We’ve done portrayals of emergencies, and one of our biggest struggles is making sure everything feels realistic

Client: Hatzolah of Central Jersey

Objective: Feature and promo videos for their fundraising campaign

Film Locations: Green screen studio and private home in Lakewood, New Jersey

Project Deadline: May 2024

The Proposal

“We want to create several videos for a fundraising campaign,” Meilech Esterzohn, recently appointed CEO of Hatzolah of Central Jersey, said on our conference call.

His vision for the clips was to showcase several actual emergency calls, with the goal of highlighting the importance of Hatzolah’s lifesaving work.

“Do you think those will make good fundraising clips?”

Senior production manager Moshe Niehaus replied with the first question we always ask on calls like these: “Why does Hatzolah need money? I think we all understand the importance of the organization, but for people to donate, they also have to be convinced that their money is important for the cause.”

Meilech explained that in Hatzolah’s staggering yearly budget of close to $4 million, there are three primary expenses: mandatory training for the volunteers, equipment, and a reliable operations system, including the communications system, insurance, maintenance, and more.

“Our EMTs and paramedics are all volunteers, but it can cost upwards of $80,000 to properly train and outfit each paramedic. In addition, since the whole premise of Hatzolah is the quick response time, we can’t just park a few ambulances in one location — we need to have more than 15 ambulances, 200 defibrillators, and other expensive equipment strategically placed around town. And we need a state-of-the-art dispatch center to keep the process running smoothly.”

Wow.

“That’s a great starting point!” I exclaimed, suggesting that instead of multiple stories, Hatzolah should find one unique call to showcase all of these elements, a case where the training, strategic placement, and expensive equipment all come into play.

“We can create one feature video to build up the drama of the call, and then piggyback off of that story to create smaller promo clips to focus on one of the aspects, like the equipment used for the call and how much each item costs,” I said. “This way we can present a strong fundraising message while keeping viewers engaged.”

Meilech loved the idea, and we agreed to follow up later that week to finalize which story would be best suited for our videos.

Flying a drone from a speeding ambulance tests skills to the extreme

On Call

With the campaign only two weeks away, we were on a very tight deadline. Moshe Niehaus scheduled the follow-up call with Meilech for Friday afternoon. We hoped we might even be able to start filming that Sunday.

But 2:30 came and went — with no call from Meilech.

Moshe texted him, but no response.

2:45.

Still no word.

3:00.

Nothing.