To challenge the film production status quo, Blue Ox Films has created a highly automated, real-time creative workflow built to deliver outstanding content as efficiently as possible.
Founded in 2017 with the intent to consolidate and streamline long, complicated film production schedules, Blue Ox Films tells stories for high-performing companies, products, and people. Its atypical production processes bring together a diverse range of talent to produce consistent, high-end content.
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United States
To challenge the film production status quo, Blue Ox Films has created a highly automated, real-time creative workflow built to deliver outstanding content as efficiently as possible.
Google Workspace Results
Reduce time to production with 50+ document templates
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Delivered 750+ projects entirely through Gmail and Google Chat communication channels
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Prepped for, filmed, and cut a short film with a six-hour notice using Google Workspace templates
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Democratized access to process information by eliminating access permissions challenges
"Workflows win championships," says Taylor Kavanaugh, Co-founder and Executive Producer at . He doesn't just say this about his own company; it's a value system Blue Ox Films has adopted alongside its high-performance clientele — the likes of which include major athletics brands, national sports leagues, and emergency first responders. These teams do well under pressure by building playbooks that lead to repeatable successes.
Blue Ox Films started its journey as a mobile studio operated by Kavanaugh and his co-founder Matt Wilcox to manage end-to-end film production. As it's evolved from a two-man team to a multi-studio organization, it's continued to look for more ways to differentiate itself in the competitive film industry. "We want to challenge the industry status quo," Kavanaugh shares. "We have a multi-faceted team of creatives and engineers that can merge the art and the science of production together into a best-in-class experience." To deliver on that promise and maintain the same quality and performance standards across every single production, Blue Ox Films needs tools that allow its diverse team to communicate efficiently, protect its intellectual property, and constantly find new ways to grow.
Creating consistent content with dependable tools
“Maintaining high standards as we grow requires tools that help us stay consistent. We wouldn't be able to produce the volume or quality of work at our current pace if it weren't for Workspace.” - Taylor Kavanaugh, Co-founder and Executive Producer, Blue Ox Films
Film industry workflows are typically distributed across multiple companies and teams. When agencies, production companies, creatives, post-production, and more all have their own processes — from file naming conventions to communication methods — "standardizing" is all but impossible. Files are regularly lost in email inboxes, people either have too much access to information or not enough, and these gaps create delays in production timelines. "Production companies and other teams so often operate just in messaging apps and emails," Kavanaugh says. "Documents are everywhere, and when the time comes to deliver something, you just can't find information."
In its journey to consolidate these disparate steps into one organization, Blue Ox Films chose to adopt as its collaboration solution. "Maintaining high standards as we grow requires tools that help us stay consistent," Kavanaugh says. "There are no other tools as complete and robust for creatives and beyond than Google Workspace. We wouldn't be able to produce the volume or quality of work at our current pace if it weren't for Workspace."
With Google Workspace, Blue Ox Films' team has access to its library of more than 752 projects, so even as new producers join the organization, they can see what preceded them and replicate at scale. This record includes more than 50 templates for everything from budgeting and scheduling to creative planning all designed with , , , and . "We've automated our kick-off process using solutions. When we have a new project come in, within two minutes, we have all of the relevant templates duplicated, added to a folder, and a Chat space set up with anyone working on the assignment," Kavanaugh shares.
Accelerating project delivery while protecting IP
“We've automated our kick-off process. When we have a new project come in, within two minutes, we have all of the relevant templates duplicated in a Google Drive folder.” - Taylor Kavanaugh, Co-founder and Executive Producer, Blue Ox Films
With these workflows in place, Blue Ox Films is able to meet tight deadlines at a moment's notice. Recently, Kavanaugh received a late-night email from the CMO of Jordan Brand to create content around their "The One" basketball tournament. The brand needed a production crew on-site at the Nike headquarters in six hours and a 90-second ad spot to go with it. "I would be lucky to pull off a project like this one in six days using traditional production standards," Kavanaugh says. "With Google, I was able to get all of our documents and project management systems up and running in seconds, our crew was on the ground for the shoot the next morning, and the edit was ready by the end of the day."
While speed is invaluable for the Blue Ox Films team, properly handling clients' sensitive data during these urgent projects is also non-negotiable. For example, the team worked closely with Barack and Michelle Obama, the United States Air Force, and Netflix to produce a documentary series. "There's no wiggle room within that group of individuals to not have complete control over our information security. I know I can trust that our data in Google Workspace is safe," says Kavanaugh.
Pushing the production envelope with generative AI
“I was able to get all of our project management systems running in seconds, our crew was on the ground the next morning, and the edit was ready by the end of the day.” - Taylor Kavanaugh, Co-founder and Executive Producer, Blue Ox Films
Since integrating into their workflows, the Blue Ox Films' team has been able to make even faster strides in standardizing and speeding up its production timelines. "Generative and agentic tools such as Gemini are leading to direct improvements in the quality and volume of stories that we can tell," Kavanaugh says. The entire team is currently using Gemini to draft and refine emails, craft sensitive client communications, and ensure messages are delivered effectively. "My Gmail is our connection to our clients, and Gemini is helping perfect those communications more quickly which means we have time back to create. I'm excited to see what's coming next."
Some of the next steps in Blue Ox Films' pipeline include automating more tedious tasks, such as data entry, budgeting, and scheduling, freeing up its team to focus on being creative. One especially time-consuming part of the team's production routine involves planning and booking travel. "Producers and production managers shouldn't have to be travel agents," Kavanaugh says. "Using Gemini to plan, schedule, and book means our creatives can keep their attention on producing great content."
Looking ahead, Blue Ox Films plans to use AI solutions to analyze its massive database of historical projects to further perfect its existing templates and systems and use this data to continue to improve the company's decision-making and storytelling. "We eliminate copying and pasting operations documents by building a fully automated, elegant operations system, so filmmakers can focus on telling the best possible stories," Kavanaugh says. "I cannot overstate how essential Google Workspace and are in that journey."