Executive Producer Gaye Leong unpacks Together Films’ approach to establishing and living their own brand values through a process that emphasises the importance of being human-centric, outlining a clear storytelling journey, involving the right people, and creating impactful endings. With this approach, Together Films is able to tell, and create, compelling stories. This ensures that their work – ranging from commercials to content to documentaries – resonates with audiences, addressing their needs and fostering a meaningful connection with the brand.

Together Films is a full-service production company, based in Joburg, happy to work anywhere. The production company represents directors Malo 8, Bevan Cullinan,  Alessandra Scherillo and Catherine Cooke.

How to choose an authentic brand value for your company? – by Gaye Leong

Brand values are funny things, you want them to really mean something, you want them to be part of your lived culture, you spend weeks thinking of the right words, and then so often they live on a poster in a corridor and everyone forgets why they are there. At Together films, we thought about what we most wanted to do with our work and the answer was fairly straightforward… we wanted to bring hope to our continent by showing how working together to tell our individual and collective stories, could improve lives and bring unity.

Ultimately hope was our end ambition, but how could we inspire our people to live it day by day?  We thought about it (a lot) and then built hope into a process that we could work to, at the same time creating a constant reminder of why we do what we do. Using HOPE we create content, commercials, stills-stories, corporate AVs, ads, video and documentaries, and this is how we do it.

H stands for HUMAN.

H stands for human, really the core of everything we do. We know that people support brands that are like them, that relate to the same things, so, before we do anything else, we begin by laying down the human-centric foundation of the story. Who is our audience? What do they care about? What problem or issue do they have, that we are answering?    

This keystone is laid whether we are starting with a script already written or are looking at briefing one of our writers to develop an idea. Often, the process brings us full circle to the reason that your business or product actually exists. Every brand began by offering a solution to a problem, and although sometimes we forget, this process helps us to put PEOPLE at the centre of our story.

O is our OUTLINE.

Storytelling is a journey. It needs a beginning, a middle and an end.  So, idea development starts with the story arc: Where did we begin? How did we progress? What was at stake? What were our resolutions? Only then do we start fleshing out our production: looking at our budget, casting our characters, developing our settings, finalising photography … art … wardrobe … locations … triple-checking and making sure that every detail is carefully considered.  

There are no surprises when you work with Together Films.

P is the PEOPLE involved in the project.

The reality is that all good stories are curated, and success rests with the skill of the people involved in the creation. From our team of local directors we look for the person who most resonates with the story.  We’re looking for someone who will pick up the right details.  Who has a gift of surfacing the good and the bad, while never leaving the optimism behind.  

Then we make sure that our director is supported by the very best people for the job – from our pre-production team through to production crews and post production specialists, every person we work with brings a unique gift and adds another layer to the final product. 

Meet some of our directors here. https://www.togetherfilms.co.za/

L – R: Together Films directors Malo 8, Bevan Cullinan, Catherine Cooke and Alessandra Scherillo.

E is the END.

They say the secret to a good ending is that people should understand everything they saw and heard. We like to take that further and see the end of a story as the beginning of something new. How does our end make people feel?  Does it leave them with sense of resolution and new thoughts to ponder?  Is it the beginning of a new path?  Has it built trust, created intimacy and left a sense of brand connection that can be developed moving into the future?

HOPE.

So there you have it.  We call our process HOPE as a reminder to our people of the real goal of every day. If you’d like to see how the process works for your brand, let’s get together.

You can contact me at gaye@togetherfilms.co.za Or call on 083 267 8008

To find out more of what we’re about, or to see some of our work please visit https://www.togetherfilms.co.za/