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A Farm Rescue farmer in the field

A Proposal for Farm Rescue

The stories are already there.

Cabin 6 Films × Farm Rescue

The Stories

You have over a hundred cases a year. A young farmer going through chemo who wants to break the stigma of asking for help. A family at the kitchen table with volunteers they just met, sharing a meal like they've known each other for years. A wife feeding people out of the back of a truck while her husband heals.

You've been trying to tell these stories with what you had. John Deere footage. Staff cameras. Risky videographers. Good intentions and not enough time.

This year you put a budget behind it for the first time. That means something. It means you're ready to play at a different level.

We want to be the team you call.

What We Do
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A film that stopped an auditorium cold.

Cabin 6 Films makes documentary-style films for ag organizations that have something real to say. We're based in South Dakota. We work across the Midwest. And we understand agriculture — not from the outside, but from living it, working in and alongside it, and spending years making films with the people who built their lives on it.

We recently completed a full documentary for Valley FiberCom — a film that stopped an auditorium cold at their annual meeting. Board members called it the best thing the organization had ever produced. Two referrals came in within days.

That's what a film can do when it's made right.

A combine working a golden field at harvest

Why Farm Rescue's stories are different — and why that matters

Here's something worth saying plainly: the most powerful Farm Rescue film isn't made during the crisis.

It's made after.

When the crop is in. When the farmer has had time to exhale. When he can sit at the kitchen table and talk about what it felt like to have strangers show up with combines — and what it means that his family still has the farm.

That's when the story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. That's when his wife can describe what the week was like. That's when the legacy of that land — generations of it — comes through in a way it never could while everyone was in survival mode.

We've seen what happens when nonprofits try to capture stories on the fly, in the middle of the action. The footage exists. The emotion doesn't. The interviews are rushed. The subject is distracted. You can get footage of a combine, but you don't get the full story.

Post-crisis filming also means less pressure on your operations team. No cameras competing with work that needs to get done. No scheduling a shoot around weather and equipment breakdowns. You choose the right story, you reach out when the dust has settled, and you make something that lasts.

Your existing library of b-roll, drone footage, and volunteer clips handles the action. We handle the story. When you're putting this much effort into doing it right, it's wise not to rush into it.

Imagine

Imagine this.

A farmer at his kitchen table

A fourth-generation farmer sits at the kitchen table. His grandfather built the original farmstead. His father added the grain bins you can still see out the window. He took it over ten years ago.

Last fall, right before harvest, he got the diagnosis.

His wife was pregnant. His father was gone. And the crop was standing in the field.

Farm Rescue came. The crop got in. And now — six months later — he's sitting across from a camera, holding his newborn, talking about what it means that the farm is still there. That his kid will grow up on the same land his great-grandfather broke.

That's the film donors watch and reach for their Kleenex and checkbook. That's the film that gets shared. That's the film that makes someone who's never heard of Farm Rescue feel like they've known you for years.

That's what we make.

Three Ways to Work Together

Where you start is up to you.

Option 01 · Primary $25,000

Two Films. One Year. Full Production.

One planting case. One harvest case. Each one gets the full treatment — directed interviews with the farmer, the spouse, the family. B-roll of the land, the details that make each farm distinct. Farm and family photos, your existing drone footage, volunteer footage, and your ag library fill in the action sequences and the background.

Each film runs three to ten minutes and is built to work everywhere: your annual donor event, your quarterly communications, your next conversation with a major sponsor. Something a board member watches and says this is what we do.

And since you've been thinking about how to tell more stories — we have a solution for that too. We'll provide tips and training so your volunteers and staff can capture boots-on-the-ground footage during any case, with simple gear they already carry in their pockets. The process gets simple enough that an intern can take those clips and build a story — making every single case into a strong piece of social content.

Because that footage is captured from the beginning, you'll always have the raw material to go back and tell any story the right way with full production when the time is right. We'll produce custom branded intro and outro bumpers to tie it all together — giving every social clip a consistent, recognizable Farm Rescue look and feel, built on a template your team can run without us.

Two great films anchor the year. A system makes every other case count too.

Option 02 · Primary from $27,500

The Full Partnership

Everything in the two-film package, plus a strategic foundation for what comes next.

FY2024 was a down year. Revenue dropped. Donor numbers dropped. Your annual report names it directly — you're ready to work on a stronger revenue-to-expenses ratio. A new executive director is coming in. This is the moment to build something, not just document something.

The two case films get made. The branded bumpers and training system are included. And when you're ready to talk about the next step — there's a campaign film worth making.

It's called the Farmer at Heart. The people who grew up on farms, left for careers elsewhere, and still feel it every time they drive past a field in October. They're everywhere. They have resources. And they've never been given a reason to connect what they feel to what Farm Rescue does.

That film takes more time to scope properly. So this tier includes the Cabin Fever Workshop — a focused strategy session where we work through who that audience is, what the film needs to say, and what it will take to make it. The $2,500 workshop fee is credited in full toward production. You walk away with a clear brief your new executive director can evaluate — ready to greenlight this fiscal year, or ready to move in the next budget cycle if the timing isn't right yet.

Campaign film estimated at $8,000–$16,000 depending on scope.

Option 03 · Also available $25,000

Four Stories, Interview Focus

Four cases across the year, each built around a directed sit-down interview. Half-day shoots. No b-roll — visual depth comes from still photography, family photos, and your existing footage library.

Two to five minutes per film. More geographic spread, broader coverage of case types across the season. A good fit when the story lives entirely in the conversation — which for illness and injury cases, it very often does.

You're building something. A new executive director is coming in. A video budget exists for the first time. The fall harvest cases are already on their way. It sounds like you're ready to move to the next level.

The simplest thing is a conversation.

Before any of this gets decided without us in the room.

Start a conversation

Or call or text Kevin directly — any time.

Kevin Carlson

Cabin 6 Films

cabin6films.com
Cabin 6 Films cabin6films.com/farmrescue

Travel billed separately at cost on all options.

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