Pilot Content is an entertainment marketing agency, producing creative content for the top streamers and TV channels in the US. From consumer-facing advertising to industry-facing trade materials and internal marketing communications, Pilot’s creative production company and branding agency produces high-quality, customized content (photography, A/V, print, digital, radio, etc.) for the ever-changing world of media and entertainment.
Over the years, Pilot Content has used many different shared storage solutions and asset management platforms for collaborative workflows. Like many others, Pilot Content was forced to improvise and adapt to a remote collaboration model in 2020.
A brave new world
Owner and Chief Creative Officer Louis Venezia says, “As soon as the pandemic hit, we moved everyone out of the office, which rendered our current shared storage and asset management platform useless. We managed with portable drives for a while, but as time passed it became clear that we required a more efficient, sustainable, and long-term approach to our operations moving forward. We knew we wanted a system that was integrated and innovative, and many of the solutions on the market lacked the sophistication that we would later find in the ELEMENTS system. We also didn’t want to commit to anything without establishing first what our situation would be post-pandemic. So we waited and surveyed the market while continuing to use drives, but due to the technology and security requirements of our clients, the time soon came to make a decision, and when it did, ELEMENTS was the obvious choice.
So we waited and surveyed the market while continuing to use drives, but due to the technology and security requirements of our clients, the time soon came to make a decision, and when it did, ELEMENTS was the obvious choice.
Louis Venezia, Owner and Chief Creative Officer, Pilot Content
The key benefit of ELEMENTS and flexible cloud resources is that they allow us to be fully remote, but are adaptable to our future needs and our plans to move back to a physical office space. It works in both contexts seamlessly. The economic benefits of cloud platform technologies are also an important factor from our point of view because we can expand and contract as needed.
The truth is, we were always curious about remote cloud-based production because we worked out of both New York and Los Angeles, with editors in both cities. Once COVID-19 happened, it forced the issue. ELEMENTS Cloud was a dream come true, allowing us to completely decentralize everything. Without ELEMENTS, we’d be committed to another on-premise solution that would limit our flexibility and potential.”
Flexibility is the key
Senior Creative Director and Editor Marybeth Benivegna adds, “The flexibility of ELEMENTS workspaces, templates and permission controls, allow us to efficiently maintain the security requirements specific to each of our clients. It also provides us with many options to safeguard material coming in and out. The ELEMENTS team delivered a thorough training experience and with a few follow-up questions, we were ready to go! The transition was relatively seamless.
The ease of sharing projects has been invaluable. To have an editor be able to effortlessly jump into a project helps us to be more dynamic and efficient and allows much more freedom and flexibility for our staff. Not only is it essential that we have our creative team sharing centralized storage and asset management again, but the Media Library tools from ELEMENTS take creative collaboration to the next level.”
Not only is it essential that we have our creative team sharing centralized storage and asset management again, but the Media Library tools from ELEMENTS take creative collaboration to the next level.
Marybeth Benivegna , Senior Creative Director and Editor, Pilot Content
Executive Creative Director Courtney Cosentino conducts her share of the workflow exclusively through the ELEMENTS Media Library.
“ELEMENTS has streamlined our entire workflow. Previously, users would have to individually download assets to their local computers, resulting in delays, backlogs and security concerns. Now we have easy streaming access to all assets with no downloads. Editors can also access logging notes in real-time while users are screening.
The ability to watch at increased speed with audio is a game changer for screening source materials. We’ve had to work with many similar interfaces while accessing our clients‘ various systems. ELEMENTS Media Library was easy to navigate and intuitive. Ultimately, that made the learning curve short and adoption even quicker.”
Owner Louis Venezia adds, “ELEMENTS seems to me to be the most adaptable system on the market and the solution that will future-proof Pilot Content, no matter how large or complicated our growth profile becomes.”
ELEMENTS is proud to partner with Pilot Content to navigate ever-evolving workflows and client demands.
ELEMENTS seems to me to be the most adaptable system on the market and the solution that will future-proof Pilot Content, no matter how large or complicated our growth profile becomes.
Louis Venezia, Owner and Chief Creative Officer, Pilot Content
