Melbourne-based videographer, Marguerite Eudes, has worked across the social sector helping for-purpose organisations, including Australian Communities Foundation, share their stories visually.
Driven by purpose, Marguerite’s social conscious and cinematic eye are the cornerstones of her work at Milestone Films. After working with us at Australian Communities Foundation to conceptualise, film and edit our new 90-second video, Marguerite shared valuable insights for non-profits, large and small, about how to capture their story powerfully on video.
How long have you been working with visual storytelling? How did you get started?
ME: I have been working in visual storytelling for over five years. After starting my career as a continuous improvement engineer, I decided to follow a more creative path that started at Swinburne University completing a degree in Screen and Media, Film and TV. I’ve since worked on several film and TV productions including Five Bedrooms (Channel 10), The Hungry Ghosts (SBS) and Mustangs FC (ABC).
I developed my craft working alongside some of Australia’s best cinematographers and it inspired me to create my own video production company, which is focused on telling the incredible stories of non-profit organisations and social business across Australia.
Why did you choose to focus your storytelling on values-led businesses?
It’s important to me that there’s purpose in the work I do and that I’m contributing my skills and expertise to organisations that are aligned with my values. I find a lot of my creative drive comes from the alignment of that passion and purpose. Getting to use my skills in cinematography to work with organisations that are driving real change in our communities gives me an enormous sense of pride and pushes me to do the best I can to help share their message.
For you, personally, which causes are you most passionate about?
As a woman who has carved out a career as a professional athlete, engineer and now working behind a camera, it’s fair to say I’ve seen how some life pathways can be tougher for women and girls to navigate and that’s not fair. It’s probably because of that I’m passionate about gender equality and support for women and girls.
I’ve had the great fortune to work with a client operating in Cambodia where you can see firsthand the impact that investment in education and employment pathways for women and girls has on communities. Getting to work with those young women and to create video content that tells their stories and that gives them voice was really important to me.
I’m passionate about gender equality and support for women and girls.
Why is video storytelling such a powerful tool for purpose-driven organisations?
Nearly a third of the time we spend online involves engaging with video content.
As humans we connect deeply with visual content, evidenced by the fact that we retain information for longer and engage more deeply with content when it’s provided in a visual format.
In the for-purpose sector we need our donors, stakeholders and advocates to connect with our work and we often need to be able to share complex stories in simple ways. Video content, when executed in the right way, is the perfect medium to that and to reach the audiences we need to reach.
The for-profit sector has long understood the enormous return on investment that comes from visual content. I’m keen to see more for-purpose organisations see the same kind of benefit.
We retain information for longer and engage more deeply with content when it’s provided in a visual format.
What are some of the most common challenges or pitfalls non-profits encounter when creating video content?
Sadly, I see an enormous amount of video content that has been created without a clear audience or call to action in mind. On many occasions far too much content is being pushed into a single video and as a result the message is lost.
When I speak to my clients, many of them have not historically tracked the performance of their video beyond ‘views’, which means they are unclear on the value the video content has provided.
Finally, lack of advanced planning is a real problem. Often I work with organisations that have had great events or programs running through the year but a lack of planning means that they pay a premium for multiple one-off videos rather than working with a video content producer to create an annual plan that works out much cheaper and far more effective.
What are your 3 best tips for high impact visual storytelling?
Tip 1: Know who your target audience is, where you can find them and what action you want them to take. This will determine the right style, tone and length of story you want to tell.
Tip 2: Less is more. Don’t try to jam everything about your organisation into one video, as you’ll risk losing your message and the attention of your audience.
Tip 3: Create a distribution strategy for your content. A story has no power if it’s never heard or seen. Make sure a distribution strategy has been considered as part of your project brief and invest time and resources in its implementation.