Ridealist - Social Enterprise Video Productions

Ridealist Productions - was established as a non-profit society in 2009. 

Since then we have produced more than 30 videos for small, grassroots NPOs and community groups on a pro-bono, volunteer basis. 

We have decided to embark on this work full time - and from mid-June this year will be setting up our new base of operations at our home near Limoges in central France. 

However, we do plan to be very “mobile”! 

Our essential “business plan” is to produce videos as a social enterprise - at a social enterprise rate - to enable us to remain sustainable while pursuing our original ambition to provide media services on a volunteer/pro-bono basis to those groups and individuals who simply have no budget. 

For some of our latest work please visit our website, but for a more comprehensive gallery of  the videos we have produced over the past couple of years you can find us on our page at GoodnessTV. 

Warm regards,

Chris & Shirley Gelken

Sphere: Related Content

Ridealist - The "go to” crew for non-profit video

Ridealist Productions will be moving from Hong Kong to central France in May or June of this year.

After several years of producing awareness and fundraising videos for non-profits and grassroots community groups on an entirely pro-bono/volunteer basis, we have decided to establish ourselves as a freelance, social enterprise production house.

It is a necessary and inevitable move in order to preserve our own sustainability.

Accepting paid commissions - but at a social enterprise rate - is the only way to keep Ridealist going.

The funds raised will allow us to cover our expenses and give us the financial freedom to continue to produce campaign and awareness videos on a pro-bono/volunteer basis for non-profits or community groups that simply do not have a budget.

This was the reason we established Ridealist, and we have no intention of losing sight of our original goals.

While based in France, we will be very mobile and delighted to consider projects in any location around the globe.

Please share this information with your non-profit and NGO contacts and help us hit the ground running. Your support will help us keep our service free for the majority of our clients.

Warm regards,

Chris & Shirley 

http://www.ridealist.com - our main website
http://www.shirleyhanying.com/ - Shirley’s profile
http://www.goodnesstv.org/en/profil/Ridealist - host for 30 of our pro-bono videos
http://www.gelken.com - Chris’ Ridealist blog
http://childofuganda.com - Our project for children in Uganda

Sphere: Related Content

Hands of Action Children’s Art Auction

Who would like to help us arrange a “cheap and cheerful wine, and cheesy nibbles” art auction?

Six-hundred children from 4 schools and orphanages, dozens of volunteers in Hong Kong, the UK, Malaysia, and Holland helped to create the Hands of Action Children’s Art Project. 

On the website, each digital image sells for HK$8 - about US$1 or 70 euro cents.

So far we’ve raised enough to provide 960 meals for the children who painted the pictures. But we could do so much better, couldn’t we? After all, creativity needs feeding!

The images have been quality scanned and are printable on canvas up to 30 x 40 cm.

We can get this done locally in Hong Kong for about HK$100 per print.

So, with the help of a sponsor we reproduce 10 pictures. Find a location, prevail on a generous wine supplier, set up Skype links with the children, and have a fun couple of hours chatting with the kids, enjoying each other’s charming company, pretending not to notice how cheap the wine is, and bidding on the pictures.

If this sounds like a plan... please do get in touch!

If you are not in Hong Kong, and think this would be something you’d like to do in your community, we’d be equally delighted to help you arrange it.

Warm regards,
Chris & Shirley

Ridealist - the “go to” crew for non-profit video.

Sphere: Related Content

A Sustainable Ridealist

(updated March 3rd)
Where we are now, and where we hope to go.

We are currently working on a 7-part series investigating poverty in Hong Kong through the eyes of photographers who document the issue. Six have already been filmed and edited, and are now in the process of being subtitled in English and Chinese.

The entire series will be released in mid-March at a gala evening hosted by The WYNG Foundation.

An earlier series “Poverty In the Midst of Plenty” can be seen on several platforms, but is currently grouped together as the latest videos on the opening page of Engage Media.

In the meantime, we plan to release a “teaser” by March 5 or 6 for The Other Hundred - a global photography project organised by The Gift Foundation.

A longer-term project we’ve been engaged on is a 25-minute feature for The Boys and Girls Club of Hong Kong, documenting their year-long mentoring programme -- The Blues and Greens. We’ve been filming since late last year, and will continue putting the story together over the next several months. We expect to “have it in the can” and begin post-production in October or November.

As a part-time, voluntary production team, you would be forgiven for thinking we had our hands full.

You’d be right, of course. But you’d also be wrong.

We are committed to establishing Ridealist as the “go to” crew for non-profit, cause and awareness video production. On a full-time basis. This is what we love to do.

While we are remain totally committed to our promise to provide voluntary, pro-bono services to those grassroots organisations who simply do not have a budget for the kind of work we do, we have to be realistic. If Ridealist is going to be sustainable, it has to be funded in one way or another.

So if you are or know of a good cause out there, one that deserves the Ridealist treatment, if you can help sponsor the project, then we’d be delighted to hear from you.

What we can earn from being a freelance social enterprise working on non-profit related projects, we can re-invest back into the community through short videos on a pro-bono basis for so many deserving causes.

Chris and Shirley.

P.S.: Also please don’t forget our Children’s Art Project - ChildofUganda - Awesome images of rural Uganda through the eyes of a child. Six-hundred children, four schools and orphanages, and dozens of volunteers made this project possible. The purchase of one painting will provide 10 meals for these talented children. So far we’ve achieved 960 meals, but we can do so much better, can’t we? Really, can’t we? 


You can also visit us on GoodnessTV 
Our website The Ridealist
And follow us on twitter @chrisgelken

Sphere: Related Content