((L-R) Kevin Watkins, Tim Cash, Maria Hunt, Jen Rule, Henry Kim, Buster Tronolone, Michelle Alvarado | Photo by Rob Kerr)
Tucked in the heart of downtown Bend, Wahoo Films, a full-service video production company, creating original and impactful content for commercials, documentaries and digital advertising for local and national businesses, is one of Central Oregon’s greatest success stories.
Owner and Operator, Michelle Alvarado started the production company out of her home while managing every part of the business from pre- to post-production. Today, she has full-time staff and works with numerous local freelancers on various projects.
This winter, Alvarado was selected for the Women in Film, $5,000 Filmmakers Grant, made possible by the Roundhouse Foundation, BendFilm Festival and BendFilm supporters. The film is currently in production and will be screened at this year’s festival in October.
The Digital Universe
After traveling around the world, Alvarado settled in Bend in 2001. She began teaching Media Arts at Bend High School shortly thereafter. While she enjoyed educating young students, she missed making short documentaries and commercials as she did prior to teaching. With inspiration from the emergence of online video on platforms like YouTube, Alvarado saw the opportunity to help businesses deliver a visually appealing and meaningful story to a targeted audience.
“There is plenty of research proving that a business or nonprofit will be significantly more successful if they strategically add videos to their marketing. We’ve certainly seen the proof,” says Alvarado.
Wahoo Films has worked with many ‘forward-thinking’ businesses and nonprofits both locally and throughout the U.S. on short films that have a focus on impact or outcome, such as to increase clientele, sales or financial support. The ‘story’ is typically shot in ‘documercial’ style which has a very specific delivery method to its viewers.
“We prefer this style as it is more authentic and relatable because we are using real people with guided direction. Depending on the topic and audience, our films are viewed in numerous locations-from live events, film festivals and fundraising galas to trade shows, television, social media platforms and email blasts,” says Alvarado.
Besides short films, Wahoo Films has expanded their services to provide digital marketing solutions with complete script-to-delivery service. With social media platforms and search techniques continuously improving and evolving, businesses and nonprofits are continually eager to keep up with the times.
“Producing a video and putting it on your website is a powerful SEO tool; however, there is so much more that can be done with that video tool. Thankfully, the digital marketing platforms have become very good at targeting an audience, which makes them affordable and effective for targeted marketing,” says Alvarado.
This year, Wahoo Films is advancing their technology and services to bring quality videos together with digital marketing to lead the way in video marketing campaigns with a clear ROI (return on investment). Further, technology has advanced to a place where it’s becoming increasingly feasible for businesses to integrate and intermix video content into digital marketing collaterals and assets to be utilized in multiple, creative ways.
Keeping It Local
Along with extensive work for local and national companies, nonprofit organizations’ video projects make up about half of Wahoo’s portfolio. “It is very rewarding to work with nonprofits and help them exceed their fundraising goals, increase memberships, or influence legislation and policy makers through a powerful video,” says Alvarado. Some of Wahoo’s local nonprofit clientele include EDCO, ECWIB, Deschutes River Conservancy, The Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs, Crooked River Watershed Council, Bend Area Habitat for Humanity, United Way, Central Oregon Trail Alliance, Destination Rehab and Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Deschutes River Conservancy hired Wahoo Films to produce a fundraising video that needed to highlight the collaboration of a multi-benefit solution that worked for all the key stakeholders of the Deschutes watershed. The film, Change the Story was produced in a very short time and was completed by capturing interviews and using both stock and new footage of the Deschutes River.
The video showcased at the DRC 2017 Gala and helped to fundraise 150 percent of their expected goal. Wahoo Films then re-edited the longer video into smaller 30-60 second segments to be distributed on social media. Still photo images were also used along with interview quotes from the video for their newsletter and social media campaigns. Both have garnered thousands of views since.
