The approach mirrors much of the work EngageMedia seeks to do; turning film into a tool to move people to action. Working Films and the Fledgling Fund, however, focus mostly on feature-length documentaries and have some very interesting success with high-profile films such as No Impact Man, The Age of Stupid and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. Much of the methodology can be brought across to inform approaches to short-form film also.

The Working Films framework centres around their audience engagement plan. This covers articulating developing the following…

It’s certainly been an issue for EngageMedia that the site doesn’t function as much as we’d like to catalyse action from the videos. This issue is two-fold; firstly the site needs to function better to encourage users to add this information and for it to be easier to access on the site, secondly video activists needs think much more deeply about their outreach and engagement.

In my experience, it’s frighteningly common how often video activists will upload content online, or print DVDs, but then do extremely little outreach, let alone engagement. It’s an old rule of thumb than the distribution is actually half the work. I think EngageMedia can play a useful role in raising awareness around these issues, and the knowledge gained from Reel Change was very useful in working towards this.