Offbeat Films is a full service video production company in Seattle, WA.

Behind the Scenes with Kevin the Marmot!

Last fall, the team at social impact agency DH approached us to help realize a concept for the WA Department of Ecology. To pull it off, we faced the challenge of creating a small, smiling marmot puppet, dubbed “Kevin” and already beloved in sketch and storyboard form.

Thankfully, we knew just who to call. Our multi-talented friend and previous Creative Director Jess Pedroza brought Kevin to life, from sketch to sculpt to build. By our shoot in October, Kevin was camera-ready, with a fresh haircut and an eager attitude, animated by Puppeteer Taylor Pedroza.

A word from Jess, on creating Kevin:

Scroll to the bottom to see Kevin’s debut, directed by Lael Rogers & Peter Edlund!

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Events 📅

Coming Up

April 25 — Offbeat Spring Egg Hunt is back! Hop over to Green Lake to hunt down cheap candy, play lawn games, and hang with some good eggs. Save the date! 🐣

May — Adspirations with AAF Seattle! This spring, we’re collaborating to bring you a twist on our “Filmspirations” event, featuring your favorite commercials. Stay tuned! 💡

In Our Community

March 12 — Women Who Lead with AAF Seattle! Join us at the Columbia Tower Club to hear from women shaping the Seattle advertising industry. Get tickets! 🚀

March 19 — Staff Showcase with Seattle Film Society! Come out to NW Film Forum for a screening of six short films by the brilliant team behind SFS. Get tickets! 🍿

March 21 — Post Alley Film Festival, presented by Women in Film at SIFF Film Center! A day-long screening of woman-centric shorts. Get tickets! 🎞️

March 26 — 2026 PNW Filmmakers Mixer, hosted by Carrie Robinson at the Stables. This annual event looks to be a full house; jump on the waitlist! Waitlist! 🎬

Recent Events

Oscars Happy Hour 🏆

To get hyped for Academy Awards season, we gathered with SeaDoc (and a bunch of you!) at Reuben’s Brews for happy hour. Did we accidentally usurp an unassuming French Club? Yes! Did we talk about Oscar noms? Sort of! Will we do it again? Definitely! The casual consensus had One Battle After Another taking Best Picture. Tune in Sunday!

Freelancer Speed Dating 💘

This year, we joined forced with Seattle Film Society for our second annual platonic speed dating event. Over eighty of you came out to connect with old friends and meet new collaborators in rapid succession. We talked; we laughed; we got over-stimulated. We always look forward to this event and are so appreciative of this growing community!

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Offbeat Recs

_{*We recently started an office poetry club; highly recommend, as a tonic in these times!}

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Industry Spotlight: Seattle Film Society 🎥 

In its own words, Seattle Film Society is “a filmmaker-run project dedicated to organizing, cultivating, and celebrating the Greater Seattle filmmaking community.” It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of SFS and everything they’re building. We sat down with co-founder and Creative Director Marcus Baker to hear more about the vision.

Marcus co-founded SFS in 2023 with six others—Ben Johnson, Quentin Lebeau, Tommy Meisel, Caity Petterson, Kalee Quiñones, and Harlie Sullivan.

How did SFS start? What inspired it? It was really born out of wanting to create more opportunities for people to meet each other in the area. I had gone to SIFF that year, and after the Sound Visions screening, people left the theater and then stood outside and talked for two hours. I realized that a lot of those people probably didn’t have a chance to see each other and engage, so that was kind of our immediate animating point—just trying to create a place for people to regularly engage at a screening.

What was your first event? At the beginning, [co-founder] Ben was very clear that we should run one event, versus running off in all directions. So we held Locals Only on its own for a year, and we had our film discussion group, and that was it. We learned how to run an event. We learned how to work out all the kinks, learned how we all work together. We learned all the really basic stuff by keeping the stakes low and trying to run one event really well. To this day, that’s one of the smartest things we ever did, because now we know how to run events and it’s easier to troubleshoot problems. A lot of my job is made very easy because I just get to rely on really wonderful, talented people to run events that they’re passionate about.

What need does SFS fill in Seattle? So much of what we do is trying to bring people together, trying to give them a sense of community and a feeling of a dedicated space, a group of people that they can rely on. People will comment on things they’ve been watching or say, hey, I’m going to see this movie at this place. Those sound like really small things, but that’s what community is made of. It’s made up of small gestures that people respond to and comment on so that people can be a part of each other’s lives. What we have ultimately set out to do is try and create a clear access point, in a place where those things are a little bit harder to find.

Why is film important in this moment? It’s easy to lose sight of what’s important and to focus only on the big, scary things in the world. But everyone plays a role. Even on a film set, the gaffer is not doing the same thing as the costume designer. So we really try to place an emphasis on locality, on keeping things local, and making sure we’re lifting up filmmakers who are helping to build this community and deserve a bigger platform. There’s so much that’s not in our control. With film, it’s the same as anything—it helps keep you grounded. It helps keep you locked into your community. It provides people a space to orbit around and gives them a reason to continue engaging. People want to be connected, not just professionally but personally. They want to have their group of film friends. It’s been nice to see how many people really want to be involved. · 

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Call Sheet: What We’re Up To

Offbeat Originals 🎭

We’re excited to share our most recent Offbeat Originals film, Screen Time! Below, writer & director Bryan Campbell shares some insights into the film.

What inspired this short film? This film was made to satirically explore our obsession with smartphones and the irony of how easily we fall into the habits we criticize. By literally showing characters disappearing into their devices, the film exaggerates the tension between our awareness of phone addiction and our inability to escape it. The deadpan tone allows the humor and social commentary to coexist, making the audience reflect while laughing. - Director Bryan Campbell

Offbeat Originals is a gathering of aspiring and experienced filmmakers creating short films with the intention of learning.

Stay tuned for upcoming Offbeat Originals: Optimized, written & directed by Justin Jeffers, and Screening Room, written & directed by Mikiech Nichols.

Commercial 🎬

Once again…Kevin!

We’re excited to share the finished Keep WA Litter Free campaign. We had so much fun filming these six spots, which drop in on Kevin mid-road trip, in both English and Spanish.

CLICK below to watch Kevin’s big debut, conceived by the creative geniuses at DH and directed by Lael Rogers & Peter Edlund, and find the full campaign here. Thanks to everyone who helped pull these together. Maybe we’ll see Kevin again down the line…

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That’s all, until next time! Join our community! If you’re reading this and aren’t already on the Offbeat Community list, sign up HERE to get updates. Or email us at [email protected] – we’d love to hear from you!