Changing lives… Urban Scouting
What’s Urban Scouting? Essentially the same Boy Scouts of America program you find in the suburbs. The primary difference? Scouting programs everywhere help boys focus their lives. But Urban Scouting has an added social value: it helps kids make choices that keep them off the streets, out of gangs, off drugs, and away from crime. To city kids in the program, it can be as important as family. Urban Scouting is alive and well, changing lives in Rochester, NY.
To tell that story, POV-Rose Media worked with the Partners & Napier agency to support 21 Stories for Scouts — a fundraising event for Urban Scouting in Rochester. Participants who raise a minimum of $1,000 for the Urban Scouting program get to rappel down the side of the 21-story First Federal Plaza Building.
Partners & Napier chose a marketing approach which promotes the benefit of Urban Scouting, rather than the thrill of going down the building. We were engaged to create a video to support the event’s recruiting efforts.
The clock was running… time was short
POV-Rose chose to tell a story of how Urban Scouting changes lives. We determined that the video would not only support local event recruiting, but also be long-lived, usable in other markets, and suitable for various distribution media. We also knew that shooting had to begin NOW!
Javon Snead; Eagle Scout; RIT 2011
A compelling video had to be produced in record time. We received the project go-ahead and contact information with just five weeks left before the event. Fortunately a week-long Urban Scouting day camp was underway that offered great shooting opportunities. It had already begun the day before we got the green light, but there were three days left to shoot.
We quickly framed the story by focusing on key Boy Scout personnel in action, and highlighting the success story of Javon Snead, an Eagle Scout who’d come through the program. Javon will graduate shortly from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Criminal Justice program, and attributes much of his success to his days in Urban Scouting.
Backpack VideoSM Meets Film-Look for Urban Scouting
POV-Rose Media recently purchased two new HD camera systems and upgraded our post production systems. The result? The ability to combine stunning film-look shots with our documentary-style Backpack VideoSM. In addition, we now have an ingenious tool …the “Slider”…that allows us to produce short dolly shots from a standard tripod, without a bulky dolly and track.
For “Scouting… Prepared for Life” we selectively applied two distinctive production approaches and integrated them together for greater storytelling impact. Backpack VideoSM technique was used to capture the fast-moving activity of the Scouts, Scouting staff, and volunteers. Our low profile 24P tapeless camera allowed for active, participatory coverage. The story’s primary interviews and beauty shots were created using a DSLR for shallow depth of field, and the moving “product shots” were created using the DSLR on the Slider.
Best of all, these new production tools and methods allowed us to create a level of production quality once reserved for projects with much larger crews and budgets. This highly-crafted story was produced with crews of one and two people.
Strategic thinking + cost-effective, high-quality production
In just three weeks we created a multi-use, evergreen program using new technologies to cost-effectively produce a great visual look which increased the impact of a great story. Both Partners & Napier and the Seneca Waterways Boy Scouts Council love the video, and the Boy Scouts Council approved it without changes. The program is already being used in the variety of ways we recommended and designed it for:
• 21 Stories and Boy Scouts web sites
• Morning TV shows in Rochester
• Fundraising events and donor meetings
• Social media sites
And this is just the beginning. See the full length HD video here. For more information Contact Us.
