Project Proposal

At Cedar, our core storytelling principle is all about asking the right question.

As we seek to communicate the mission and vision of Harvesters International, we want to create evergreen films that serve far into the future.

We aim to position Harvester International as a global force for Gospel impact by answering the question…

Why should a crisis happening across the world be just as urgent and devastating as if it’s in your own backyard?

When approaching these films, we started with: How do we take the experience of visiting the Harvester ministry partnerships across the world and condense that into an equally effective experience that’s infinitely communicable via a link in an email or a meeting presentation? How do we take the conflict in DRC that’s thousands of miles away and create something that puts someone at a conference table right in the middle of it?

In our experience, there’s no better vehicle for empathy and transportation than narrative.

We’ve created three different approaches to help tell the story of Harvester, highlight the work being done around the globe, and engage viewers in a way that they would be compelled to help Harvesters financially.

Here’s what we’re thinking…

Approach #1 • Documentary

Mission & Vision Film

Who is Harvester’s International? Why do they exist? And importantly - why are they a cause worth supporting?

This 3-5min documentary film will weave together the voices of three key individuals who embody the organization’s impact—whether a long-time partner, a staff member, or person involved in the work.

By combining these personal testimonies with previously captured clips from past mission trips, we’re able to communicate to potential donors the what and why of Harvesters.

More than just a promotional piece, this film will be a tool for donor engagement, fundraising, and outreach. We hope viewers will see themselves as partners in this mission - encouraging greater financial support and involvement.

Act I • The Origins of Harvesters

How Harvesters began, the key characters, and the need that prompted it’s formation

Act II • The Work of Harvesters

What are we doing? What’s the work happening across the world? How is it effective?

Act III • The Future of Harvesters

While so much good has happened with Harvesters - so many needs still exist. We cast vision into the future but make special emphasis on how the viewer can be involved in the ongoing work at Harvesters.

Companion Film

DRC CURRENT EVENTS

Using content captured while filming the Mission & Vision film, Cedar will produce a cutdown piece that highlights the urgent need in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It will shed light on how current events are worsening the poverty, food insecurity, and lack of access to education and medical care that many communities face. We’ll conclude the video by casting a vision for the hope and transformation made possible through Harvesters - with your help. This piece can serve as a tool to educate, rally support, and inspire action to bring lasting change to one of the most vulnerable regions in the world.

Approach #2 • Short Film

Harvesters Short Film

When an organization wants to show who they are & what they do, the temptation is to tell the story “top down”. Let’s tell you what we do, instead of show you what it is.

In our experience at Cedar, stories told through the eyes of the people directly impacted by an organization move and affect people in a way that a spokesperson simply can’t access. Using that person’s perspective as a vessel to communicate the more informational parts of an organization is the best way to pair information with emotion. We cover the “what” of an organization by diving into the “why” - which is the people!

For this approach, we want to travel to a ministry partner and spend several days there - capturing the place, people, and heart of a community. We’ll use their unique story as a representative of the dozens of Harvester stories across the globe.

We don’t want to be too prescriptive with the story structure up front because we need to learn & understand the ministry partner more deeply prior to writing a script, but the two references below are interesting examples of how a true story can be woven into a short film, or how interviews can be pepper in a piece in an intentional way.

By telling the true story of a family impact by Lifeline, we were able to show their work in action in a warm and memorable way.

In a tonally fun & light way, we accomplished a more literal “about us” film featuring Thrive ministries, but more importantly - Jose, a boy impacted by their ministry.

Approach #3 • Anthem

A Global Harvesters Anthem

If Cedar could make exactly the films we believe will serve Harvesters best - this is how we’d do it.

The most effective way to capture the scope, intimacy, and impact of the work Harvesters International is doing, is to walk with the people in the middle of it.

