Vulcan Productions / Editorial strategy & short documentaries
Seeds
Building an audience, one story at a time
At Vulcan Productions, we were making ambitious films, documentaries, and immersive experiences about some of the world's most pressing challenges. Across the wider Vulcan organization, remarkable work was also happening in philanthropy, science, conservation, and research.
But too often, those stories reached audiences in isolation. A film would premiere. An experience would launch. A campaign would run. Then we'd move on to the next project.
I saw an opportunity to connect those efforts through something more continuous: a steady stream of compelling, human-centered stories organized around the issues we cared about, rather than the individual projects we happened to be releasing. That idea became Seeds.
The stories
Four short documentaries
The Tracker
A conservation story about people working alongside wildlife.
The original videos are hosted in Wix. Their direct embed URLs are still needed to enable playback inside this prototype.
Films by Sarah Menzies and Jessey Dearing.
The approach
Making the connections
Seeds was designed to build an ongoing audience for Vulcan Productions while connecting stories across the organization’s films, research, and philanthropy. Each documentary needed to stand on its own while contributing to a larger conversation.
I developed the concept, budget, editorial strategy, visual direction, and digital and social approach, secured support, and built the team. Sarah Menzies and Jessey Dearing brought the films to life through their shooting, field production, and editing. I oversaw production and supported their work while building distribution relationships.
Reach & reflection
Stories that Traveled
I established distribution partnerships with WaterBear, The Evrgrn Channel, YouTube Social Impact, and The Climate Story Network, helping the films reach audiences beyond our own channels. They helped raise awareness and donations for coral reef restoration in Kenya, human-wildlife conflict in Botswana, and homelessness in Seattle. Distributed in China by the Paradise International Foundation, our conservation films received more than a million views and were used in classrooms.
We were just beginning to find our rhythm when Paul Allen passed away. His curiosity and commitment to exploring important issues helped make work like this possible. Vulcan Productions eventually closed, so Seeds never had the time to grow into the ongoing editorial initiative we imagined. But I’m proud of the films, the people who made them, and the belief behind them: individual stories can help people see a much bigger picture.
