MADE TO
BE UNDERSTOOD.
Film, brands, websites, campaigns and experiences that get attention, make the point and move people to act.
STORIES
SHOULD MOVE.
We’ve been telling stories with cameras for a long time. From commercials and brand films to documentaries and explainers, we make films that connect with people and move them to action.
MODESTO CHILDREN’S GARDEN
A Place to Sprout Great Ideas
ENTEKRA
The Off-Site Building Specialists
CAMP SYLVESTER
Online Commercial
FEATURED WORK
MORE THAN A PRETTY PICTURE.
BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF MANTECA & LATHROP
A Place to Belong
A new digital home built around a bigger idea: showing families, donors and the community what belonging actually looks like.
WE’VE MADE SOME STUFF.
Film. Websites. Brands. Campaigns. Experiences. And a few things that don’t fit neatly into a dropdown menu.
The Work
Whiskey Slough Marina had something people wanted. The challenge was helping more people understand it.
Circle Break was hired to build a digital brand that could help the marina grow its membership by showing what makes Whiskey Slough different. That meant moving the story beyond boat storage and explaining the larger experience: indoor storage, concierge launching, direct access to the California Delta, bass fishing, watersports, RV camping and a community built around time on the water.
We developed the digital strategy, rebuilt the website, created original film and video, and developed campaigns designed to turn the marina's services and personality into a clearer reason to join.
The result is a connected digital brand built around a simple idea: Whiskey Slough doesn't just give you somewhere to keep your boat. It makes it easier to have the life you bought the boat for.
The Work
Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority had a lot to explain. How do you track your bus? What does it cost to ride? Can you bring a bike? What should riders know before they get on board? The challenge was turning practical transit information into content people would actually want to watch.
Working alongside StanRTA and a transit consulting partner, we developed and produced a seven-video branded series built around The S. The consulting team brought specialized transit knowledge and supported the technical, planning and on-site aspects of the project. We translated that information into the creative, developing the concepts and stories and leading production from pre-production through final delivery.
Across the series, we handled writing and story development, creative direction, producing, directing, cinematography, audio, interviews, editing, motion graphics, color and post-production. Each film tackled a different part of the rider experience while sharing a consistent visual language, voice and production approach.
The result was more than seven individual videos. It was a library of useful, branded content that gave StanRTA a more human way to explain the system and gave riders a simpler way to get to know The S.
The Work
Until the Last Drop was a multi-year communications campaign developed around California water issues and the federal relicensing of the Don Pedro Project.
The challenge was bigger than explaining a complicated regulatory process. The campaign needed to make a highly technical subject understandable, generate local interest and create credible content that could work across public outreach, digital channels and conversations with policymakers.
Circle Break led strategy, creative direction and execution across film, digital, social, web, print, outdoor and public outreach, building a connected campaign that could turn a complex issue into stories people could understand and engage with.
The Work
The Modesto Fire Department needed a video that could communicate the importance of fireworks safety without feeling like another routine public service announcement.
We developed the creative approach and led the project from concept through final delivery, including writing, producing, directing, cinematography, audio, editing, motion graphics, color and post-production.
We also saw an opportunity to make the campaign more useful. Modesto serves a large Spanish-speaking community, so we recommended producing the message in both English and Spanish. The bilingual approach became part of the production itself rather than an afterthought, allowing the same safety message to reach more of the community in the language most useful to them.
The result was a bilingual public safety campaign built to do something simple but important: make fireworks safety easier to understand before the celebration starts.
The Work
VOLT Institute created VOLT on the Go to take hands-on industrial training beyond its Modesto facility and directly into communities and workplaces across the Central Valley.
The challenge was making a new kind of training opportunity immediately understandable. People needed to see what VOLT on the Go was, how the mobile training model worked and how it could bring practical, career-focused instruction closer to them.
We developed an English and Spanish film to introduce the program and show the opportunity in a clear, accessible way. We also created the VOLT on the Go website and print catalog, building a connected set of tools VOLT could use to explain the program, its training options and how communities and employers could participate.
