How Velcro moved a room (and raised $52,000)
Client: Creativity Explored
Challenge: Show what 15 years of videos missed
Result: 28% increase in giving by revealing the hidden story
Timeline: 3.5 months from discovery to transformation
The Invisible Question
For 15 years, Creativity Explored's gala films profiled artists and their work. Beautiful documentation of impressive creations that missed the real question: What makes this different from sending artists home with supplies?
The answers lived in details never shown on screen before. Assisting an artist by offering to turn a canvas they can’t reach. Understanding what details an artist wants to be described when they can’t see. Knowing when silence means 'not yet' versus 'I'm done.' The difference between making art and making art possible.
When CE's Development Director Denise Boulter called us, she knew something had to change. She'd seen our work and sensed we'd catch what others hadn't.
We did. Starting with a strip of velcro.
The Assignment
During Pre-production, care companion Kate mentioned that Monic—a visually impaired artist—had requested velcro on her supply drawer. So she could touch and feel which one was hers.
That detail revealed everything. The personalization happening in every corner of CE's studios. The invisible infrastructure towards dignity.
We proposed showing the relationship, not just the result, and through that relationship we would reveal the immense thought, care, and labor that goes into realizing the artists creations at CE.
What We Saw:
Click to watch Monic’s Story
The Revelation
First day filming Monic and Kate, the studio hummed—artists creating, music playing, conversations flowing. Chaos. But reviewing footage that night, Director Ian Carr found a problem. "I realized we were missing their actual dynamic. The quiet questions. The micro-adjustments. We could see them, but we needed to hear them — listening is how Monic primarily works with Kate, and we needed to hear it too."
Day two, Ian focused our approach on the subtle relationship between Monic and Kate. Instead of recording audio of them both with a boom, we wired Kate with a wireless mic and instructed the boom microphone to only capture Monic's world—her fingers guiding the pastels, the colors binding onto the paper, and most importantly her concentration and her voice.
Then Ian filmed them working.
For 40 minutes, he filmed continuously. Camera, sound, Kate, and Monic found a shared rhythm. Just presence as through their relationship her art emerged, a hidden collaboration in a corner of a busy studio. From that single take came the film's core: 50 uncut seconds of Kate asking about color placement while Monic directs with absolute certainty.
The film's beginning seems to ask what color even means to someone who cannot see.
But by the end it actually reveals the more important question - why art makes her feel alive.
The film's beginning seems to ask what color even means to someone who cannot see.
The Moment
May 16, 2025. 300 donors finishing dinner, conversations still bubbling. The lights dimmed for the fund-a-need ask. Our film began.
"You could hear a pin drop," Denise told us later.
The room that had been social and chatty went completely still. When the ask began, over 40% of attendees gave. Industry standard is 25-30%.
In 3.5 months we delivered:
Fund-a-need: ~$52,000 (28% increase over 2024)
Nearly 75% of total funds raised that night
A spotlight on the fundamental work that makes CE indispensable
Immediate rebooking for 2026
“Linda was like, ‘No, it was the best video ever and we should hire him again.’”
The Truth About Invisible Work
Creativity Explored didn't need another showcase of impressive artwork. They needed someone to recognize that previous films showed the masterpieces but not what makes them possible.
CE's value lived in the space between Kate's questions and Monic's answers. In velcro strips. In how Kate listens. The film was made not just in the finished art, but in 40-minute patience. In knowing which sounds matter. In letting a miracle unfold in real time.
Every organization has invisible work that contains their entire value. Work that seems too quiet to film, too subtle to sell. Previous videographers filmed what artists created instead of revealing what allows them to create.
We found CE's truth not through strategy but through listening differently. Wiring the right person. Pointing the boom at fingers finding pastels. Holding the shot until invisible became undeniable.
“There aren’t really words to describe it... where you are allowed to engage with another human being in a way that you wouldn’t outside of Creativity Explored.”
After 15 years, someone finally filmed what couldn't be said.
What invisible work drives your value? Let's find your velcro strip.