Renton has a new video production company near the shores of Lake Washington in Gluten Free Studios, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Omelet, an ad agency.

The firm offers a stripped-down version of full-service marketing without the fluff, but with a lot of heart and talent.

The Renton Reporter caught up with Rob Poznanski, president of Gluten Free Studios, on a recent afternoon in their offices in the business park just outside of Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park. The vibrant studio has been home to a staff of nine for about a year now, officially.

Their in-house production team consists of film editors, cameramen, a creative director, producer and account services. Gluten Free also hires independents such as grips or gaffers to complete their team when needed for different projects.

“We can scale up or we can scale down just depending on what the job size is,” said Poznanski.

You might have seen some of the firm’s work in a series of videos for Microsoft’s Surface in the “Click It and Do More” campaign. Microsoft is one of Gluten Free Studios’ main clients and the firm was instrumental in launching the Surface brand with their production capabilities, according to Poznanski.

Farther afield in Los Angeles, the company has also worked with Pivot Media on environmental and social campaigns. The studio does everything from live event documentation, scripted content, live content to creating 2D and 3D animated projects for clients.

Storytelling is the studios’ main emphasis and helping clients craft their message to the folks who want to hear it.

“We take a complex problem, turn it into a very simple story and then tell that storyline all the way through,” said Poznanski. “People relate to brands; they relate to it in a humanistic way, an authentic way vs. a very scripted content way.”

Gluten Free gets consumers to relate to brands by focusing on what the product can do for consumers, not so much just the product.

The company has helped clients with budgets of $2,500 to a million dollars. Gluten Free staffers often wear many hats and bring to the table a host of tools to make projects work for a client’s budget.

“My team cares about anything they touch, anything that I bring in they want to care about it,” Poznanski said. “They want to handle (it) with care, so they will put their heart and soul into it.”

Poznanski has a background in the music industry and used to be a creative director at Microsoft. After downsizing there, he left to take a job with Omelet. He opened Omelet’s Seattle office about three years ago and then closed it to create a different business model to suit clients’ price points.

“We were finding out that a lot of the services that we were offering were being farmed out to other companies that we could have done,” he said. “But they were farmed out because they could offer a lower price point. They could do a quicker turn on it.”

After breaking a few eggs to make some things happen, Gluten Free Studios was hatched, a streamlined production agency.

“We can streamline a lot of the efficiencies that need to happen in a production without having the extra bodies that it takes to pull that off,” Poznanski said.

He had been eyeing their present location at 1133 Lake Washington Boulevard in Renton for three years. He chose Renton because it had the vibe he wanted that set the firm a part from the “sea of noise” and clamor of other agencies in Seattle, even though he loves that city too.

“I know (Renton’s) had its share of perception, but I think Renton in this area that we’re in now – especially with the VMAC (Virginia Mason Athletic Center) and the Seahawks down the road – I think we’re in a great spot,” said Poznanski.

To learn more about Gluten Free Studios, check out their website at

www.glutenfreestudios.com.