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PortlightCreative

Recruiting films and culture diagnostics · Sacramento and Northern California

Hire people who are all in.

Your best people already know why your company is a great place to work. We put their stories on film so candidates can see it for themselves before they ever apply. The right ones feel the connection, and the ones who say yes arrive already knowing your mission, your impact and where you're headed.

For growing companies whose leaders still care how every hire turns out.

Book a conversation See how it works
A new hire at his desk, smiling, as a teammate leans in to look at his screen with him.

The problem

Finding people who actually care is the hardest part of growing.

You post the job, sort the résumés, run the interviews and make an offer to someone who seemed right. Six months later they're gone. Or worse, they're still here and never really bought in. Then you start over, and the culture you built gets a little thinner with every hire.

It wears on you. You end up feeling like the only person in the building who cares as much as you do. And somewhere out there are people who would love working for you. They just can't tell you apart from every other company with a careers page.

1 in 3

new hires leave within their first year.

Work Institute
½ to 2×

of a year's salary. That's Gallup's estimate of what it costs to replace one employee.

Gallup
12%

of US employees say their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees.

Gallup

The real fix

Commitment is decided before the first interview.

Most companies wait until orientation to talk about mission. By then, the decision has already been made. People give the most to companies they chose for the right reasons, and they can only choose you for those reasons if they see them before they apply. If you want a team that's more committed to the mission, the change starts with the first thing a candidate sees.

A Portlight interview in progress: the subject sits on a stool under a large softbox, facing the interviewer beside a teleprompter camera.

Why Portlight

We find the reasons your best people stay.

We've sat across the table from enough founders to know how lonely this problem gets. The best candidates have stopped believing job posts. They can spot a perk list and a stock phrase from across the room. What they believe is the truth, told by the people who actually do the work. Finding that truth is what we've done for nearly thirty years, first as photojournalists and now as documentary filmmakers working inside companies of every size.

Since 1997Nearly thirty years of listening longer than is comfortable.
Twenty yearsEmbedded with global firms, from the Fortune 50 to smaller companies with outsized reach.
Trusted with accessCredentialed to the Senate Press Gallery and the Governor's Press Office, and official photographer to Governor Schwarzenegger. People tell us things.
Proven in the roomFilms that helped pass a $415 million bond and win nine-figure construction bids.

How it works

Three steps to hiring people who believe in the work.

  1. Book a conversation.

    Tell us about the last few people you hired and the ones you wish you had. We'll tell you plainly what's getting in the way and what would help fastest.

  2. We listen to your people.

    We sit down with the people who do the work and find what actually makes your company worth joining, in their own words.

  3. Hire people who are all in.

    Candidates see who you really are before they apply. The wrong ones opt out, and the right ones arrive already committed to the work.

Book a conversation

What we do

Three ways we help, depending on where it hurts.

Where does it hurt?

When the right people aren't applying

Crew Story recruiting films

Three short films, made with your own people, that show candidates what it's really like to work for you. They belong on your careers page, in your job posts and in your first conversations with a candidate. It takes a half day of planning and one day of filming. Your crew does the talking, which is why candidates believe it.

Signs you're here

  • Your job posts could belong to any company in your industry.
  • Good candidates drop out after the first conversation.
  • Your careers page is mostly a list of benefits.
Explore recruiting films
Investment
Starting at $10,000
You receive
Three films, 60 to 90 seconds each

When new hires aren't sticking, or the place doesn't feel like it used to

Soundings culture diagnostic

We hold thirty to fifty confidential conversations with your people, from the newest hire to the longest tenured. Then we hand you a detailed written account of what they told us: what keeps people, what pushes them out, and where new hires find something different from what they were promised. You see your company the way your people do, which is the one view you can't get from the inside.

Signs you're here

  • New hires leave in their first year more often than they should.
  • Your veterans and your newest people describe the company differently.
  • You've grown, and the place doesn't feel like it used to.
Explore the culture diagnostic
Investment
$45,000
Timeline
Six to eight weeks
You receive
A written report, delivered in person

When the culture has to outlast the founder

ethOS cultural operating system

We take on a few of these each year, for founders who want what they built to outlast them. We build the stories, language and hiring practices that carry your culture into every new hire, so it no longer depends on you being in every room.

Signs you're here

  • You're still the one explaining what the company stands for.
  • Your culture lives in a handful of long-tenured people.
  • You're starting to think about what happens when you step back.
Access
By invitation
Begins with
The culture diagnostic

Where we work

In construction, hiring people who care is a survival issue.

