Today we’d like to introduce you to Red Riding Hood Productions.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Before founding Red Riding Hood Productions, we (Cassandra Klepac and Amber Genuske) had a meet-cute collaborating on a photoshoot for Texas Monthly in the fall of 2018. We quickly realized there was just such an ease and a spark to our collaborative process. The shoot was seamless, we had a blast, and the final photos were beautiful. Not too long after that, we had a hangout over wine and Cassandra brought up the idea of starting a company together. We both had been independent freelancers acting as one-woman production bands, tackling video and photo projects top to bottom on our own. While we’re grateful for that backstory (it sure makes us resourceful and creative), we knew there was something bigger in working together as a team. Thus began this new journey. When sourcing names for this new venture, we looked to female directors, writers, and artists who inspired us. Not too long after the search began, we found Nikita Gill’s “Girls of the Wild.” We got goosebumps. Thus began Red Riding Hood Productions. We included the poem below because it’s just that good!
“THEY WON’T TELL YOU FAIRYTALES
OF HOW GIRLS CAN BE DANGEROUS AND STILL WIN.
THEY WILL ONLY TELL YOU STORIES
WHERE GIRLS ARE SWEET AND KIND
AND REJECT ALL SIN.
I GUESS TO THEM
IT’S A TERRIFYING THOUGHT,
A RED RIDING HOOD
WHO KNEW EXACTLY
WHAT SHE WAS DOING
WHEN SHE INVITED THE WILD IN.”
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When we think back on the history of Red Riding Hood, we immediately want to say that it’s been a smooth road and the only struggles are just normal growing pains in starting a company — learning, growing, making mistakes, and then learning from them, growing, rinse & repeat. Honestly, it feels like it’s been a smooth journey full of wins and joys and minimal struggles. But the reality is that we were only a year into our business when the pandemic hit.
It was scary, not going to lie. All of our projects from March to May 2020 were indefinitely put on hold or canceled. So, we adapted. We dug into our resourceful roots and figured out how to change how we do what we do. We started by reaching out to current and previous clients and offering consultations over Google Hangouts, helping them capture beautiful video and photo content with their iPhones that we would then edit, so they could still market and promote their products or services. We also began targeting national brands — pitching that they mail their products so we could capture beautiful content in our newly-built home studio.
But, even though there was an initial financial downturn, we were able to change the course and by June were back and busy as ever. We’ve always focused on slow sustainable growth, working with clients who align with our values and allowing time for the creative process to unfold without the stressors of having to hit hard-lined benchmarks for the expansion of our business. Even so, we’ve continually made progress and are now rounding out 2021 with a nearly 200% growth in our net income from 2020.
I guess what we’re trying to say is that — yeah, of course, we’ve had struggles, but it doesn’t really feel that way because we just did the damn thing and made it work. And, as cheesy as it sounds, we did it as a team — taking accountability for our missteps, constantly challenging ourselves to grow and push ourselves, being patient with slow but sustainable growth, and supporting each other through it all.
As you know, we’re big fans of Red Riding Hood Productions. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We like to think of Red Riding Hood Productions as a new kind of full-service creative agency and production house that specializes in video and photo content. We’re a team of heart-forward visual storytellers — utilizing empathy and rapport with our clients to pull out the full story of a service or brand. We’re a values-based biz and mesh best with people, brands, and agencies who want to make the world a little better and understand the power of creating a genuine connection.
We’re Jills of all trades, master of many, and proud to offer our clients help with every step of the production process meaning we coordinate from conception to inclusive casting to post-production. The exhaustive list includes creative concepting, scriptwriting, casting, location scouting, crew coordination, shooting, producing, directing, editing, color, and even animation.
Red Riding Hood prides itself on being able to tackle a wide range of projects from product shoots for small businesses to high-budget commercials for national brands. Meaning, Red Riding Hood is just Amber and Cassandra, but we have the community to build out a phenomenal crew to knock out big projects with ease.
Also, we just like to have fun and think our clients should too. We get sh*t done, make it look stunning with effective messaging, all the while having a good time on set.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
We are so grateful for where Red Riding Hood Productions is today. While it feels lucky, we like to credit our successes to years of hard work, being good at what we do, being nice, and keeping up with connections in our community.
Before we came together as Red Riding Hood, we individually had long-standing freelance careers where we collaborated with people, brands, and companies all across Texas and all around the country and world. I guess we can say that we’ve been lucky to have never had to do cold calls or emails to pitch ourselves for new work. We’ve been consistently busy through word of mouth from happy clients suggesting us as a production company and creative agency.
Three years into business, we are reaping the benefits of the seeds of hard work and being good people that we’ve sown over the many years.
We are super lucky to have met each other, though. We are lucky to have open and heartfelt communication (even in tough conversations), be able to collaborate so seamlessly, encourage each other to think in new and creative ways, and just want to keep pushing the project of our lives forward.
Contact Info:
- Email: howdy@redridinghoodproductions.co
- Website: https://redridinghoodproductions.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redridinghoodproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redridinghoodco
