Experienced viewers can typically discern real on-screen moments from staged ones. And, they don’t love when their intelligence is insulted. Authenticity connects because consumers engage with messages and images they can relate to. Conversely, consumers are easily turned off by fabricated versions of a reality they know just can’t be captured like that.

Given our experience, UNCHC offered us the task of delivering their message in a way that locals could relate to. This translated into getting as real as possible at 87 locations in ten days in seven North Carolina communities served by UNC Healthcare hospitals, a nonprofit health system, in a way that conveyed the most essential aspects of each community.

Knowing that only the people in these communities could identify their own way of life and sense of community authentically, we grabbed our 5-person production team, and our fine-tooth comb and got to work, scouting more than hundred locations across the state for three weeks, talking intimately with locals and digging in deeper than average to situations and locations that seemed suitable. With the help of the agency CD, we found the scenarios and people that would resonate with the community as a whole through residents and business owners that were eager to accommodate.

With a 25-person crew, often working 16 hours a day, for ten days, and a collaborative and integral relationship with the agency and the clients, we managed to capture the aspects and moments that both communicated the characteristics that best defined these communities and connected viewers to the values at the heart of each place. Three weeks of scouting, ten days of shooting, and eight spots later, our belief that authenticity adds value is even more solid. And, the proof is in the pudding. Please take a look!