SHAPING THE FUTURE:
EASTERN WA
PULLMAN, WA
Shaping the Future is a series of events that bring together community leaders from various regions across the state of Washington. At these gatherings, organizations build connections and learn to build the power and resilience of their communities to advocate for a more equitable Washington. We were invited to capture the third gathering in Pullman, WA, which brought together over 40 leaders from ten counties across Eastern Washington over the course of three days. Our goal was to document the energy of the event, emphasize the impact and importance of building power for community change, and demonstrate the pivotal role that Inatai Foundation plays in convening organizations across the state.
For: Inatai Foundation
Creative Direction & Story Development
Production & Post-Production
Read the full Case Study below
Our Approach
Similar to the previous Shaping the Future event, we began our collaborative partnership with Inatai Staff by first understanding the unique challenges and opportunities that would be present at this event - what were the unique goals of this event? Who were the types of attendees that would be present there? How could we create a sense of regional unity through the use of visuals? We elected to focus more on emphasizing “place” as a key theme in this project, while creating a story that again highlighted the overall event theme of community power-building. Relating to this theme, we did preliminary location scouting, using Google maps, community suggestions, and traveling to various places, to better grasp the potential visuals that would help create a sense of regionality. Desiring the story arc to again be driven by the voices of community members, we worked with Inatai staff to identify five individuals who would guide the story, considering racial, ethnic, gender, and geographic composition. We hosted five pre-interview conversations with the community leaders, which allowed us not only to introduce ourselves but also to build rapport and trust. This helped create a space where the community leaders felt comfortable sharing their stories authentically during filming.
Challenge
Having attended the previous Shaping the Future event in Southwest Washington, we understood the challenges that might arise at this event. Attendees were there to learn power-building skills and build connections - ultimately, not to be a part of a larger video project. The challenges, then, resulted in balancing how to properly capture the emotion of the event, while maintaining an appropriate distance that gave space to the primary purpose of their attendance. To overcome this obstacle, we emphasized getting to know the attendees on a personal level at the beginning of the event, building a quick rapport to aid in creating comfort. Another challenging element of this production was the use of “spot interviews” to help drive the narrative, due to time constraints. To overcome this, we first identified potential interviewee hours or days in advance to alert them of what we were asking and consent them into the process. We also identified potential filming locations at the event venue previously. During the subsequent breaks throughout the event, we would then quickly set up to capture the interview.
Impact
Our deliverables were a full event gathering recap in both English and Spanish and social media teasers: two 30-second, a 15-second, and a 60-second cut (in 9:16 and 16:9). With a variety of different length deliverables in two languages, Inatai is able to convey the energy of the event on multiple platforms for multiple audiences.
Beyond simply documenting the gathering, these videos serve as visual proof points of Inatai’s ability to convene and support diverse communities across the state, empowering them to drive meaningful change. They act as reminders of the shared mission and the power within these communities. The goal is for these videos to continue sparking conversations and inspiring ongoing advocacy.
