Director-Led Creative Studio
Film craft. Modern campaigns. New York precision.
Strategy-led creative, AI-accelerated workflows, and hand-finished craft.
A boutique production house based in New York City—moving between independent film and high-end commercial + digital work with equal precision. We help brands and founders turn ideas into campaigns that perform across web, social, and broadcast.
About
Founded in NYC
Last Ditch Pictures was founded in New York City in 2004 by siblings Isaak and Eva James. The company functions as a boutique, full-service production house handling film and video production, post-production, editing, and visual effects. As a NYC video production and commercial production company with deep post-production NYC roots, Isaak, an NYU Tisch alumnus, established the company to finance a passion for independent filmmaking while keeping a small team capable of commercial work. Clients include NBC Universal, Ogilvy & Mather, New Balance, and Unilever, reflecting a balance between artistic projects and high-quality commercial production. Today we pair classic production discipline with modern, AI-assisted development (concepting, scripting, previs, cleanup) and finish by hand for human, cinematic results. We also support campaign delivery—cutdowns, vertical formats, landing-page video, and performance creative for web and paid media.
- Full-service production + post
- Directing + creative development
- Cinematography + lighting
- Editing + VFX + color
- AI-assisted concepting + previs + cleanup
- Sound design + mix
- Performance cutdowns + social deliverables
Isaak James
Founder Bio
Isaak James is an American film director, actor, singer, and musician from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He is the founder of Last Ditch Pictures and is based in New York. He graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His film work includes Special Needs (acquired by Troma Entertainment), Hungry Years, Turbine, By Way of Home, and the short Awesome_FCK, which screened in TIFF’s Short Cuts lineup and received a jury prize at the Provincetown International Film Festival. Isaak also builds modern campaign systems—AI-assisted ideation and rapid iteration, paired with sharp editorial taste and technical finishing. The result: premium creative that’s fast, scalable, and still unmistakably human.
- Founder of Last Ditch Pictures
- NYU Tisch School of the Arts alumnus
- Based in New York City
Press
Selected coverage- 2007-08-17 — Garrett, D. — Variety — “Troma talks up Isaak James”
- 2007-07-08 — Gibron, B. — DVD Talk — “Special Needs: Film Review”
- Gibron, B. — PopMatters — “Hungry Years Review”
- Hernandez, E. — Film at Lincoln Center — “By Way of Home”
- Brennan, M. — IndieWire — “By Way of Home”
- Garfunkel, H. — Paper Magazine — “By Way of Home”
- 2015-06-22 — Smith, N. — IndieWire — Festival recap
Contact
Let’s make somethingReady to collaborate or get a quote?