Home Within
Awakening Spaces: An Interior Design Story Rooted in Stillness and Spirit
A character-driven film revealing the sacred journey from monastery to design, and how interiors can become spaces for healing.
Story Archetype:
Vision Story
Impact Summary
• Helped Home Within communicate their vision in a soul-aligned, cinematic way that honored the journey taken
• Positioned the brand as a leader in spiritually-rooted wellness design by showcasing credibility
• Became a cornerstone film for attracting like-minded, high-caliber clients
Story Keywords
Our first Milestone is defining five Story Keywords that encapsulate the essence of the story. These keywords help us stay aligned on what’s most inspiring about the story, the emotional tone, target audience, and the key action we aim to drive. This alignment ensures we have a clear objective for your story before we make any creative decisions.
Inspiring Keyword
Healing - Not only has Matthew gone through a lot of healing in his life, but he create spaces that can inspire healing for others in their journey.
Uniqueness Keyword
Vision - Matthew's beautiful vision for the world and for communities of stewardship for the earth truly makes this story different.
Audience Keyword
Alternative - Those who want an alternative way of looking at / living life. Those who can see the disconnect on our planet and who know there must be a better way.
Feeling Keyword
Uplifted - We want the audience who sees this film to feel uplifted, to feel that they can be a part of their vision for a better world.
Action Keyword
Engage - The goal of this film is to have people engage, whether through email, courses, or consulting.
The Why
Matthew, the founder of Home Within (a sub-brand of Joe McGuire Design), didn’t follow a typical path to design. His journey began in silence, in a monastery, where he spent years in deep retreat, learning how to quiet the mind and listen to the land. That same devotion now guides his work creating interiors that help people reconnect with themselves and their surroundings.
The Challenge
Joe McGuire Design has historically focused on the luxury sector, mainly serving the Aspen market. Luxury design typically shows an image of perfection, and rarely shows emotional depth. Portfolios are perfect. Finishes are perfect. The result is an image that doesn't feel 'lived-in' at all. The challenge for Home Within was how to share their heart-led truth in a way that any audience would feel and understand. More importantly, Matthew needed the story to feel energetically aligned with his mission.
The Approach
Our approach began in identifying which story archetype we would use. We chose a 'Vision Story' as the Home Within brand did a great job at explaining their offer, but not the greater vision as to why it matters.
Short-form media on social media has forced us to dilute depth, and replace it with a performance-driven approach, feeding the algorithm. It was important for us to be able to take Matthew's truth and translate it into a timeless piece that will last for years to come, and tell a story that not only immerses the viewer in the moment, but creates reflection and integration afterwards.
The Journey
We dove into Keywords, which you can find earlier in the page, which set the foundation for the film. We then wrote the story arc based on our discovery calls with Matthew, choosing the plot points that flowed best. We were confident that the conflict would not distract from Matthew's now reality.
We chose locations and 'place' that added to each plot point, further deepening the audience's Immersion. When the final edit came together, Matthew watched in silence, wiping tears from his eyes, feeling deeply seen and represented.
The Result
Many people have given us feedback saying, "this didn't feel like 6 minutes". That's the magic of Immersion as a result of our science-driven process. Storytelling should take you on a journey, to invite you into a world, make you feel like you're a part of it, and leave you with something to reflect upon. The film does all of those things.
This film helped Home Within launch their rebrand in a powerful, soul-aligned way, helping communicate their vision to the world. It's a standout piece that is so vastly different from other films within the design space that it immediately connects, converts, and puts them in a category of one.
IMPACT created a short film that captured the essential story of our wellness design firm. And they did it in an incredibly organized and professional way that made the process easy and fun. They listened with empathy for the heart of the story, and they set it to beautiful footage and sound, creating a truly engaging and inspiring result. They are talented, visionary and a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend them.
Matthew Tenzin - Home Within
What We Loved Most
Everything about this film was the perfect production. Because Matthew has a very tight schedule, we broke the shoot down into multiple solo days vs back-to-back, allowing us the time to let the edit, interview, story and production breathe. This usually does not happen, and we noticed that this sense of calmness brought new ideas and creativity that might not have surfaced is we had a tighter and more demanding schedule. The result was a story that deeply resonated with Matthew and his audience, and we're grateful for the opportunity to tell it.
Each act in our 6-act structure requires a new location to fit the story. This time in the mountains!
Shooting at sunrise at a truly incredible Tea Hut in Boulder, CO was the highlight of the whole production.
All about those details to enhance the narrative.
Grateful for the connections we make when telling someone's powerful story.
