International Women's Day Video Ideas for Schools and Workplaces
The best International Women's Day videos are made with the women in them, not about them. A montage of stock photos and an inspirational quote gets a few likes on 8 March and is forgotten by the 9th. A short film in which the women and girls of your own school or company say something they actually think gets shared, gets kept, and says more about the place than any statement could.
When we made an International Women's Day film for Culford School, it was written by the young women who appear in it. Their words and their ideas, and our job was to film it in a way that did them justice. That's the principle behind every idea below.
Ideas for schools
Let the students write it. Give a group of students the brief, a few weeks and some support, and film what they come up with. A piece written by sixteen-year-olds will be more surprising and more honest than anything a marketing department would write for them.
Alumnae in conversation with current students. Pair a former pupil with someone in the sixth form and film them talking about what's changed and what hasn't. It works for open days and the alumni newsletter long after March.
The women who run the school. The head of science, the groundskeeper, the bursar and the head girl, each in a short piece on what they do and how they got there. Students see the range of jobs women hold in a place they know.
A question to every year group. Ask the same question of pupils from reception to upper sixth and cut the answers together. It's simple to film in a day and the youngest answers are always the best.
Ideas for workplaces
Career stories, unscripted. Three or four women from different levels of the business, each talking for a few minutes about a turning point in their working life. Cut into one film and a set of shorter clips for LinkedIn.
Mentors and the people they mentored. Film both sides of a mentoring relationship. It shows something real your organisation does rather than something it believes in.
Day in the life. Follow one person for a day, with a few words from her about the work. It suits recruitment as much as International Women's Day, and it'll still be useful in July.
Answer the question people actually ask. If your sector has a known gap, let the women in it talk honestly about what helped and what didn't. A careful, true film carries more weight than a statement of values.
What to avoid
Don't script it for people. The moment a film sounds like an approved message, viewers stop believing it. Don't make it about the organisation either, because a company congratulating itself on International Women's Day is the fastest way to lose the audience. And don't leave it to the last week of February, because the people you want in the film have diaries too.
Planning it in time for 8 March
Start in January. A student-written piece needs time for the writing, and a workplace film needs time to find the right people and give them a chance to say yes properly. Filming is usually a single day, the edit takes a week or two, and you'll want the finished film a few days before 8 March so it can go out on the morning of the day itself.
Plan the cut-downs at the same time: a main film of two or three minutes, short vertical clips for Instagram and LinkedIn, and a version with subtitles burnt in for anyone watching with the sound off. The education page covers how we work with young people on camera, and interview filming explains how we get people who aren't performers to sound like themselves.
FAQ
What can a school do for International Women's Day?
A short film written or led by the students themselves is one of the most effective things a school can make. Alumnae talking with current pupils, or the women who work at the school talking about their jobs, also work well and stay useful after March.
How long should an International Women's Day video be?
Two to three minutes for the main film, with short clips of fifteen to sixty seconds for social media.
When should you start planning an International Women's Day video?
In January. Filming usually takes a day, but finding the right people, writing and editing need several weeks before 8 March.
Bring us the problem. We'll make the film.
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