Daltons Midway owners Brooke and Bruce pitched a concept to Brian (owner, Snohomish Film Co.) for a short film/sketch building off of a joke sign they put up every fall for a "Pumpkin Spice Oil Change". Brian wrote a spec script that evening before any proposal or budget conversation. He presented it to the owners the following day, and it compelled them to pursue the short film. Brian followed up with a proposal, they accepted, and we moved forward with pre-production. We schedule a film day, gathered the necessary props, and recruited shop team members to participate.

The production phase primarily took place on one half-day shoot. Brian broke down the script into a shot list and scheduled the shoot. In scouting the location we decided to use the main shop as the primary location for the "interviews" and an unused corner of the shop for the "PSL Process" sequences. Finally, we used their front of house as the final shooting location. The whole shoot was about 4 hours, but actual shop downtime was only about 45 minutes. The pumpkin patch sequence was shot utilizing one of Snohomish Film Company's other clients, Thomas Family Farms. They were gracious enough to allow us to shoot the pumpkin patch sequence while Brian was simultaneously filming content for the farm.

We were able to produce the first draft of the short film within 7 days of production. Originally the film was about 3 minutes long, but we ended up trimming it down to just over 2 minutes in hopes of increasing audience retention. After 2 rounds of revisions, we had the final version, ready for distribution.

Filming took place in a working auto shop, so there were some environmental conditions which made logistics slightly complex. But with the appropriate pre-production and planning, we only required 45 minutes of actually shop down-time in order to produce the film. Everything else was structured around customers and mechanics as they worked.

The project was taken from concept to completion within a three-week timeframe, this allowed for a timely release to leverage the cultural movement to the fall season.

The film received extremely positive feedback on social media, with a notable 10x increase from their average view count. Reaching 4,000+ views across channels, and a 7% engagement rate. More importantly than overall view count, it brought top of mind awareness to thousands of existing and potential customers.

"From start to finish, this company was a delight to work with when we filmed our company promotional video. Clear, timely communication -- plus a great sense of humor that dovetailed perfectly with our intended effect for the video. Also, the coaching for the video actors -- who are far from actors IRL -- made everything authentic. Would hire again 1000%!" -Brooke Yool