Video portfolio

Short spots and social cuts

Kayla Guillory, a military veteran and NPower alum, hugs a laptop at the start of her one-minute alumni story.

In a feed or a commercial break, you get a few seconds to earn attention. A short spot makes one point and gives people one clear next step. See the tree canopy commercial we made for Bexar Branches Alliance and our 30-second alumni spots for NPower.

Plan the short versions first

We plan the short versions before the shoot. NPower’s series runs from 14-second spots to three-minute alumni stories, and most of them follow a single graduate.

We cut them for wherever you publish: broadcast, your website or a vertical feed.

NPower alum Brittany Holmes, in glasses and a vest, sits at her laptop in a bright room. — A 14-second NPower spot with alum Brittany Holmes. Watch the spot

Vertical or horizontal?

Horizontal (16:9) fits your website, YouTube, a presentation or the screen at your event. Vertical (9:16) fits a phone: YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and LinkedIn.

Cropping a finished horizontal video down to vertical doesn’t always hold up. A title that sat at the side of the frame can land on someone’s face, and a name title can get cut off. So we cut the vertical version on its own and reframe each shot to keep the speaker in view.

All four of these started as horizontal videos. In each one, the headline stays at the top from the first frame, and the captions sit below the speaker’s chin or above their head, so they never cover a face.

Vertical frame from the JCB apprenticeship Short: an apprentice in a white JCB hard hat and orange safety vest, with the headline at the top and the caption below his chin. — City of San Antonio: a JCB maintenance apprentice, 34 seconds. See the horizontal version

Vertical frame from the SAMMinistries Short: Roxy Caldbeck, in glasses and a denim shirt, with the headline at the top and the caption above her head. — SAMMinistries: Roxy Caldbeck, 44 seconds. See the horizontal version

Vertical frame from the San Antonio Pets Alive! Short: Beverly Oakes, in a white blouse, with the headline at the top and the caption on her collar, well below her face. — San Antonio Pets Alive!: Beverly Oakes, 44 seconds. See the horizontal version

Vertical frame from the National Museum of the Pacific War Short: a man in glasses and a dark blazer, with the headline at the top and the caption at his collar. — National Museum of the Pacific War: about 5,500 oral histories, 38 seconds. See the horizontal version

One point, one ask

For San Antonio Pets Alive!, spots of 42 to 60 seconds use short on-screen lines such as “We save those everyone else gave up on” to build to a direct ask. The Giving Tuesday Now spot was cut for Facebook and carries the Pets Alive! logo and a donation message.

We produced two campaign spots for the Petco Foundation, now Petco Love: a 24-second adoption spot and a square social video of an adopter telling how she met her rescue dog. Our rate card shows the 43-second tree canopy commercial for Bexar Branches Alliance as an example next to the Impact Story rate.

Staff steady a happy white rescue dog on a leash in a San Antonio Pets Alive! clinic. — The 42-second Giving Tuesday Now spot for San Antonio Pets Alive! Watch the spot

Packages and pricing

A single spot for a small nonprofit fits our Impact Story rate, from $4,500: one 60- to 90-second video for qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations with annual operating budgets under $500,000 (limited availability). Spotlight, from $6,000, covers one 1- to 2-minute video for social spotlights and updates. Signature Story includes 1 to 2 supporting videos for social and digital channels. A larger campaign fits Story Campaign, from $30,000: one 3- to 5-minute flagship video plus 3 to 4 supporting videos for social, digital or advertising. See all our packages.

Sunlight breaks through the trees behind a person in silhouette, from our Bexar Branches Alliance video. — The 43-second tree canopy commercial for Bexar Branches Alliance. Watch it

Common questions

How long should a social spot be?

Social media videos usually run 60 seconds or less, and a strong story can run up to 3 minutes. Our NPower social media spots run 15 and 30 seconds, and our San Antonio Pets Alive! fundraising spots 42 to 60 seconds. The Bexar Branches Alliance commercial runs 43 seconds. We settle the length, and any shorter versions, on the discovery call.

Is a commercial scripted?

It depends on the spot. Our interviews stay unscripted, so a spot built on a person, like NPower's alumni spots, uses their own words. For videos that aren't built on interviews, we write scripts and offer voice-over. Short on-screen lines, like “We save those everyone else gave up on” for San Antonio Pets Alive!, build to a direct ask.

Can the spot run on TV or as a paid ad?

Yes. We cut final files for the platforms you actually publish on, from broadcast down to vertical social, and plan those versions at the start. Tell us on the discovery call where you plan to run it, and we build that into your project. Story Campaign, from $30,000, lists paid advertising and regional broadcast among its uses.

Do the spots come with captions?

Yes. Captions are part of our post-production, and they help everyone who watches with the sound off. Spanish subtitles on an English video let one video reach both audiences, and we deliver them on a regular basis.

How soon after the shoot is a spot ready?

A Spotlight video is delivered about a week after the shoot, with one round of revisions. A Signature Story, with its 1 to 2 supporting videos, takes about two weeks, and a Story Campaign about three. You review each edit in a private online review portal.

Is the music licensed?

Yes. Every package includes licensed music, along with narrative editing, color grading and sound mixing. Post-production also covers sound design, motion graphics and captions.

Can the spot end with our logo and a donation link?

Yes. Motion graphics are part of our post-production, and longer animated sequences add design and editing time. Our Giving Tuesday Now spot for San Antonio Pets Alive! carries the Pets Alive! logo and a donation message. The Students of Service video ends on a Support Our Work card with a QR code.

How many spots can one shoot give us?

A Signature Story includes 1 to 2 supporting videos, and a Story Campaign 3 to 4. Students of Service got five shorter videos from the same shoots as its about-us video, from about 30 seconds to just under three minutes. They added editing, not shoot days. Decide on social cuts and vertical versions before the shoot, so they come from the same footage.