Queens Public Library Gala

 

We hired Really Useful Media to create five short films for our 2022 Annual Gala, and to film the live event as a standalone video. All five of the videos are compelling on their own, and when combined with the comprehensive gala video, they really tell the story of Queens Public Library and its impact in the community. The Really Useful Media team was highly professional, created excellent work, and they were a real pleasure to work with!

– Susan Latham, Executive Director, Queens Public Library Foundation

When the Queens Public Library Foundation began planning their return to an in-person gala in 2022, they approached us with a vision to honor four authors from Queens by producing short films for their gala that would highlight the library branches where the authors grew up. Throughout pre-production and production, we worked closely with the QPL team to develop a narrative strategy about the impact of the library and its programs, using the voices of customers and staff, who also expressed what it meant to them that these authors used their QPL branches. 

As part of this process, we collaborated on messaging goals to ensure each video would fit into the gala’s overall program, for example, advising on the use of open captions to meet their in-person audience engagement and accessibility needs. We produced one film to kick off the event and showcase the library’s impact across the borough, with the four additional videos celebrating the branches as introductions to the evening’s honorees: Jelani Cobb, Min Jin Lee, R.J. Palacio, and Gary Shteyngart. Across all five videos, we focused on highlighting both the legacy of QPL as well as how each library’s programming and collections meet the needs of the diverse communities they serve today. We also filmed the gala itself and edited a 45-minute online version to share the evening’s celebrations with the broader QPL community.