Amt: Rapid Training Program

Montana had a workforce gap. Montanans needed better employment opportunities: ways to upskill, reskill, or change careers without spending years in a traditional degree program. Employers in key industries were bottlenecked by a lack of skilled workers. The state needed something faster and more targeted.

Accelerate Montana, in partnership with the Montana Department of Labor & Industry and training providers across the state, launched the Rapid Training Program. Our job was to help them build awareness in 2022, then document statewide impact in 2024.

We were filming at institutions we'd never worked with, interviewing people we'd just met, coordinating across a statewide network still taking shape. We went in with a loose script and set of expectations about what the videos would say. That went out the window as we learned what was actually happening in each interview.

Each training provider had a unique relationship with AMT and unique institutional priorities. Some were established partners. Others were brand new to the initiative. We had to stay observant and adapt our conduct and questions to fit each relationship appropriately.

The video had to represent Accelerate Montana, colleges, tribal colleges, employers, and state agencies without any one group dominating or the message becoming diluted. We needed voices from across Montana: urban, rural, tribal nations, across age groups, career types, and training sectors.

We cast a wide net. We interviewed more than 50 people across Montana: program participants, educators, employers, and workforce development leaders. We filmed in multiple regions, coordinating schedules with institutions and individuals. Without Accelerate Montana's outreach team, this would have been significantly harder.

The key was flexibility. We interviewed everyone as thoroughly as possible, gathering as much material and context as we could. This gave us editorial flexibility in post-production to refine the messaging as the initiative's priorities came into focus. AMT trusted us with a lot of creative control, which made this possible.

The hardest editorial decisions were choosing which voices to include or exclude. We worked closely with AMT's leadership and outreach team to find a balanced representation of interviewees while choosing those whose soundbites fit best within the broader narrative.

We produced over 35 unique videos:

The logistical challenges were familiar: coordinating across a statewide network, maintaining geographic and demographic representation, scheduling dozens of interviews across multiple regions. But the tone and focus had shifted. We needed to show how the Rapid Training Program had changed Montanans' lives.

We interviewed 44 people, including new voices and some returning participants from 2022 whose stories had evolved since we last spoke with them.

We structured the project around impact. We spoke with program participants whose careers and lives had been transformed, employers who'd hired them, Accelerate Montana personnel who offered framing context and nuance, and educators and training providers who'd sustained and grown programs with AMT support.

We captured interviews and extensive b-roll of training programs, job sites, and Montana communities. This footage became a custom library AMT could use for ongoing communications.

We produced another substantial video library for 2024:

The videos were used in legislative sessions, partnership development, web and social distribution, and broadcast TV.

This project required coordination across universities, tribal colleges, community colleges, employers, and state agencies, each with their own priorities and brands. We had to represent dozens of voices across Montana without the story becoming fragmented or the message getting diluted.

What made it work was trust and adaptability. AMT gave us the creative control to make editorial decisions in the field and in post. We jumped into a developing system at the very beginning, stayed observant, and adjusted our approach as relationships and programs evolved. We took something abstract (a rapid workforce training initiative as an economic development strategy) and made it understandable. We talked to the people whose lives changed, the systems that made it possible, and found the story that connected them.

The result was two substantial video libraries, delivered across two years, that helped build awareness of a new statewide initiative and demonstrated measurable impact to legislators, partners, and the public.