It’s not everyday that a project like this comes along – Strategy Creative presented us with a challenge we couldn’t pass up. Produce three short form documentaries, with a focus on story and human connection to drive home the campaign message – ‘Invest In Life’. In the commercial world, opportunities to engage in pure storytelling work, with such strong characters are few and far between.
As their name suggests, CMRF fund medical research here in Canterbury, and are a major private funding source in an under resourced sector. To improve their funding capabilities, Strategy Creative developed a campaign focused on ‘Investment’ rather than ‘Donation’. Targeting high-net-wealth individuals to give to philanthropic causes like medical research, whilst also highlighting the cutting edge research happening in Canterbury, and the lives it is changing here and abroad.
The three documentaries are based on the three sides of the medical research story – The Investor, The Researcher and The Family. A common thread – Type 1 Diabetes – was found and our characters identified. Sir Eion Edgar (The Investor), Dr Martin de Bock (The Researcher) and The Greenshields Family (The Family).
With a small window before our June trip to Cuba in for Kathmandu, Simon jumped into story research, pre-interviews and wrote up story plans based on the results. This fed into our production plan so we could streamline our short shoot window.
Simon directed whilst regular conspirator/DoP Julian Vares christening our new RED Monstro camera – his beautiful handiwork is evident throughout the films.
We are extremely proud of the results – the images are stunning and the story rings true;
“You can’t take it with you when you go, so why wouldn’t you want to help others?” – Sir Eion Edgar