The Innovation Trail: Documentary Series

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism (MOTT) enlisted BrandGenes to produce a documentary series following Boston’s Innovation Trail, telling stories of all the industry-defining ideas originating in MA throughout its rich history.

The theme was tracing time back to 1776, revealing how the American Revolution built the foundation for the revolutionary spirit that has sparked countless innovations since.

From breakthroughs in sports to beer to space travel to human rights to surgery to robotics, AI, and a whole lot more — sit back and let us take you through time and history as we uncover why Massachusetts is America’s most innovative state.

Production

Tasked with writing, shooting, and editing over 50 hours of documentary content across over 50 locations around Massachusetts with several interview subjects, we had our work cut out for us.

To add to the challenge, we were brought on halfway through the project after another agency backed out and there was a hard deadline, so we had to fit a month of production into a week and turnaround deliverables within 2 weeks. 

With a tight budget, expedited timeline, and limited access to our host — The Museum of Science’s, Lauren Kashan — we had no margin for error. We had to be hyper efficient with our movement, fluid with our camera/tech stack, and precise with our production schedule. 

In just 7 days, we captured all of Massachusetts’s most iconic locations:

The Museum of Science, The Museum of Fine Art, Mass Historical Society, Draper, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, MIT, Cambridge City Hall, Mass State House, Faneuil Hall, Boston Market, Mass General Museum, Broad Discovery Center, Boston Library, Converse HQ, TD Garden, Fenway Park, Old North Church, The Commonwealth Museum, BioGen, and many more.

We also interviewed some of Boston’s most influential titans of industry including:

• BioGen Founder and Nobel Prize Winner, Walter Gilbert.
• Android Founder, Rich Miner.
• Sam Adams & Boston Beer Founder, Jim Cook.
• Coffee Connection Founder, George Howell. 
• Author and Parker House Chief Historian, Susan Wilson.

Since we were filming dozens of locations throughout Boston each day, we had to be strategic with our equipment. While another project might call for a larger camera and lighting set up, we needed to be able to quickly move through the city, set up shots in seconds, and film in crowded, noisy areas. 

To stay light on our feet and allow room for improvisation while retaining premium production quality, we selected a small Canon camera package with zoom lenses for video recording and a cutting-edge 32-bit float audio recording kit. The set up allowed us to isolate and remove the highs and lows of the cityscape in post-production so we could record in loud uncontrolled areas — city blocks, coffee shops, shopping centers, sports arenas — and still get top of the line audio quality.

Result

An immersive 5 Episode YouTube documentary series that captures the revolutionary spirit of Massachusetts, complete with a Trailer, set of Instagram Highlight Reels, and advertising assets to cross-promote the series.

• Overview: Introduction (1 min)
• Episode 1: Sports (6 min)
• Episode 2: Healthcare (7 min)
• Episode 3: Technology (8 min)
• Episode 4: Social Change (6 min)
• Episode 5: Food & Beverage (18 min)
• Trailer: The Revolutions Continue (1 min)
• Revolutionaries: Walter Gilbert (3 min)
• Revolutionaries: Rich Miner (3 min)
• Revolutionaries: Parker House (3 min)
• Revolutionaries: Jim Koch (3 min)
• Revolutionaries: George Howell (3 min)

The series was a huge hit, resulting in a 2800% increase in The Innovation Trail’s organic reach and 4400% increase in their engagement, which led to a 33% increase in their subscribers in a month and continues to drive massive ROI for their channel as an evergreen brand storytelling series designed to age like fine wine.