Journeymen Studios

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder and strategist for CrEATe Oil, California’s first direct-to-consumer culinary cannabis experience that combines world-class education with chef-curated recipes. Think of it like Blue Apron but for Cannabis.

For what projects/services did your company hire Journeymen Studios?

We needed to create an effective and efficient template for over 120 recipe videos, testimonials, and a launch video with a perfect branding link between all these videos.

What were your goals for this project?

These videos were going to be the face of our company via the website and ad campaigns, and also educate consumers on cannabis consumption - which at the time had just been legalized, so hitting the right tone was critical.

How did you select this vendor?

After interviewing multiple video companies, it was clear they were the only ones that really understood what we were going after, and were not just willing, but excited to partner with us creatively to make sure our vision came to life.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail.

Journeymen Studios created and documented a meticulous recipe video setup, which was repeatable quarter after quarter. For the case studies we discussed what we needed to highlight, brought in real people, and their interviewing technique brought out exactly all the right details - without feeling staged.

For the launch video, they got creative finding and crafting a video entirely from stock footage - staying on budget, and ensuring all the footage felt cohesive.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

They leveraged an online review platform where I was able to click on the video, which would pause, indicate where I clicked on screen for them, and provide a place for me to type feedback for each film.

They would then review all feedback, walk us through any perceived challenges and problem solve with us - and delivered edits through the same link, which was nice because there were so many videos to review.

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

All videos created (more 120 videos) where perfectly coherent with our branding and were working together. These videos generated our highest volume of leads across all our marketing channels and increase our conversion rate and retain rate with our clients.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication was very fluid, and we had no issues. They always listen what we needed and evolve the concept to be even more impactful than expected.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their responsiveness, attention to detail, tone, and creation of a cohesive set of videos to represent my brand was spot-on. We couldn't have asked for a better partner to handle video for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, it was just perfect. We sold our business now and I will definitely hire them for my next start up/projects.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a marketing consultant and coach. I work with companies looking to increase outreach.

What challenge were you trying to address with Journeymen Studios?

I was consulting for a nonprofit working on an elder care nursing home facility for adults with autism. We wanted to make a video to help fundraise for the project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came in and filmed a series of short documentaries to help with the campaign. The team flew out to the site and put together the videos. He interviewed people, storyboarded the movies, and filmed everything. Their team captured the emotion involved and the information necessary.

How did you come to work with Journeymen Studios?

We knew each other socially before we worked together.

How much have you invested with them?

It was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked from October 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The CEO of the organization was touched; it was a special project. The caliber of the work is very high. They’ve helped with so many things.

How did Journeymen Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Karl (Founder) is extremely well-organized. We speak a similar language when it comes to storyboarding. They’re very good at keeping everything organized, whether it’s through Google Docs or Trello.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He has a great eye and is very artistic. He can see a project in a way that others aren’t able to do. He’s worked a lot in a corporate setting.

Are there any areas they could improve?

He takes his education very seriously and is always learning new things.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try not to come to the project with preconceived notions about how you want the end product to be.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for Watts Water Technologies, a plumbing manufacturing company headquartered in N.Andover, MA. Watts is a publicly traded company founded in 1874 with 5,000 employees around the globe. I'm in my 32nd year with Watts and have been in the role of Director of Employee and Customer Training for the past 3 years.

For what projects/services did your company hire Journeymen Studios?

A key part of our Customer Training Program is "In-Person Training" where we invite our customers(Plumbers, Engineers, and Distributors) into our Watts Works Learning Centers located throughout N.America to provide them with high quality hands-on training with our products. After we opened our flagship Learning Center at our headquarters facility in N.Andover, MA we quickly realized that we needed to promote this new training center in the plumbing channels to let the industry know it existed. We agreed that we wanted to use video as the most effective way to communicate what the experience was like at our Learning Center.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to create a brief 3 minute video of what it was like to be a customer being trained at our Learning Center with the goal of creating awareness and excitement of this great training experience in the plumbing industry. We wanted the message to be told through the lens of actual customers who were at our Learning Center for training.

How did you select this vendor?

We had several local studios to choose from in the Boston area that I had used before however I was looking for something different in terms of having the voice of the customer do the talking in this video project. I was referred to Journeymen Studios by a friend and I contacted them. I spoke with Karl and looked at some of the work they had done and was immediately impressed with the quality of the work and the uniqueness in the feel of some of his video productions. I received a quote from Journeymen Studios along with several others and Karl was right in the middle and I decided to give him a try.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail.

I was looking for a full meal deal and Karl's team did everything from Storyboarding, Script Writing, Lighting, Sound, Editing, and Project Management. My role was simply to provide my vision of the feel and vibe of the video and Karl honestly took it from there.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

Journeymen brought in a Videographer, Lighting, and Sound team members for the 1 day shoot. Karl led the entire days events from a scheduling standpoint from having our customers sign waivers, to actually conducting the interviews with the customers who agreed to take part in the video. The feedback process was extremely easy where Karl went through all of the B roll and made a recommendation to me for review which we then whittled down to the final edited video.

