Pitch invitation capture
Helena Diaz, Senior Account Director at Berlin & Lock (Vertex Outdoor's marketing agency-of-record for the past 10 years), emails Aaron Wilkes — Senior Producer at Lighthouse Studios — on Mar 14, 2026 with a pitch invitation. Vertex Outdoor is commissioning a 6-episode branded documentary series about long-distance trail runners on the Pacific Crest Trail; Berlin & Lock has shortlisted three production companies; Lighthouse is invited to pitch. Brief attached: launch target Black Friday (Nov 27), budget envelope $1.4M–$1.8M, talent direction "outdoor-doc auteur — think Free Solo / Meru / Reel Rock," and a named DP request: Maya Yamamoto (IATSE Local 600). Aaron creates the Lead in Interface365 within an hour of the email landing. Source attribution to the Berlin & Lock pitch invitation, brief saved to the deal, the next-action task fires automatically.
Source ("Agency-of-record pitch · Berlin & Lock") from the dropdown configured under Settings → Sources. Berlin & Lock is captured separately as a Source Organization with Helena Diaz named as the convener — Berlin & Lock will earn relationship-credit + future co-pitch invitations + a holiday-season studio gift if any of these introductions close, NOT a cash referral fee (that would be a conflict of interest for Vertex's agency-of-record). Lead score 84/100 reflects: warm intro through a 10-year agency-of-record relationship (+24), explicit pitch invitation with brief attached (+20), Lighthouse's reel matches the requested visual register (+18), Vertex specifically named Maya Yamamoto whom Aaron knows is potentially available (+12), budget envelope sits in Lighthouse's sweet spot (+10). An auto-task fires for Aaron to "Schedule briefing call with Helena Diaz + Vertex within 5 days" — production-company convention following an agency-of-record pitch invitation.Briefing call & lead enrichment
Aaron books a 45-minute briefing call with Helena Diaz (Berlin & Lock) and Maya Patel (Vertex Brand Director) for Mar 17. Half listening, half taking notes — capture brand voice, creative direction, the launch dependency, and the competitive shortlist. The lead status flows New · Pitch invitation → Contacted → Active prospect — Treatment drafting.
Lead conversion — one click, four entities
With the briefing call complete and the lead score climbing from 84 → 96, Aaron clicks Convert. Interface365 creates a Contact (Maya Patel — Vertex Brand Director, decision authority) + Account (Vertex Outdoor) + Source Organization (Berlin & Lock — Vertex's agency-of-record, with Helena Diaz named) + Deal (the production project). The Vertex stakeholder map + Lighthouse internal team get layered on in Step 4.
Deal enrichment — client + agency + internal relationship map, custom fields, tags
A branded-content production project is never one decision-maker. On the Vertex side: a Brand Director who drives the creative recommendation (Maya Patel), a VP Marketing who signs SOWs above $1M (James Sundaram), a Senior Brand Manager owning day-to-day (Tara Nguyen), a VP Communications joining at delivery for PR launch (Kira Walsh). On the agency middle: Helena Diaz at Berlin & Lock, the convener. On Lighthouse's side: a deal-owner (Aaron), a Creative Director who directs the series (Sienna), a Head of Production who line-produces (Devon), a Post-Production Supervisor (Lin), and a Founder + EP who counter-signs anything over $1M (Marlon). Aaron maps them all with explicit roles so every email, treatment review, and SOW signature routes to the right person every time.
Expected SOW + deposit: mid-May 2026 (~9 weeks post-invitation)
Treatment, supporting documents, and the notes that capture the strategic signal
Aaron, Sienna, and Devon spend twelve days drafting the pitch + treatment package. Sienna's 24-page treatment, Aaron's 40-slide pitch deck, Devon's 14-line production budget, the Lighthouse reel link, Maya Yamamoto's availability confirmation, the locations preliminary scout, the lookbook references, and the internal strategy notes all live on the deal record — nothing in side-channel emails, shared drives, or "I'll remember it" memory.
