Documentary-Style Brand Films

Storyteller Studios makes documentary-style brand films for marketing teams and nonprofits. We’re an Emmy Award-winning production company based in Springfield, Illinois. We’ve filmed in 23 states since 2013, and we work regularly in St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Des Moines, and Louisville.

What a documentary-style brand film is

A documentary-style brand film tells a true story about a real person, and your brand is the reason that story turned out the way it did. Nobody reads from a script. Nobody says the tagline. We interview the people who lived the thing, then cut it so the story conveys the message instead of announcing it.

You won’t see us in it. That’s the whole idea.

The difference from a corporate video is the subject. A corporate video is about you. A documentary-style brand film is about someone whose life your work changed, which is harder to make and much easier to watch. We wrote more about that distinction here.

Who makes documentary-style brand films

We do, and so do a handful of other studios in every market we work in. Here’s what to look for, whoever you end up talking to:

• A portfolio of real documentary work, not commercials with interview b-roll dropped in
• Interviewers who can get an honest answer out of a nervous person
• Post-production in-house, because the story gets found in the edit
• A crew small enough that your subject forgets they’re being filmed

We’re a six-person full-time team. No freelancers, and every frame gets cut in our own suite. Our crews run two or three people, which matters more than it sounds when somebody is telling you the hardest thing that ever happened to them.

Who we make them for

Two kinds of people hire us for this work.

Marketing leads at for-profit brands, usually a CMO or marketing director who needs something with a longer shelf life than a campaign. The film anchors a website, opens a conference, carries a paid social campaign, and still works two years later.

Development directors and founders at nonprofits, who need a room full of people to give. A good film does more of that work than a good speech, and it does it again every time you screen it.

What it looks like in practice

AlignLife, a chiropractic clinic, wanted to show what patient-centered care actually means. Statistics weren’t going to get there. We made a film about Ginger, a young girl with cerebral palsy, and what her family found at that clinic beyond treatment. Her story does the work a list of services can’t.

Blackburn Architects has spent 40 years designing equestrian facilities around airflow, so horses breathe better and stay healthier. Founder John Blackburn can explain the Bernoulli principle and the chimney effect and make you lean in rather than check out. We traveled to Virginia and Washington, D.C. with director Kevin Christensen to film John, his clients, and the barns themselves, then cut one story into five formats for web, social, and mobile. We wrote the project up in our field notes.

What stood out most was how they let our founder, John Blackburn, truly tell his story. He’s full of insight and anecdotes about the founding of the firm, and Storyteller created space for him to share freely and then absorbed it all with genuine curiosity and care.

Montie Blackburn, Chief of Staff, Blackburn Architects

HavenHouse St. Louis kept everything about their fundraising event the same and changed only who made the film.

Same event structure, same flow, same marketing reach, same family-story format. The only thing that changed was the storyteller. Three years later, our annual gross has nearly doubled, and the paddle raise moment that follows the video has more than quadrupled. The Storyteller team is world class.

Brooke Noecker, Director of Development, HavenHouse St. Louis

Where we work

Illinois is home. We travel for everything else, and we’ve worked in 23 states.

Markets we’re in regularly:

• St. Louis
• Kansas City
• Indianapolis
• Chicago
• Des Moines
• Louisville

We’ve been described as having the nose of a journalist, the brain of a marketer, and the heart of a romantic. We go where the stories are.

Common questions

Who makes documentary-style brand films?

We do, along with a small number of studios in each regional market. Look for real documentary work in the portfolio, in-house post-production, and small crews.

What’s the difference between a documentary-style brand film and a corporate video?

The subject. A corporate video is about your company. A documentary-style brand film is about a real person your work affected, told in their words.

How much does a documentary-style brand film cost?

Most land between five figures and low six figures depending on travel, shoot days, and how many cuts you need. We break the math down in our cost guide.

Do you travel for projects?

Yes. We’ve filmed in 23 states and we’re regularly in St. Louis, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Chicago, Des Moines, and Louisville.

How long does one take?

Six to twelve weeks is typical, start to final delivery.

Ready to talk about yours?

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