Aumen Film Co

Aumen Film Co Aumen Film Co is a film and video production company led by director Chris Aumen.

They work with clients to take branded content, commercial, and documentary projects from ideas to final products ready for theater, broadcast, and online release. An award-winning film and video production company, Aumen Film Co partners with agencies and clients to create content that engages their target audience.

10/10/2025

I did it. I’m famous.

(Kidding, kinda.)

One of my videos just went what I’d call niche viral — and I learned a few things.

1️⃣ Post everywhere, every time — you never know where it’ll land.
2️⃣ Be consistent even when you don’t feel like it.
3️⃣ Niche viral > viral — relevant views beat random ones.
4️⃣ Hook is everything — especially on discovery platforms.
5️⃣ Done > perfect.

What’s the thing that’s actually holding you back from posting more often?

The first 3 seconds decide if your ad works or not.In short-form, you don’t get the luxury of a slow build.The data is c...
10/10/2025

The first 3 seconds decide if your ad works or not.

In short-form, you don’t get the luxury of a slow build.

The data is clear:

• Ads with exceptional early branding deliver:

+88% memory lift
+92% brand awareness
+85% brand image

• Contrary to popular belief, branding early doesn’t kill attention. Viewers expect ads to be ads. The trick is integrating brand assets in a way that feels natural, not forced.

• The most effective ads weave the brand into the story from the very beginning — a logo in context, a fluent character, or sonic branding — instead of slapping a watermark at the end.

For challenger brands especially, this isn’t optional. Without decades of equity to lean on, every second has to work harder.

The first impression sets the ceiling. Repetition can reinforce, but it won’t rescue a weak start.

What brand is already doing this right?

People talk a lot about “the big idea.”But honestly? I’d take a great partnership over a great idea any day.Because when...
10/09/2025

People talk a lot about “the big idea.”

But honestly? I’d take a great partnership over a great idea any day.

Because when you have a long-term creative partnership:

- You learn the brand.
- You learn the business.
- You learn the people.

And that means the creative work goes deeper.

→ In hospitality, it means I know when the light hits the mountain..in every season.

→ I know what room types perform best.

→ I know how your in-house team shoots, edits, and distributes content — and I can collaborate, educate, and elevate.

You don’t get that from a one-off project.

There’s also an efficiency you can’t fake.

Clients don't need to hover. Crews move faster. Decisions get made quicker.

Why? Because we’ve built trust. And we’ve earned it.

We still bring the ideas.

But they come from a place of understanding, not guessing.

They fit inside a strategy. They’re backed by data.

And they can scale.

One-off jobs can be fine.

But real results come from long-term creative relationships.

That’s where the magic lives.

If you’re a brand or resort thinking about what content looks like next year, not just next month — I’d love to talk.

10/08/2025

Are We Witnessing the Death of Wellness Washing in Beverage Marketing?

Ben Stiller's new soda brand "Stillers" just launched with the most refreshingly unhinged campaign of the year—and it might signal a major shift in how beverage brands position themselves.

The Setup: Stillers soda, created with Agency Special Guest and produced by Smuggler, delivers a vintage-vibes commercial that feels like it time-traveled from the 1980s.

Think basic packaging, classic aesthetics, and Ben playing the earnest spokesperson... constantly interrupted by Justin Theroux's increasingly absurd ASMR whispering.

The Genius Move: The entire brand positioning is essentially "we're NOT a prebiotic/probiotic soda."

In a market saturated with wellness buzzwords and gut-health claims (many of which were recently challenged in class action lawsuits for having insufficient active ingredients), Stillers boldly says: we don't care about that, and neither should you.

Why This Works:

→ Authenticity through mockery – The best way to stand out in an oversaturated category is to call out the absurdity everyone's thinking but not saying

→ Bold creative risks – The ASMR interruptions, vintage aesthetic, and even launching with flavors like Shirley Temple shows they're not playing it safe

→ Cultural timing – Coming off Stiller's massive Severance success gives him the cultural capital to pull this off

→ Larry David energy – The vendetta against prebiotic soda feels genuinely personal, like Stiller ranted about this at a dinner party and decided to launch an entire company about it

The campaign gets a 20/10 from me.

In a world where every beverage brand is trying to convince you they're revolutionizing your microbiome, sometimes the most revolutionary thing you can do is just make a good soda and have fun with it.

Will the Shirley Temple flavor have staying power beyond initial curiosity? Time will tell.

But the marketing? Chef's kiss.

What do you think—are we witnessing the death of wellness washing in beverage marketing?

I’ve been on bad sets.Sets where people yell. Where crews get squeezed. Where expectations are unrealistic.And every sin...
10/06/2025

I’ve been on bad sets.

Sets where people yell. Where crews get squeezed. Where expectations are unrealistic.

And every single time, the work suffers and the client walks away disappointed.

That’s why I started Aumen Film Co.

Because great creative doesn’t come from ego.

It comes from empathy. From knowing what every person on that crew needs to do their best work BEFORE they ever set foot on set.

Leadership means:

→ Giving your crew clarity, not chaos

→ Making the client feel safe enough to leave the monitor

→ Building trust in pre-pro, not scrambling on shoot day

→ Reading your actors (especially non-actors or kids) and knowing how to get the best from them

→ Knowing when to say “we can fix it in post” and mean it, within budget

Leadership isn’t about barking orders.

It’s about creating an environment where good people do great work and feel proud doing it.

What's one thing the best leader you've worked with did that made you think, "This is how it should always be"?