Every contractor is chasing the same people with similar pay and similar safety records. The firm that wins is the one a young project engineer or a seasoned operator can actually picture working for. We've filmed on job sites, in precast plants and inside some of the region's biggest pursuits, and we know how to let your crews show what it's really like.

Book a conversation
92%

of construction firms report difficulty hiring for open positions.

AGC and NCCER, 2025
349,000

more construction workers the industry needs in 2026 alone.

Associated Builders and Contractors

Our work

Films that changed what people believed.

Three Mark III team members in hard hats and safety glasses talk through a steel frame on the factory floor. Construction · Careers

The Power of One: Mark III builds people as much as buildings.

Joe Snyder and Tullio Sarra explain why the company's success rests on hiring people who care and want to learn, then growing each of them into the role they were meant to fill. Watch the film A tower crane silhouetted against the sunrise over the Aggie Square construction site, crew members on the jib. Construction · People

Wrestling Gravity: Aggie Square from "the God's Eye."

Watch the film A woman leans over a young man lying on a bed, speaking urgently into her phone. Mission and belief

It's Been a Week: the story behind one name on Gaggle's wall.

Watch the film A room service tray with a birthday dessert and a handwritten note, set down for a Four Seasons guest. Hospitality

Four Seasons: Experience Travel In A Personal Way

Watch the film Steve opens the front door of the Andruss Motel beneath a glowing neon Open sign. Gold Telly Award winner

This Is Home: clarity on the quiet side of California.

Watch the film Two women talk across a small table in a sunlit lobby, one turning the pages of a thick binder of family photos. Culture and people

When We Say Data: AI, autism and a more hopeful future.

Watch the film
Amanda, a smiling new cashier in a green apron, talks with a customer. Her name tag carries a small ribbon that reads Trainee.

What changes

Your new hires show up already on board.

Picture someone who chose you for the right reasons. They watched your people talk about the work before they ever applied, so the first morning feels familiar instead of surprising. They aren't waiting to find out who you are. They already believe in what you're doing, and they'll bring the next good person with them.

Candidates who already understand the work, new hires who commit early, and a culture that gets stronger as you grow.

Not ready to talk yet?

Read your careers page the way a candidate does.

Three honest questions. Answer them about your own company and see what your best candidates see when they look you up for the first time.

  1. Does your careers page show someone who actually does the work, talking about it in their own words?

  2. Could a competitor paste your job post onto their own site without changing a word?

  3. Would a candidate know, before applying, why your best people stay?

Answer all three to see what a candidate sees.

Questions

What people ask us first.

Are you a recruiter?

No. We don't source candidates, screen résumés or charge placement fees. Our work happens before any of that: we make sure the people you're already reaching can see who you are and what you stand for, so the right ones lean in and the wrong ones opt out.

If you're not a recruiter, what exactly do you do?

At our core, we're documentary filmmakers, and we use that craft to help growing companies attract people who believe in the work. We sit down with your team, find the stories that show why they love working there, and turn them into short films for your careers page, your job posts and your first conversations with candidates. For leaders who want a deeper look, we also offer a culture diagnostic: confidential conversations with your people that show you the company the way they experience it.

So are you just a regular video production company?

Technically, yes. But we're pretty sure we're unlike any production team you've worked with. Most crews spend pre-production writing a script and planning shots. We spend it listening. We talk with your people before a camera is ever involved, find the story in what they actually say, and build the film around their real perspectives. That's why candidates believe it.

Will you help me find employees?

Not directly. We help the right people find you. The films we make go on your careers page, in your job posts, on LinkedIn and into your first conversations with a candidate, so whoever is doing your hiring has something true and compelling to show.

Do you work alongside our HR team or our recruiter?

Yes, and they're usually glad we're there. Recruiters and talent teams spend their days trying to explain what makes a company worth joining. We give them your own people saying it, which is far more convincing than anything they could write.

What if our culture isn't where we want it to be?

Then the culture diagnostic is the right place to start. We don't judge whether a culture is good or bad. We show you what is actually happening and let you decide whether it's what you intended. We never film a version of your company that isn't true.

Who do you work with?

Growing companies whose leaders still care how every hire turns out, in construction, technology, healthcare, hospitality and any business where the people are the product. We're based in Sacramento, but the work isn't tied to it. Our culture diagnostic can be done anywhere in the world, and we travel to film recruiting stories wherever your people are, with travel added to the project.

Start here

Give us one conversation.

Tell us about the people you've hired and the ones you wish you had. If we can help, we'll show you how. If we can't, we'll say so.

Book a conversation