Services

CREATIVE MULTIMEDIA AND STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES

As a collaborative, we bring together the talents, skills, resources and energy of multimedia creatives, researchers, writers, artists and communicators. We offer a wide range of services that complement each other in a powerful multimedia storytelling package. In bringing these media skills together, we create effective communication for change.

Video, Film and Television Production

We specialise in the creation of short and long form videos, documentaries and tv series, from concept and story development, to filming, post-production and distribution. Our members’ skills include development, writing, producing, directing, camera, audio, editing, and project management. 

Drawing from the strength of our networks, Mycelium teams bring the experience of working in varied settings and scales of projects, from online to mainstream broadcast. We also act as the communications arm for organisations and projects that are wanting to record and share stories on relevant digital platforms. In addition, we can support and capacitate them in producing their own content. 

We focus on understanding who the viewers are and how to best engage with them. Our aim is to empower audiences in order to shift mindsets and inspire real world action. We do this using creativity and socio-emotional connection. We are innovative, in terms of what we create, and also in how we work together within the collective, with collaborators and with clients. 

Mycelium members produce video content for broadcast – such as SABC2’s environmental show 5050; for clients, such as WWF South Africa, TMG Thinktank, the International Ocean Institute of South Africa, Project Biome; and for e-learning platforms such as Activate Academy and Earthed Masterclasses. We have contributed towards series such as The Food Series (The Human Rights Media Trust) which features our episode Farm to Fork; and also develop our own concepts for one-offs and series on multiple platforms, including broadcast. We currently have NFVF development funding to produce a pilot for our docu-reality format Wild Pantry, in collaboration with Local Wild.

Photography

Mycelium Media Colab offers a full range of photographic services, from documenting events, demonstrations, and workshops, to facilitating training to empower people and organisations so they can use their own images as a powerful tool for activation. We are equipped to work on small-budget content creation projects to high-end print campaigns. We are passionate storytellers who use the lens to capture and question climate-related and social-environmental stories. 

In a world overloaded with imagery, where a photograph acts as a truth-teller and the global climate crisis relies on its evocative powers to convey messages in the hope of action, it is important to pause and ask who is taking this photograph and what are their intentions. Photographs are single images shut off from context and history. If we do not challenge the images we see or create, we fall into a trap of one-dimensionality. Photography can draw out truths, mobilise causes, aid in understanding and help to unify, but only if they are taken and used with sensitivity and with an understanding of the power they hold.

At Mycelium, we collaborate. We ask questions and constantly seek to represent truths. We do not believe in We don’t believe in telling just one side of the story to manipulate the narrative. This means that the photography we offer, and the photographers who work under our banner, challenge themselves and their clients to ask the hard questions and to acknowledge the power the camera holds. We offer storytelling via still images, documentary photography, photojournalism, behind-the-scenes photographs for media projects and events photography. We do it differently though. We have a sensitivity to how the images will be used and we aim to promote using the lens as a tool for integration, not to shutter off one reality from another. We advocate for mixed mediums where possible, to allow for cross-referencing and deeper meaning. What this means is simply to allow other voices and tools to bring in context and multi-dimensionality, to use sound over images, to allow text and photography to blend, and to use video and stills together. 

We collaborate and we delve deeper in every shoot we do.

Television Presenting

Hosting a show or narrating a video requires a certain type of talent or presenter who is able to deliver on the client’s expectations. Bringing together the many elements that encompass a television or online programme is pertinent to the show itself, as is being able to think on one’s feet. Mycelium offers experienced on-camera presenting which spans across a variety of platforms that includes regional, national and international broadcast channels. The styles include the main anchor of the show, co-hosting with another presenter, interviewing guests, news-style formats and everything in between. 

We are able to customise our offering according to our client’s needs. With new technologies, we are breaking barriers through our online presence and by offering our clients presenting styles that will also suit this platform. In addition to this, we are also able to facilitate, coordinate and produce voice-overs for any programme. Our experienced in-house team effectively navigate the world of media and create the best on-screen presence to captivate viewers.

Graphic and Web Design

Mycelium offers a full design service, covering everything from print to online. We don’t just make things look pretty, we focus on bringing the message home. We unpack the brief to find the key points that need to be conveyed, we then bring in our content specialisation and understanding of the regeneration and change-making sectors, to create a design that is high in impact and shares a clear message, with an appropriate call to action.

We take projects from brief to finalisation, be it online implementation or print management. We focus on high-quality outputs that play a key role in communication for transformation. 

Be it for education, information sharing and communication, activation or making academic writings accessible to the public, our copywriting and research services can work hand in hand with our designers for clear, accessible and engaging communication.