Source Organization · Agency-of-Record for relationship-credit tracking — Berlin & Lock is one of the most prolific warm-intro pipelines for branded-doc work in Lighthouse's source mix; Lighthouse's relationship with the agency is itself worth tracking (4 prior introductions over 24 months via Berlin & Lock, 2 already converted to wins — a $620K commercial campaign for Tetra Beverages last year + a $1.1M doc-short for Pendleton Mills 18 months ago). Quarterly relationship-credit digest auto-includes Berlin & Lock; holiday-season studio gift confirmed for Helena's office.Tasks & follow-ups — never let a pitch thread drop
Tasks attach to the deal with priority, due dates, and assignees. In branded-content work the difference between "pitch submitted on Day 12" and "deposit wired on Day 62" is a clean task list — briefing call scheduling, treatment drafting, budget finalisation, EP sign-off, freelance crew hold-letters, pitch presentation prep, all running in parallel across the producer + creative + line-production teams.
Pipeline progression & stagnant-deal alerts
As the pitch cycle advances, Aaron drags the deal through 8 stages: Lead → Treatment Drafting → Pitch Submitted → Pitch Shortlisted → Treatment + SOW Negotiation → SOW Sent → SOW Signed (Deposit Pending) → Closed Won (Deposit Received + Pre-Production Kickoff Date Locked). Branded-content pitches move on a faster clock than enterprise B2B but slower than ad-agency briefs — Interface365 calibrates stagnant-alert windows to that reality: 14 days no activity post-Pitch Submitted, 10 days post-Pitch Shortlisted, 7 days post-SOW Sent. The risk isn't that a faster competitor poaches the relationship; it's that the client's marketing calendar moves on, the launch window slips, and the project shifts to whichever production company has heat at that moment. The Vertex deal is at "Treatment + SOW Negotiation" — Maya Patel is reviewing (4 days in stage). Comfortably on track.
SOW + treatment template library — 9 base templates, lifecycle-managed
Lighthouse's template library — 9 base templates covering the most common project type + budget combinations (Branded Doc Series 4-6 ep $1M-$2M, Branded Doc Series 8-12 ep $2M-$5M, Single-Film Branded Doc 30-90 min $500K-$1.5M, Commercial Campaign 1-3 spots $150K-$800K, Explainer-Video Series 6-12 ep $300K-$1M, Live-Event Capture multi-cam, Studio Co-Production revenue-share, Editorial-Only Post Project, Trade-Show Sizzle Reel $30K-$100K). Each template carries: typical narrative structure, budget format by department, standard payment terms, deliverables checklist, talent / crew rate cards, music-budget conventions, insurance rider class. Lifecycle states: Active / Draft / Retired.
Pitch + treatment + production-budget submission
Vertex's vendor portal (cc Berlin & Lock) accepts a combined pitch package, so Aaron, Sienna, and Devon finalise it as one upload. Cover letter co-signed by Marlon Reyes (Founder + EP); 40-slide pitch deck (Lighthouse positioning + creative POV + Maya Yamamoto attached + reel + competitive case-study evidence); 24-page treatment underneath (Director's vision · episodic structure · character casting strategy · location strategy · visual look + lookbook · music direction · post + finishing roadmap); and a 14-line production budget. Total ask: $1,460,000 (single project). Submitted to the Vertex portal on Day 12 (Mar 26) at 16:30 ET. Stage flips to Pitch Submitted. Portal receipt acknowledgement lands the same evening (Day 12, Mar 26 · 22:14 ET — 6 hrs after submission); two days later Helena confirms the 2-finalist shortlist Day 14 (Mar 28) — Lighthouse advances alongside Outpost Films.
