2022 at Allied Productions (Year in Review)

Our ninth year of operations at Allied Productions was certainly one to remember. 2022 was a year that challenged us, brought us never-before-seen opportunities, and affirmed a long held belief among the team: if we show our clients that we truly care, the benefits will come back our way.

A Year Shadowed in Uncertainty

This time last year, we didn’t know what to expect from 2022. In 2020, the pandemic opened almost as many new opportunities as it had shuttered previously booked projects. 2021 saw our work get back to some sense of normalcy (as in closer to 2019 than 2020) with our long-time collaborators and also provided some fun chances to get creative. While it seemed like 2022 was going to be the year that we all bounced back from the pandemic, those lingering anxieties and questions cast a shadow of uncertainty on our company: Were we really past COVID? How has the world changed in terms of how it views and consumes video content? How have we changed to prepare ourselves to be prepared for anything?

These questions were swirling about just when we were getting ready to start our company’s first ever international project (more on that later). It was only two years prior to then that we were preparing for a project in Frankfurt, Germany when this deadly and highly contagious virus put all of those plans to bed so the memories of that disappointment fed our paranoia. On top of not knowing what to expect from the world at large, we also unsure of how the creative services industry would be impacted by the long-term effects of the pandemic. While some businesses thrived and grew their marketing budgets others had gone in the diametric opposite direction. There were companies that had to go the DIY route with video and photo out of pure necessity then got so comfortable with that process that it became their new normal.

While we were trying to find the best way to navigate those murky waters, we were also preparing for the first of many new opportunities that 2022 brought us: a project beyond the borders of the United States.

A behind the scenes look at our collaboration that took us all the way to Rio de Janeiro (with hopefully more countries to come!)

A Year of Opportunities & Challenges

One of the things I love most about our crew at Allied Productions is that we rarely shy away from a new challenge and the opportunity for learning and growth. While some companies bank on resting on their laurels and live off these “rinse and repeat” types of projects (no shame at all to the wedding videographers, you do you and keep it up!), we aim to expand our skillsets and capabilities by evolving our mainstay projects and taking a chance on new ones. This collective mindset led to our first overseas project to produce content that we had never tackled beforehand: a proof of concept for an unscripted series. Much like the function a pilot serves for a scripted series, a proof of concept is used to shop the proposed series around to potential distributors, offering them a glimpse of the show for a series pickup. From the coordination logistics to the grueling production schedule, this project tested us in many ways but in the end, we succeeded in our pursuit and now know that executing this type of project is well within our wheelhouse. (We hope to share more with you about our proposed series once it’s picked up by a distributor.)

On top of this proof of concept, we also opened up a new challenge by collaborating on a project with a children’s winter outerwear designer that saw us working with youth performers for the first time. While the project was a success and we had a great time working on it, we all now have a better understanding of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous “never work with children or animals” mantra. Can’t say that we completely agree but we totally get why he said it. These projects were instrumental in achieving one of the larger goals we had for ourselves in 2022: become even more versatile in what we can offer our clients.

Holding a camera + climbing on a stool + trying not to fall on his volunteering niece + working in a new niche of the fashion industry = Aaron had a lot on his plate in this moment. The project was a huge success nevertheless.

A Year of Affirmation & Confidence Expansion

It’s funny how “affirmation” used to be somewhat of a dirty word around Allied Productions. It’s not that we stigmatized offering and receiving affirmation or anything like that, it just simply wasn’t a motivator or a goal for anyone on the team. In 2022, affirmation surprisingly became a theme of the year. As we mentioned in a previous blog, our team never balks at the opportunity to work with other video production crews. On top of the different experiences and learning opportunities those projects can bring us, they also provide a confidence boost for the team when our collaborators give us high marks for our work. I mean, you can’t top receiving a compliment from your clients. Their satisfaction is the ultimate goal and when they commend you for your efforts, it’s like you already won the Super B…the “big game” (blogger rolls his eyes at that trademark) and now you’re being presented with the MVP trophy.

However, there is something different about hearing that praise from your fellow videographers. It’s not just that the compliments are coming from a place of relatively higher understanding, it’s the specific things that they applauded us for: our punctuality, our flexibility, our professionalism, and so on that really gave us some juice going into the next project. I think the biggest compliment we received was when one of our longtime collaborators with whom we have co-produced many projects together actually avoided cancelling a shoot just so they could “keep our working relationship healthy” as they stated it. We would have completely understood if they elected to cancel the project; we know how circumstances can force situations like that. But it was surprising, flattering, and uplifting that they changed the shoot’s details just so they could continue working with us.

2022 was also a year when we received the highest praise you can get from a client on multiple occasions: referrals to new clients. It’s great to get an “attaboy” at the end of the project but when your client tells another company looking to produce creative assets that they should trust your team with that investment, it’s the greatest compliment we can receive. And we weren’t even present to hear it!

A behind the scenes still from a shoot we hosted inside of our new studio (that we just love, love, love being in!)

Looking Ahead (and forward) to 2023

While the start of 2022 had that cloud of uncertainty hanging over it, the start of 2023 has us welcoming the return of that feeling we had at the start of 2020: optimism. While a lot of us at Allied are the “let me check the sky in case it starts falling” type of realists, there are plenty of reasons for us to look forward to what 2023 can bring. Our client list has grown in the last year with even more new opportunities on the horizon, our working relationships with our long-time clients get fortified with every new project, and we are looking to grow our team this year (if you have any interest, drop us a line). And who knows, maybe this time next year I’m blogging about when our unscripted series is set to premiere?