Each month we feature one of our fiscally sponsored projects who have been successful at using our program to advance their art/cause/career. This month’s featured project is The Movement Theatre Company (TMTC).
As a staff, we at Fractured Atlas thoroughly enjoyed The Movement Theatre Company’s holiday solicitation video (below). We asked them to share their tips and tricks for creating engaging content. Let’s see what they had to say!
What made you choose video content over something else, like a blog series or podcast for example?
At TMTC, one of our biggest branding tools is our faces and the faces of our artists! People like to see us working and having fun as a team and looking FABULOUS while we do it. We’ve done a few music videos in the past for previous donor campaigns, company anniversaries, and other programming, all of which been very successful in reaching our audience.
As theatre is so visual, we’ve found that videos are the best way to grab our audience’s attention.
Also, we know a lot of multifaceted artists, so creating a video gives us the opportunity to collaborate with people across disciplines who are interested in pushing boundaries to achieve a bolder, more engaging vision.
What prompted the idea for the video?
We’re all obsessed with the TV show “Empire” on Fox, particularly the way the show contrasts the lavish design with the insane things that happen on the show! On “Empire” they always talk about how they’re a FAMILY, which inspired us to reach out to our “family” of former and current TMTC artists and ask them to appear in the video.
We wanted to showcase that without our artists, TMTC would not have made it to the #TipTop! TMTC is almost 10 years old, so we wanted to present ourselves as a bit more grown up and put together but we also wanted our donors (and everyone) to know that we can still throw a party like nobody else.
How did you find collaborators?
Many of the people who appeared in the video are former and current TMTC artists. Behind the scenes, we reached out to videographers and photographers we had individual relationships with (Adam Hada shot the video and Alex Schaefer shot our holiday photos). Adam actually shot our very first video “Chimney Intruder” back in 2010. Both Adam and Alex were very open to our ideas for the design concept and had a lot to contribute.
We shot the music video in three different locations for the three different songs that were mashed up, so Adam had the especially challenging task of creating a cohesive story between the three pieces. He and Eric worked very closely throughout the process to make it happen. David designed/found the spaces we used and styled our looks! The four producing artistic leaders of the company are all artists first, so we always find ways to showcase our artistic talents as well.
From conception to launch, how long did it take to make?
From the initial idea conception to the launch of the video, it took about 8 weeks.
What has been the reception of the video among your audience? Did it reach who you wanted it to reach?
People are STILL talking to us about our music video! It’s really wonderful that it reached such a broad audience, including people outside of New York. A lot of people love “Empire” as much as we do, so we were able to spread the word to people outside of our normal audience range through social media.
We were featured on Ebony.com and the Huffington Post, which is incredible! It proved to us that we’re moving our branding in the right direction.
What was surprisingly easy to execute?
We were struggling to find an affordable space that would be large enough to house a lot of people at once, but then we decided to use one of our apartments and just trick it out with black and gold. We weren’t sure if the opulence and glamour we were seeking would come through in a smaller space, but it exceeded our expectations and set our bar even higher for next year’s campaign.
What was surprisingly difficult?
Budgeting! We were determined to create a quality product, but it was also for our donor campaign (where the goal is to make money and save it, not use it to pay for the campaign). There were many conversations about conservation and quality over quantity.
We also aim to compensate our artists adequately for their work, so figuring out how to crunch numbers so our artists didn’t suffer was a top priority.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a project looking to produce video content of their own?
Use the people you know for your projects, especially if you can give them personal face time on camera. Friends will do a lot if you give them snacks and a chance to act on film. Also, create a solid budget and go into the process knowing what is flexible and what is a hard line. It will save you a lot of time and headaches.
Anything additional you’d like us all to know?
TMTC Harlem Nights Monologue Slam #ThatsMyJam is on Monday, April 11th at Silvana uptown! Doors open at 6pm, show starts at 7pm! Check out the event page here!
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