Your Next Event is a Story To Film

I’m just leaving an event where a local restaurant was celebrating its 42nd anniversary.

You know - the big 42. Because everyone makes sure to mark that milestone, right?

I love a place that will turn any excuse for a party into one. Of course there’s no particular milestone associated with a 42nd anniversary, but if you can show your customers and the community that you love 'em and give everyone a chance to have some fun, why not?

And they did it right.

They shut down the street. They blocked off a nearby parking lot and turned it into an event space. Other local businesses set up tents. There was a stage and a live band. They brought out a stock car that the restaurant sponsors.

And because it’s an Italian restaurant, naturally there was a spaghetti-eating contest for kids and adults.

There was every reason for the event to be fun.

And it was fun, too.

So why do something like that, and why document it?

Because we live in the attention economy, which is built on the experience economy, and humans will always crave relationship.

Documenting an event isn’t just about preservation, and we shouldn't think about documentary as Nat Geo or Netflix.

Think about what happens when you bring together hundreds of people who already know and love your business. They’re having fun. They’re telling stories. They’re interacting with your employees. They’re celebrating something you’ve built.

That’s an opportunity you simply don’t have on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.

At this event, we had the chance to capture happy customer testimonials. We could show excitement and energy that would be difficult to manufacture on a traditional production day. We could document employees, customers and the community genuinely enjoying themselves.

And suddenly, one afternoon can become a library of content.

Some of it can be used immediately on social media.

Some can become short-form videos over the next several weeks or months.

Some can become part of a commercial or promotional piece.

And some can be saved until next year, when it’s time to promote the 43rd anniversary.

Why documentary style?

You might reasonably ask: Why hire a documentary filmmaker for this? Why not just shoot some clips with an iPhone or hire someone to make what we traditionally would have called a corporate or commercial video or commercial?

Because documentary does something different.

It makes you feel like you were there.

The camera isn’t simply recording what happened. We’re looking for people, moments, reactions and stories and we're using un-staged, natural, honest moments and then showing it to people who weren't there so they can feel kind of like they were.

If you had a couple hundred people at your event, you can now magnify that - amplify it - to thousands.

A good documentary approach feels authentic. It feels real. It doesn’t feel like someone stopped the party to make a commercial.

It feels like being present with people while something is actually happening.

And authenticity has tremendous value. We have all become very good at recognizing advertising. The moment something feels staged, polished or scripted, we instinctively understand what we’re watching.

But when a longtime customer tells us why they’ve been coming to the same restaurant for 25 years? When a kid has spaghetti sauce all over his face? When an owner looks around at a packed street and realizes that something they started decades ago has become part of the fabric of a community? Those aren’t advertising concepts, they're real stories told honestly.

That doesn’t mean you can’t also create the traditional sizzle reel from the footage. It doesn’t mean you can’t cut a 30-second commercial afterward. Of course you can. In fact, you probably should.

But when you create an event, plan to have a documentary storytelling layer. You'll give yourself the opportunity to come away with something much bigger than a recap of what happened.

You have the opportunity to capture why it mattered, and to have other people telling your story for you, and to "show not tell."