Think Out Loud Customer Story

Table of Contents

• Who is Think Out Loud?
• The Challenge: Finding a Large File Transfer Tool for Remote Work
• The Solution: MASV + Frame.io = A Magical Workflow
• The Result: Easy Media Collaboration Over the Cloud

Think Out Loud Studio?

One look at their portfolio and you can get lost in Think Out Loud Studio’s epic and cinematic videos.

Founded in 2020, Think Out Loud Studio is a creative content agency that specializes in post production, photography and visual branding. And they know what they’re doing: their team previously worked in-house for A-List brands including Airbnb, Tesla, DJI, and Apple.

Since then, founders Casey Schendel, Matt Cross, and Avery Bazan have built a dynamic team and a gold-plated client list that includes Snowflake, Postmates, Aurora, Draco Motors, and Skip Scooters, among many others.

Finding a Large File Transfer Tool for Remote Work

The team spends much of its time coordinating projects between clients, film crews, remote editors, motion designers, and other video professionals around the world.

When you’re juggling multiple projects at once, working across timezones and clients are asking for last-minute changes, having powerful tools that simplify your work and expedite processes is of utmost importance.

Think Out Loud simply needed a hassle-free large file transfer service that works, a surprisingly rare feature in their experience, explains founder and Head of Production Casey Schendel.

Schendel says the company had test-driven multiple large file transfer solutions prior to trying MASV, but each time it ended in frustration for both them and their clients.

“The amount of times that we’ve tried Dropbox, or a client shares a file on Dropbox, or a Google (solution) and then the downloads fail – it was really frustrating,” he says. “I remember on Google Drive if we had too many uploads or downloads going concurrently, something was going to fail.”

Think Out Loud needed a large file delivery service that was fast, reliable, and dead simple to use for multiple teams around the world. One that could deliver not only massive files, but multiple files concurrently and in an automated fashion.

In their search, Think Out Loud came across MASV.

MASV provided Schendel and his team with fast, reliable, and efficient delivery of their largest of large files — and a game-changing integration with their preferred media asset management tool, Frame.io.

MASV + Frame.io = A Magical Workflow

Because the Think Out Loud Studio team works with big brands on projects that span multiple departments, getting clear, immediate feedback and faster sign-offs through Frame.io is critical to each project’s success.

The team wondered if there was a simple large file transfer service in existence that also integrates with Frame.io to make their lives easier.

Turns out, there is: MASV.

And MASV + Frame.io = Magic!

The Think Out Loud team had one reaction after trying MASV:

“Oh my God, this is the easiest thing ever. It’s just the best.”

That was music to our ears! MASV’s ability to easily send and receive absolutely massive files blew Schendel and his team out of the water.

Think Out Loud’s MASV x Frame.io Workflow:

• A MASV Portal serves as a simple upload window Think Out Loud can use to easily collect large files and video content from clients and partners (for free).
• They set up Frame.io as a destination behind their MASV Portal.
• Their contributors’ files will be automatically delivered directly to their Frame.io account — no logins for contributors required.

MASV’s cloud integration with Frame.io further simplifies the company’s file transfer workflow, which is a huge benefit for their clients and partners, who simply upload their files to Think Out Loud’s MASV Portal.

“Massively” Simplified Workflows

All the agency needs to do is send their clients or partners a link to the Portal. The uploaded files are then automatically transferred to the agency’s Frame.io account without anyone having to lift a finger. 

“And from there, we can easily share it with anyone working on the project,” Schendel explains. “No matter where they have their files – which could be anywhere, from a storage service to a local machine – MASV can get them where they need to go.”

In fact, for one of their major projects — an expedition short film for Snowflake shot mostly in ProRes 422HQ with multi-participant remote recordings — the MASV and Frame.io integration was critical for getting the project to the finish line.

Schendel says “it’s just the greatest workflow” because they can just show up, shoot their footage, dump the cards, and upload.

MASV and Frame.io empower them to turn things around quickly, sometimes in just a few days, depending on the project.

Reliable, Stress-Free File Transfers

MASV Portals’ automated file deliveries and recoveries in case of network interruptions allow users to let file deliveries “cook overnight,” as Schendel puts it, rather than babysitting transfers in case of a hiccup.

“When it’s done, it directly emails the client or our team member we’re working with.”

Work Can Be Done All in One Place

MASV and Frame.io’s integration also allows the Think Out Loud Studio team to manage project contributors from the same place while ensuring all their assets ended up where they need to go, without the fuss of onboarding new users or the security issues of sharing logins. This gives them peace of mind and the ability to focus more on creating amazing content for the clients.

Easy Media Collaboration Over the Cloud

Think Out Loud now uses Frame.io as its repository for all its video content and MASV as the prime media ingest tool.

The combination of MASV and Frame.io provides “a seamless experience for any clients, contractors, or team members we’re working with – it helps keep the project moving along, whether we’re getting first looks at content or doing live reviews over Zoom,” Schendel says.

Snapshot of a MASV delivery automatically uploaded to a Frame.io project.

And aside from the workflow benefits mentioned above, other benefits Think Out Loud has realized from MASV and Frame.io include:

Huge Time and Cost Savings

“We did this super-long project that could easily have required four or five long emails on ‘how do you do this?’ or ‘Where do I put that?’ It’s just super straightforward, and we don’t have to spend time troubleshooting or working with clients on how to actually transfer files.”

No More Frustration

Think Out Loud Studio no longer has to juggle a mix of different tools such as WeTransfer, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Their work is ultra-simplified, allowing them to complete their projects quicker because their clients’ files are all in one place.

“Removing the complexity of us having to deal with different file transfer platforms has been great. We tell our clients and partners: ‘Whatever you have, get it up through MASV and we’re set to go.’”

International Collaboration

“I have teams working in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and a few other places,” says Content Director Avery Bazan.

“To be able to draw from anywhere in the world allows us to deliver a better product for the client because some of these things we simply wouldn’t have been able to afford if we were only working with people in Los Angeles or San Francisco. So it has enabled us to create better products.”

Attract and Work with the Best Talent

Think Out Loud now uses this ease of international collaboration as a way to market and grow its own business, both through its ability to produce higher-quality products and access talent from around the world.

“We’re leveraging MASV and Frame.io to build our business,” says Schendel. “You go where the best talent is, and we’re now able to say we have access to talent across the country and internationally. We don’t need to have team members be local anymore, because we have these two tools to access and easily transfer footage and files.”

▶️ More MASV x Frame.io: How Jellysmack Created a Gateway for Creators with MASV & Frame.io