CHALLENGE: Third Shift Creative’s remote-first team struggled to transfer and manage large media files since being founded in 2017. Over the years, the team explored traditional solutions like mailing hard drives, Google Drive, Dropbox, and even a competitive cloud storage solution, but all introduced inefficiencies, like unreliable delivery, disorganized file structures, or slow speeds. With a fully dispersed creative team, Third Shift needed a performant, reliable, and intuitive solution that could enable video post production from anywhere.

WHY SUITE? Suite’s cloud storage provided the speed and reliability Third Shift had been seeking to power its fully remote workflow. Unlike other storage solutions, Suite enables seamless file organization, real-time collaboration, and quick access for remote editors—no matter their location. Suite quickly became Third Shift’s storage foundation for high-pressure projects, allowing them to confidently deliver. Thanks to Suite’s responsive customer support and battle-tested platform, Suite offers Third Shift peace of mind to focus on storytelling rather than logistics.

KEY INSIGHTS:

• Fully remote agency with up to 30+ creatives
• Saved 2+ days ingesting media directly with Suite Connect
• Suite's file streaming outperformed competitive cloud storage solutions
• Centralized file access for remote users editing in Adobe Creative Cloud
• Project-level permissions keep editors focused on the right tasks

“In a situation where we didn’t have time to waste, Suite was the foundation.”

— Andrew Rurik, Founder/Director, Third Shift Creative

Third Shift Creative is built on its network of self-proclaimed “multi-hyphenates” that span every aspect of video production, creative services, and post production, and a purist’s love of film. Founded by Director/Producer Andrew Rurik in 2017, the intention behind this remote-first creative agency was always to become a scalable, dispersed collective of creatives with a universal admiration for the craft, forever hungry to take on the next bespoke job.

Today, Rurik and his extended team complete a variety of commercial video work, from initial production planning, set design, and script-writing to final color grading, mixing, and editing. Driven by a few core internal project managers and supplemented by a large network of talent, Third Shift hand-selects creatives from its wide-ranging pool of remote artists, editors, filmmakers, and more, scaling and adapting its roster to fit the needs of each task.

“We produce brand-driven, highly practical, human-first storytelling. We can scale up to 30 people for a production, but we can be as small as two people,” says Rurik. “We’re incredibly agile—we can slot into any part of the process.”

Challenges For Fully Remote Teams

Driven by an innate love of film & video, Rurik runs the show at Third Shift with a smile and insatiable creative zeal. Working with the best talent you can find on a range of video projects for a variety of clients—what’s not to love?

Well, until now, Third Shift’s workflows crumbled under the stress of these fully remote workflows, leaving Rurik to scrap together solutions. “There are more remote-first creative teams than ever... getting assets from point A to point B quickly and reliably has been the challenge,” explains Rurik. “We’ve been remote from the start. That means we’ve been trying to figure this problem out for years now. You name it, we’ve tried it.”

Facing perpetual struggles sharing media between his network of distributed creatives, Rurik kept his ear to the ground seeking solutions. Starting with hard drives, Rurik would send media through the mail “praying it would arrive” without issue; Third Shift then tried Google Drive as its main storage solution, which had its own issues. “It’s incredibly frustrating when you’re downloading assets and it shows up discombobulated. When you’re burning time relinking files or dealing with logistics, that’s time you don’t get to spend creating,” says Rurik.

Testing Suite Against Competitors

Third Shift’s team lives in the Adobe Creative Suite, utilizing Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and more, to craft final deliverables. When a competitive cloud storage platform touted a solution, Rurik was quick to try it. But between a clunky installation process and real-world speed tests that didn't match the hype, the results were mixed.

"The idea was there—but the whole concept of moving to a fully remote workflow is to save time, and if the tools we’re using aren’t saving us time, we’re going to look for something else," Rurik says.“We were recommended to try Suite from another friend in post production, who specifically noted Suite's higher speeds. Once we got things dialed, Suite has been faster than anything we’ve tried. If there’s ever any technical gremlins that pop up, we also know we have someone we can talk to. Suite’s customer service team has been incredibly responsive.”

Letting performance dictate Third Shift’s decision to adopt Suite’s cloud storage with file streaming made the decision easy. Finally, without question, Rurik could establish the server-style, accessible-from-anywhere cloud storage solution that connects his remote team to the files they need to create. “In post production, every minute is valuable. We’d been on the hunt for a while,” he says. “Suite is doing a really excellent job of addressing this very specific but very wide-spread conundrum that so many of us in creative world have been trying to figure out.”

Tight Turnarounds on Suite

Adopting Suite has since instilled a sense of confidence within Third Shift Creative’s remote post production staff, even when facing tight deadlines. With all working files stored and edited directly on Suite, Rurik and his team can easily maintain the correct file architecture during flight, collaborate effortlessly, and move faster than ever before.

