S2 Ep4. What is an impact film?

Impact film is a whole new genre of filmmaking. Actually, scrap that. It’s a whole new way of changing the world! Sounds empowering, doesn’t it?  But actually is an impact film? 

Unlike the midday movie you caught last Sunday or the shows you watch mindlessly on Netflix most week nights, the purpose of an impact film is to inspire viewers to do something more than watch. 

They’re designed to take your audience from passive consumer to active participant. Which is a critical difference –especially if you’ve got your sights set on changing hearts, minds and behaviours. 

So if you’re giddy at the thought of making a tangible difference, then impact films might just be the film genre for you. 

Sue will get your creative juices flowing and up to speed on impact filmmaking is this episode of Moonshine Moonshot. 

After more video making advice? Subscribe to this podcast! Sue has been making  impactful video content for more than 10 years and now she's making it her mission to help you do the same! 

Here's the link to that podcast episode Sue mentioned in this show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/846682/2888575 

And you can learn more about Moonshine Agency at www.Moonshine.Agency

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Transcript

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Impact film is a whole new genre of filmmaking. Actually, scrap that, it's a whole new way of changing the world. Sounds empowering, doesn't it? You bet it does because unlike the midday movie you caught last Sunday or the shows you watch mindlessly on Netflix most nights of the week, the purpose of an impact film is to inspire viewers to do something more than watch. They're designed to take your audience from passive consumer to active participant, which is a really crucial difference, especially if you've got your site set on changing hearts, minds and behaviours. So if you're giddy at the thought of making a tangible difference, then Impact Films might be the film genre for you. For anyone who's new to this series, it's the weekly Moonshine Moonshot podcast, and it's to help you make better videos. I'm your host, Sue Collins, and I've been specialising in video production and filmmaking for many years. I don't want to see boring, poorly crafted videos any more than you do. So to help combat the onslaught of rubbish content being served up on social, I'm sharing what I've learned about how to make great videos. And the good news is it's not as hard as you might think. Nobody sets out to make a boring video and nobody wants to make boring content, but that is exactly what can happen when you don't have the skills or information to make it great. Sometimes just a few small pointers can take something dull and make it shine online. So now let's get back to what is an impact film. First thing is first, why don't we break down what isn't an impact film? When you're trying to get your head around a new term, figuring out what the term isn't applying to is always a good place to start. So when we talk about impact film, what isn't an impact film? Commercials and advertising for one, sure they claim to make some kind of an impact, in that they persuade you to buy another pair of black leggings for your already overflowing activewear drawer. Or perhaps they get you to order Thai takeout for dinner when you already have a fridge full of fresh food. But these types of films, advertising, aren't really made to change behaviors in a meaningful or enduring way. They're actually made to fatten the advertiser's bottom line, which is great for them, but possibly not so great for society. Look, please don't come at me if you've just spent thousands of dollars on an advertising campaign using videos. Ads have a hugely important commercial purpose, but it's just that they're not actually impact films, and that's what I'm rabbiting on about today. So what else doesn't fit under the impact film umbrella? Passive entertainment, which is pretty much anything you turn on to wash away a morning of back-to-back meetings followed by an afternoon ferrying the kids to and from cricket training. Have I complained about how much of my time goes on cricket training and kids' cricket matches from 8 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday? Alright, okay, I aggress. Back to what isn't a film in a well should I say back to what isn't an impact film. Passive entertainment. Think soap operas or the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Passive entertainment is a bit like junk food for your eyes. It's perfectly fine in moderation and you know, frankly, it's really enjoyable. But it's never going to give you enough energy to get you off your sofa into the world and doing something constructive. Why? Because the call to action is usually about watching more rather than about actually doing something. Passive entertainment films, they can't be overly impactful if all you do is sit and stare at them. And at best they might make you think you know, sometimes being really lazy and lounging around in front of the TV sounds pretty good, and it sounds kind of good right now, but stay with me because there's important info coming right up. And that's about how to define an impact film. In basic terms, an impact film is designed to get viewers to do something, and that something could be as simple as asking your friend to watch it too, or following the filmmakers on Instagram. But it could also be to lobby your MP for policy reform, or to stop you from using single-use plastic ever again. The ask is all around making a positive, tangible impact. It has a motive, an agenda, a clear purpose and objective. The reason beyond getting lots and lots of views online. In short, it's trying to change the world in a small way at the least. Once you've watched an impact film, you should feel really motivated to join the cause, to change your behavior, to be part of the solution, and to inspire others in your orbit to get behind the movement too. Is any of this sounding familiar? Have you, you know, been inspired by impact films way before you even understood the term? Perhaps you saw Blackfish and made a pledge to never visit SeaWorld again. Or what about Supersize Me? Were you persuaded to change how you ordered McDonald's? Maybe? Well, that's the force of an impact film. If you're still feeling a bit uncertain about this whole impact filmmaking business, just check out uh the podcast that we did called Impact Filmmaking a Moonshot Project. It was in series one and it was episode number seven, and we talked all about how impact film projects, particularly one called Conquering Cancer Making History by Eliminating Cervical Cancer Everywhere, which is one of our new release films. And we talked about the impact that film made and how that worked. The podcast breaks down how we used film as a tool to help communities engage, educate, and inspire decision makers around the world to prioritize cervical cancer prevention programs and work towards eliminating this cancer for the next generation of women. Measuring the impact of an impact film. The best part of an impact film is that it can be measured. And that means going way beyond the box office sales or streaming downloads, because impact films are measured a little bit differently to your run-of-the-mill comedy, drama or action flick. With an impact film, you're not just measuring how many people saw your film, although that is really important, you're also measuring the change you achieved in the world. And that's one of the most exciting aspects about this genre of filmmaking. Now, when it comes to measuring your film's impact, try asking yourself a few questions even before you release your film because that'll actually help you figure out what you're trying to achieve. Some of these questions are things like How many people did your film reach? How did your film change opinions? And if so, whose? How did it shift behaviors or confront social norms? Were any existing social structures challenged by your film? What about policies? Were any rewritten because of your film's content? And so on. Make sure to take stock of your answers so that you can constantly refine and update the results as your film makes its way around the globe. There's a lot of different ways you can actually do this measurement. So uh that's probably a whole different podcast that we'll come to. But it's things like surveys, asking people on social media, it's a whole lot of tactics. Just reach out if you'd like some more info, leave comments, and um I can come back to you if you need some solid grounding in how to measure the reach of your project. But if you're ready to change the world with an impact film, hopefully this post has helped you understand what an impact film is and also what it isn't, and inspired you to get out there and make one of your own. So a quick recap on what we touched on. We talked about what an impact film isn't, meaning it's not advertising and it's not passive entertainment. We talked about what an impact film is, meaning that it has a motive or an agenda to shift attitudes, behaviors, or even policies. And also how to measure an impact film, or rather that you need to measure an impact film. And you can start by asking yourself a few of those critical questions that I spoke of just before. So impact films are a genre close to my heart. Moonshine Agency is an impact film production house after all. So if there's anything you'd like us to dive a bit deeper into, please get in touch and leave a comment below. And if you're serious about making great videos, you should definitely subscribe to this podcast, Moonshine Moonshot, on whichever podcast platform you prefer to listen on. You can do that right now by clicking subscribe on wherever it is, or there's sometimes a little plus button on some platforms. And it helps me to know that you like the content and it also helps me to make better content. It also helps other folks discover this podcast. So go on, hit subscribe, it'll make you feel good too. So I'll speak to you next week when I dive into why making a video series is far more beneficial than creating a one off video, even if that one off video is amazing. Look forward to speaking to you next week.