One Story for Novel Night
Gracyn,
Thank you for walking me through Horizon on Friday. What stayed with me is how much of your work happens past the students in your building, and how hard that is to show in one evening. These options are built around telling that story through one family, in a way your guests carry home.
How We'll Tell It
We'll choose one family together, with you and your Director of Development, and we'll care for them like our own through the whole process. They'll know what to expect before any filming, and nobody is filmed without consent. Your team sees the film as it takes shape and shares notes at every review, and on filming days we work quietly around the school day, so classrooms stay classrooms.
Three Ways to Tell It
The Premiere
Across three filming days this fall we sit with one family at home, hear from Horizon's leaders on where the school began, and follow the child through a day at school, from the struggle that brought them to your door to the student they are becoming. A crew and a photographer capture the small moments a parent remembers forever. Guests meet the family through a trailer in the weeks before Novel Night, so they walk in with their hearts already open to give, and your team receives every version it needs already made, so nobody has to cut one video into ten.
- The Novel Night film, 6 to 7 minutes. A child's journey from feeling lost in a classroom to knowing how their brain works, told by the family who lived it, so guests raise their paddles for the next child waiting for that same chance.
- Day one, the family at home. Their interview sets up the story, and we film them together as a family, so guests come to know this child before Horizon enters the picture.
- Day two, Horizon's story. Interviews with your Head of School and directors on how Horizon began and how far it reaches today, so donors see the history and the mission their gift joins.
- Day three, the child at school. The child and family at Horizon and the classroom moments where learning finally clicks, so the room feels how far a gift carries a child.
- A crew on both interview days and a photographer on the family and school days. Every moment that moves a room to give is captured with care: a parent's pause, a student showing what they can do now.
- A 90-second trailer. Your guests meet the family weeks before Novel Night and arrive already wanting to be part of how the story ends.
- An admissions and website cut, 2 to 3 minutes. Every donor who visits your website sees what a scholarship gift makes possible, and every family searching for help finds a place for their child.
- Six short social versions. The story keeps inviting supporters to give long after the gala lights go down, including those who were never in the room.
- 30 to 50 edited photographs. Real faces for invitations, appeal letters and your annual report, so every ask you make all year carries the same story.
- The Story Library, included. Your organized footage library, a build day teaching your team to cut new clips with DaVinci and AI, and three monthly check-ins, so the film keeps inviting gifts all year.
The Story Film
Every family at Horizon remembers the day their child finally felt understood. We spend one day with that family, with a sound engineer alongside our operator so every word the parents and student share is heard clearly, and one full day inside Horizon, from the classroom to the learning center to the teachers you train. The guest who has supported you for ten years and the friend filling a seat both leave knowing what Horizon gives a child and how far that reaches, so the paddle raise starts in a room that already knows why its gift matters.
- The Novel Night film, 5 to 7 minutes. One family's story of a child who finally feels understood, so every guest sees what their gift makes possible before the first paddle goes up.
- An interview day with an operator and a sound engineer. Parents and student share their story in their own words, clearly heard, the kind of honesty that moves a room to give.
- A full day inside Horizon with a single operator. The classroom, the learning center and the teachers you train, so donors see their gift reaching far past one building.
- Three short social versions. The family's story invites supporters to give before and after the gala, including those who could not be at Novel Night.
The Focused Film
One day with one family: their story in the morning and their student's school day in the afternoon, captured by a single operator and shaped into a three to four minute film. It is honest, it is simple, and it is finished weeks before Novel Night, so your development director walks into gala week with the film that opens the paddle raise already done.
- The Novel Night film, 3 to 4 minutes. One family and one honest story, enough to carry your guests into the paddle raise ready to give.
- One filming day with a single operator. A light footprint on the family and the school day, with the film finished and off your list weeks before the gala.
The Story Library
Most gala films play once and get set aside the next week. We hand Horizon the whole library instead: every family interview and classroom moment we capture, organized so your team can find it. In one build day we teach your team to pull new clips from it with DaVinci and AI, cutting social posts, appeal videos and admissions pieces in Horizon's voice, and adding a new testimony or a fresh voiceover whenever the moment calls for it. Then we meet once a month for three months, through Novel Night and the spring after, until your team runs it on its own. The film keeps inviting supporters to give all year, and nobody on your team has to rebuild one video into everything else by hand again.
- Your organized footage library. Every interview and moment we film, yours to keep and draw from for years of appeals.
- A build day with your team. Hands-on training in DaVinci and AI, set up to write and cut in Horizon's voice, so a new donor clip takes an afternoon.
- Three monthly check-ins. February to launch before the gala, March to read what Novel Night and online giving brought in, April to plan year-end giving and admissions.
Every Option Includes
- A Discovery Map Session, a $300 value, included with every film. We sit down with you and your Director of Development to choose the family and the angle together.
- Reviews along the way. You see the first cut in early January, share your notes, and we refine it together with two rounds of revisions on every video.
- Licensed music, color and a final sound mix
- Delivery in 4K and 1080p
- Travel at cost. From Southwest Missouri, estimated for you up front.
Timeline
Next Step
Pick the option that fits and we'll book the planning session. If it helps to talk it through, I'm happy to walk your Director of Development through the options in 20 minutes.
Jian SalcedoFounder and Creative Director, Sojourn Creative
Trusted by MAF, NightLight International, Project Hope, and Pioneer Missions Global.
See What One Story Can Do
The Missionary is a five-minute film we made with Pioneer Missions Global and Fellowship Bible Church about one person and the work they carry. It is a different mission, told the same way we would tell one Horizon family's story: one life, followed closely, until the room understands why it matters and wants to be part of it.
Best Documentary, Religion Faith International Film Festival 2026 · Best Religious Values Film, Shepherd's House International Film Festival 2025