The brief
Chimo Trust is a grant-giving organisation supporting charities on the front line of young people’s mental health. Their funding enables evidence-based interventions rooted in nature, creativity and sport.
They asked us to create a film for an event. It needed to explain what they do, but more importantly, show the impact that funding has in a real, human way.
The challenge was twofold. Firstly, Chimo’s work spans a wide range of organisations and outcomes, which makes it difficult to clearly communicate what they actually do without slipping into something overly broad or abstract. Alongside this, the film needed to evidence impact through real stories, without overwhelming the audience or compromising the wellbeing of the people sharing them.
It also couldn’t feel like a case for support or a traditional explainer. That approach would have flattened the emotional impact and reduced everything to information rather than experience.
What we did
We built the film around lived experience.
Instead of talking about Chimo directly, we focused on four stories from people connected to the organisations they fund. The aim was to show the impact of the work from the ground up, rather than explaining it from the top down.
Chimo were able to offer a strong range of potential contributors, which gave us a good starting point. From there, we ran pre-interviews with both charity leads and individuals with lived experience to understand which stories would best demonstrate the difference these organisations make. The focus was always on finding stories that clearly showed change, rather than simply describing support.
The final film is audio-led, using recorded conversations as the backbone, layered with observational b-roll captured in real environments. This allowed us to avoid a traditional talking heads approach and instead create something that feels more fluid, moving between stories while maintaining a single emotional throughline.
We filmed across four shoot days, working within live settings. Because of the nature of the stories, sensitivity on set was critical. This wasn’t about extracting difficult moments for the sake of it. It was about creating a space where people felt comfortable sharing their experiences honestly, and then handling those stories in a way that felt respectful but still powerful.
From a production point of view, there were a lot of moving parts. Multiple organisations, different locations, and a range of contributors meant the schedule had to be tight, but flexible. The upfront planning was key here. By the time we arrived on location, we knew what each story needed and how it would fit into the wider film.
The technical
Concept
Story development
Pre-interviews
Filming
B-roll capture
Editing
Sound design
The result
The final film moves from uncertainty and struggle towards a sense of hope and possibility, without ever feeling forced or overly polished.
By grounding the story in lived experience, the impact of Chimo’s funding becomes clear without needing to be spelled out. The audience is able to connect with the people behind the work, rather than just the organisation itself.
When shown at the event, the film had a strong response from the audience and was universally well received, landing as something that felt honest, grounded, and genuinely impactful
