Overview
The Seattle Area Pipe Trades needed to reach people who had never considered
a career in skilled trades — people who assumed the barrier was too high, the
work too hard, or the path too narrow. This campaign met them where they were:
three short documentary-style films, each anchored by a real apprentice or
journeyman telling a story about transformation.
One story is personal — who they were before the trade and who they became.
One is financial — what the work actually pays and what that changes in a real
life. One is professional — what skill mastery feels like once it's yours.
Together the three films form a complete picture of what joining the trades
actually means.
The Muse Storytelling Process
Every video in this campaign was built on the Muse Storytelling Process —
a 4-pillar framework created by Patrick Moreau of Muse Film School.
The four pillars are People, Place, Purpose, Plot. I've studied
this methodology extensively through Muse Film School and Patrick's courses,
and applied it across my client work at Image Tale Productions.
In practice: before production on each film, the subject is developed through
three milestones — five keywords to unify the story's purpose and feel, a
character map identifying the Heart, Helpers, and Experts, and a full Story
Structure with locations, plot arc, and conflict.
The interview framework draws on Desire, Uniqueness, and Complexity:
what they get most excited about; what you hear in how they speak,
not just what they say; and the deeper why beneath the obvious answer.
That structure is why the interviews go somewhere real. It's not luck. It's design.
Outcome
Three completed recruitment films delivered for web and social distribution.
SAPT was the largest client I had taken on through Image Tale Productions —
and the campaign is work I'm proud of. The relationship was a single project
and one I'd like to continue.
The films demonstrate what the Muse process is built to prove: skilled trades
storytelling works best when it treats the potential apprentice as someone
making a serious life decision — not someone who needs to be sold a job posting.
Project Materials
Video links available upon request.
