Echobend is a full-service production, post-production, creative agency, and film/TV studio in Los Angeles, creating everything from music videos to commercials, branded content, feature films and more with the help of the Adobe Creative Cloud.
We sat down with Echobend filmmakers Noah Wagner and Ryan Turner to learn more about how their team is using Productions in Premiere Pro, After Effects, Frame.io and more Creative Cloud tools to bring their recent projects to life, in addition to getting an inside look at their creative beginnings.
Tell me a little bit about Echobend and the various projects you work on.
Wagner: Echobend is a full-service production, post-production, creative agency, and film/TV studio across four buildings in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles. We do everything from big-budget music videos and commercials to branded content, podcasts, and feature films. Some standouts include music videos for Nicki Minaj, Mariah Carey and Lizzo, commercials with Netflix, Activision Blizzard and Dr. Squatch, and our growing slate of features including Me, Myself & the Void starring Kelly Marie Tran.
But our core ethos is community – fostering an ever-growing group of kind, passionate, versatile filmmakers who lead with their heart and put creativity first.
Turner: When I started the company with my partner, Zubin Anklesaria, we wanted to create a place we wished we had when we first moved to LA. We often say Echobend is a place where a lot of lone wolves came together to form a wolf pack. We’re all trailblazers in our own way but share a common passion and culture.
How and where did you first learn to edit?
Turner: My dad’s a software engineer, so I grew up around computers. On family vacations, I’d cut together clips using basic editing software that came with the camera. In school, I made short films, parodies and sketches that aired on the school broadcast, but things really took off when I got Adobe CS3, with Photoshop and After Effects alongside Premiere. I loved how seamlessly they worked together.
Wagner: I spent my summers as a kid going to camp in rural Maine, where we were encouraged to be weird, playful, and creative without fear of judgment. So, armed with the camcorder I bought with my Bar Mitzvah money, I’d shoot Jackass-style skits and loosely narrative skate videos with my friends. Back at school, I’d spend nights teaching myself Adobe CS2, painstakingly trimming clips on a laggy PC just to get the timing right for a laugh. Every year, I’d bring a new cut back to camp like it was a summer blockbuster.
How do you typically begin a project/set up your workspace?
Wagner: For me, it’s all about organization, folder structure, and pipelines – where Productions is a lifesaver. I like to think through the workflow so that once I or anyone else on the Echobend team is in a creative groove, we don’t get distracted by technical hurdles. I’ve learned the hard way that good prep is the difference between a smooth edit and a chaotic one.
Turner: I’ve spent almost two decades refining my process, which shifts from narrative to commercial to music video. I love stringouts, markers, color coding (always need more colors!), transcriptions, and marking story beats or reads. Once the footage is neatly organized, I dive straight into flow-state work – thinking of an idea and executing it moments later. That’s why tools like Premiere Pro’s new Media Intelligence Panel excite me. Efficiency always wins.
Tell us about a favorite scene or moment from a recent project and why it stands out to you.
Turner: I recently cut Lizzo’s new music video, “Still Bad,” and it was an absolute joy. The footage was epic: flaming cars, bird dancers, city streets – so much good material that every shot had to earn its place. Director Colin Tilley encouraged me to experiment with new techniques and transitions, building off my ideas and giving me freedom to play. That’s my favorite type of leadership – encouraging play and sparking creativity.
What are some specific post-production challenges you faced recently, and how did you go about solving them?
Turner: We recently worked on a series of commercials for the Tennis Channel featuring some of the world’s top competitors at Indian Wells. We shot on a Wednesday, and the spots needed to be cut, approved and finished in time to air on Friday. The only way we were able to pull this off was via Camera to Cloud through Frame.io with our editor back at our LA office. The director and editor both worked to build out the template for the edit, and then the editor would drop in footage as it came in. A rough cut was done the same night the shoot wrapped, and we were able to deliver everything (with color and VFX) within 48 hours. A perfect example of when prep meets efficiency and a well-oiled machine.
What Adobe tools do you use as a part of your workflow?Wagner: The short answer? All of them – we’re an Adobe house through and through. Personally, I live in Premiere Pro for everything from commercials to features, and After Effects is my go-to for compositing and visual polish. Frame.io is indispensable for both client review and our internal file sharing. I also rely on Productions to keep projects in sync, allowing our AEs to supply editors with the latest assets without interrupting their flow. Camera to Cloud helps with fast-turnaround edits, Text-Based Editing lets us swiftly sift through high-ratio documentary footage, Enhance Speech and Adobe Podcast power our audio work, and Generative Extend helps fill unintuitive timeline gaps – both for picture and music.
If you could share one tip about Premiere Pro, what would it be?
Turner: Besides trim clip to playhead (my favorite shortcut!), I love locking layers to divide each section of audio or video. It forces you to stay organized and keep things within your little locked prisons. It also really saves time when onlining and prepping for color and sound. I also color code everything. It helps me quickly wrap my head around sections and takes, and replace anything that’s needed from my selects sequence.
Who is your creative inspiration?
Wagner: The entire community here at Echobend. There’s always someone directing a cool concept, pulling off an enormous production, or trailblazing a new technology or workflow. Everyone’s pushing the envelope together and is super generous about their process, which is rare.