| # | Budget line | Phase | Days | Department | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Director / Creative — Sienna Park (18-week engagement) Pre-production creative oversight + on-set direction + post-production creative supervision · principal creative authority through master delivery | Pre+Shoot+Post | 18 wks | Creative | $185,000 |
| 2 | Director of Photography — Maya Yamamoto (IATSE Local 600) 15-day shoot + 4-day pre-production prep + commit fee · Vertex-requested by name · auteur outdoor-doc DP attachment | Pre+Shoot | 19 days | Camera | $148,000 |
| 3 | Camera + lensing package (RED Komodo + Cooke S7/i + drone) RED Komodo body + Cooke S7/i prime lens set + DJI Inspire 3 drone rental · 17-day rental (15 shoot + 2 buffer) · weatherproof rigging | Shoot | 17 days | Equipment | $96,000 |
| 4 | Production crew (1st AC, 2nd AC, sound mixer, gaffer, key grip, 3× PA) 8-person principal-photography crew · IATSE union scale where applicable · 15 shoot days + per diem + travel · multi-state crew transit | Shoot | 15 days | Crew | $172,000 |
| 5 | On-camera talent — 5 PCT through-hiker subjects (commits, releases, SAG-AFTRA waivers) Jasmine Ruiz · Tom Bayer · the Marquez sisters · 1 additional subject · 4–7 day commits each · talent releases + SAG-AFTRA documentary waiver paperwork + per diem | Shoot | 5–7 days each | Talent | $84,000 |
| 6 | Locations / permits / fixers (Pacific Crest Trail multi-state) USFS multi-state permits (CA, OR, WA, MT) · location fixers in each state · USFS coordination · trailhead access fees · environmental-impact compliance | Pre+Shoot | 15 days | Locations | $58,000 |
| 7 | Travel + lodging (15-day shoot, ~14-person crew, multi-state) Domestic flights to OR/WA/CA/MT + ground transport (4 SUVs + 1 production van) + lodging (cabins / motels along PCT) + meals at full per diem rate | Shoot | 15 days | Logistics | $112,000 |
| 8 | Insurance riders (E&O + equipment + cast + production package) AIG Production package · documentary outdoor-class · high-risk talent rider · E&O for distribution · equipment-rental coverage for owned + rented gear | Pre+Shoot | 90 days | Insurance | $42,000 |
| 9 | Post-production: editorial (lead editor + assistant editor) Lead editor (Avid + Premiere) + assistant editor (dailies sync, organization) · ~14 weeks post · 6 episodes through director's cut + client cut + final | Post | 14 wks | Post | $156,000 |
| 10 | Post-production: sound design + mix (Lin Cheng + sound designer) Sound design (atmosphere + ambience + foley) + final 5.1 mix · Lin Cheng supervises · sound designer ~6 weeks · Pro Tools / Atmos optional pass | Post | 6 wks | Post | $48,000 |
| 11 | Post-production: color grading (DaVinci Resolve, online colorist) Online colorist · DaVinci Resolve · ~3 weeks · LUT design + episode-by-episode grade + master deliverable color pass for ProRes 4444 + H.264 | Post | 3 wks | Post | $36,000 |
| 12 | Music license budget — 4 tracks (initial scope) Mix of library tracks (Marmoset / Musicbed) + 1 needle-drop indie sync license · 4-track allocation · cleared for brand-channel + paid-social distribution | Post | — | Music | $40,000 |
| 13 | Stock + archive (PCT history, weather B-roll backups) PCT historical archival licensing · weather B-roll backup library · weather-day insurance footage · USFS imagery clearances | Post | — | Stock | $18,000 |
| 14 | Lighthouse fee + overhead allocation (~17% loaded) Aaron + Devon + Lin + Marlon time across 18-week engagement · ops overhead allocation · Brooklyn studio facility allocation · finance + legal pro-rata | All phases | — | Fee / Overhead | $265,000 |
Talent + scope-creep squeeze — the 4-week fight that wins the project
Pitch submitted Day 12 at $1.46M. Pitch presentation lands Day 21 (Apr 4) at Vertex HQ in Portland. Day 28 Lighthouse is named preferred vendor. Day 35 (Apr 18) Maya Patel emails the scope-creep request: 7th bonus episode (gear-focused, supports merchandising) + drone-coverage uplift + 4 brand-product-placement integration days. Without budget shifting, the project is +18% over scope. AND Maya Yamamoto's window is Aug 5–31 only — pushing the shoot loses her, and Vertex specifically requested her by name. 30–40% of branded-content pitches stall on talent + scope/calendar collisions. Lighthouse's structured response — take the scope additions seriously, re-price honestly, present two options that preserve the calendar lock + the talent attachment — wins the project.
Production deposit wired — Closed Won 🏆
Day 62 · May 15 · 14:22 ET. Aaron sees the wire confirmation in QuickBooks Production's bank-feed: "$516,000.00 received in Lighthouse Production Account [Chase Business · Vertex Outdoor — PCT Series Restricted]". Aaron ticks "Deposit Received + Pre-Production Kickoff Date Locked" — deal flips to Closed Won. Probability 100%. Revenue recognition begins from this minute. NOT the verbal yes from Maya Patel on Day 49. NOT the SOW countersignature on Day 56. NOT the preferred-vendor confirmation on Day 28. The wire confirmation + the locked May 18 pre-production kickoff date together start the ASC 606 unearned-revenue recognition clock and convert all 16 freelance crew + 5 cast + Maya Yamamoto + insurance + locations from conditional holds to contractually-committed obligations. (Pre-production kickoff itself happens May 18 — but the calendar lock is what triggers Won at the wire moment May 15.)
