The Challenge

A school with a warm culture that no brochure could capture

Marymount of Santa Barbara needed a marketing video to attract new families and increase enrollment. The challenge was authenticity — prospective parents can sense when a school video is staged. The real story of the school lived in the relationships between its students and teachers, and that story needed to be drawn out, not scripted.

The Approach

Listening before filming

I spent time with students and teachers to understand the school before a camera was ever turned on. Interviews were conducted to capture genuine perspectives and experiences. From hours of footage, I identified and rated the moments with the most emotional resonance — prioritizing authenticity over polish. B-roll was selected for natural child engagement, not staged activity, to give prospective parents an honest window into the school's environment.

The Outcome

A trustee screening that ended in tears — the good kind

The final film was screened at a board of trustees meeting. Attendees were moved to tears. For a school whose value proposition is the warmth and quality of its community, that reaction was the most meaningful metric possible — and the most compelling endorsement the school could bring to prospective families.