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

This Learning Center Customer Testimonial Video was so successful in describing the customer experience that I had Journeymen do another testimonial video for me at the next Learning Center we opened in St.Pauls, NC. I have asked Journeymen to do these customer testimonial videos at our Woodland, CA and Ft.Worth, TX facilities as soon as this Covid virus has passed.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

All I can say is this: I WILL NOT USE ANOTHER VIDEOGRAPHER. Journeymen Studios is second to none.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Most impressive? Karl's creativity and his presence, On location during the shoot he put everyone at ease to make the team feel comfortable. Because of this, everyone in front of the camera was able to be themselves and the end result was such a natural, unscripted video that exceeded my expectations. Simply amazing.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nope. I would change nothing. I am an extremely satisfied customer.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a special events producer who, in addition to managing special events, is often called on to create media to be viewed at special events. While I produce many types of events, my niche is non-profit fundraising special events. I have owned my company for over 30 years. Many of my clients hire me year after year - in some cases I have been producing for these clients for 20 years.

For what projects/services did your company hire Journeymen Studios?

I have worked with Karl Stelter for the past several years as a creative partner in producing media. Not only does he provide his own state-of-the-art equipment but he functions as videographer, cinematographer, director and producer. He has worked with me to produce tribute and marketing media featured at major fundraising events.

What were your goals for this project?

1. To highlight the client's work in their community 2. To highlight the achievement of the event's honorees. 3. To connect why the honorees support the organization 4. To draw emotional responses from the event participants to motivate them to support the organization 5. To create media that has multiple uses, i.e. social media, training, marketing

How did you select this vendor?

Examples of his reel and his budgets. Karl is always open to finding ways to get the best bang for the budget dollars.

Describe the video(s) and the process in detail.

Karl and I start with a meeting (or meetings) with the client to determine their goals and challenges. We then walk away and develop a concept. I write an outline that is presented, reviewed, revised and approved and then I start working on a script. In the meantime Karl is working on determining production staffing, shoot days and other production details within the budget. We then shoot footage followed by the editing phase. Most importantly we allow enough time at the back end of the project for client to provide feedback and final edits.

What was your vendors' project management or feedback process?

It is important the client is with us every step of the process. They buy into the creative development before we start shooting. They are usually on-site day of shooting. And we determine in advance how many versions are part of the contract. If we have all done our job correctly, the first edited version they see is very close to what they imagined.

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

1. A deeper understanding of the client's work 2. Increased fundraising at the event 3. Multiple uses of the media both internally and on social media

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Efficient, professional and effective. No divas in this group!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Karl has a good eye for shooting video that translates into beautiful media. He is super creative, approaches every project in a collaborative manner and is, simply, just a good guy with a great work ethic. He has never missed a deadline.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We usually try to correct in the moment. We usually end a project with an overview of what went right and what went wrong. He is always open to suggestions and constructive critical comments. We are usually harder on ourselves than the client as we strive for the ever illusive perfection.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the business development director of BLUCHER, a child company of Watts Water Technologies. We sell stainless-steel hygienic drains for the industrial food and beverage sector.

What challenge were you trying to address with Journeymen Studios?

We wanted to raise our brand awareness in North America both with potential customers and our sales teams. Our commissioned agents in the US and Canada didn’t focus on our products because they didn’t know how to sell them.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Journeymen Studios created videos that helped raise awareness around our products and educate customers and team members about their value. We started by targeting the craft brewery industry — an ideal customer for our product. We created a video testimonial with MadTree, our flagship brewer customer. They talked about what our solution does and how much it saves them.

The collaboration evolved into a corporate promotional video. We went to Denmark and interviewed customers in Europe and US and created a video that shows who we are and what we do. It’s translated into different languages and posted on our main website.

Most recently, Journeymen Studios made a seven-part video series on our products. Every video was filmed on location.

For each project, Journeymen Studios develops the story based on the content in our interviews. Their team leads a comfortable interview process that feels conversational and lets interviewees open up to the camera.

What is the team composition?

Karl (Owner & Director) is my main point of contact. I haven’t directly worked with anyone else.

How did you come to work with Journeymen Studios?

In my role at my previous company, I unsuccessfully tried to promote video production for our products. One of our vendors hired Journeymen Studios for promotional videos, including a TV spot, testimonials, and tutorials. They were really powerful. When I came to BLUCHER, I showed my colleagues those materials and convinced them to hire Journeymen Studios. They’ve also done a hundred videos for our parent company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in September 2016. Our company has no projects with Journeymen Studios currently, but they’re still working with our parent company.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve seen our revenue grow by 35% year-over-year since we started working with Journeymen Studios. We can even point to certain videos as the factor for winning us contracts worth over $2 million. The videos have been shown by our sales team and our new channel partner over 10,000 times. In the craft beer space alone, we’ve seen our customer base grow fivefold through a combination of word-of-mouth and sharing the video. Our video was even copied verbatim by our largest competitor!

How did Journeymen Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

When Journeymen Studios commits to doing something, they deliver. They’re never late with anything; in fact, if something is due Saturday, it often arrives Friday! Our time is treated very respectfully all around, which I appreciate.

In addition, their quality of work is unsurpassed; I’ve not seen anything better. They have a variety of ways that they tell stories. Every aspect of their work is professional: from the quality of each video to their respect for others’ time

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s an incredibly personal experience to work with Journeymen Studios. Carl can walk into an industry he knows nothing about and tell an expert story about it, getting to the meat of what the audience sees and hears. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m 100% satisfied with my experience so far. My parent company — a billion-dollar company — uses no one else, which goes to show you that they’re doing something right.

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have plenty of voices and input when you’re doing a testimonial video. Trying to boil down 10 hours of interviews is difficult but worth it.