Concept redesign for 1986 Studios by Intense Visions — companion to the Highdive concept. Why this →

In-house production studio · Chicago · Est. 2020

Where the leap
gets made.

1986 Studios is the in-house studio of Highdive — editorial, live action and VFX under one roof. We don’t hand off the idea. We finish it.

See the reel Start a project

Leaps, landed

Selected work — made in-house. Stills from motion pieces; live loops drop in at handoff.

Jeep ‘Wrangler for Washingtons’ — an Oval-Office scene with a Jeep painting behind the desk
01

Jeep · Live action + VFX

Wrangler for Washingtons

MSC Cruises ‘Karaoke’ — a couple dining out
02

MSC Cruises · Lifestyle

Karaoke

Jersey Mike’s ‘Jersey Swap’ — a basketball player and a Jersey Mike’s employee
03

Jersey Mike’s · Broadcast

Jersey Swap

Culligan — a billboard reading ‘That upbeat feeling of Crisp, Clean New York tap water’
04

Culligan · VFX + type

Clean Water

BetMGM — a light-trail VFX shot across a floor
05

BetMGM · VFX

Brand film

Jeep ‘Billy Goes to the River’ — Billy Bass in the water
06

Jeep · Live action + VFX

Billy Goes to the River

The whole make, in one room

  1. 01

    Editorial

    Story-first cutting — the room where a spot finds its rhythm. Broadcast, social, long-form.

  2. 02

    Live action

    Production that starts in the idea, not after it — deeper collaboration, earlier, so the make is sharper.

  3. 03

    VFX & AI

    Effects, finishing and AI-assisted craft — the invisible work that makes the impossible shot land.

  4. 04

    Post & finishing

    Color, sound, graphics, delivery — every version, every platform, out the door on time.

Part of the family

Highdive makes the leap.
We make it real.

1986 is Highdive’s in-house production studio — which means we’re in the room before the idea is even sold. No hand-offs, no telephone game between agency and vendor. The bet and the build, under one roof, since 2020.

Meet Highdive

In the room with

JeepKFCState FarmBetMGMJersey Mike’sMSC CruisesConagraCulliganDISH

The engine

Built to make the impossible shot on deadline.

Jen Passaniti launched 1986 in the middle of the pandemic as Highdive’s in-house studio, and it hasn’t slowed down — 117% growth in 2023 alone. What started as a production arm is now a full craft engine: editorial, live action, VFX and finishing, all in the Merchandise Mart.

The advantage is structural. When the people who make the film are in the room while the idea is still being written, the work comes out sharper and the production comes out smoother. That’s the whole point of an in-house studio — and it’s why the work keeps landing.

  • PresidentJen Passaniti
  • StudioLilly Beck · Attila Newey
  • Home222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago

A concept from Intense Visions

Your studio should look as finished as your work.

The current 1986 site is a clean Squarespace grid — but for a craft engine that finishes Super-Bowl film, the site should feel color-graded, not templated. This concept treats the reel like the product: optimized motion, a crop-mark art direction that says edit suite, and a design system that reads as a sibling to the Highdive concept — so the two go out as one pitch.

  • Lighter than the GIF grid. The current site serves multi-megabyte GIF previews; this rebuilds on Cloudflare’s edge with optimized media, real structured data, and a designed share card.
  • The reel is the product. A gallery-led build with live loops, per-project pages, and a CMS your team updates — the work leads, everything else follows.
  • A matched set with Highdive. Same type, same cinematic bones, your own mint — so the agency and the studio finally look like the one family they are.
See the concept & scope See the Highdive concept

Concept designed & built by Intense Visions · chad@intensevisions.com

Get in the room.

Bring us the board everyone else said couldn’t be shot.

hi@1986studios.com
222 Merchandise Mart PlazaChicago