One small Rochester business makes big splash in video streaming world

So, here’s a question regarding a local small business:

Is Steven James Media Group a marketing firm that tells stories through words and pictures while also producing motion pictures?

Or is it a globally recognized filmmaking studio that doubles as marketing agency from its downtown Rochester office on North Water Street?

The answer(s) is yes.

Producing films that impact lives is the passion that drives the creatives at Steven James Media. But the staff also channels that same zeal to create impactful video spots for a variety of firms, from Adrian Jules and three+one to nonprofits and political campaigns.

“We do have all of the ‘traditional’ agency capabilities, but our roots are in video production and storytelling, and we try to approach everything we do with that,” said Luci Breuer, president of Steven James Media Group.

“We have these two simultaneous channels where we have all the foundations of a marketing media agency,” she said, “but once every few years we’re putting out a major motion picture that has been produced, created and talent-sourced all from right here in Rochester.”

The group has made three films: “King’s Faith,” released in 2013; “Wildflower,” released in 2016; and “The Mystery of Her,” which debuted this year.

And these aren’t just movies that get a cursory look from a few thousand film buffs. Over the summer “The Mystery of Her” was the ninth-most streamed movie on Netflix. A small company doing big things.

“It’s no fluke that we can make a little movie called “The Mystery of Her” out of Rochester and have it reach five million people down in Latin America and millions across the globe,” said producer/director Nicholas DiBella. “It’s just based on creating awareness for that movie.”

They do the same for clients, essentially with the same general concept: Everyone has a good story to share.

“We have a passion for telling stories,” DiBella said. “When we have a client come in, it’s, ‘How can we tell their story, how can we get to the core emotional aspect of what their business is?’ ”

The folks at Steven James need to know those facets of a business because they understand that’s precisely what will resonate with viewers.

“Every company has a story; they’re all people and I think that’s how we connect with people,” said Paul Root, the agency’s vice president of content. “So many people start a company and they have their dream like everyone does when they start a company. Then you get caught up in business and you forget, ‘Why did I start this?’ We try to bring them back to that, and then we can convey that in the messaging we relate for them.”

The diverse work background of the Steven James staff provides unique perspective. This isn’t a group that set marketing as their career ambition. Rather, their arrival at Steven James Media morphed out of life experiences.

There’s a former motion picture executive from Eastman Kodak Co. (cinematographer Chris Hart). There’s a former staffer from the governor’s office (vice president of branding Thom Georgia). There’s a former literature professor (Root).

And then they also have the director and writer of movie scripts in DiBella, who three decades ago worked as an engineer at Kodak.

“Nick will bring an interesting perspective because he’s so used to listening and finding a story, he’s used to looking at it from an audience perspective,” Breuer said.

The agency was founded in 2017 as a complement to James Pavone’s other agency, YPC Media, an online marketing firm. Since YPC isn’t set up to take on big video shoots, Pavone wanted to make sure he could meet those needs for existing or new clients.

“We had clients looking for more and I didn’t want to pass these people up anymore,” Pavone said, “so let’s go ahead and create a production company that handles these bigger shoots.”

Since they were already making films, it became the perfect launching pad, especially since the offerings of the agency and the idea behind the movies would be the same. The agency is named after Pavone’s late uncle Steven James Pavone, who died in 2016.

“He always wanted us to follow where our passion was going,” said Pavone, the firm’s managing partner. “Our initial intent was to create stories that impact lives. That was our measuring stick. Now, if the movie was successful across the globe, that’s a bonus. But our movies are rooted in the heart and compassion and empathy we have for others.”

“King’s Faith” and “Wildflower” both are faith-based movies. “The Mystery of Her” examines the pressures of being a teen through the lead character, who loses her memory in a car accident and gets a second chance at a more memorable life.

When making a film, they raise funding and operate on a budget of around $1 million, Pavone said. The formula has been successful.

“If we were going to be able to impact someone’s life with the message of hope, then people wanted to get behind that,” Pavone said. “There is a provision in there (the funding contract) that we hope to give them their money back. But with the first film they knew they were investing in lives and not the film itself.

“After that first film, they had gained some trust in Nick and I that their money was being spent on impacting lives. There are local people who have been blessed, and they want to bless others and we’re able to do that through film.”

The films were all shot locally, with most of the cast from Rochester, but lead roles have been nationally sourced.

Once filming and editing is completed — all in a 28-day window with 60 people on the acting and production payroll — the marketing process begins. And who better to market the product than the marketing company that just made the movie.

They have tried hitting the big screen in the past, “but trying to release a movie at the traditional box office is very expensive,” DiBella said.

That’s why they opted for online streaming, along with television such as Lifetime.

“With streaming, a little company like us, we can put a movie up on a shelf on Amazon or Vudu or have it stream on Netflix, and we can compete for the same clicks as some of the bigger movies,” DiBella said. “I might not get your $4.99 to rent our movie this week, but within the next few years I may get it; it’s all based on marketing.”

Plus, the movie is always available. If a film doesn’t perform well in the theater, the operator was going to drop it quickly.

“You’re really never going to get kicked off of that streaming service,” DiBella said. “So now it’s your job to drive your audience toward your movie, and that’s what we do very well through Steven James.”

Their ability to drive movie-watchers to “The Mystery of Her” surprised even them, however.

“It was the picture of our poster, it was our trailer and our log line, and probably the marketing we had done that created awareness for our movie,” DiBella said. “All of a sudden all of these people in Latin America start streaming that movie to the point where it becomes the No. 9 movie in the world.

“It just blew our minds. But I will tell you, the Amazon sales of this movie and the streaming of this movie in the U.S. has been very strong.”

They use the same concepts to drive a marketing campaign for clients.

“The place that started as a film studio, that had to learn how to distribute its own movie, and took a creative-agency turn, never got caught up in the commercialization of their work,” Georgia said.

“And I think that speaks to why we do so well on the client side. We continue to feed our own passion with our own projects that become our oats, and it’s this beautiful cycle where we expend the creative energy for the benefit of our clients but then we fill our cup back up with being able to tell a story that matters to all of us. It’s almost this engrained circle of perpetual magic that happens here.”

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