JD – I hope you were able to get ahold of Amy at the Digital Naturalist! She is really doing awesome work.

As promised, here is an example of a photofilm: http://lumana.org/blog/learning-from-our-clients-the-risks-of-farming

Would love to hear what you think about this particular example. These are perfect for what kind of story we are trying to tell, but may not work for other types of stories.

so true lindsay

Live Face On Web
http://www.livefaceonweb.com/walk-on-video.aspx

Hi JD,

I’m currently working on some for an organization in Ghana, I’ll post the links here as comments when we get them up and going! In the link I posted above, the website thedigitalnaturalist.com has some great examples of photofilms and orgs doing them. Check it out!

Hi Lindsay, we’re big fans of the form — though we’ve always called it digital storytelling, and I haven’t heard the term photofilms until now. Would love to learn more about who’s doing it and how it’s done.

Here is an example of a video we did for American Red Cross that helped raise $11,000 in one night. Video stirs emotion that can create action.

http://youtu.be/xZ21CO_7c5Q

Thanks for the comment, Lindsey.

I absolutely agree that many videos are not good. The ease of creating videos is both wonderful and troublesome. Just because you can film something doesn’t mean you should … unless you’re willing to spend a little time or money to make it good. On the bright side, it also means nonprofits can shoot more videos until they really get what they need.

Photofilms are great visual tools too, and often you’ll need stories for these too.

Thanks for this great post! While I agree that video can be truly wonderful for a nonprofit, I think that it’s really important to note that not all video is good. For example, while the easy-to-use Flip cam opens up a whole world of media possibility, video shouldn’t be used just because it’s there – people won’t watch a poorly shot, poorly executed video. Storytelling for a nonprofit is so important, but as I see bad quality videos like this all over the web, I want to comment on another multimedia approach to nonprofit storytelling.

I’m working with an organization in Ghana right now that is gearing up for their big fall benefit, where the theme is going to be ‘Learning From our Microfinance Clients.’ There’s so much great content to share, but the budget for video is small, so I decided to use photofilms to tell these stories. Photofilms are basically a multimedia slideshow with narration over the top – they’re a beautiful and cost-effective way to tell a story without the budget or expertise of a video.

Here’s another website with a great description and examples of photofilms: http://www.thedigitalnaturalist.com/home/2010/12/29/the-beauty-of-stills.html

Thanks again for the great post!
Lindsey