Webhooks fire — Slack, Frame.io, QuickBooks Production
The instant the deal flips to Won, Interface365 fires deal.won webhooks to every subscribed endpoint. Slack celebrates. Frame.io (Lighthouse's editorial collaboration platform on Adobe Creative Cloud) creates the project workspace + invites editorial team + sets up the dailies-review structure for the August shoot. QuickBooks Production Edition (Lighthouse's project-accounting system) creates the project ledger + the deposit entry + the ASC 606 unearned-revenue treatment schedule. Interface365 stays the relationship + pipeline source of truth; Frame.io handles editorial; QuickBooks Production handles project accounting.
// POST https://api.quickbooks.com/v2/projects/restricted-deposit // X-I365-Signature: sha256=... { "event": "deal.won", "timestamp": "2026-05-15T18:22:14Z", "data": { "deal_id": "d_vx26pct0184", "name": "Vertex Outdoor — PCT Branded Doc Series", "client_account": "QB-CLIENT-VX-26-0184", "sow_value": 1720000, "deposit_received": 516000, "deposit_pct": 0.30, "scope_option": "Option B (expanded)", "episode_count": 7, "principal_photography_dates": "2026-08-05 to 2026-08-20", "dp_attached": "Maya Yamamoto · IATSE Local 600", "launch_target": "2026-11-27 (Black Friday)", "asc_606_treatment": "unearned revenue · recognised across performance obligations", "deposit_received_at": "2026-05-15T18:22:14Z", "sow_signed_at": "2026-05-09", "pre_production_kickoff_at": "2026-05-18", "source_organization": "Berlin & Lock (agency-of-record)", "lead_producer_id": "u_aaron_wilkes", "creative_director_id": "u_sienna_park", "post_supervisor_id": "u_lin_cheng", "frame_io_project_url": "frame.io/projects/vx-pct-26", "qb_ledger_id": "VX-26-0184" } }
$1.72M Option-B SOW · 7 episodes · Aug 5-20 shoot · Maya Yamamoto attached. $516K deposit just wired to Chase Business [restricted]. Producer: Aaron Wilkes ($138K credit). Creative Director: Sienna Park ($69K credit). Source: Berlin & Lock pitch invitation (Helena Diaz). 62 days from invitation to deposit. Outpost was the runner-up.
Pre-production kickoff May 18 — Devon's locking crew + cast + locations + insurance + studio rentals this week. Black Friday launch (Nov 27) makeable. Frame.io project workspace just spun up; QuickBooks Production ledger entry created.
Marlon counter-signed this morning. Talent + scope-creep squeeze survived intact. Coffee tomorrow.
X-I365-Signature: sha256=... header so receivers can verify authenticity. Failed deliveries auto-retry with exponential backoff. The Settings → Webhooks → Delivery logs page shows every fire with status code, response, and retry count. Frame.io accepts the payload at /api/v3/projects/create, spins up the project workspace + invites the editorial team + sets up the dailies-review folder structure for the 16-day August shoot. QuickBooks Production accepts the payload at /api/v2/projects/restricted-deposit, opens the project ledger + the deposit entry + the ASC 606 unearned-revenue treatment schedule + the cost-center allocation map across all 14 budget departments in one transaction.Active production lifecycle + the mid-shoot change-order beat
Production projects don't end at "Closed Won" — that's where the actual production really begins. The Active Production Lifecycle pipeline lives in its own view (pre-production · principal photography · post-production · client review · delivery · wrap). Auto-tasks fire on location-lock confirmations, crew + cast confirmations, talent releases, music license clearances, and master-delivery deadlines. And mid-shoot, the conversation that compounds the entire creative arc: during the 14-day August shoot, the team captures unexpectedly stunning B-roll of Jasmine Ruiz running her PCT segment. Maya Patel sees the dailies and asks for an 8th standalone bonus episode focused on Jasmine's Hardrock 100 race the week before — extended music licensing budget for a Bon Iver score, 4 additional post days. Change order +$280K signed in 48 hours. Total project lands at $2.0M.
