Frankly Speaking #3: Transformational Content- Delivering Messages with Meaning

For many of us, there is a line drawn between the personal and the professional. We go to the office to make a living and then go home to our families and our hobbies on the weekends. If we’re lucky, some of us find a way to incorporate our passions into our careers so that there is no defining boundary between work and play. The best of all worlds align when we are able to do what we love for a living while also incorporating those causes and issues that are most important to us towards making the world a better place. This year at Make It Happen Productions, that has become my goal –to use my role as a content provider to start developing more transformational content. It’s important to be able to express yourself regardless of your profession and I feel I have a unique opportunity to get messaging that’s important out to the masses.

Ed Begley, Jr. at our “Get the F Out Shoot”

What does this look like? Well, it all started last year when our production of On Begley Street  compelled me to think about the world I live in and my carbon footprint. Then I realized that MIHP had been involved in many meaningful projects over the course of my career including a PSA for the Trevor Project , which encouraged gay youth to Live Proud; the development and sale of a series centered around changing the lives of inner city and troubled youth through song; and a non-scripted show featuring young African American and Hispanic gay males looking to be fathers. I realized that something special was happening while involved in these jobs; not only was I creating something I was proud of and that I hoped would engage viewers in the same way, but I started to feel truly good knowing that I was participating in actual transformation and change. I wanted more of it.

I will always value my steady bread and butter clients with their work that is equally important to me and keeps the company afloat. In fact, they are the reason I am able to build this platform of transformational content today. But it is also my goal to be a part of socially conscious messaging for the remainder of my career—a niche for MIHP and a clear direction for the future.

First Move Shoot

Just in the last 30 days, MIHP has had the pleasure of producing several projects that fit the bill of “content with a cause”. First up was “Get the F Out,” a PSA featuring Ed Begley, Jr. encouraging people to take action and get fluoride out of our drinking water. Within the same week, we shot another PSA featuring Holly Robinson Peete for AT&T and the HollyRod Foundation in the hopes of raising awareness for autism. If that weren’t enough, I’m literally writing this blog from the set of our shoot for America’s Foundation for Chess and their curriculum for First Move. Additionally, we have some transformational and inspirational non-scripted documentary projects in development, but we can’t quite spill the beans on those yet.

I feel we are in a time in history that is different than ever before when it comes to disseminating information. There are so many ways, vehicles and avenues to spread content in our contemporary technology and social media streams. It seems only natural to communicate from the heart when the audience is this large and this accessible. It’s a day and age when transparency and integrity are key. Why not make your every word matter?