Tell us a bit about your organization and what your specialty is in the film and video space.
CinemaStory is a creative content agency and video production studio based in Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Since 2010, we’ve produced strategic marketing videos, photos, podcasts, animations, and ad campaigns for small businesses and national brands. We’ve gone 2.3 million views viral, raised over $10 million dollars for a non-profit campaign, made it on Good Morning America, received an Emmy nomination, and multiple industry awards for our marketing content and campaigns. Best of all, our clients become like family to us as we create together.
What is your organization’s ethos and how does it set you apart from industry competitors?
- Experience is everything. We care about the overall experience of everyone involved, and that means we do all things intentionally. It’s what sets us apart.
- Passion is our power. Without passion, our work is meaningless. It’s our passion that’s infused into everything we do and create — the secret ingredient that’s not so secret, but potent.
- We are the guide on our heroes’ journeys. You read that right. We’re not the heroes, nor do we want to be. We’re here to act as sherpas for our clients on their heroic journeys, and we take pride in our role.
How can people join or learn more about what you do?
Check out our newly designed website at https://www.cinema-story.com/ or email us at producer@cinemastoryproductions.com! Follow us on all the social medias.
Tell us about your Telly Award winning piece. What’s the story behind it?
We had several projects win Telly Awards this year: Ready Driver 1, TCU College of Education, Go Forth and Create and 2 client submitted pieces: Jealousy by Twisted X and A Good Book by Trilogy Studios.
TCU COE was a first time client who trusted us in the creative process early on with the ultimate goal to bring in the next generation to the College of Education. They were wonderful to collaborate with and they really leaned into visual ideas we had in the script and were game for any idea!
Ready Driver 1 was a spec ad we did with a smaller crew and a vision. We had a lot of fun busting out the drone to get all the incredible shots you see!
Go Forth and Create was another spec ad we did for an LED partner we have at Capernaum Studios. It was one of our first times filming on an LED wall, so we really wanted it to be a love letter to all creatives, while showcasing different visual tricks to make these shots happen.
A Good Book was a collaboration between Trilogy and CinemaStory. Trilogy wanted to showcase their new studio spaces by portraying different environments to show the benefits to shooting on an LED wall rather than on location or on green screen. A few ideas were floated out (alcohol, hairspray, vehicles) but at the end of the day we thought those ideas had already been done! So we said “what about books?”. This way we could see different genres, get creative with camera movement, props, actors, and the backgrounds created with Unreal Engine. The best part is we wanted to include a lot of easter eggs. So the viking and witch are in the non-fiction scenes, the viking is the one who takes out the dragon book at the beginning, etc. This one was near and dear to a lot of book lovers on set!
Jealousy by Twisted X is a video we’re really proud of. Every year, Twisted X will do a spot to broadcast during NFR (National Finals Rodeo). We had an original song made, worked with professional Tie-Down Roper Shad Mayfield and his horse Lollipop, and it’s officially been nominated for an Emmy!
What are you most proud of about this piece? What was your biggest challenge during production and how did you solve it?
For all these shoots, it really was a collaboration and partnership with the client who fully trusted and committed to the vision and the process. We’re always so proud to see the final video come to life and see the reactions when people first see it!
There were some normal production challenges on all of these sets, but for A Good Book, one of the challenges we faced was regarding the apple drop, bite, and camera movement that came with it. We had fine tuned the speed and cadence, but in each take there was something slightly off, whether that be focus, apple drop timing, how big of a bite the actress was taking and how fast she was taking a bite, etc. The actress was taking real bites of the apples, and we only had 5 apples to use, so we only had 5 takes to get it right! I’m pretty sure we were able to re-use one of the apples by trying to keep the bite in the back, but at the end of the day, we probably could’ve used more apples.
Do you have any advice to other filmmakers based on your career or your team’s approach to work?
You’re not the only creative in the room. Collaborate with others, listen to their ideas, and expand your skill set. At the end of the day, always show respect toward others. And please please please, read the call sheet!
Can you share a behind the scenes story or fun fact about the making of your piece?
- A Good Book: Hunter Bartley, the Unreal Engine artist for this shoot, took 3D scans of the practical bookshelves we were going to use on set and used the scans in the virtual background to make it all look cohesive. Also, the viking in our video used to work for Medieval Times.
- TCU COE: 2 of our crew members are portraying students in this video. All other students and teachers are real!
- Go Forth and Create: The roman statue you see? Tiny in real life!
- Ready Driver 1: The driver was burning rubber so fast, he had to change his tires! Thankfully, he planned for that and brought an extra set.
- Jealousy: In the scene where the horse, Lollipop, was sniffing the shoes, that took over 20 takes! Turns out not all horses are fashionistas.
Tell us about the most memorable response you got from this work.
When we shared A Good Book with the actor who played the viking, his wife in the background said, “I thought this was just a small thing like a local car dealership video. This is a whole professional commercial!”
Complete this sentence: ‘Great video storytelling is…’
… when you let the story tell itself.
