Meet a Chamber member: Julia Alcamo

I’m Julia, Co-founder of Happenstance Films. We’re a production company based in Brighton, making films for brands, non-profit organisations and the charity sector, but what makes us different is we take a documentary approach to all of our work. We love the format because it taps so well into what audiences want these days, which is really meaningful content - and we love bringing that into the branded world.

What does Happenstance mean?

It’s a lucky coincidence, a happy coincidence. It’s the moment when you run into something and it falls into place. But that doesn’t happen in a predictable way. Because we’re documentary filmmakers we’re reliant on making the most out of our environment, but in the end, we can’t predict what happens - so we’re always there to capture those happenstance moments.

How important is branded documentary for businesses, and how does it differ from other filming formats?

The way that we approach stories is different. Rather than responding to a brief, what we love to do is go out and search for stories first. Then we collaborate with brands or non-profits and bring the story that we found, together with their branding and messaging.

It’s a bit of a risk in the way that we ask the brand to trust us in the process of making that film - a documentary isn’t scripted. We put everything we can in place to make sure everyone’s happy with where the film is going, but we work with real life, capturing unfolding moments as they happen.

How do you find stories?

We actively immerse ourselves in places where we might encounter stories. We talk about a sort of Venn diagram that we like to work with – the brand and being on message, the audience and being relevant to them, and then the film being culturally relevant. In the big picture, does this make sense to do right now? Those three really need to overlap and that’s where your best story lies.

You joined the Chamber about eight months ago, what’s your advice to new members getting started with their membership?

For us one of the most powerful tools has been to not just see it as a place to find customers, but as a place where we can find collaborators, and people who can otherwise inspire us. It’s a wonderful way to meet a bunch of different people who do a bunch of different things, but who are ultimately equally invested in helping each other out and finding the right path for everyone.

The training in terms of being a new business is really valuable – you can commit a to a morning event, where you get a few hours to workshop, learn and chat through questions. Those sessions have been really valuable to us from a business point of view.

And be there at the events! Pick the things that are most interesting to you, and it will make the networking easy. Moshimo was a wonderful breakfast, it felt like a chinwag almost – so easy to connect with people and so interesting to be somewhere new.

You mentioned that the Chamber is a place to collaborate, and we know you’ve been working with a few Chamber members recently. Can you tell us a bit more about those projects?

They gave us full access to film with them for a couple of days, spending some time in the distillery, capturing a wonderful interview with their founder, Kathy Caton. We got out on their e-bike, met drag queen Ruffles, and got amongst the lindy-hoppers of Brighton. Our 3-minute film was a winner in the global competition, so that’s been really exciting. The film will be featured on the Mastercard priceless website and distributed on their channels, so we’re happy to have Brighton Gin out there far and wide - and hopefully make the distillery bigger so people can buy more gin!

Another project I’m working on is an open call through the arts marketing association. We needed a partner as this was a film and social media package. We don’t do social, but we were suited to the film side of things, and I’d just received Kerry’s contact from Social for Good from Amy at the Chamber - I jumped on the phone and said do you want to do this together? We hit it off immediately, the pitch was successful and we’re now working on the project. It’s been lovely collaborating with Kerry, we work in similar ways but work on such different things, and I think it’s lovely that Chamber is a place for that – I’ve met a lot of like-minded individuals.

And lastly, could you tell us a fun or interesting fact about yourself?

I picked up ballet again two years ago as an adult after having stopped dancing for 15 years, and I’m absolutely loving it! Brighton is a wonderful place to be doing ballet again as an adult. I’m starting back on to point now which is exciting - and which someone should probably not do at 28! 

Julia Alcamo is Co-founder of Happenstance Films. Find out more about Happenstance on their website. 

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