FJ MacRae
FJM Digital · Communications, creative direction, video · Vancouver, BC

Complex issues, made clear.

For over 15 years I’ve worked with cities, health agencies, researchers, nonprofits and unions on housing, public health, social policy and labour, turning complicated subjects into communication people understand and act on.

MA Planning, UBCBA Communications, SFU
See the workRead the CV

Selected work

Films and explainers, grouped by the issue they deal with.

Case files

What the brief was, who it was for, and what I did.

01

Temporary Modular Housing

City of Vancouver
The problem
The City was placing modular supportive housing in neighbourhoods across Vancouver and needed residents to understand what it was, how it worked and who it would house.
Audience
Neighbours of proposed sites, many of them uncertain or opposed.
My role
Director, camera and editor.
What we made
A short explainer, “How it Works and Who it Helps,” built around the people the program serves.
Recognition
Recognized at the New Urbanism Film Festival, Los Angeles.
02

Research to the public

Centre for Hip Health and Mobility
The problem
Health researchers had findings on falls, mobility and aging that needed to reach older adults, not just journals.
Audience
Older adults, families, clinicians and program partners.
My role
Video director and producer, about 2012–2019, working directly with researchers on concepts and scripts.
What we made
I’d Rather Stay, a documentary on how the built environment affects older adults’ wellbeing; program films for Choose to Move and Tai Chi for Elders; Life After Fracture.
03

Choosing a lens

Ophthalmology practice · current
The problem
Cataract patients must choose between lens options with different costs, trade-offs and public coverage, often with little time to understand them.
Audience
Patients before surgery.
My role
Filming, editing, plain-language scripting and graphics for video, web and print, within the practice’s visual identity.
What we made
Patient-education videos and graphics explaining astigmatism, glasses dependence and what public insurance does and doesn’t cover.
04

Fight for Fairness

Federation of Post-Secondary Educators · 2020
The problem
Many instructors at BC's colleges and universities work contract to contract. FPSE, the union representing them, needed members and the public to see what that insecurity costs.
Audience
Union members, potential members, and the public.
My role
Awarded the contract and delivered it from start to finish: direction, camera, editing, motion graphics and sound.
What we made
A 12-part video series on contract faculty, organizing, Indigenous educators, equity, the history of maternity leave and the union's future, plus a documentary of about 26 minutes and a recruitment PSA.

Services

For organizations that need to explain something important, or want to make video themselves.

Stories from complex subjects

Healthcare, science, policy and community development, made clear for people outside the field.

Production, start to finish

Planning, script, shoot and post-production, run as one project with one point of contact.

Cinematography

Images designed around the message, on RED, ARRI, Sony and Blackmagic camera systems.

Editing and motion graphics

Documentary and explainer editing, animation and sound in Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition.

Captioning and accessibility

Every deliverable is captioned as standard. I’ve researched and applied accessibility best practice for patient-facing eye-care video, and build it into public-sector work from the start.

Studio setup and media training

Designing in-house studios and workflows that last, and training staff teams to plan, shoot and edit their own content with confidence.

About

I come to every project through the subject first: what’s at stake, who it affects, and what’s getting in the way of understanding it. With a background in planning and communications, I combine research, editorial judgment and creative storytelling across video, writing and digital media.

The medium changes from project to project. The job is always to make the issue clear to the people it affects.

I work as FJM Digital, serving cities, universities, health organizations, nonprofits and unions. I research the subject, interview the experts and the people affected, and turn what they know into something a general audience can follow, then direct, shoot and edit the work myself.

I also coordinated the build of a three-unit rental home in Vancouver, which taught me more about permits, trades and housing costs than any brief could.

Clients and partners
  • City of Vancouver
  • Vancouver Park Board
  • Township of Langley
  • Province of BC
  • Vancouver Coastal Health
  • Fraser Health
  • BC Centre for Disease Control
  • UBC
  • Centre for Hip Health and Mobility
  • Vancouver Foundation
  • Federation of Post-Secondary Educators
  • CBC Arts
  • Fresh Voices
  • Tsleil-Waututh Nation
  • Parks Canada
  • Vancouver Writers Fest
  • Vancity
  • Toyota
  • Hyundai
  • UBS
  • Tech City UK

CV

2013–now

Producer, Director and Cinematographer

FJM Digital / MacRae Multimedia

Lead projects for public, health, nonprofit and corporate clients from concept and research through scripts, directing, camera, editing and motion graphics. Assemble and lead production teams of camera, sound and animation specialists, and manage budgets, schedules and client approvals.

2022–2023

Editor / Media Specialist

UBC Studios

Produced educational and institutional media with faculty and senior staff, scoping projects and managing schedules. Mentored staff in production techniques and advised colleagues on equipment and workflows.

c. 2012–2019

Video Director / Producer

Centre for Hip Health and Mobility

Research knowledge translation and documentary for public audiences.

2011–2013

Communications Coordinator

Locher Evers International

Website redevelopment, copywriting, proposals and tenders in international logistics.

2010

MA, Community and Regional Planning

University of British Columbia
2007

BA, Communications

Simon Fraser University

Contact

Working on something people need to understand?

Email: fmacrae@macraemultimedia.ca LinkedIn: farzine-macrae Based in Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ Nations