The First Conversation
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This dates back to 2019.

At the time, I was volunteering and doing some camerawork alongside my full-time job.

One day, I got talking to the founder of the International ChangeMakers Olympiad (ICO). 

Unlike your usual Science or Math Olympiad, this one asked students to identify a real problem in their community and do something about it.

What started as a casual conversation about the initiative quickly turned into an idea neither of us could let go of.

Why not tell these stories through short films?

That’s how The ChangeMakers Project was born: a series of short documentary films, each two to three minutes long, capturing the journey of young change agents in their own voices.
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Finding the Story Behind Every Idea

The first few weeks were pure chaos: exciting chaos. We spent our weekends hopping across schools, meeting kids, listening to their ideas, and figuring out how to tell their stories visually.

No production crew. Just one camera, one lens, and a lot of hope.

I didn’t even have the money for a gimbal back then. Everything was handheld, and we experimented with whatever natural light we could find in classrooms or corridors.

It was a crash course in adaptability.

But it was also one of the most fulfilling creative processes I’ve ever experienced.
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Editing on Borrowed Time

Once the filming was done, the real grind began: post-production.

Every night after work (and some during, lol) I’d sit with Adobe Premiere Pro on my laptop, sorting through hours of handheld footage. The cuts were sharp and rhythmic; no frame stayed longer than five or six seconds. We wanted energy. We wanted movement.

The sound design was minimal, but the voiceovers did all the emotional heavy lifting. The moment a kid’s voice cracked while explaining what they’d achieved, the entire story clicked into place.
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The Distribution Dilemma

By the time we wrapped the eighth film, we were proud, exhausted, and slightly clueless.

We had these powerful, heartfelt stories, but we didn’t have an audience.

Good storytelling is only half the journey. Distribution was an equally big part.

We started reaching out to organizations, media houses, and content platforms that aligned with social impact. Most didn’t respond. But one did. The Logical Indian liked the concept and wanted to feature the entire series on their social media channels.
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The Logical Leap

That partnership was the turning point.

In 2019, when Instagram and Facebook algorithms were still opening up to videos, The Logical Indian rolled out the ChangeMakers series as an eight-part feature.

Every week, one story went live. And slowly, it began to spread.

Over a span of 8 weeks, the videos crossed over millions of views across Instagram and Facebook.
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Epilogue‍

The ChangeMakers Project wasn’t just a campaign. It was a reminder that stories of hope still matter, that small teams can punch above their weight, and that purpose will always find a way to travel, no matter how small your gear bag is.