The person behind the films

Who we are

Jose Fernandez has spent more than fifteen years behind the camera and in the edit suite, and his background is documentary. He edited Flowers in the Desert, which screened at Toronto, Rotterdam and Morelia and won the Kodak Award for Best Latin American Documentary, and he was editing consultant on Alamar, which took the Golden Tiger at Rotterdam. He has shot behind-the-scenes documentary on Mad Max: Furiosa and additional camera on Shark Girl. Alongside the client work he keeps making independent documentary pieces, which is the craft thread that keeps everything else honest.

That background is not a claim about what we sell. We are a video production company, and what we make for clients ranges from a fifteen second appeal film to a season of stadium screens. Documentary is how we approach all of it: real people, speaking for themselves, filmed with patience and edited until the story holds.

Around Jose is a trusted team built over many years, so a project can be one camera and an interview or a multi-location production with a full crew, with a producer keeping each project moving day to day.

“Jose has a great way of listening and tuning into what matters most. He really brought our message to life. Jose and his team created a space where everyone felt safe, supported, and confident on and off camera.”

Naomi Halligan, CESPHN

Why we work this way

Most organisational video lists what an organisation does and gets forgotten. The opposite failure is just as common: video that reaches for emotion by flattening the people in it into objects of pity. We work in the space between those two failures, and the word we keep coming back to is substance. Substance over polish, substance over volume, substance over reach.

It comes from a simple belief. The people in our films are the authority on their own story. Our job is to celebrate and empower them, never to extract sympathy, because dignity is what makes a story worth watching in the first place, and it is also what makes an audience trust it. A film that earns attention because it is true works harder and lasts longer than a film that asks for it.

The name carries the same idea. Every person, and every experience they carry, is as particular as a speck of dust, small and singular at the same time. The beauty is in the particular. Our work is finding it, and telling it properly.

How we work

Great films do not start with a camera. They start with a conversation, and you do not need to arrive with the answers. We sit with you, understand the people you are trying to reach and what you are trying to do, and give you the space to talk it through. We ask what you want the film to achieve and who it is for. We do not ask what you want it to look like, because that is our job to bring. From there we scope the right shape of work with you and build the production around it. We are not a video factory, and we never run you through a template.

1. Conversation and scopingA call or a coffee, often the same week you get in touch. We listen, we ask, and we come back with the shape of work that fits, usually with options, so you can see what each one buys.
2. Pre-production, done properlyPre-production is real time in our projects, not a squeeze before the shoot. We confirm key messages, participants and logistics, write discussion guides for interviews rather than rigid scripts, and agree timelines up front. We never roll a camera until the direction feels right.
3. FilmingOur approach is observational, relaxed and conversational, with a crew sized sensibly to the job and never bigger than the room can carry. Participants come into the work with full informed consent and the option to step away at any point.
4. Edit and reviewWe share each cut with you through Frame.io, with a short guide for anyone who has not used it before, take consolidated feedback through a single contact, and keep you involved at each round. Every version comes with words, never a bare link.
5. Check and deliverNothing goes to a client unchecked. We verify specs, completeness and consistency across the whole set before it goes up, then deliver final files in every format you need, ready to upload and distribute.

Most engagements produce a body of work rather than a single video: a hero film, the cutdowns around it and the supplementary pieces, so one shoot told properly becomes the material your campaign, appeal or program runs on for months. And because many of our clients stay with us for years, each project needs less briefing than the last, the look and voice stay consistent, and the work keeps getting better. That said, a great single project is always welcome and gets everything we have. It just has a way of becoming the start of something.

How we care for the people in our films

Many of the people in our films are sharing something personal, and we treat that as a responsibility rather than a resource. Consent with us is a real and ongoing conversation, not a form signed on the day, and contributors see how their story is being framed before it goes anywhere. On every shoot anyone can pause things at any time, no reason needed. On Indigenous-led work we take our lead from the community whose story it is.

The practical side of that is the wellbeing of the person in front of the camera coming before the schedule, and when we are unsure how someone talks about their own experience, we ask them privately. Their answer outranks every style guide.

“Speck of Dust have always shown amazing humility and kindness. It’s such a pleasure to share the many stories we get to experience.”

Adam Ridgeway, Koori Country Cultural Fire

The craft

A few of the things we hold to, on every job, regardless of size.

• We frame close and let people finish their own sentence before the cut. Most of the people we film are not performers, and the face at close range carries what a performance never could.
• We let scenes breathe. Observational pacing earns its weight by holding a shot longer than commercial habit would.
• If the person on screen can say it, the voice-over does not need to. Music lifts rather than weeps.
• The grade is subtle. If a viewer notices it, it has gone too far. We balance to skin, not to white walls.
• Interview questions ask what someone does before what has been hard, so the person is whole on screen before the struggle arrives.
• Before a shoot, the look we are aiming for is named and agreed, so the day is spent filming rather than deciding.

The same standard travels from a one-room interview to the largest live screens in the country. We have made work for the SCG, Allianz Stadium, Qudos Bank Arena and Accor Stadium, seen by millions, and that scale is proof of the discipline rather than the point of it. If we can move a stadium, we can move your audience.

What it has produced

The appeal films we made with the Aurora Education Foundation were part of a record-breaking $175,000 end-of-financial-year appeal, up from around $120,000 the year before. Aurora has worked with us since 2010. Dexus keeps us on for its culture, learning and development work because we are, in their words, “a trusted partner”. Koori Country Cultural Fire trusted us to film cultural burning practice with humility and respect. CESPHN came to us for a short promotional video and left with a film that connected professional values with lived experience. Twelve schools with Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese, each story told properly.

“Our EOFY Appeal closed with a fundraising result of more than $175,000, breaking the record for our largest-ever June effort. Thank you for your work on the appeal videos, they were so beautiful and were a really huge part of the campaign’s success.”

Peita Dixon, Head of Advancement, Aurora Education Foundation

Aurora Education Foundation

The films behind Aurora’s record-breaking $175,000 appeal.

CESPHN oral health

Connecting professional values with lived experience for a Sydney primary health network.

“Speck of Dust’s work is excellent in process and results. They bring a great mix of insight, empathy, and the ability to listen.”

Leila Smith, Aurora Education Foundation

Who we work with, and who we do not

Purpose-driven organisations: not-for-profits and charities, education institutions, Indigenous-led communities and organisations, health and disability services, social enterprises, and government and community bodies doing meaningful work. We also make culture, learning and brand films for corporate teams who want to connect on values rather than tick a box, and we make screen storytelling for some of the biggest sport and live events in the country. If your organisation exists to make a difference, or wants its people to feel why the work matters, that is our lane.

We do not do weddings, fast-turnaround social video mills, talking-head videos with no story, or storytelling that extracts sympathy from the people in it. If we are not the right fit we will say so and point you somewhere useful.