Meet Tessa Schutz of Kranbox in Orange County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tessa Schutz.

Tessa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was always the creative type – I started out making claymation animation for fun while in college. After college, I landed a dream job in Marketing at Visit Anaheim. I played around with video while in that position and when I asked if I could upgrade my software and purchase professional equipment, my boss said yes! I was able to teach myself how to edit and shot and brought video marketing to the company. Five years later, I quit that job and started my own company, Kranbox as a self-taught videographer/editor/photographer.

Kranbox is a video production company and we do promotional videos, stop motion animation, music videos and photography.

It was scary to leave a Monday-Friday job and go 100% on my own. I already had a few clients that I was working with part time. I gained traction fast and it was all simply through word-of-mouth! After about a year (maybe a little less). I was making decent money and getting consistent work. I went from making budget-friendly YouTube commercials for transportation companies in the beginning, to making large-scale music videos and being the official production crew at large conferences and events. I work on small animation projects for social media and create larger scale claymation projects still for fun.

Today, I almost have too much work to handle! I have four contracted employees that I hire on a project basis. I’ve done work with companies such as Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, Amanda Castro Band, Toyota, Kia, Mazda, Anaheim Resort Transportation, Aeries Software, and many many more.

I work from home, I work for myself and I work when I want. I have a job where I get to be creative and work with extremely creative people. Life couldn’t be better!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
After about five-six months after I quit my full-time job and started my own company, I was broke. I basically used up my savings on bills and rent and was lacking in the money coming in. I had to move out of my awesome, but expensive, apartment in Downtown Orange and move further away from where I wanted to be. I was able to rent a house from a friend at a low rate and catch up while living there.

The problem was I didn’t have that many clients just yet and I wasn’t charging them enough for my time. I was almost afraid to ask for more money than I was used to asking for. I usually low-balled myself to ensure the client would choose me. After a time, I learned from experience and from other professionals in the industry what average rates are and what people are willing to pay for quality work.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Kranbox is a video production and photography company. We do all kinds of promotional videos and specialize in conferences and events and most recently, music videos and food videos.

I like to say that I specialize in stop motion but most of the time my animation projects are for fun. I am currently working on a big one using over 1,500 bottle caps!

Kranbox is known for its creativity. The name, “Kranbox” comes from my maiden name, Kranz. I was always teased a kid and called “Crayon box!” As an adult, I thought that name was pretty cool and used it to my advantage. The name “Kranbox” is creative in itself, just like our team, and we are a colorful blend of creative talent!

We do photos and videos for conferences. We capture the attendees having fun, learning, networking and create a video that excites them to come back next year. I’ve worked at events such as NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants), VidCon, Blizzcon, NACUFS, ACBSP and more.

We’ve worked with the very talented Amanda Castro Band and create music videos for her jazz covers of popular songs.

We’ve worked with a lot of restaurants, attractions and destinations in the Anaheim and Orange County area. We are very well versed in tourism marketing and have created some very fun projects with all sorts of exciting characters from Knights and Pirates to Snoopy and monsters.

I’ve done editing work for large, popular car companies in Canada – so if you watch a tutorial video on how to use your new car’s controls, that’s from me!

We also make slow motion food videos (AKA Food Porn) with the goal of making the viewer really want to eat.

What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was just a ball of creativity. I played in the school orchestra and hung out with all the music and drama kids. I wasn’t a popular kid, I was honestly kind of a nerd, but me and my nerd friends had a ton of fun. I painted, I drew comics, I knitted and I sewed. I was never into sports, unless you consider marching band a sport.

As a little kid, I recorded my voice on cassette tapes and acted like I hosted a radio station. I made about 20 tapes. As a bigger kid, I wrote down everything in notebooks and filled them with doodles and information about my neighbors and friends (I was going for the whole “Harriet the Spy” thing).

I originally wanted to be an animator when I grew up, or an Imagineer at Disney. I dreamed of working at Disneyland (Once I did, I learned it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but that’s a different story).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kranbox.com
• Phone: 714 905 9308
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @kranbox
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kranboxvideo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kranbox
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kranbox-orange
• Other: https://vimeo.com/kranbox

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