As the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County prepared to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, the marketing team asked us to develop and produce a short documentary film. The foundation wanted to showcase its past accomplishments in the area of historic preservation, but at the same time make a clear statement about its vision for the future. The film would be the centerpiece of a red carpet fundraising event at the historic Franklin Theater, so it needed to deliver a powerful call to action that audiences would embrace.
Celebrating fifty years of preservation
The Project
The Project
Discovering the ‘why’
The goal for this short documentary, as with many of our nonprofit projects, was to capture not just “What” the Heritage Foundation does, but “Why” it matters to those in the audience. Our solution, after getting to know the personalities around the office, was to design a story in four parts, each featuring a character who shares their own compelling answer to that question.
How we worked
One of the greatest challenges in filming a historical documentary is that there’s often nothing happening to actually film. So filmmakers are stuck with talking head interviews and archival material. But we wanted to create something with more energy and life, so our team found evocative environments – an empty movie theater or hot air balloon – that we knew would trigger specific memories and emotions from our interview subjects.
About the partnership
Stonecastle’s partnership with The Heritage Foundation began as it was seeking a better way to tell its own story to donors, volunteers, and even its own staff. As our relationship has grown, Stonecastle has produced fundraising videos and launched other documentary projects aimed at enhancing its visibility and stature in the community.
