Micah, Annie, Alex: this is what I heard on the call, how we'd approach the film, and the number. The story itself isn't on this page yet. It gets written with you in week one, once I've read the new positioning. That's on purpose.
Your SDRs said it on the call. I wrote it down and stopped taking notes for a minute. It's the whole brief. It also frames the hard part, the one you asked me to solve: how to say AI to a blue-collar audience without it sounding like a layoff.
The rest of what I heard: the positioning and messaging are being rewritten, the yellow stays, the direction is "buy better, build better," the shape is old way, software era, now. Micah wants it shown, not said. October. No filming. That's enough to price the work and plan it. It's not enough to write the film, and I'd rather say that than guess.
"Take control of your materials."
The software era, in one line. True, and every dashboard says a version of it.
"Buy better, build better."
The words are still moving. The film waits for them, and gets written the same week they land.
Micah's note, and the film's rule
Whatever the story turns out to be, that's how it gets told.
I read your homepage before the call. The word AI is on it once, on the invoicing page. That's an opening, not a problem: you get to say it your way first, and your way, by the sound of the call, is plain. I don't have the concept yet. I have the rules I'd write it under, and a feeling for where it lands. The concept gets written after I read the positioning and sit with Micah for thirty minutes.
Your customers already talk the way the film should. "We're spending 40 hours less doing material orders per job each year." That's St. Andrews Electric, on your own site. Lines like that are where I'd start looking.
Not what the software starts doing. On a job site, AI is a word that means layoffs until somebody shows the work it takes off the day. The film shows the missing part.
If the enterprise buyer thinks like the foreman, there's one register. Short lines, a working voice, nothing anyone would have to translate.
Your structure, from the call. Three chapters, one voice, no talking heads. The turn between chapter two and three is where the whole film lives.
Four films. Two are voice-over with nobody on camera. One is for a company whose customers hire hourly workers, which is the nearest audience to yours we've written for. Sound on.
Cue, for Fountain. A launch film for the company that hires frontline and hourly workers at scale. One voice. Plain words. No founder.
Athena. A B2B film with no one on camera. The argument carried by the voice and the cut.
Introducing Adaptive. The launch film. 1.2 million views and 2,500 signups in the first weeks.
The Cue launch set. One build, three cuts. This is where your :45 and :15 come from.
The positioning is being rewritten. The film is the first place it shows up in public, and everything Annie and Alex make after it gets cut from it. That's why the story waits for the words, and why the words shouldn't wait long.
No footage, two new hires, a full quarter. Licensed footage, your product animated, and a cast voice carry v1. Nothing gets filmed. Nobody's calendar takes a shoot day.
AI is the word on every vendor's site this year. On a job site it means layoffs until somebody shows what it actually does. Ninety seconds is enough to show it.
Where the film works.
Flat, end to end. Concept and script written with you, boards, a cast voice, the licensed library, your product animated, sound design, the cut, the :45 and :15, mix, grade, and every export LinkedIn needs. No filming. Nothing on your calendar but about four hours.
Half at kickoff, half at final. Two rounds of notes. This number holds through September 30.
If the concept isn't it after week one, say so. You pay the first half, keep the script and the boards, and we stop there.
You own the film and every source file. Who: Rob Sicat, words and direction, one editor, one motion designer.
Week 1 · Sep 21 · the story
Whatever state it's in. Then 30 minutes with Micah to settle the three chapters.
The idea on one page, the words under it, the film on one board.
Your approval on script and boards. Voice reads go out the same day.
Week 2 · Sep 28
Three reads, one choice, one session.
The clips pulled, the product recorded with your team, animation starts.
Every source on the drive, laid to the track.
Week 3 · Oct 5
Built to the track, animation in.
The :90. Notes in one doc.
Every note addressed.
Week 4 · Oct 12
Polish. Sound design, mix, and grade.
Delivered, with source files.
Every crop, captioned. Launch-ready.
Four things we make while making this one, written down so the next piece starts from them. None of the work below is owed now.
What Kojo says about AI, in the crew's words, under the new positioning. Every film after this opens from it.
Cast once. Every film after this sounds like the same company.
Licensed for Kojo's channels. Pulled once, used for a year.
Every product film after this starts from these.
What could grow from it
45 to 60 seconds. Their yard, their number, the same voice. A week of editing each.
Field, Warehouse, AP, Prefab. Cut from the capture we already did.
The camera comes later, when he wants it.
Send the positioning. Thirty minutes with Micah settles the chapters. The film is final October 16.