Some of the design services we offer are: 

  • Branding (including logos, stationery & identity guidelines)
  • Editorial design (including annual reports, magazines, books etc)
  • Signage and large-format/exhibition artwork
  • Websites
  • Illustration
  • Infographics

See some of our recent projects under the ‘Design’ tab in our portfolio.

Social Media Campaigns

We love creating community and conversations through our newsletters and social media content for Mycelium and other clients. Whether it’s daily content, monthly or quarterly frequency we can find a passionate team member from our collective to assist with words, images, and designs while ensuring that this is integrated within your wider brand or campaign. 

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn … the world of social media, reaches different target audiences through an informal direct engagement approach. We cover all social media platforms and engage with video, images and impact messaging to create dialogues, share information and tell stories. We use these platforms to connect, communicate, educate, entertain, inspire, motivate and drive change.

Event Media Coverage

The coverage of events such as openings, concerts, activities, workshops and demonstrations is another speciality of Mycelium. As a co-operative, Mycelium has a network of people that are involved in every aspect of event recording from pre-production to filming, recording audio with high-end sound desks, interviewing, photography and editing. 

Recently we filmed a science meets art presentation at the AVA Gallery, as well as a “Climate Lounge” music meets climate change event. We also cover events such as conference workshops, forums and presentations. Many of these involve education and awareness-raising as well as the potential for fundraising. 

Our coverage can then be distributed as raw footage as a record, edited into social media videos, short documentaries, blog articles and still images as well as other types of digital content where a message, brand, products or services are discussed or shown. 

Research, Copywriting and Knowledge-Building

Our multidisciplinary research skills, political acuity and academic expertise shape our regeneration-focused community education, awareness-raising, mobilisation and liaison efforts. Working closely with our clients we help anticipate new trends and developments, connect and network, and identify, enlarge and address their audiences. We amplify, shape and direct their ideas for the broadest and most effective outreach. We write original copy, and we offer high-level editing services including fact-checking and background research. Specialising in content that motivates individuals and communities for change-making, we supply in-depth reports, short and pithy copy for websites, and catchy slogans.

Whether through creative writing or making academic and scientific research accessible, our strong expertise in communication for diverse audiences builds confidence, grows insight and connects knowledge to action. It advances community-based education and citizen science, enables relationship-building across institutions, and supports conflict and dispute resolution. Our skills include high-quality in-person communication as trainers and presenters, whether to — or across — professional, novice or community-based audiences.

With a keen eye on local, national and international regenerative trends and opportunities, we are expert translators of high-level international policy agreements such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the Ramsar and other environmental and human rights Conventions, into everyday language and concepts that support individuals and organisations to take informed action, lobby more effectively, build networks and sustain relationships for regenerative change.

Communication Strategy Development

We are skilled and experienced practitioners in designing communication strategies – whether for an organisation operating in a single location to multi-country strategies that speak to a diversity of cultures, languages and contexts. We have undertaken sustainability communication strategic work for corporates and large-scale campaign strategies for international donor organisations. We focus on an evidence-based strategy established on sound research of target markets and the pitching of messaging in appropriate language, formats and channels. 

We believe in designing and implementing impactful communication strategies that are focused on emancipatory messaging that supports target markets in becoming changemakers in their personal capacities, and as representatives of their communities. Our evidence-based strategies are grounded in context and able to reach multicultural audiences.

E-learning Material Development

We produce material that offers a multi-dimensional approach to learning. Through information sharing, inspirational storytelling, task-based experiences, and practical tools we grow programs that develop skills, knowledge and personal growth. 

We explore a blended learning approach, which includes videos, worksheets and activities for self-study, and we also directly connect with learners through webinars, workshops and WhatsApp groups. This enables us to reach a wide audience with readily accessible material, and also connect on a human level for growing connections, social capital and embracing the multiplier effect of group learning. 

Our carefully crafted programs focus on content creation that will reach desired outcomes. These are then produced for experiential learning in various forms, from video material to interactive Miro boards, to engaging dialogues to resource packs.

Videos are used to connect learners to the human face and personality of a facilitator and storyteller who carries through the learning process. They are also used to demonstrate practical skills or unpack complex concepts with animated graphics.

Communication Skills Training

We work with organisations or networks to increase communication capacity related to stakeholder messaging, creative campaigning and strategic communications. Our experienced team has worked with networks spanning countries and continents to help grow the impact of their work. We facilitate learning in an interactive supportive space that encourages ‘safe’ experimentation and creative expression.

See our current work for the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s Green Action Week 2023 here.