Complex, Made Clear

The Problem

Deep-tech companies can build things most people can’t picture. That becomes a problem when it’s time to raise money.

Investors, partners and the public all need to understand the technology quickly and trust the people behind it. The science rarely photographs itself. The lab is working and can’t shut down for a film crew. And the budget belongs to a company that is still raising.

Most of these teams don’t need a big corporate production. They need one clear, credible film that works in a pitch meeting, on the homepage and on social media.

Our Approach

Let a leader tell the story. Each film is built around the people who run the company: a founder, a CEO, or a CEO and CTO side by side. There’s no voiceover and no presenter. A real leader explaining the work in plain language builds trust faster than any slide deck.

Let the setting do the proof. Most of the time we shoot on the working floor, with the equipment and the team visible behind the speaker, so the setting backs up every claim. When the product is software or finance, we do the opposite: a clean, neutral backdrop that keeps every bit of attention on the leader and the message.

Keep the crew to two. A director and a director of photography handle the whole day. There’s no set to build, very little disruption for the research team, and the cost is a fraction of a full-crew shoot.

Cover it for the edit. Two interview angles, standing title portraits, and close-up B-roll of the work give the edit enough material to keep a talking-head film moving.

Build one asset for every channel. A main film of 90 seconds to just over two minutes that works in a pitch meeting, on the homepage and in a social feed.

UbiQD — Quantum Dot Materials

Los Alamos, New Mexico · 1:59

UbiQD makes quantum dots, cadmium-free nanomaterials that change the colour of light. They’re built on technology licensed from Los Alamos National Laboratory and MIT, and they’re used in agriculture, clean energy and security products. The company needed one film to support its raise and to introduce the business online.

We interviewed Founder and CEO Hunter McDaniel in the centre aisle of the lab. Scientists in white coats kept working behind him, and the shallow focus turns that activity into soft background texture. B-roll of heating mantles, multi-neck flasks, gloved hands at the bench and colour-coded sample trays shows the science up close.

280 Earth — Direct Air Capture

Palo Alto, California · 2:13

280 Earth pulls CO2 out of the air and stores it permanently. The company started at X, Alphabet’s moonshot lab, and runs its first capture facility in The Dalles, Oregon. It had the technology and the backing. What it needed was a clear way to explain the work to people who don’t read engineering papers.

We filmed President and Chief Commercial Officer Greg Bohannon among the test rigs, tubing and control panels at the company’s headquarters. Standing title portraits open the film, and close-up shots of the lab equipment show the hardware behind the pitch.

Checkerspot — Precision-Fermented Lipids

Alameda, California · 2:12

Checkerspot designs fats and oils through precision fermentation. It makes functional lipids that are hard to source from nature, or hard to source sustainably, and turns them into market-ready ingredients. It’s a platform that takes some explaining, and investors, partners and customers all needed to get it quickly.

This film uses two voices. CEO John Krzywicki makes the business case and CTO Casey Lippmeier explains the science, so each part comes from the person who owns it. Between the interviews, lab footage shows the work: scientists at the incubator, samples being pipetted, and the bioreactors where fermentation happens.

Gradiant — Industrial Water Technology

Boston, Massachusetts · 1:23 · 4K

Gradiant designs, builds and runs advanced water and wastewater treatment for heavy industry, including semiconductor fabs, data centers, power generation and mining. It started as an MIT spinout in 2013. Membranes, brine concentration and contaminant extraction mean little to most investors until someone makes them concrete.

We built the film around co-founder Anurag Bajpayee, CEO at the time of filming, interviewed inside a working lab full of test rigs, gas lines and tubing. Before he says a word, the viewer can see this is an engineering company with real hardware. A frontal angle carries the key lines and a side angle gives the edit its rhythm, which keeps the film tight at 83 seconds.

Ashbrook Technologies — Agricultural Risk Management

Albuquerque, New Mexico · 1:35

Ashbrook builds companies in agricultural risk management, where farming meets insurance. Its flagship platform, HarvestIQ, helps agricultural advisors and producers manage USDA insurance programs and commodity futures and options. That’s insurance, commodities and software stacked together, which is hard to picture from the outside.

This film goes the other way from the lab shoots. CEO Euweng Chan speaks on a clean, neutral backdrop, in full-length and medium frames, which suits a company whose product is clarity on risk. With nothing in the frame to compete with him, the film stays focused on one clear explanation of what Ashbrook does and why its platform matters to the advisors and producers who use it.