"Docu-Monials"

Here’s exactly what a "docu-monial" is, and exactly how it’s done.

 

It’s a testimonial video, done in documentary film style. 

 

Testimonial films are nothing new. You've seen a video of a person sitting in a conference room saying something nice about "how good it is to work with XYZ Corp."

 

They’re website fodder and the VP of Marketing will call them “Social Proof.” 

 

They’re fine.

 

Documentaries are nothing new, either. In the past, documentaries were about history or nature and lived on places like Discovery Channel or The History Channel or PBS or your 8th Grade science classroom on the best day of the month. 

 

But now there are documentaries about everything - from true crime to bowling - and perhaps about your business - that's what we do. Turn your work into a story people want to watch. 

 

"Docu-monials" are a niche within that.  

 

All the time, clients say, “I hate being on video,” and as luck would have it, that’s one thing about docu-monials that makes them work best - nobody from the company ever appears in them.

 

Because if the founder and CEO tell me how great their business is, fine, I guess. I’m not opposed to filming founder stories - I think there’s a place for them. 

 

But if I tell you how great I am, you’re going to take it with a grain of salt. In fact, I wish I wasn’t the one telling you about documonials - I wish someone who you already know, like and trust was telling you to work with us. It would hit different.

 

So that’s how these work - it’s documentary style filmmaking, showing your customers talking about what it’s like to work with you. 

 

And they’re short. Micro-docs. Quick. Digestible.

 

So what does “documentary style filmmaking” even mean? 

 

Here’s what it means - it’s real.

 

Not actors. People hire actors to be in commercials. Why? It’s not believable. We can all see through marketing. None of us wants to be marketed to.

 

Not scripted. People see right through scripts. We’re in the documentary era - more people are watching more documentary and unscripted content than anything else - because we’re all tired of what’s fabricated, we want what's real. 

 

Not staged. It’s not that we wouldn’t set up a pretty interview location, we would. But it’s not a boring conference room, we’re not making absolutely sure the logo placement is exactly right, and we’re definitely not doing some nonsense where we are trying to get people who are not actors to act.