Check Out Brian Shaffer’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Shaffer.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Our story is a full-circle journey that began over 30 years ago when Sarah and I met in high school in 1988. We followed very different, yet eventually complementary, professional paths for decades before those paths finally converged to form a team with over 60 years of combined experience.

Sarah’s career was defined by a lifelong obsession with the lens, sparked by a pinhole camera on a childhood field trip. After earning her degree in portrait and commercial photography in 1995, she spent years in high-pressure news photography at the Springfield News-Sun and Dayton Daily News, developing a keen eye for editorial portraiture before shifting toward videography in 2014.

My background was rooted in the tech world, starting at IBM in the early 90s before I struck out as an independent programmer. In 2001, I moved to Oregon to further pursue my tech endeavors, but it was there that my passion for video production was truly realized.

In 2004, I produced my first feature documentary, which followed a band touring the West Coast on a shoestring budget. That project was a formative experience for me; seeing it premiere at the Downtown Arts Center in Eugene, Oregon, was the ‘lightbulb moment’ where I realized visual storytelling was my true path. I spent the next 18 years on the West Coast partnering with various production companies before finally returning home to Ohio to team up with Sarah.

When we reconnected, we realized our separate paths had prepared us for a perfect partnership: I brought the tech and video production background, and she was an established force in professional photography. It was a natural fit, so we merged our talents to officially form WeDoVids in 2018.

At its core, WeDoVids is a full-service video production and photography studio based in Dayton. We specialize in turning business stories into visually compelling content, handling everything from commercial photography and professional headshots to documentary-style commercials, aerial cinematography, and high-end event coverage. When we started in 2018, we built our foundation on the ground by shooting news for all four local television channels. That high-pressure environment was a masterclass in adaptability, teaching us to pivot instantly while delivering professional results under impossible deadlines.

This spirit of adaptability and our philosophy of ‘doing good work and doing good’ was put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many businesses faced shutdowns, we thrived by pivoting to provide essential livestreaming and video production for non-profits that had lost their ability to hold traditional fundraising events.

Our history in tech and production eventually led to an expansion under the WeDoVids umbrella: FrameCourier. After years of ‘subscription fatigue’ from juggling fragmented tools like Dropbox and Frame.io, I built a private client portal in 2018 to solve our own delivery headaches. After seven years of refining that tool within our own active studio, we realized the rest of the industry needed it too. Even as we grow into digital products, our heart remains in storytelling; we continue to provide meaningful content for local non-profits and businesses, as giving back to the Dayton community is a core part of who we are

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
While we’ve been fortunate compared to many startups, the journey hasn’t been without significant challenges that have shaped who we are today.. Differentiating ourselves in a saturated market while maintaining competitive pricing has been tricky. Balancing fair compensation for our expertise with the reality that many businesses have tight budgets, especially in the nonprofit sector we care deeply about, has required creative problem-solving.

Sarah and I were high school sweethearts who built this business together. When our romantic relationship ended, we had to figure out how to preserve the creative partnership that made WeDoVids work in the first place. That transition required honest conversations, clear boundaries, and restructuring how we collaborate. Sarah now works with WeDoVids as an independent contractor, and while that shift brought operational and personal challenges, it also forced us to professionalize things that had previously been informal. We’re proud that we’ve maintained a strong working relationship and that Sarah’s eye and expertise remain central to what we deliver.

Through all of the bumps, pandemic pivots, tech‑build challenges, and evolving partnership dynamics – we’ve learned that resilience comes from staying adaptable, keeping the client’s story at the center, and supporting one another as Ohio creators. It hasn’t been smooth, but each obstacle has deepened our commitment to helping local artists and small businesses share their narratives through video and photography.
Each hurdle has taught us valuable lessons about adaptability, resourcefulness, and the importance of staying true to our core mission of helping organizations tell their stories authentically.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At our core, WeDoVids is a full-service video production and photography studio based in Dayton, Ohio. We specialize in turning business stories into visually compelling content, which encompasses everything from commercial photography and professional headshots to documentary-style commercials, aerial cinematography, and high-end event coverage. We also provide professional post-production and livestreaming services, designed to elevate virtual events to an “Oscar-level” of quality.

We are best known for our professionalism, responsiveness, and ability to capture the authentic spirit of a brand or team. Our clients often highlight that we are “extremely dedicated” and “easy to work with,” specifically noting our talent for making people feel at ease during the creative process. Within the local media landscape, we are recognized for our high-pressure “trial by fire” roots shooting news for all four Dayton television channels, which established us as a highly adaptable fixture in the community.

We are most proud of our commitment to “doing good work and doing good”. This philosophy is more than a slogan; it’s our operating model. We are deeply proud of our advocacy for poverty and animal welfare causes, and the way we thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic by pivoting to support non-profits. When many organizations lost their traditional fundraising venues, we provided essential livestreaming and video production to help them reach their donors in a time of crisis.

What truly sets us apart from other studios is the synergy of our 60+ years of combined experience in two very different worlds: high-end artistic photography and deep technical programming. Sarah brings an award-winning eye for editorial portraiture from her years in news photography, while my background includes working at IBM and decades as a developer.

This unique blend of “art meets tech” led to our most significant expansion: FrameCourier. Born from our own “subscription fatigue” and the frustration of juggling fragmented tools like Dropbox and Frame.io, we built our own SaaS (Software as a Service) platform—a software delivery model where users access tools over the internet via subscription. Unlike generic tech products, FrameCourier was built by an active studio for other studios over eight years of real-world use. It is the only platform on the market that unifies professional photo delivery and structured video review in one branded portal, allowing us to offer the industry a solution to the very problems we lived with every day.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Looking ahead, I see the video and photography industry moving in directions that will reshape how we help Ohio businesses tell their stories.

First, artificial‑intelligence tools are becoming everyday creative partners. Editing, color‑grading, and even rough‑cut generation are already happening with just a click, and over the next five‑to‑ten years those capabilities will become so smooth that they’ll handle the repetitive chores. This will free us to focus on the parts that really matter which is storytelling, emotional nuance, and the strategic conversation with our clients. Companies that treat AI as an enhancer rather than a threat will be the ones that stay ahead.

Technology will give us more powerful tools, but the human element, understanding local culture, building genuine connections, and crafting authentic stories, remains the heart of what we do for Ohio artists, nonprofits, and small businesses. By staying adaptable, leaning into the new capabilities, and never losing sight of that core purpose, we’ll be ready to meet whatever comes next.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wedovids.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wedovids/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wedovids
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wedovids/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwwtPJMW_fVpEyFbJ9CLtkQ?view_as=subscriber
• Other: https://framecourier.com