Jaunty Crab Club

Services & engagement

How we
work.

Two ways to partner with the studio — depending on whether you’re building a brand over time, or telling one story carefully.

— 01

Monthly retainer.

For teams investing in long-term video mediums (YouTube, TikTok, Reels, Self-Hosted, etc). Three to five pieces per month, made by a small dedicated crew, with strategic input baked in.

FROM

/ month


— 02

Project work.

For one-off video projects with a defined scope and a real deadline. Brand films, launch pieces, documentary features — engagements that begin and end.

FROM

/ month

01 · Monthly retainer

A steady platform,
built on craft.

Choose the cadence that matches your ambition. Both tiers include the same level of craft — the difference is how much we’re making each month, and how deep we get on strategy.

Tier 01 — Essentials

For channels finding their voice.

A steady drumbeat of three videos per month, made well. The right starting point for teams who know they want video as a habit but haven’t built the muscle yet.

— $7,500

/ month

3 videos / month
Short + medium
Producer + editor, & optional add-on members (talent, writers, cinematographers, etc.)
Twice yearly
On request
3 months

Tier 02 — Studio

For channels going somewhere.

At least six videos per month, a dedicated team, and quarterly strategic reviews. For teams treating their channel(s) like a real product — with growth targets and editorial standards to match.

— $13,000

/ month

6 videos / month
Full range
Dedicated team

Quarterly + analytics

Included
6 months

CUSTOM

Need something between, above, or sideways from these — a ramped pilot, a seasonal push, a launch quarter at higher volume? We build custom retainers for teams whose work doesn’t fit the menu. Same craft, different cadence.

02 · Project work

When the story
deserves the long version.

Three project shapes we take on most often. Each is custom-scoped, but the rough territory looks like this — durations, budgets, and outputs that have held up across projects.

Brand film

The studio's calling card.

A 3 — 5 minute film that establishes who you are and why your work matters. Anchor piece for the homepage, the conference, the all-hands.

Range
timeline

Launch film

For when the work is new.

A film built around a product, feature, or moment. Tighter editorial, more focused on a specific message — but the same level of craft.
Range
timeline

Documentary feature

The long, careful look.

A 10 — 20 minute piece — sometimes longer. Built on real interviews, on-location shooting, and an editorial voice that takes time to find.
Range
timeline

Every project includes —

Capabilities

What's in the studio.

The full range of disciplines we handle in-house or with long-standing collaborators. Available as part of a retainer, included in projects, or as standalone engagements when you already have most of the picture.

01

Creative direction

Concept, tone, and editorial point of view.

02

Strategy & research

Channel positioning, audience, content models.

03

Scriptwriting

Long-form narration, interviews, voiceover.

04

Storyboarding

Visual scripting before the shoot.

05

Cinematography

Cinema-grade camera, lighting, on-location.

06

Editorial

Assembly, fine cut, narrative structure.

07

Color grading

DaVinci Resolve, calibrated suite.

08

Sound design

Original sonic identity per project.

09

Score & music

Original composition or curated licensing.

10

Motion design

Title cards, lower thirds, kinetic type.

11

Animation & VFX

2D explainer animation, light VFX work.

12

Talent direction

On-camera coaching for non-actors.

13

Live capture

Conference talks, events, multi-cam shoots.

14

Post-only

Editorial on footage you’ve already shot.

15

Channel ops

Thumbnails, metadata, publishing, analytics.

Engagement cadence

From first call
to first cut.

How a typical project moves through the studio. Retainers follow a similar shape, on a monthly loop instead of a one-time arc.

— 01

Discover

A long, unhurried conversation. We learn what you’re actually building, what you’ve tried before, and where the story is.
Week 0

— 02

Shape

Concept, treatment, script. We propose a specific angle and defend it with reasoning. You give feedback. We iterate until it’s right.
Week 1 — 2

— 01

Make

On location with a small senior crew. Edit rooms where frames matter. Color, sound, and score given the same care as the words.

Week 3 — 7

— 01

Deliver

Final cut, final color, final mix. Three revision rounds built into the schedule. All deliverables in every format you need.
Week 8 — 9

— 01

Reflet

A debrief once the work is in the world. What landed, what didn’t, what we’d do differently next time. Optional but recommended.
Week 12+

Constraints

What we
don't do.

Saying no is part of the work. These are the projects we turn down, every time, whatever the budget.

No

We don’t take on more than three retainers at any one time. The math of being a small studio breaks the moment we try. 

No

We don’t subcontract creative direction. The director on the call is the director on set is the director in the edit.

No

We don’t ship work we wouldn’t watch ourselves. If the cut isn’t there yet, the deadline moves before the standard does.

No

We don’t compete on price. There are studios who will do more for less. We are not them, and we’ll happily refer you.

Common questions

Things
people
ask on the first
call.

If your question isn’t here, it’s probably worth a 30-minute call to discuss. Just reach out.

Who actually owns the finished work?

You do. All commissioned work is delivered with full ownership transferred to your team — the master files, all assets, and unrestricted usage rights across every channel.

We retain the right to show finished work in our portfolio and at industry events, with your permission. If a project requires complete confidentiality, we accommodate that for a small adjustment to the engagement.

For projects, typical lead time is 4 — 8 weeks from signed agreement to first day of pre-production. We work with a small number of clients at once, so calendar pressure is real.

For retainers, onboarding takes a few weeks, generally, long enough to do the strategy work properly. From onboarding to production can vary wildly, depending on your needs. We’ll always be honest about what’s available when you call.

Yes — most of our work is shot on location, and we’ve worked with clients across the US, Europe, and a handful of trickier places. Travel is billed at cost on top of the project fee, with a clear pre-approved budget.

Great — most of our best work is alongside good internal teams, not replacing them. We typically come in for the pieces that need a different level of polish, or capacity beyond what an internal team can deliver in a given quarter.

We’re equally happy doing post-only work on footage you’ve already shot, or strategy and concept development without production attached.

For project work, $12K is a practical floor — below that, the math of doing the work properly stops working out.

For retainers, the Essentials tier is the entry point. We sometimes take on a smaller pilot project as a way of testing fit before committing to a longer relationship — happy to discuss what that could look like.

Both retainer tiers have a stated minimum commitment (3 months for Essentials, 6 for Studio). After that, retainers run month-to-month with 30 days’ notice from either side.

If something isn’t working sooner than that, we’d much rather know early — we’d usually try to reshape the engagement before walking away from it.

Projects are typically billed 50% on signing, 50% on delivery, with milestone variations for longer engagements. Retainers are billed monthly in advance. We accept ACH and wire — no payment processors taking a cut.

Ready to talk?

Tell us what
you're building.

The first call is 30 minutes, no pitch deck, no obligation. We talk through what you’re trying to make, and figure out if we’re the right team for it.
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