Northwoods RevolutionWho we are - Northwoods Revolution

WE ARE

NORTHWOODS REVOLUTION

Chicago and New York-based production company specializing in the creation of visual content & marketing solutions.

At Northwoods, we use cutting-edge technology paired with a wild array of experiences to develop marketing solutions tailored to fit your brand’s image.

Promise us you’ll be bold and we’ll promise you greatness

Kyle Niezgoda

CEO | Executive Producer

Kyle Niezgoda | CEO and Executive Producer
I’m Kyle Niezgoda, CEO and Executive Producer at Northwoods Revolution. Chicagoland has always been home to me and Loyola University Chicago became my alma mater. There, I studied the litigation analytics of Intellectual Property and went on to work in copyright, trademark and patent for Kirkland & Ellis. I’ve produced award winning marketing campaigns, international documentaries and promotional material for world renown artists.

At the end of the day my proudest endeavor has been building the brand of Northwoods Revolution with my two incredibly talented business partners Charlie Driscoll and Bryan Racine. Producing for Northwoods and building the Northwoods brand has been an opportunity to do everything I love and more. They say the greatest things come when you least expect them. Well, the leap from my position in corporate America to small business owner certainly arrived unexpectedly but, I wake up every morning ecstatic about what we will create that day.

Hot Pepper Connoisseur | Doberman Fanatic | Musician

Charlie Driscoll

President | Chief Content Officer

Charlie Driscoll | President and Chief Content Officer
From shooting documentaries in Greece, Zambia, Russia, and Ukraine to directing commercial shoots in Chicago, Austin, and New York, I have a wide array of experiences and knowledge to bring to any production as a cinematographer or director.

If I were a prime lens, I would be an old 24mm Cooke from the ’80s; solid build, extreme clarity, and if you open me up all the way you will see all the beautiful imperfections that make me a unique and powerful tool in your creative arsenal. All jokes aside, I can be a great leader and a great follower. My experiences as a co-owner of the Chicago production company Northwoods Revolution and servicing internationally recognized brands have taught me the value of being able to both give and take direction, and deliver solid, professional results no matter what.

Bryan Racine

Vice President | Chief Creative Officer

Bryan Racine| Vice President and Chief Creative Officer
Even before I graduated I was shooting major ad campaigns across the country. While my classmates were arguing about the merits of shooting film over digital, I was learning commercial fashion photography under the mentorship of one of the industry’s best. I should have the phrase “hit the ground running” tattooed on my forearm.

Cinematography has always inspired me as it is the perfect marriage of art and science. Plus, master of light just sounds pretty cool on a resume. I am also an award winning director but, all of my projects start with a solid backbone of lighting and camerawork. I am also one of Northwoods’ lead editors and one of my greatest strengths is my ability to conceptualize a project from beginning to end.

I have an insatiable lust for life and I try to embody both the part of the comic relief and the fearless leader when appropriate. I read, write and exercise every day and other than that I simply try to remain humble in my efforts and fearless in my approach.

Conceptualization

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” -Some quote we found on Google

There’s an electricity in the air when it comes to starting a new project. A lot of people think that brilliant ideas come from weeks of meditation and fasting exercises, to which we respond not always! More often than not our breakthrough ideas come from the deconstructing the market, understanding the target demographic and isolating the human-narrative that will embody our client’s message. Sometimes our clients have an entire ad campaign already realized before they walk through our doors but, just as often we are asked to develop a brand’s concept from the ground up. Regardless of where you’re starting from, we understand that your goal is to create content that is exciting and impactful. Our creative team at Northwoods Revolution is sought after because our clients know that we eat pop-culture for breakfast and floss our teeth with the newest, hit videos making waves around the world. If we know that delivering our client’s message is one half of the puzzle and creating engaging videos is the other half, then all that’s left to do is to figure out how best to sew those two things together.

Pre Production

“Starting, launching and having a vision for where you want to end up is easy. The challenge is how you are going to get there.” -Erin Strawser

Pre-production is the bridge that takes us from dream world to reality but, if we do our jobs right you’ll never know we even left the land of make-believe. At Northwoods, we break down our productions the same way a chemist would isolate the different ingredients of a compound. Boiling a video production over a consistent heat allows us to isolate different layers as they all transition from their solid to liquid to gas stages at different temperatures. We might be getting too complicated here…these are the main focus points in our pre-production:

We wrap up our pre-production with a concrete pre-pro book. Our pre-pro books contain every detail of production and post-production. There is no better feeling than knowing that every ‘i’ has been dotted and every ’t’ has been crossed. We understand that your time and money are a huge investment and we feel that it is our job to deliver your production with 100% certainty.

Production

“We don’t make movies to make money, we have to charge money just so that we can keep making movies.” -This one is ours

Production is when we have fun. There is no experience like being on set and seeing countless hours of hard work come together. We’ve teleported cheeseburgers across time and space, we’ve flown quadcopters across the River Thames, fought hordes of zombies and gotten our hands way too bloody all for the love of creating something new and exciting. When we started Northwoods Revolution we decided that we would work as hard as we could in order to be the best. We wanted our stories to be more compelling, our images sharper and our clients to be consistently blown away. From our clients’ roaming video village to our all-star crews, you’ll see that Northwoods does production better.

Post Production

“Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does.” -Walter Murch

Whatever a project calls for be it graphics, advanced-titling or stand-alone editing, our team at Northwoods delivers. We could not be more proud of our insano editing team. Shackled away like Santa’s elves, our editors work day and night without food nor warmth. The real secret is that we don’t let our videos get away with a single weak cut. Oftentimes a weak cut comes from a series of several strong cuts. So, you can see that it can be difficult work but, we do more and we keep moving forward until we get it right. Editing is the home stretch of our projects. That sunset on the horizon is what gives us the determination to see each project live up to it’s full potential. We understand that everything we do leads us to our next big project and our next exciting collaboration. We cannot exist without our clients and we never take that for granted.