Five Minutes with Royce Adkins, Co-Founder, Stone Harbor Entertainment

Stone Harbor Entertainment is a dynamic Los Angeles-based film and video production company committed to delivering unique and compelling stories across various mediums, including film, 3D animation, comic books, and games. Not only does it produce independent content, but it also provides full-service video production to brands such as Huggies, CNN, Virgin Cruises, Henry, and CurlyCon LA.

We spoke with Co-Founder and Director of Media Production Royce Adkins about working with brands like Soul Beach Music Festival to elevate their narratives and engage their target audiences.

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Hello Royce, please tell us about Stone Harbor Entertainment.

We’re a family-run company that launched toward the end of 2023. I have a background as a freelance filmmaker, but COVID upended the economics of the industry. We felt it would be more effective to reach new clients and execute projects if we combined all our skills. No matter the project—big or small—I always approach it from a cinematic point of view. Our mission is to give clients the highest-quality, most professional and polished video that feels like they’re watching their own mini movie—and to make it as affordable as possible.

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As Director of Media Production, what is your day-to-day like?

Non-stop! I’m involved in every aspect of the process—from pre-production planning and advising on editorial direction to directing and cinematography. Depending on the scope of the project, I’ll hire additional people in different departments, but for smaller projects, we keep production in-house to keep costs down. We do full post-production using Resolve, including editing, sound mixing, and color grading. So literally, from point A all the way to the very end—we cover it all.

When you launched, did you consider building an on-site setup, or is the business largely remote?

It’s all remote. Coming out of the pandemic, we had to work our way back up. Projects were thin on the ground and budgets were cut in half. We had to restart from the ground up with a new set of clients. We toyed with the idea of getting a dedicated facility, but with the way things were structured, we found it more cost-effective—and more convenient for clients—to do everything remotely.

Obviously, if the production requires us to be on location, we go there and manage the shoot. But I tend to do all post from our suite at home. That’s where FileRunner comes in. FileRunner is more than a file transfer service to me—it’s often the interface between Stone Harbor Entertainment and our clients.

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How do you utilize FileRunner?

Let me give you an example. I’m Head of Video Production for Soul Beach Music Festival in the Caribbean. It’s a six-day major soul and R&B event featuring DJ sets, stand-up comedy, and outdoor concerts, which this year took place on St. Maarten. The headliners were Charlie Wilson, Cedric the Entertainer, and Muni Long. It’s effectively an island-wide celebration of concerts, after-parties, and beach parties—and the organizers want us to capture all that energy and push it out to social media.

Everything had to be shot, cut, and published either the same day or the very next day, and FileRunner was a huge asset in getting the job done. I would go straight from filming back to my hotel room to edit, then immediately send the cuts out for approval via FileRunner.

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Can you explain more about how FileRunner helps you?

I’ve used other file delivery services like Frame.io, Dropbox, and Google Drive, which are all fine—but what I love about Sohonet is that it gives me all the tools I need, plus considerably more protection. You have much greater control over file access permissions, so you know the files won’t be accessible to just anyone after a certain time limit.

There’s a professionalism in the way the files are packaged. Especially now, given how challenging the landscape is, you want to find as many ways as possible to stand out from the pack—and I feel like FileRunner gave me that edge. It gave me the tools to deliver files exceptionally fast, with password protection, and a fresh, professional look that people aren’t used to. Even with Soul Beach, with whom I’ve worked before, they were like, “Wow! This is new.” FileRunner helps you stand out from all the other services.

How do you find the FileRunner workflow?

In addition to the fast-turnaround short-form content for Soul Beach, the client also wanted longer-form versions for marketing and promotional campaigns, which I completed back at Stone Harbor. FileRunner allowed me to upload RAW files seamlessly and send them to the client. I get notified when they’re downloaded and who accessed them, and then the files expire automatically based on a time limit agreed upon with the client. That workflow is so much less complicated and time-consuming than having to worry about how much storage I’ve subscribed to on Dropbox—or potentially having to remove other work from the system just to make space. Using FileRunner was a no-brainer. It allows me to focus on the client and the job at hand—and nothing else.

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What do the next 12 months look like?

Before 2022, I was operating a well-oiled machine in the sense that I never really had to think about where my next job was coming from. Clients came in through word of mouth, and things just kind of flowed naturally. Since COVID, it’s definitely more of a grind. You have to stay on it. You have to reach out and make those cold calls just to keep things ticking over. In the next year, I have some guaranteed bookings and others that are fifty-fifty in terms of whether they’ll be locked. I’ll also be reaching out to generate new business.

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