For a recent project with restaurant chain, Mendocino Farms, last-minute scheduling and a tight, five-day turnaround put the cloud workflow on Suite through a real-world stress-test. Suite acted as the reliable backbone of the team’s workflow, allowing Third Shift shoot, upload, edit, and finalize deliverables all within a matter of days.

“We went from finalizing the concept to 'ready to roll' cameras in about 48 hours,” says Rurik. “We needed to shoot, get content into editing and media off for revisions quickly, so our client had what they needed for the launch.”

Shooting in Los Angeles and editing in Chicago, the team turned to Suite Connect for effortless file transfers, saving hours, even days, of precious time while the clock was ticking. Once files were loaded into Suite, his remote editors could hop in next-day and start the process of getting the client assets for review.

“We had 10 calendar days from when we stopped rolling—really just five business days—to get everything back to the client,” continues Rurik. “We wrapped on a Friday night, and trying to mail a drive would have left us maybe just three business days to cut that whole slate of production assets. Being able to cut down the time it takes to get footage into post was mission critical for us. In a situation where we didn’t have time to waste, Suite was our foundation.”

Getting Back to the Flow State

With Suite functioning as Third Shift Creative’s central source of truth for working media, Rurik now manages his fully remote team exactly how he had imagined. No longer confined by the limitations of Third Shift's tech stack, Rurik can access the best people for the job—no matter their location—easily onboard new talent, apply the appropriate permissions, and keep everyone on-track with a well-organized cloud storage solution.

“We want to hire people that are absolutely at the top of their craft. Before Suite, I was limited to how fast I could get a drive to someone or if they lived in Los Angeles, how quickly I could hand-off a drive to them directly,” says Rurik. “Being a remote-first company using Suite enables efficient onboarding that lets us find the best talent to tell those stories from anywhere in the world. The idea has existed, but until Suite arrived, you had to hack it together.”

From his seat overseeing the post production process alongside production coordinators and lead editors, to the end-users streaming media directly from the cloud to complete their edits, Rurik and his team experience the benefits of Suite’s cloud storage on a daily basis. Not only does it offer peace of mind, Suite integrates so seamlessly into the workflow that it feels like it just disappears altogether.

“It’s amazing how little I’ve had to think about it,” Rurik says. “I just drag a file into Suite, and once it’s uploaded, we can work on it. It’s like good lighting or good editing in a movie—you don’t necessarily notice it when it’s done right, but you do when it’s done poorly. For a tool like this, that’s what you want… you don’t want to have to think about it.”

“Even for the contractors we work with in Los Angeles, it’s incredible the time and money we’re saving not having to ship drives, wait for downloads, or re-organize files,” he continues. “Having the peace of mind to pull someone off a project is also really nice. On Suite, I can tell editors exactly where we need to them to work; when the project is done, access can be instantly revoked, which is great when we’re working with big clients who need that level of security.”

Final Thoughts

With Suite acting as the central storage location for all of Third Shift’s working media, the team can shoot and edit efficiently, hit tight deadlines, and make the most of every bespoke proposal. Now, when clients approach Rurik, they’re even surprised by how confidently Third Shift can accommodate quick turnarounds.

“What I feel confident promising for turnarounds has made clients say, ‘Are you sure?’” notes Rurik. “When they ask about a certain timeline and we can say, ‘We got you,’ that makes all the difference. Knowing that we have Suite in our back pocket to facilitate getting clients their deliverables on-time, or even early, is really helpful.”

Running a fully remote creative agency takes creative drive, an open-mind, and plenty of coordination—streamlining file management, user onboarding, and media access on Suite turns the focus away from the logistics and back to the creative process. Finding a cloud storage platform to facilitate efficient post production has been a long journey for Third Shift; now, Rurik and his cohort of creatives are making the most of their workflow despite any distance.

“It’s important to experiment with cloud solutions because they allow us to find the best talent,” says Rurik. “When you’re reliant on someone being in the office, you’re putting artificial limitations (and often additional costs) on yourself. Battle-testing Suite has proved its reliability, and that gives us the confidence to bring in someone from the Pacific Northwest, New York, London, or anywhere… we can totally do that. Distance is no longer a consideration.”

Better yet, working from Suite puts Rurik and Third Shift in a position to extend opportunities to talented freelancers who live outside the proximity of the media hotspot that exists in Los Angeles. Democratizing the media space by giving everyone a chance to get involved on a project, Suite’s cloud storage is now helping Rurik realize one of his biggest objectives as a studio lead—building a nimble, remote-first creative studio that's able to unlock a more collaborative environment centered around the freedom to create.

“While Los Angeles is home to great talent, there are also amazing people in other places. If we can facilitate opportunities for people, that’s something I want to be a part of—that’s something we believe in.”

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