How We Are Films Helped Bring the Onterris Rebrand to Life Through Film

In 2026, Montrose Environmental Group became Onterris.

But this was much more than a name change.

The rebrand brought together a network of environmental consulting, testing and treatment companies under one global identity. An organization with approximately 3,500 employees and 120 offices across the United States, Canada and Australia was becoming one unified brand.

Video would play a major role in introducing that new identity to the world.

Onterris brought in We Are Films as its video production partner to help translate the new brand into motion and create the video content that would support the launch throughout 2026 and beyond.

Over the course of the year, that collaboration grew into approximately 30 video assets produced across roughly 30 shoot days throughout the United States.

We created the flagship brand film for the new Onterris website, rebrand announcement films, executive interviews, employee stories, recruitment videos, social content, motion graphic campaigns and more.

It became one of the most comprehensive corporate video campaigns We Are Films has undertaken, all built around one central challenge:

How do you make dozens of different films, created across an entire country, feel like they are telling one story?

Translating a New Brand Into Film

The new Onterris brand identity had been developed by a separate branding agency. Our responsibility wasn't to design the new logo, typography, colors or core visual identity.

Our job was to bring that identity to life through film.

We Are Films worked closely with the Onterris team during creative development to understand the new brand system and determine how it could translate into cinematography, editing, sound, motion graphics and storytelling.

That included finding creative ways to incorporate the new Onterris logo and graphic language directly into the films rather than simply placing a logo at the beginning or end.

Sometimes that meant motion graphics. Sometimes it meant transitions or graphic devices built around the new visual system. Other times it meant thinking about composition, color, movement and environments in ways that naturally complemented the brand.

The objective was never to force branding onto the films.

It was to make the films themselves feel unmistakably Onterris.

One Brand. 30+ Video Assets.

Consistency becomes difficult when you're creating a single film.

It becomes considerably more challenging when you're producing approximately 30.

Throughout 2026, We Are Films traveled across the United States capturing the people, environments and work behind Onterris.

We filmed everywhere from major cities to small-town America. Some productions took place on large LED stages in controlled studio environments. Others put our crews directly into the field alongside Onterris employees.

Across roughly 30 shoot days, We Are Films handled 100% of the directing, pre-production, production, cinematography, post-production, editing, color, sound, motion graphics and final delivery.

That centralized approach allowed us to protect the visual language of the new brand.

A highly produced brand film shot on an LED stage needed to feel connected to an intimate employee documentary filmed thousands of miles away. An executive interview needed to belong in the same world as a social campaign. A recruitment video had to feel like part of the same company as the film sitting front and center on Onterris's new website.

The deliverables were different.

The brand couldn't be.

Making a Global Organization Feel Human

The scale of Onterris is significant. The company operates approximately 120 offices across the United States, Canada and Australia, with thousands of scientists, engineers, field teams and consultants working across a wide range of environmental disciplines.

But we didn't want scale to become the story.

We wanted people to become the story.

One of our approaches was to find employees doing genuinely fascinating work and build films around them.

One example is Gabe, an Onterris archaeologist working on Catalina Island.

We recently traveled to Catalina to document Gabe and his work. The result is visually striking, but what makes the film compelling isn't simply the landscape.

It's him.

By spending time with someone actually doing the work, corporate communication begins to feel much closer to documentary filmmaking. Rather than telling an audience what Onterris represents, we're able to show them through the people who represent it every day.

That approach became an important part of the larger campaign.

The organization may be large, but the stories don't have to feel corporate.

Creating the Content for Launch Day—and What Comes After

Our work wasn't limited to producing a single announcement film.

We Are Films created the actual videos announcing the transition from Montrose Environmental Group to Onterris, as well as a broader library of video content designed to be ready on day one of the new brand.

That included the flagship brand film positioned prominently on the new Onterris website, executive interviews, employee profiles, recruitment content, social videos and motion graphic campaigns.

The objective was to create a video ecosystem.

Someone discovering Onterris through its website should encounter the same visual identity as someone seeing an employee story on social media. A prospective employee watching a recruitment film should experience the same company as a client watching an executive interview.

Each piece could have its own story, pace and personality.

Together, they needed to build recognition for Onterris.

Supporting a Rebrand That Was About More Than a New Name

The scale of the transformation becomes clearer when looking at what Onterris was actually bringing together.

The new identity unified numerous legacy brands and areas of expertise under the Onterris name. The company's own materials describe the transition as bringing environmental consulting, testing and treatment expertise together under a single global identity.

That meant the videos had a larger job to do.

They weren't simply introducing a new logo.

They were helping audiences understand that previously distinct companies, disciplines and people were now part of something shared.

Visually, that meant creating consistency.

Emotionally, it meant creating connection.

Making Complex Production Feel Simple

A campaign involving roughly 30 shoot days across the United States inevitably comes with complexity.

Locations change. Schedules move. Weather changes. Creative evolves. Different stories require different production approaches. A remote field production has entirely different logistical requirements from shooting on a large LED stage.

Our philosophy at We Are Films is simple:

Those complexities should be ours, not the client's.

We want our clients focused on their organization, their message and the work we're creating together. The logistical machinery required to make that happen should remain largely invisible.

Our job is to do the heavy lifting.

That was particularly important during a company-wide rebrand. The Onterris team already had an enormous transformation to manage. Video production needed to be something they could trust was being handled.

What a Major Corporate Rebrand Taught Us About Video

One of the biggest lessons from the Onterris project is that consistency doesn't mean making everything the same.

In fact, doing that would have weakened the work.

A brand film should feel different from an employee documentary. A recruitment piece has a different objective from an executive interview. Social content operates differently from a homepage film.

The challenge is creating enough flexibility for each story to work while maintaining a strong enough visual language that everything still feels connected.

For Onterris, that meant using the new brand identity as a foundation rather than a template.

The logo, typography, colors, photographic direction and overall tone informed our work. From there, we translated those elements into cinematography, motion, editing, sound and storytelling appropriate for each individual film.

The result wasn't 30 versions of the same video.

It was approximately 30 different pieces of one larger story.

From Montrose to Onterris—and Into 2027

2026 was the first year We Are Films worked with Montrose Environmental Group and Onterris.

During that first year, our teams collaborated across approximately 30 shoot days and 30 video deliverables as the organization underwent one of the most significant transformations in its history.

And the relationship isn't ending with the launch.

We're already gearing up for our work together in 2027.

For us, that's an important measure of a successful production partnership.

The goal isn't simply to deliver a beautiful film.

It's to understand a client's organization, brand and people well enough that each subsequent project can become more ambitious, more efficient and more meaningful.

For Onterris, that relationship started by helping introduce an entirely new brand to the world.

Now we get to help tell the stories of what comes next.

We Are Films is a full-service video production company based in New York City, producing commercial, corporate, documentary and narrative work throughout the United States and internationally. We partner with brands, agencies and organizations on everything from individual films to large-scale, multi-location video campaigns.

Planning a corporate rebrand, national video campaign or brand film? We Are Films provides creative development, directing, production, cinematography, post-production, motion graphics, sound and final delivery under one production partner.