The Rural Carrier Benefit Plan approached us with a problem: an incoming member is given a hundred page “New Member Guide” that details for every benefit, every program, and every how-to, but very few actually read the packet. Consequently, a majority of their members weren’t taking full advantage of the plan, opportunities to save money, and resources to support a healthy lifestyle.

After breaking down the packet and working with the RCBP team to highlight the priority topics, we developed the RCBP Neighborhood; a twenty part series of one minute episodes utilizing the “after-school special” format to tackle each topic. The entire series took place in Mr. Reynolds’s front yard as he fields guest stars (both fictional and real), inquisitive neighbors, and of course the amicable letter carrier.Not only did the “neighborhood special” concept provide a visually engaging, accessible educational tone, the concept of a front yard played to the world of the member, allowing for many of the RCBP benefits to be contextualized in a “real world” place.

Once approved, we partnered with a comedy writer in LA for the scripting. The scripts went through a review process with RCBP both in terms of concept and content. Much of the information in each episode was taken almost verbatim from the “New Member Guide” simply with a poignant narrative context.

This production was hosted in Los Angeles where the set was built from the ground up and then filmed over the course of three days on a soundstage with a full production crew. This was filmed with three cameras to emulate the sitcom feel and style of production.

Post-production took place over six weeks including edit approval, color, sound design, and final delivery. The rigorous planning and scripting made for a streamlined editing process.