With this approach, Cedar would travel to three ministry partners across the globe to capture their stories. While there would certainly be documentary elements to the process - interviews, responding to the truth of each story, etc. - our process would be that of a narrative short film. We’d learn about each ministry partner in great depth, then craft a woven narrative between the three that elevates this video to a cinematic experience.

What happens when you experience a town in Kenya struggling to get clean water while watching a school in India desperately works to give their children a future with education?

Or how does it impact you when after watching a man in America moved to tears out of prayer for his friends in China - then you watch a church service held in China. The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

This being said - we understand international travel is difficult and expensive. That’s why we’ve included other options. But, if it were possible to achieve this approach, we’re confident that Harvesters would have an expansive, powerful, and outright beautiful film that would prove useful for years and years into the future.

Because of the wealth of footage we’d capture in-country, we could also produce films for each ministry partner to tell their individual stories amidst the broader scope of Harvester’s work.

Although this film covers a much wider cast of characters, it’s great example of the power of multiple perspectives woven together achieving an emotional impact.

This film highlights how a true and painful story - told from the person who lived it - can be paired with prepared and poetic moments to create new life & scope to the story.

Three separate stories that all meet together in the end. We aimed to capture an important idea - there is a place for young people in the church to use their artistic gifts.

Logistics

Documentary

PRODUCTION

We’ll interview 3 subjects at our studio in Birmingham, AL. While we are willing to travel to conduct these interviews, we have not included travel costs in this quote.

Included with the DRC Companion Film is a video-call interview with a local partner.

DELIVERABLES

  • Mission & Vision Film (3-5min)

    • Three interviews edited together with pre-existing b-roll footage provided by Harvesters.

  • DRC Companion Film (2-4min)

    • A cutdown of the interviews dedicated to the immediate needs of the DRC.

BUDGET • $19.5K

Harvesters Short Film

PRODUCTION

In addition to interviewing the Harvester International representatives, we send a Cedar crew to one ministry partner across the world to film for three days.

We use this ministry partner’s story as the vessel by which we cast vision & need for all of Harvesters International.

We’re not comfortable writing a script without knowing the ministry partner, but prior to travel Cedar will write some version of a script that will guide the filming process.

DELIVERABLES

  • Mission & Vision Film (3-7min)

    • Weaving together a ministry partner’s story and using voices from Harvesters to create a film that will be useful & powerful for years.

  • DRC Companion Film (2-4min)

    • Using the interviews and ministry partner footage, we put together a DRC-specific film that calls attention to the immediate need there. This is a cutdown of the larger mission & vision film.

  • Ministry Partner Film (2-4min)

    • We create a short film dedicated to the specific ministry partner by utilizing the footage captured while there. We can use this film as a model for potential partner-specific videos in the future!

BUDGET • $75K

Harvesters Anthem

PRODUCTION

If Cedar could make exactly the films we believe will serve Harvesters best - this is how we’d do it.

In addition to interviewing the Harvester International representatives, we send a 3+ Cedar crew to three ministry partners across the world to film at least three days at each location. By spending weeks in production, we are able to truly capture Harvesters work across the world in unprecedented scale.

We use each ministry partner’s story as the vessel by which we cast vision & need for the entire Harvesters organization. The film is sweeping in scope, but equally intimate in human connection and relationship.

DELIVERABLES

  • Mission & Vision Film (4-15min)

    • Weaving together the stories of three ministry partners across the world to create a unified narrative that would be the ultimate embodiment of Harvesters International in a film.

  • DRC Companion Film (2-4min)

    • Using the interviews and ministry partner footage, we put together a DRC-specific film that calls attention to the immediate need there. This is a cutdown of the larger mission & vision film.

  • Ministry Partner Films (x3) (2-4min)

    • We create short films dedicated to highlight each of the three ministry partners we visit. We can use these films as a model for potential partner-specific videos in the future!

BUDGET • $140K

Thoughts?

Email
kevin@cedarcreative.net

Phone
‭(205) 901-8453‬