Happy Productions produces documentary-style video for charities, NGOs and foundations across Europe and the UK. This year we've filmed in Cornwall, Paris and North Macedonia, each time with a vetted local videographer on the ground and our producer on the brief, and our post-production team works between Connecticut and Kosovo, so your edits happen while you're awake. No agency day rates. No crew flown across the Channel for a two-hour event.
Book a 20-min consult20 minutes. No pitch deck. You leave with a plan for your programs in Europe and the UK, whether or not we work together.
European charities and international NGOs run programs across a dozen countries and languages, and most of it never gets filmed properly. Sound familiar?
The fundraising run, the members' day, the conference. Someone filmed it on a phone. It's untouched, and the annual report needs a video by the end of the quarter.
A three-person crew, a producer day, a 'creative development' line, VAT. For one two-minute film. So you film less, and the story gets told less.
Brussels, Warsaw, Skopje, Lisbon. Every national office has a story; none of them has a videographer, and you can't be everywhere.
A sad piano, slow-motion hands, subtitles in the wrong tone. Your supporters can feel when a film wasn't made by anyone who was actually in the room.
A vetted local videographer in Paris, briefed by our producer the week before and edited by our team in Europe, costs a fraction of what an agency charges to travel to the same event, and the film is usually better, because the person holding the camera knew the street.
Three steps. Your national team gets one WhatsApp group, one shot list in their language and one production day, not a film crew to host.
A 45-minute call with your programme and comms leads. Our producer writes the shot list, the interview questions and the consent approach, in the local language where it matters, then books a videographer we've vetted in-country: portfolio, reel, a live video call.
One production day where the work happens: interviews, observational footage, the moments in between. Our producer is on WhatsApp with the crew from call time to wrap, and the footage lands in a shared folder you own within days.
Our editors in Europe cut a hero film plus vertical short-form for Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube, subtitled in the languages you need. When the story fits, we feature it to the Are You Happy? audience of 200 million viewers a year.
This year we've filmed Lions clubs in Saltash and Truro, Cornwall, in a single day; the Helen Keller Run in Paris with a local videographer and photographer; a birdhouse build in Skopje's City Park with a Skopje studio; and a peacebuilding story in Kërçova, North Macedonia. Our post-production team is based in Kosovo, so the Balkans are home turf. If your programmes run anywhere below, we can staff a shoot there.
European countries we've filmed in this year — the UK, France and North Macedonia — plus a production and post team of around thirty people working between Connecticut and Kosovo, which is why your edits land during your working day.
Headquartered in London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam, Pristina or Skopje? We work with organizations based in Europe and the UK the same way: a local crew we've vetted, our producer on the brief, our editors on the cut, and distribution through the Are You Happy? audience when the story fits. Time zones are our normal.
Every image on this page is from a shoot we produced — stills from our photographers and frames pulled from the footage itself. No stock, no library, no other agency's work.
A club revived in 2025 with 27 members, eight of them under 30 — which was the whole reason the story was worth filming. One day in the club store and the yard: two lights, one camera, a shot list written by our producer the week before. Ten finished pieces in the approved vertical split-screen format.
A 3,000-runner charity race across two half-days, with a Paris videographer and photographer. The schedule was rebuilt around the Champions League final that Saturday evening — because a local crew knew the park would empty at five o'clock, and an imported one would not have. Fifteen interviews, b-roll and edited photography.
A two-hour build day, fifteen birdhouses, about thirty volunteers, then the social. Interviews ran in Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish and English — whichever language each person preferred. Guardian-signed releases for minors, taken digitally on the day, and no alcohol in frame despite the open bar afterwards. Eight finished videos.
Not stock. Not a single trip stretched across a year. Local productions, shot by people who live there, cut by us.
Reach figures are organic, reported by clients or measured on the Are You Happy? channels. Detailed metrics are shared on the call.