Drop it below. I'm curious what made them different. 👇

10/04/2025

A recent edit was received VERY well, but came with a bunch of questions.

As someone who came up on tutorials, the last thing I'd ever do is gatekeep, so here's the secret behind that first shot!

What other shots from the sequence should I break down?

Nobody cares about your value prop if your ad doesn’t entertain.Features and facts won’t save you if no one’s paying att...
10/03/2025

Nobody cares about your value prop if your ad doesn’t entertain.

Features and facts won’t save you if no one’s paying attention.

The numbers prove it:
• +39% memory lift
• 2x brand awareness
• 2.8x stronger brand image

…all driven by entertaining short-form ads.

And here’s the kicker: the ads people enjoy actually fatigue less. Which means better ROI, not just better vibes.

👉 Be honest — when’s the last time you sat through an ad because it was actually fun to watch?

My first editing studio was a closet.Literally.I was 11. My parents were renovating.I saw a chance to turn the closet wa...
10/02/2025

My first editing studio was a closet.

Literally.

I was 11. My parents were renovating.

I saw a chance to turn the closet wall into a desk nook.

Two years later, I had an old hand-me-down PC, a LimeWire-copy of Adobe Suite, and After Effects tutorials queued up.

That was the beginning.

Since then, I’ve worked from basements, attics, downtown studios, the back seat of my car on break at Lowe’s… anywhere I could.

But these last 2 years, I finally built the studio I always dreamed of.

1900 sqft of purpose-built creative space, just steps from my house, but a world away.

I’ll tell you more in the next post. But first: where did you start?

Drop it below ⬇️

10/01/2025

OpenAI just dropped a new ad campaign... shot on 35mm film

While they're pitching Sora to Hollywood studios, their own ads use zero AI-generated content.

The irony? That might be the smartest thing about it.

Breaking down 5 takeaways from their campaign that reveal where we REALLY are with AI adoption:

→ Why they abandoned AI for their own creative (after Sora 2 launch!)
→ What their massive ad spend signals about the AI market
→ The cooking scene detail that undermines their credibility
→ How they're using ChatGPT the RIGHT way (hint: not as replacement)
→ Why this looks exactly like a Google ad (and why that's a problem)

The most honest thing about this campaign might be its contradictions.

Are we finally having a real conversation about AI's actual role in creative work?

After years of directing campaigns for major brands, I've learned something counterintuitive:*The harder you force break...
09/30/2025

After years of directing campaigns for major brands, I've learned something counterintuitive:

*The harder you force breakthrough ideas, the less they show up.*

Real curiosity—the kind that transforms good campaigns into unforgettable ones—needs permission to breathe.

Here's how we build that into every project:

*Before the brainstorm:* Everyone comes prepared. We research your brand, interview your team, analyze what's resonating with your audience. But then—and this is where most agencies miss the mark—we build in space. Time for ideas to simmer. For unexpected connections to form. The best insights rarely come from the first pass.

*During production:* We build in runway for exploration. When we have a solid backup plan, we have permission to push boundaries. To try that unconventional approach. To explore what could make your story cut through the noise. Calculated risk-taking is how we elevate work from expected to exceptional.

*Your brand story:* We stay genuinely curious about what makes your company unique. Your history, your vision, what's actually on the horizon. Sometimes the most powerful insights come from that outside perspective—seeing opportunities that people too close to the brand might overlook.

What this means for your next campaign:

If your agency or internal team is operating in constant firefighting mode—rushing from deadline to deadline with no room to explore—you're accidentally limiting what's possible.

The most effective creative partnerships have built-in space for curiosity. Not endless timelines, but intentional runway. Enough breathing room to discover the angle that makes your audience stop scrolling.

Bottom line: Great creative work requires both expertise and exploration. Technical excellence without curiosity is just polished mediocrity. Curiosity without craft is just brainstorming.

The brands that break through? They make space for both.

---

How does your team balance deadline pressure with creative exploration?

In 2013, I watched my drone fall out of the sky into the jungle below us.We still had three weeks left to shoot in Thail...
09/25/2025

In 2013, I watched my drone fall out of the sky into the jungle below us.

We still had three weeks left to shoot in Thailand.

We were working on a golf documentary, deep in the early days of drones. Think Phantom 1, goggles, no telemetry, soldered gimbals and jerry-rigged downlinks.

Every part of the drone was from a different company. Every flight was an act of faith.

That day, I was piloting over a cliff to get ocean shots, and the drone started sinking.

No battery warnings. No real feedback. Just… loss of altitude.

It clipped the cliff 10 feet too low and disappeared into dense jungle.

We needed those aerials.

So we bushwhacked our way down and found it..busted.

We used toothpicks and gaff tape to patch the gimbal together enough to keep flying for the rest of the shoot.

Back then, the lesson wasn’t “buy better gear.”

It was:

→ Be ready to pivot

→ Stay calm when things fail

→ And never rely on a single tool to tell the whole story

We finished the doc.

And I still kind of miss those janky goggles.

Anyone else remember drone life pre-Mavic? IYKYK.

09/19/2025

Did I miss my calling in ASMR?

For shots of this newly installed mini-golf course we absolutely could have crushed it with a great looking family having a great time in great weather. A strong gear package and clever crew and you're done.

If you don't know by now, that's not what we do.

So brew some coffee, tie on your apron and come along while I break down the arts and crafts behind two of my favorite shots from this fall shoot.

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PO Box 483
York Springs, PA
17372

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