Day 7 of principal photography (Aug 13). Maya Yamamoto's footage of Jasmine Ruiz running her PCT segment is exceptional — Sienna calls it the strongest dailies of any project Lighthouse has shot. Tara Nguyen (Senior Brand Manager, on the dailies email thread) emails Aaron after seeing the cuts: "These Jasmine shots are Cannes-grade. Maya Patel saw them this morning. We have an idea — Jasmine is running the Hardrock 100 next week (Aug 14–15) before her PCT segment continues. Could Lighthouse send a small crew to capture her Hardrock attempt as an 8th standalone episode? We'd want it more cinematic — feature-doc-grade, 25 minutes. We're also wondering about a Bon Iver score across the series — Maya Patel is obsessed with the For Emma, Forever Ago era as the right emotional anchor for the trail." Aaron flags as a change order — captures both as a structured CO request on the project record, tags "Mid-shoot CO · creative momentum" so the workflow is reportable.
Aaron + Sienna + Devon + Lin + Marlon huddle. Devon: "Hardrock crew can be 4 people — DP + 1 sound + 1 PA + AC. Maya Yamamoto can extend her contract by 4 days, we already have her under contract. Locations are tricky — Hardrock 100 is a hostile-environment shoot (high altitude, 100-mile course over 2 days, crew has to follow on dirt roads). Insurance rider needs uplift. Estimated Hardrock shoot cost: $95K. Editorial for the 25-min cinematic episode: ~$40K extra. Bon Iver license: $120K for 3-track sync rights (Justin Vernon's catalog is mid-tier expensive but achievable). Plus 4 extra post-production days for color + sound on the standalone bonus episode: $25K. Total: $280K change order." Sienna: "The bonus episode could land us at Cannes Lions on its own. Yes — but ONLY if Vertex pays for it cleanly + we get sign-off in 48 hours so Maya Yamamoto can stay attached + we can dispatch the Hardrock crew Aug 13." Marlon counter-signs the internal CO same day.
Aaron sends the change order to Maya Patel + James Sundaram Aug 13 morning. Maya Patel green-lights by email Aug 13 evening ("do it"); James Sundaram countersigns the CO addendum Aug 14 morning. Change order +$280,000 signed ($95K Hardrock shoot + $40K extra editorial + $120K Bon Iver music license + $25K extra post days). Total project after CO: $1.72M + $0.28M = $2,000,000. CO funding: $140K wired with CO signing (50% of $280K, accelerated tranche), remainder $140K folded into the director's-cut tranche at Oct 25. Producer + CD credit on CO: 1% bumps each (Aaron $2,800 + Sienna $2,800). Hardrock crew dispatched Aug 13 evening; flights booked overnight; Aug 14 morning the crew is on the ground in Silverton, CO ready to shoot.
Total project value with CO: $1.72M direct + $0.28M CO = $2,000,000 across 7 PCT episodes + 1 Hardrock bonus episode. Without the structured CO workflow + project record, the Hardrock bonus would have been a verbal "we'll figure it out" that turns into a mid-September fight when Vertex realizes it's not coming. With it: CO signed in 48 hours, Hardrock crew dispatched Aug 13 evening, the 8th episode becomes the breakout that lifts Vertex's entire campaign at Black Friday + earns Lighthouse another Cannes Lion submission. The right move on a mid-shoot creative-momentum opportunity is structural: scope priced honestly + signed cleanly + paid in proportion + crew compensated for the extension. The wrong move — absorb the new work into the existing budget — kills margin, burns the crew, and ships exhausted work. Lighthouse's project record + CO workflow makes the right move the path of least resistance. The Vertex relationship is now real, and the next pitch from Berlin & Lock is already on Aaron's calendar for early Q1 2027.
Studio dashboard — Friday morning, week 41 (mid-October), post in flight
It's a Friday morning in mid-October 2026 — week 41 of the calendar year, four weeks before Vertex PCT's master delivery date (Nov 18) and six weeks out from the Black Friday launch (Nov 27). Lighthouse has 9 active projects in production simultaneously, $11.4M in project value in the active book, $5.1M in open-pitch pipeline across the next 6 months, and 22.4% trailing-12-month gross margin. The Vertex PCT project lands on the same dashboard as the rest of the studio book.
What Lighthouse set up before any of this worked
Rewind to the prior winter's CRM rollout. Every screen you just walked through — the source dropdown on the new-lead form, the branded-content role taxonomy, the 8-stage Production Project Sales pipeline, the 6-phase Active Production Lifecycle pipeline, the SOW + treatment template library, the source-org tracking, the change-order workflow — was configured once by Lighthouse's Head of Production (Devon Carter) over five weeks. Then it reused itself across 9 active production projects and 14 new pitches YTD.
Entity relationship map
How every entity in this walkthrough connects
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