We were lucky to catch up with Brendan Cleak and Caryn Sandoval recently and have shared our conversation below.
Brendan and Caryn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
We met in college studying Film and Digital Media, and began a life of making short films together. In 2018, we got married and started our business, though we joke that starting the business was much more life-affirming for us. We weren’t sure what it would look like – we just knew that we could tell a visual story in a way that felt unique compared to what we were seeing out in the world.
We quit our jobs and took a road trip to volunteer as a photographers for environmental causes. After years of office jobs, we suddenly found ourselves caught in a lightning storm in the San Juan Mountains. It was a magical experience – a realization that we were right in the middle of the moment in chasing our dreams.
In the past few years, we’ve developed a philosophy while working with local and national clients: creative first. Creative always comes first. Visuals always come first. Copy comes next. Then strategy. This may seem foolish to more traditional methods of marketing, but it’s worked for us. We ask ourselves, each time: how can we visually and poetically represent this business or cause and the people who run it?
Brendan and Caryn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We found ourselves disappointed with the current traditions of video production. It’s expensive, involves way too many people, and has a sort of pomp & circumstance that can make businesses (aka the talent!) feel uncomfortable. We wanted to reinvent and disrupt video and photo production at a local level, and see how much we could grow. We’ve tested our theories, and they work. We can keep production costs low so we can focus ALL of our energy on strategically and creatively representing a brand or a cause.
We’re the perfect team: Brendan is a visual wizard, and Caryn is a content and logistics guru.
We offer brand and cause video storytelling for web, Youtube, social, and ads (especially Google Local ads – Google Maps ads require video!). We also excel at photography for digital purposes. For select clients that request it, we manage the content in social media pages and ads, Google ads, and Google Business pages.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
When we need to bring in extra help, we focus on friendship first. We don’t believe in business relationships. How can we connect on a human level? What do you need in your life? How can we ensure your happiness on this set? The last thing we want to do is stress out our production teams. There should be joy in the process. Of course, not every day is perfect. We can recognize when it’s time to take a break, have some tea or beer, regroup, and find a new solution. And of course, we celebrate after!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
We had to unlearn some of the production techniques we learned in Film School, and from being fans of movies growing up. With the advent of affordable video technologies, we could create things in the way we envisioned, without having to follow previous protocol. We’re continuing to unlearn tropes of production. We recognize that visual trends are temporary. What sticks around after the trend is gone? We’ve realized it’s 4 things:
– authenticity
– respect for the medium
– natural light
– universal human themes
No matter what trend emerges, these things will always be the churning generator in the background.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.oneapparatus.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oneapparatus/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/one-apparatus
Image Credits
Brendan Cleak