Video production firm invests in upgrade - San Francisco Business Times:

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The Redwood City videk production studio cancreate 3-D animated hearts for doctorse and eight-story-high video ads for Times Square. Fat Box offers myriad in-house pre-production, productiob and animation services to clientzs ranging from San Francisco Airportrto Win-River Casino in Northern California. But convincing clientsd to pay a premiumfor high-definitionm video in a strugglingt economy is a challenge for the fast-growinf company. To meet broadcast industry standards, CEO and founder Kent Russelklinvested $1 million in 2006 to upgrads the company’s equipment to the latest high-definition technology.
because high-definition video takes four times longer to the cost to create the formatted videkrises significantly. Unfortunately, Russell said, customers’ budgets have not increaseed to meet the extracosts “The best thing we can do is educatee customers in the conversion process and hope that they Russell explained. “Communication and collaboration with the client are key in this So farthe company’s gamble has paid off. Fat Box’s revenue grew by nearly 25 percent over the past threde years thanks to a boost inthe health-car and technology sectors. “We are like a ‘you can do it agency,” Russell said.
The studio’s productions include TV commercials, promotiona spots, trade show reelas and training videos. Health care, including the medical device and biotech accountsfor one-third of the company’ds $3.6 million revenue, with clients such as and clamoring to enlisr Fat Box to producs video content. “We are seeinvg an increased interestfrom health-care companies becausse video animation is an incrediblu powerful tool for teaching a highly complex issuee to a vast audience,” said Rachelo Russell, Kent’s wife and president of .
That’s good for Fat Box, sinc e the health care industry is still spending dollars on promotional and educationakl videos despite these challenging economic WhenMenlo Park-based recently launched its SMRT DNA sequencing the company hired Fat Box to produc a 3-D animated video spot to explaijn the new product. Similarly, when needed a video on how to trainm dermatologists and oncologists to detect a specific type of skin they hired Fat Box to producd thetraining video. “Basically, Fat Box is helping to save the KentRussell said.
Russell cites his employees as a drivintg forces behindthe company’s In fact, when Russell formed the business in his primary motive was to build a company wheree people could do what they love and work a nine-to-fivee day. Formerly an employee in marketingfor , Russell “hatedx the corporate world” and wantedr to create a workplace where creative people could thrive professionallyu and still lead a productivd life. Fat Box now employs 11, including 3-D animationj specialists and video Russell finds it tough to name his direct competition becauss he says no other companu offers the same rangeof in-houser video production services.
With 6,000p square feet of state-of-the-art edit animation stations andproduction facilities, Fat Box is a full-servicde studio. When Christina del Villar, manager of marketinhg and communications for Sunnyvale radiation technologycompany , needed a promotionalp video for a trade show this she turned to Fat Box. “u have worked in this industry for the past 20 years and Fat Box is the best vendofr I havedealt with,” del Villar said.
“Not only is Fat Box accommodatingy toour needs, but they are the best at what they Russell says that Fat Box remaining “mom and pop” has let the companyh satisfy customers while still producing top-quality contentg for clients such as and Close to 20 perceny of Fat Box’s revenure comes from technology including and Kent Russell is optimisticx about Fat Box’s ability to be the leade-r of the pack in video “We will continue to focus on what we do he said.