Services
Ethos
Creative
Team
At the heart of 4th District is the drive to harness new methods, cutting-edge technologies, talented creatives, and better workflows to bring to life improbable ideas and create beautiful films. We are dreamers in concept and cynics in execution. From producing at the foot of K2 to filming underwater dives in Indonesia and shooting in Antarctica, our team has seen it all and we’re always itching for the next challenge. Our crew is composed of creatives who question production norms and push to create films faster and lighter, putting story at the forefront.
At 4th District, the workflow is our product. Our clients rely on us to deliver the 4th District benchmark of quality efficiently and regardless of changing timelines and circumstances. Art direction is crucial in translating your brand and project’s voice into a cohesive visual style. Aligning to pre-existing branding guides, or working with clients to create new ones, we work with you to tell your story in a voice that is authentic to brand identity. Whether you have a clear brand vision or a clean slate for new ideation, we’ll work together with mood boards, creative decks, and mock-up pieces, to make sure you are confident in the vision before production begins.
We pride ourselves on being nimble, both in our approach and in our personnel. Our tight team of multi-talented filmmakers have specialties in everything from lighting and set design to high-speed drone piloting and underwater dives. We scale crews according to each project’s needs, ensuring every set remains as efficient and cost-effective as possible. Learn more about the crew.
PROD.
Commercial
Documentary
Aerial & FPV
Photo
Specialty
Creating dynamic and concise branding pieces that keep brand identity and broader marketing campaigns at the forefront is an important part of our work. Our team is accustomed to shooting for many deliverable formats simultaneously: campaign anthems, vertical social content, and stills. Our end product aims to encapsulate the values and ethos of each of our brand clients. Through pre-production and frequent communication, we work to keep your vision in the headlights from day one.
Documentary storytelling is at the heart of 4th District’s work and the company’s inception. We believe there are countless stories worth telling, and have had the honor of telling a handful of these stories. From feature docs to branded mini-docs, film is the most powerful medium to bring a story to life and make it accessible to a broader audience.
With multiple commercially licensed drone pilots in both Boston and NYC, 4th District provides aerial imaging services for clients across a variety of environments. Our team specializes in traditional drone operation as well as FPV piloting, allowing us to capture high-speed, dynamic chase shots, fly through complex spaces, and thread the needle through tiny gaps. Our arsenal of nearly 30 different drones includes custom builds of all sizes to accommodate any situation. Our cine lifter builds can carry cinema cameras like the RED Komodo or BlackMagic 4K, even in high-speed and long-range applications, while sub-250 gram cinewhoops safely tackle proximity flying through crowds and live events. Our long-range builds are capable of flying over 20km round trips and have been tested at altitudes over 7,000 meters. Custom builds are also possible for projects with particularly unique logistical needs.
Campaigns requiring both still and video components have become more and more commonplace in recent years. Commercial shoots can be configured with strobes for efficient photo-only projects, or with continuous lighting sources to shoot still images in tangent with the video production. This allows us and the client to work more efficiently and schedule more ambitious timelines.
Bringing the quality of a traditional production far from the comfort of a film set and into the real world is a challenge at the heart of many of our projects. For the teams’ latest feature documentary Lighter Than Air, production was carried out on the remote Baltoro glacier of Pakistan. All gear, including power hungry drones, were powered by solar panels, and carried on mules. For Ravn Airlines, Jacob traveled unsupported through the remote Aleutian Islands with no trails or vehicles, without spotting another human in 10 days. Russell’s shoots have taken him more than 100 feet under the ocean, sailing the waters of Antarctica, and deep in the rainforests of Indonesia. Through his work, Peter has found himself in a helicopter over the Indian Ocean, waist deep in the everglades, and aboard the OceanXplorer. Bringing our collective experience together, 4th District is excited to tackle any objective, land or sea, no matter how ambitious.
Post
Editing is all about bringing a project full circle - it’s the second coat of paint to shape and detail stories of all sizes. Our editors in both Boston & NYC hone our post-workflow and are to deliver projects of all scale on quick turnaround timelines, and with one-click client reviews.
Even just a little sprinkle of motion graphics is a powerful tool to add a bite of energy to a project and stand out from the crowd. In tight turnaround commercial environments, figuring out the right scale and speed of the approach is key - sometimes simple is better, and other times we want to shoot for the moon. Our motion graphics team consists of several artists and freelancers each with unique styles, many of whom are interdisciplinary graphic designers and filmmakers too.
Achieving a high level of visual cohesion and polish is essential to our workflow at 4th District. All of the work of pre-production, art direction, cinematography, and lighting come to life in the color studio. We work with clients from the beginning of the coloring process in look development to ensure that the visual tone matches the desired result. Whether the project requires the drama of a film print emulation, the polish of a clean modern look, or anything in between, we’ll work to bring the footage to life in post. Our post-production work also extends to still images, retouching images through traditional methods and with the latest AI technology. For campaigns with both video and photo components, our workflow allows us to use the same node-structures or show LUTS for both elements, ensuring a cohesive look for all campaign deliverables
It’s a swipe-frenzy info-dense world where the first few seconds of a video are the most important. While we know long form projects will always have a place for audiences to converse with stories, we also understand the need to deliver projects in social-first formats as well. Our social media work has garnered over 20 Million views and 9 million likes.