Ryan and Leslie Harter are a husband-and-wife duo who are telling stories through their full-service video production company, Harter Creative. Their specialty – commercial, social and docu-style content that inspires audiences.
The couple met while working at a creative agency in 2010 where they were both doing a lot of on-camera work. They eventually started working on a writing team together, which meant there were plenty of late night writing sessions. Soon, they were married and while Leslie decided to still work as a producer at the agency, Ryan decided to venture into the world of freelance video, so he could have more creative freedom.
“I think we both wanted to create videos we cared about, our way, for clients we were excited to work with,” Leslie said. “That’s when our first baby, Harter Creative, was born.”
Harter Creative has been in business for three years now and while Ryan and Leslie are currently the only employees, they work with dozens of contracted cast and crew members each year.
“Our network of talented artists makes us look good,” Ryan said.
At this time, Harter Creative is based at CoLab Coworking, and Ryan explains that this location has really helped with their business exposure.
“This downtown Vancouver location has greatly helped our business recently because it injected us right into the heart of the business community,” he said.
Leslie goes on to share that being in Vancouver has been a positive experience for Harter Creative.
“I think a lot of businesses in our area have typically reached out to Portland agencies for this type of work,” she said. “But, this is obviously changing as Vancouver becomes a growing creative hub. We love working with and learning from the other up-and-coming agencies in our coworking space. And we’ve been able to offer a local perspective when we work with Vancouver companies to create videos.”
When asked about what makes their company stand out in the cluttered creative landscape in the Pacific Northwest, Ryan and Leslie share that their take on storytelling is what makes them unique.
“I think a lot of companies come to us for our quirkier take on storytelling,” Leslie said. “We’re OK with getting weird, and we love partnering with companies that are ok with that, too. In this swiping world, it’s a fun challenge to try to come up with something that makes someone stop their thumb from traveling further down the feed.”
Harter Creative is open to and can produce videos that are sweeping, beautiful and romantic, but so far, their clients have come to them because they want quick and engaging videos, or something that stands out as a little outside-of-the-box.
Harter Creative looks forward to what the future holds. Soon they would like to expand their product offerings and would love the opportunity to tackle music video production. In addition, they would like to hire employees that can help with their growing workload. But for now, the team is focused on growing in their creative ability as film specialists.
“We want to keep growing as filmmakers by working on larger and larger projects with larger and larger crews,” Ryan said.
