and words, but for the life of me I can’t recall any of the ads – and they haven’t made me act.

If you’re wondering why, ask yourself this – would you rather sit at home and play fight simulator, or have the chance to really sit in a jet flying at Mach2? Would you rather watch a romantic comedy, or fall in love with
someone for real?

That’s what I thought.