Together, the film, website and print materials gave VOLT a coordinated communications platform for taking the program into new communities and putting hands-on industrial training within reach of more people.
The Work
Delicato Family Wines had nearly a century of history behind it. The challenge was turning generations of people, places, milestones and memories into something new employees could understand, remember and feel connected to.
With extraordinary access to the company and its history, we developed and produced a film tracing the Delicato story from Gaspare Indelicato's beginnings in California in 1924 through generations of growth into the organization employees were joining today.
The production required more than documenting a timeline. We researched and shaped the story, developed the narrative, conducted interviews, filmed throughout the company and brought historical material together with original production to connect Delicato's past with its present.
The result was an employee training and onboarding film that gave people more than company history. It gave them context for the organization they had joined and a clearer understanding of the people, decisions and values that helped build it.
The Work
The GRIND Academy began with an ambitious idea: create a new kind of school built around the lives of student-athletes.
Circle Break helped turn that idea into a brand people could see, understand and experience. We developed the identity and brand system, built the digital experience, and carried the brand into the physical environment as the first Las Vegas campus came to life.
The result is more than a logo or website. It is a connected system that brings the school, training facility and student experience together under one recognizable identity.
The Work
Stanislaus Food Products wanted to give prospective employees a better understanding of the company and the people behind it.
We were contracted to produce an employee recruitment film, leading the project through production and post-production, including filming, interviews, audio, editing, color and final delivery.
Rather than building the piece around a traditional recruitment pitch, we focused on the employees themselves. Their experiences, combined with footage from inside the working environment, gave prospective candidates an opportunity to see the company through the people who know it best.
The result was a recruitment film designed to do more than advertise available jobs. It gave potential employees a clearer picture of the workplace, the people and the organization they would be joining.
The Work
Mocse Federal Credit Union was rolling out a new brand and needed campaign creative that could introduce that identity through film and video.
We developed and produced a series of commercials designed to coincide with the rebrand, translating the new visual identity and messaging into work created specifically for the screen.
The campaign gave Mocse a collection of branded video assets it could use to carry the new identity into its advertising and introduce the refreshed brand to its audience.
The Work
Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local 3 needed a professional recruitment film that could help prospective apprentices understand what a career in the skilled trades actually looks like.
The opportunity was bigger than explaining an apprenticeship program. The film needed to show the training, craftsmanship and people behind the trades while helping viewers see apprenticeship as the beginning of a professional career.
We developed and produced the film around the apprenticeship experience, combining interviews with the people involved in the program and footage of apprentices learning and practicing their craft.
The result gave BAC Local 3 a recruiting tool that could do more than describe the program. It could show prospective apprentices the skills they could learn, the environment they would train in and the career they could begin building.
The Work
The City of Modesto Parks, Recreation & Neighborhoods Department needed more than a recruitment announcement. To compete for seasonal lifeguards, the opportunity needed a concept and a story that could make the job feel worth jumping into.
Working in coordination with the City team, we developed the concept, wrote the piece and led the project from pre-production through final delivery. That included producing, directing, cinematography, audio, editing, motion graphics, color and post-production.
The creative focused on what a job posting could not show: the energy of the pool, the responsibility that comes with the role, the people you work alongside and the experience of spending a summer serving the Modesto community.
The Work
The Mason Contractors Association of California and its industry partners were preparing to make the case for masonry at the inaugural UC Davis Wildfire Resilient Structures Conference. The challenge was taking a technical argument about building materials and turning it into something an influential audience could immediately understand.
Rather than rely on technical claims alone, we developed the creative around a simple idea: demonstrate the argument. Working with MCAC and its industry partners, we developed the concept, wrote the piece and led production from planning through final delivery.
The production brought together masonry contractors, manufacturers, suppliers and the Sacramento City Fire Department to put the material and its fire-resilient properties at the center of the story.
The resulting film was created for MCAC's presence at the 2023 Wildfire Resilient Structures Conference, turning a complex industry message into a visual demonstration of a much simpler idea: when you're talking about fire resilience, what a building is made from matters.
GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?
Good. Let’s make sure people get it.