INSTITUTION · FUNDRAISING
MARIN MONTESSORI
Four years of films for a speaker series that has to move a room before it asks for money.
CLIENT
Marin Montessori School
RELATIONSHIP
Ongoing since 2020
SCOPE
Direction, cinematography, interviews, editing
OUTPUT
3 Gather for Good productions + school landing film
THE SITUATION
We met Marin Montessori in the middle of COVID. The school needed a landing film for its website, and every part of that was difficult — families and faculty distanced, nobody comfortable on camera, and the exact thing they needed to convey was the warmth of a community that couldn't currently gather.
That film worked, and it led to something bigger: overseeing media production for The Gather for Good, the school's signature fundraiser and speaker series. Past stages have held Al Gore, Sam Altman, and — the harder assignment — the school's own students.
The brief was never "document the evening." An event film that only records what happened is a souvenir. This one had to do work in the room: inspire philanthropy, strengthen a community, and explain a mission that takes more than a brochure to convey.
THE APPROACH
Every interview, shot, and edit got built backward from one question: what does this film have to make someone do?
01
Ask what it's for, first
Before a single setup, we sat with school leadership to name the goal of each year's film — giving, belonging, mission. A film built around a purpose cuts differently than a film built around a highlight reel.
02
Earn the room, then shoot it
Kindergarteners, board members, heads of school, and internationally recognized public figures — all interviewed the same way. Show up curious, stay past the awkward part, and let people arrive at what they actually meant.
03
Absorb the complexity
Communications teams, PR approvals for high-profile speakers, and schedules that changed the morning of. We coordinated all of it so the school never had to see it. Their job was the event.
THE WORK
GATHER FOR GOOD — THE FUTURE IS NOW · 4:50
STUDENT VIDEO — FILM TITLE · 6:44
GATHER FOR GOOD — FILM TITLE · RUNTIME
GATHER FOR GOOD — FILM TITLE · RUNTIME
"He understood that he wasn't simply documenting an event. He took the time to understand what we were trying to accomplish and built every interview, shot, and edit around that purpose."
Carolyn Woolf
Former Assistant Head of School
Marin Montessori School
OUTCOME
WHAT IT DID
$4M
raised across Gather for Good events, supported by films we produced
4
years of continuous production, from the first COVID landing film onward
3
Gather for Good productions — Al Gore, Sam Altman, and the students
WHY THIS TOOK MORE THAN A SHOOT DAY
A film crew hired for one night can shoot a beautiful evening. What they can't do is know which student to point the camera at, or which teacher's answer is going to land, or what this community sounds like when nobody is performing.
We knew, because we'd been there all year. Ordinary school days, hallways, drop-off — long before the film that mattered. By the time the lights went down on Gather for Good, we weren't covering an event. We were finishing a story we'd been inside of for months.