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; 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.
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
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.
Polished, expensive and slow. It's why most charities film one event a year and stretch that footage until it snaps.
Your programme staff are brilliant at their jobs. Filming an interview that survives an edit is a different job.
A videographer who knows the city and the language, directed remotely by our producer, edited by the team that cuts for 20+ international nonprofits.
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.
