We're About Your Success
We get it. You have a daunting challenge ahead of you.
You want to create effective and authentic brand-building content. That's a big hill to climb.
You can envision the goal, but reaching the summit requires the right creative partner – a team with talent, technical craft and a can-do attitude. You need a production team you can trust with the integrity of your vision.
Nielsen Studios will help you find the best path to your creative destination – your story, elevated. And like the best guides you’ve known, we'll do all the little things to ensure everyone enjoys the journey.
Our Story
For over three decades we've been exploring creative trails and chasing the light, guiding our clients toward content solutions that move brands, and people, together. Through all that, Nielsen Studios has followed a pretty simple path: provide top-level content creation services, and make sure our team and our clients all have fun along the way. We do our best to make sure that at the end of every production, we leave every set, every relationship, a little better than when we started. We've assembled a roster of crazy-talented creative partners that share the same vision, and the same blue-collar, get-er-done work ethic. No matter our individual roles, everyone is committed to doing what it takes to find the best possible path to the best possible creative destination for our clients. Turns out our story is really about Your Story.
Meet the Team
Shawn Nielsen, Studio Founder / Photographer
Photography is my true passion. And creating images together with some incredible clients over the years is how that passion has found expression. It’s been an amazing journey so far! So many people have shaped who I am today, and how I create. But my journey in commercial photography is just a part of my life. I'm also an avid outdoorsman. I thrive on the trail, in a kayak or immersed somewhere in nature. I'm grounded in this life by my awesome wife and adventure partner, Cristine, my four kids and a couple of perfect grandkids. I'm a down-to-earth kind of guy with a dry sense of humor – always on the hunt for a place to drop a pun. My goal in life, and with any project or production I'm on, is to leave the world better than I found it.
Scott Whitman, Production Manager
I've always been fascinated by visual media – illustration, design, photography, video – and how media helps us tell stories that move people. My role at Nielsen Studios is helping you explore and share your unique story. Whether it's storyboarding, production planning or creative writing, I want to help you imagine, capture and tell a story that truly connects and moves people. I was raised in Wyoming (I still have a mountain-loving cowboy in me somewhere), but Minnesota is home, and I've traded my boots (mostly) for hiking shoes and a fishing rod. I enjoy sharing life’s adventures (and a fishing net) with Teri, my wife and partner of 30 years.
Scott is also a co-founding partner with Shawn in AgriLife Studios.
Production Partners
Scott Regan, Lead Cinematographer
Scott has worked with Nielsen Studios as a cinematographer and editor since 2016. He's a total video tech geek and a daredevil on location. He's gone skydiving and ice skating with his subjects, ridden tractors with his camera, and piloted a drone in pursuit of grain barges, manufacturing robots and the epic aerial landscape. Scott shoots branded content for agencies and corporate clients all over the world. His work with Nielsen Studios (and sister production company, AgriLife Studios) includes shoots for MetalCraft-Riverside, Touching Hearts at Home, ADM, Minnesota Corn Growers, Wyffels Hybrids, FMH Insurance and Iowa Premium Beef.Other standout clients include: Best Buy, Target, 3M, Red Bull, United Health Group, Boston Scientific, Procter & Gamble, and Buffalo Wild Wings.
Trent Hilborn, Video Editor
Nielsen Studios' video editor, Trent Hilborn, is a true wizard in the art of weaving a story. It’s no surprise then, that he’s also an Emmy®-award-winning freelance director. Trent’s work reflects his passion to explore, influence, spark and uncover through story. Trent’s credits with Nielsen Studios (and sister production company, AgriLife Studios) include numerous productions for Wyffels Hybrids, Iowa Premium Beef (Morgan Myers), MetalCraft-Riverside, and The WaterMain (for American Public Media), among others. Trent has directed for notable brands such as Otterbox, YMCA, 3M, Target, American Express, and more. He's also directed and produced a variety of independent short films, including the award-winning short: A Friendly Encounter.
Creative Services
Commercial Photography • Studio Photography • Location Photography • Portrait Photography
Lifestyle Photography • Documentary Photography • Commercial Cinematography • Aerial Drone Video
Video Production • Video Editing • Motion Graphics • Animation • Audio Production • Visual Illustration & Design