Rockler To Fellow Makers: Behind the Scenes of a Rockler Video

You may have seen a new video on our rockler.com home page about making things together. I think it has a great backstory, so I wanted to share some behind-the-scenes details about it with you here.

When I tell people about Rockler, they often presume we're a big corporation. In truth, we're a family business, so recently we've been working on telling our company's story so people can really get to know us better.

During a recent meeting, I asked the group, "Guys, who are we? What makes us special?" The team's responses were incredible! In a nutshell, that we are a family of makers making things for other people to make with.

We then decided how best to share that with all of you 😉. Since we're a smaller company that is mindful of resources, we decided to make a short video about our brand and do all the production work in-house!

We first came up with narratives and used AI image generation to establish the look and feel of our story. Then the team created some basic, cute animations to refine the flow of the video.

We wrote and revised scripts for our scenarios, cast ourselves in the roles and then shot and edited the footage at our headquarters and at a local Rockler store.

Here are a few of the awesome Rockler crew who helped create this video!

Geoff Welch is our art director and an excellent photographer. He shoots all of Rockler's product images for the website, catalogs and brochures. He also is our videographer for many in-house videos, including this new one.

"Over the 12 years I've worked for Rockler, I learn something new about woodworking almost every day. I have photographed more than 500 Rockler proprietary products. To do that well, I have to learn what the product does and how it works, so I can accurately show the product in photos," Geoff says. "I am never bored. I enjoyed the technical process of shooting our video using some new equipment I have always wanted to try, including a camera shoulder rig for quick setups and to give the video more of a first-person view. The cinema lenses we used are so large that they needed their own support system!"

Ryan Pepper, who plays the role of retail manager in the video, is our retail visual merchandising manager. He's been with the company for 5-1/2 years.

"I love being a part of store development and seeing new visuals and plan-o-grams come to life in our retail stores," Ryan says. "I also love serving our customers and interacting with my co-workers each day, as well as the store personnel we serve."

Darren Younge, playing the role of interested customer, is our category manager for hardware and has been at Rockler for 1-1/2 years.

"My favorite thing about Rockler is the people — there are so many passionate and knowledgeable people at Rockler who are true experts and innovators in this space," Darren says. "I really enjoy the family-owned culture where the executive team is accessible. There is very little red tape in our company, and we can be nimble and react quickly to business needs in a rapidly changing world."

Anna Reyes, who stars as the customer service team member, started with Rockler 20 years ago next month.

"I work in our warehouse receiving department. My favorite thing about working here is the people," Anna says. "I'm from California, and the day I started working here was like a breath of fresh air! Everyone was very welcoming to me. I am so happy here. My favorite Rockler memory is when I met our founder Nordy and Bert Rockler. They were very welcoming. I knew right then that I would stay here for a long time. I think Ann Rockler Jackon is an amazingly strong woman and also very nice," Anna adds. "When I first got asked to help create this video, I was so excited and it was so much fun! I'm happy to help promote our company and products in any way. It is such a good feeling to know that I am helping share our company's story."

This is just a little about our company family; I'm hoping to introduce you to many more of us in upcoming newsletters!