Broken Pencil Studios

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Content Marketing for a technology company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Broken Pencil Studios, and what were your goals?

I've used Broken Pencil for a few projects now. Typically I've had them working on relatively complicated animations that combine live footage with supplemental animations that highlight what our product does for the consumer. In the first project, Broken Pencil was able to leave foot prints in the cement behind a runner that had messages in the bottom of the print. That shot transitioned into a completely 3D fabricated space that highlighted how many data points were being collected as the person ran, and pointed towards how a laboratory might use the data to understand how a person moves.

To keep things complicated I asked that the same shot transitioned into a different person running. In the end they had to make a fully rendered 3D model of the 2nd runner that we were able to rig different styles and textures onto. Knowing that you're hoping to use this as a soundbite: "No matter how complicated a concept I threw at Guillermo and Vivian, they typically laughed and said, "let me mock something up to make sure we're on the same page, but this sounds awesome." Then they'd come back with something better than I asked for." In the second project I tasked them with creating "infinite worlds" as an overlay for existing footage.

Having someone walk/run/jump through a variety of different video game worlds, but keeping the person grounded in reality. On a very reasonable budget we were able to create 10+ different styles for the subject to move through in a 60 second spot. Highlighted by my favourite shot, drone footage with a single house on the street flipping through different video game styles while the rest of the street glitched between real and video game worlds. Useable soundbite: "Knowing that Broken Pencil had done rigging for a video game in the past, I felt confident that they understood the language I was looking for. While I provided storyboards that pointed towards what I might like, they took the opportunity to make something incredibly unique and ran with it, then took my notes graciously and made it even better."

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They were recommended from an animator/producer that I had worked with previously.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail, including the project steps and all stages of production.

We started with a kickoff meeting with Guillermo, Vivian, and myself. I presented mood boards, storyboards, and a script. They told me what they would need to be able to produce the animations I was requesting and then I'd typically go shoot the footage myself (in some cases footage was pre-existing). Typically our meetings would be a matter of asking, "is this possible?" and Guillermo would say, "not only is it possible, but I think we could also do this..." That added excitement and made the project feel much bigger in the end than the budget we worked with. Involving them as early as we did was a big cost savings on both the production side and I believe the animation side. There were also a few "live composite" sessions, where after a shoot we discovered some issues with the target.

Guillermo was able to build the shot in real time using Blender and showed me what the camera move needed to be. I was able to get a small crew together and reshoot, which really saved the project. The compromised version on the original footage would have bugged me, and probably Guillermo as well, the final shot came together incredibly well and was worth the extra half day shoot. The post process was great from my end. I'm sure from Broken Pencil they might have preferred me to follow the storyboards a bit more closely, but I kept finding new things in post. They were very accommodating to my changes and being upfront about overage costs meant I knew what costs my requests might incur.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

I worked with Guillermo and Vivian primarily. Once the footage was with them I would typically get a weekly check-in to see how things were going and to confirm that we were on the right path. These weekly check-ins gave us an opportunity in one case to do a reshoot (as mentioned above) and in another to adjust colours to be more brand aligned. Once the project was complete, Guillermo provided me a few additional options and transparent elements as we knew there may be minor updates down the road and I've used them exactly as we had intended.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We kick-off all of our investor meetings with footage from both projects and they've been incredibly well received. The feather in the cap for Broken Pencil is that 12 seconds into the intro video a venture capital firm booked a follow-up meeting with us. Haha, to be fair, most of the VC skip the video entirely, but in that one case it was very effective!

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Vivian was great to work with. In both cases I wish I had been able to involve Broken Pencil even earlier in pre-production, as their ideas and the styles they were able to bring to the table were often elevated from our starting point. All of our meetings were done virtually due to Covid.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They did a fantastic job of making big ideas fit within our budget while also elevating ideas.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

If anything, there were times where Guillermo and I would go down a rabbit hole of what might be possible instead of sticking to the simple answer. This isn't an actual complaint from my end, as I believe Guillermo knew I was very keen to do these deep dives, but I can imagine a different project lead might want to just keep things "how they are on the page". At the very least it would have let Vivian leave the calls earlier.