Case study · Middletown, New York
A shopping mall wanted footage of people being surprised by an oversized present. That is a premise, not a story. What we made instead outperformed every video campaign they had ever run.
Platinum Hermes
The top honor the Hermes Awards give
6x engagement
Against their previous videos, after one day
Sales up
Compared to recent holiday seasons
8 days
From pre-production to television delivery
The brief
Galleria at Crystal Run was running a holiday campaign under the hashtag #SeasonsBiggestGift. They wanted a video of shoppers around the mall being surprised by a giant present.
It is a reasonable request and it would have been easy to shoot. It also would have been a reaction montage, and a reaction montage gives a viewer nothing to follow. You watch two surprises and your attention is gone.
So we said it would not work, and offered to write a story instead.
That is a risk in a first meeting. Some clients hear it as being difficult. The Galleria heard it out.
Story Anchors
Every decision from here runs through these. If a scene, a casting choice or a shot does not serve them, it does not go in.
Character
The same character worksheet we use on a documentary about a real person, filled in for someone who does not exist yet.
Question
Johnny
What does he want?
To find the biggest gift he can for his wife, and he finds it at the Galleria.
Why does it matter?
He has realized he bought a holiday gift for everyone except her.
What makes him hard to forget?
Over the top, comedic, driven, committed.
That character sheet is what produced the casting brief: Hispanic male, 40 to 50, a strong comedic actor who can carry physical comedy like Chaplin or Mr. Bean. You cannot write that brief until you know who the person is.
Structure
Twenty five percent beginning, fifty percent middle, twenty five percent ending. The comedy lives in the middle, where the gift refuses to fit anywhere.
Beat
What happens
Hook
Johnny at his desk, checking a list, finding one name unchecked.
Tension
He has forgotten to buy a gift for his wife, and he panics.
Struggle
He tries to push the gift. He steals a shopping cart. Karma arrives and the cart gets stolen from him.
Turn
A stranger helps him carry it out.
Ask
The hashtag and the mall website.
The film
Platinum Hermes Creative Award, the highest level the Hermes Awards give. Below it is the 30 second cut for television, produced from the same shoot day.
The schedule
This is what the planning buys. The storyboard and the shot list had already decided the edit, so the shoot was execution and post was assembly.
Day
What happened
Monday and Tuesday
Pre-production. Story Anchors, character, structure, shot list.
Wednesday
Casting auditions.
Friday
Talent and background actor contracts.
Monday
Production. One day, on location in the mall.
Tuesday
Client delivery.
Wednesday
Television cut delivered.
What happened
Over 2,300 views on Facebook in the first 24 hours. Six times the engagement of their previous videos after a single day. It performed significantly better than any video campaign the Galleria had ever done.
Sales and attendance were up that holiday season compared to recent years, and upper management green lit further video projects for the following year without being asked.
The comments are the part we still point at, because they are the thing a reaction montage never produces:
"I literally said out loud, uh oh, he's not gonna be able to fit it in the elevator. LOL I was invested!"
"Is this part of a series? Will we find out how he gets it home? Will we find out what is in it?"
People do not ask what happens next to a montage.
Why it worked
Nothing about the giant gift idea was expensive to fix. The prop was the same, the location was the same, the shoot was still one day. What changed was that somebody decided what the film was about before anyone turned a camera on.
That is the whole argument, and it is the same one behind our nonprofit fundraising films. Settle the story first and everything downstream gets cheaper, faster and better at once.
One shoot also produced two deliverables here, the online film and the television cut. That is Story Stacking, planned before the shoot rather than salvaged afterward.
Tell us what the campaign has to accomplish. We will tell you honestly whether the plan gets you there.
Most of these begin as a fifteen-minute call.
Last updated September 2026 · Nimble Dragon Studios · Monticello, New York
What happened
Over 2,300 views on Facebook in the first 24 hours. Six times the engagement of their previous videos after a single day. It performed significantly better than any video campaign the Galleria had ever done.
Sales and attendance were up that holiday season compared to recent years, and upper management green lit further video projects for the following year without being asked.
The comments are the part we still point at, because they are the thing a reaction montage never produces:
"I literally said out loud, uh oh, he's not gonna be able to fit it in the elevator. LOL I was invested!"
"Is this part of a series? Will we find out how he gets it home? Will we find out what is in it?"
People do not ask what happens next to a montage.
What they said
"The video, released through social & digital channels, was the first of its kind for the Galleria and exceeded expectations for reach and engagement."
Ethan Weber, Marketing Coordinator, Galleria at Crystal Run
First of its kind is the part worth sitting with. The result was good, but what actually changed was the type of thing the mall was willing to make.
Why it worked
Nothing about the giant gift idea was expensive to fix. The prop was the same, the location was the same, the shoot was still one day. What changed was that somebody decided what the film was about before anyone turned a camera on.
That is the whole argument, and it is the same one behind our nonprofit fundraising films. Settle the story first and everything downstream gets cheaper, faster and better at once.
One shoot also produced two deliverables here, the online film and the television cut. That is Story Stacking, planned before the shoot rather than salvaged afterward.
Tell us what the campaign has to accomplish. We will tell you honestly whether the plan gets you there.
Most of these begin as a fifteen-minute call.
Last updated September 2026 · Nimble Dragon Studios · Monticello, New York