“We're living in a world where video is king. And we can't just up and travel to get the content that we need. So Happy Productions was an answered prayer that fell in our lap.”
Kalindi Cordero, Search for Common Ground
Local crews, our producers, and a post team in the Balkans, so edits land inside your working day rather than the following morning.
Saltash Tamar and Truro Lions clubs, filmed in a single day in the club store and the yard: a club revived in 2025 with 27 members, eight of them under 30, which was the whole reason the story was worth filming. Ten finished pieces in the approved vertical split-screen format, interview on top, b-roll beneath, delivered as one batch.
The Helen Keller Foundation charity run in the 9th arrondissement, two half-days at the end of May 2026, with a Paris videographer and photographer. About three thousand runners across the 10k, 5k and kids' races. The schedule was rebuilt around the Champions League final that Saturday evening — because a local crew knew the park would empty at five o'clock, and an imported one would not have. Fifteen interviews, b-roll and edited photography.
Skopje City Park in June 2026 with a Skopje studio: a two-hour build day, fifteen birdhouses, roughly thirty volunteers, and interviews in Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish and English depending on what each person preferred. Guardian-signed releases for minors, taken digitally on a phone on the day, and no alcohol in frame despite the open bar afterwards. Eight finished videos. Separately, a peacebuilding case study filmed in Kërçova in March 2026 for Search for Common Ground, delivered vertical and 16:9 with French audio and English-subtitled versions.
Around thirty people work across production and post between Connecticut and Kosovo. For a UK or EU charity that means review calls in your afternoon and revisions by your next morning, rather than the transatlantic day of silence that makes agencies feel slow.
Our crew network reaches Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Greece, Albania, Kosovo and the Nordics. Filming in Germany taught us two practical things worth passing on: drone permission is rarely quick, and street-interview formats work badly because people decline on camera — so we plan around both.
One production day becomes a library: the hero film for the gala, the 45-second cut for the appeal email, a dozen verticals for the feed, a LinkedIn edit for corporate partners, and the two-minute piece your programme officer sends to the funder.
There is no per-video menu on this page on purpose. Every program, country and season is different, so we scope on the call and send a written plan the same day.
One call with our producer. Bring the two or three stories you know you're sitting on and the dates already on your calendar. You'll leave with a written plan for filming in Europe and the UK: which stories, which crew, what it takes, and what it costs. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you on the call.
Locally, almost always. We source and vet a solo videographer or small crew in the city where your event or programme runs, brief them with a written shot list and a live call, and our producer directs remotely on the day. For Paris, Skopje and Cornwall that meant local videographers and photographers who knew the venues.
Our post-production team works between Connecticut and Kosovo, so edits move during your working day and review calls land in your afternoon. Shoot-day coverage happens live from wherever our producer is.
Interviews run in the language the subject is most comfortable in: French, German, Spanish, Albanian, Macedonian, English. Every cut ships subtitled, and we deliver separate language versions from the same shoot when your national offices need them.
Release forms in the subject's language, signed on a phone via QR before the interview, stored with the footage you own. No minors' names or identifying details, ever. Subjects review anything sensitive before it goes live, and your safeguarding and data policies override our defaults.
Most shoots book within two to three weeks of the brief. Footage lands in your shared folder within a few days, first cuts follow in about two weeks, and revisions run through a review link. Events can be planned months out.
You do: raw footage and finished films. We keep the right to show the work in our portfolio, with your approval.
Yes. Tell us what your finance team needs and we'll set it up before the first shoot.
Absolutely. Send us a link and we'll cut it. If a drive full of unused event footage is your main problem, start with our free first edit at happyproductions.me/footage.
Book a 20-minute consult. We'll map the two or three stories you're sitting on across your programmes, tell you exactly what a shoot there takes, and give you a plan you can use whether or not you hire us.
20 minutes · No pitch deck · A written plan either way
P.S. The fundraising event on next quarter's calendar is a production day if someone briefs a local videographer now. Let's make it one.
