Colorado Video Production
This case study details how Manifest Filmworks worked with Visit Fort Collins and the Fort Collins Mural Project to highlight the creation of the Gateway Mural with storytelling focused video services.
The “Fort Collins Gateway Mural” overall video profile and the subsequent letter video profiles are thanks to the support of the Colorado Tourism Office and Visit Fort Collins.
The Fort Collins Gateway Mural is a landmark community art installation completed in September 2024, spanning the full name “FORT COLLINS,” with each letter designed by a different local artist around a distinct cultural theme. Designed by Jess Bean of J Bean Art and housed at the Millennium Living Gallery, the mural represents one of the most ambitious collaborative public art projects in the city’s history.
The project came together through a meaningful partnership: the FC Mural Project provided the artistic vision and community relationships, Visit Fort Collins brought the organizational muscle and destination marketing expertise, and funding from the Colorado Tourism Office made the full scope of the project possible.
Manifest Filmworks was brought in to capture not just the finished work, but the stories behind it.
Watch the Fort Collins Gateway Mural Overview below.
We believed the mural’s greatest story wasn’t on the wall, it was in the people who made it. Rather than a single documentary-style piece, we developed a multi-video series that gave each artist their own spotlight, letting viewers connect with the individual voices, themes, and creative decisions that shaped every letter.
The series totaled 13 videos:
A Fort Collins Gateway Mural Overview featuring Jess Bean, the executive director, providing the vision and context behind the project as a whole.
12 Artist Spotlight Videos – one per letter, each exploring that artist’s theme, process, and personal connection to Fort Collins.
This structure mirrored the mural itself: distinct, individual stories that together form a larger ecosystem of the connected nature of Fort Collins.
Additionally on the Visit Fort Collins’ Mural webpage, the mural map, which encompasses 100+ murals in the city of Fort Collins, and the fun itineraries are also thanks to the Colorado Tourism Office.
Listening first.
Each artist brought a different background, medium, and relationship to their theme. From Indigenous history to brewing culture to water sports. Our pre-production process centered on conversations with each artist to understand what their letter meant to them before a camera was ever on.
Finding the thread. With 12 artists and themes ranging across the full breadth of Fort Collins culture, we focused each video on a single emotional or narrative thread - the thing that made that artist's perspective uniquely theirs.
Cohesion across variety.
While each video needed to stand alone, the series also needed to feel unified. We developed a consistent visual and tonal approach across all 13 videos so audiences moving through the series experienced a coherent journey.
Anchoring with Jess.
The overview video with Jess Bean served as both an introduction and a throughline, giving new viewers a way in and longtime supporters a broader sense of what the project meant to the community.
Serving multiple partners.
With FC Mural Project, Visit Fort Collins, and the Colorado Tourism Office all invested in the outcome, our content needed to work across different contexts - from community engagement and social media to destination marketing and tourism promotion. We kept that range of end uses in mind throughout production.
The Gateway Mural was always bigger than any single artist or letter. It was a celebration of Fort Collins' identity. Its Indigenous roots, its river, its bike lanes, its breweries, its university. The partnership between FC Mural Project and Visit Fort Collins, backed by Colorado Tourism Office funding, reflected exactly that ambition: local art elevated to a statewide story worth telling. By producing a video for every contributor, we ensured that every community represented in the mural also had a voice in the story told about it - and that Visit Fort Collins had a rich library of authentic, people-driven content to showcase the city to visitors and travelers across Colorado and beyond.
This project reflects our experience navigating the specific demands of destination marketing work. Coordinating multiple talent subjects, aligning with DMO and state tourism priorities, and delivering content that serves both organic storytelling and paid media goals. Working with Visit Fort Collins and Colorado Tourism Office funding means understanding that every piece of content needs to earn its place in a broader strategy.
Manifest Filmworks is a Fort Collins-based video production company specializing in documentary-style storytelling. From tourism boards and DMOs to local businesses and nonprofits, we partner with organizations that have real stories to tell.
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