Aaron Daniel “AD” Annas
Creative Director | Story-Driven Content | Content Strategy
Work Contact
Case study
Life In the Gap
Documentary exploring economic inequality through personal stories. Selected for broadcast on PBS North Carolina’s NC Channel (Fall release) and presented through community screenings. Designed to create emotional connection and deepen audience understanding of the lived realities behind financial insecurity.

Featured project summary

  • My role: Producer, Director, Editor.
  • Focus: human-centered storytelling, ethical representation, and cross-channel narrative consistency.
  • Primary outputs: film, screening and panel framing, partner-ready messaging, press-ready copy, distribution packaging.

Context or challenge

  • Tell a clear, human story about economic precarity without flattening people into statistics or spectacle.
  • Build emotional connection and audience understanding, and support real-world conversation and action.
  • Package the work for screenings, partners, and distribution contexts with consistent messaging.

Audience

  • General audiences at screenings and festivals.
  • Campus and community partners.
  • Donor and supporter audiences.
  • Distribution and programming audiences.

Approach

  • Single narrative spine: keep the story human and precise across formats.
  • Multi-format packaging: adapt the same core narrative to posts, event copy, press framing, and program descriptions.
  • Ethical clarity: avoid exploitative framing, prioritize dignity and nuance.
  • Distribution readiness: prepare assets and language that travel with the film.

What I built

  • Clear positioning language and short/long descriptions for different contexts.
  • Screening event messaging, including panel framing and audience expectations.
  • Social posts and story-driven summaries designed to invite engagement, not just announce.
  • Press and institutional narrative versions that stay consistent while changing tone and depth.

How I led delivery

  • Build the story once, then reuse it through templates (short description, long description, press blurb, event copy).
  • Maintain one source-of-truth doc for language so every new asset stays aligned.
  • Accessibility mindset for outward-facing media (captioning, clear structure, readable copy).

Results

  • Produced a community screening (200+ guests) with an expert and student panel discussion and a reception, driving audience engagement and local dialogue.
  • Built a cross-disciplinary collaboration across campus units and community partners (including Main Street Market and Meeting Place), integrating student contributors into real-world roles and strengthening community impact.
  • Secured funding support for production and student engagement (including a $5,000 High-Impact Practice grant) and launched principal production after completing pre-production during the academic year.
  • Received a PBS NC programming offer, demonstrating broadcast readiness and distribution positioning.
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