The Architects of Awe
STEPT Studios
Stein Studios
EYOS Expeditions
The Team
The people behind the lens.
Stein Retzlaff
Stein Studios
Executive Producer
- 100+ expeditions on all 7 continents
- 44 Antarctica and Arctic projects
- 8 years in the superyacht industry
- Work featured in Red Bull, National Geographic, Hulu
Nick Martini
STEPT Studios
Founder & CEO
- Apple, Toyota, Carhartt, The North Face, ESPN, Oakley
- Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes, Coco Gauff, Shohei Ohtani
- Executive Producer — feature film for the Sphere
- Executive Producer — He Bled Neon, premiered at SXSW
Erich Roepke
STEPT Studios
Producer & Cinematographer
- Emmy Award-winning filmmaker
- Jimmy Chin's Everest North Project
- National Geographic's Life Below Zero
- Next Gen Council — Tompkins Conservation; Waves4Water storyteller
Davey Spens
STEPT Studios
Head of Creative
- Former Head of Creative — Pulse Films, Vice Media
- Founded Boat Studio — creative publishing behind Boat Magazine
- 15+ years in film and television development
- #1 bestselling short story collection in the UK
Production Partner
20+ years. Award-winning creative and production studio. Los Angeles.
Featured Productions
The Sphere, Las Vegas — Feature film EP
He Bled Neon — SXSW premiere
STEPT Film Fund — Slacker, Akuna, Ride of the Dead
Under One Roof
STEPT
Creative & Production
Lockt Post
Post-Production
Vault Rentals
Cinema Equipment
STEPT Entertainment
Long-Form & Film
Stories Built For
Two Worlds. Two Series.
The full range of what these
vessels make possible.
Series 1
Project Once
Extraordinary humans in unrepeatable moments — the vessel is the stage, the brand is the story.
Brand-Controlled
The vessel owns the narrative. Every frame builds the Damen story.
A to C-List Talent
We are looking for the right choice — cultural figures who bring audiences to expedition yachting.
Built for Cinema
Production quality that commands attention on any screen, any platform.
Scalable to Series
One pilot becomes ten episodes. One channel becomes a franchise.
Pilot 1 — ICE
A Music Video at the Edge of the World
Greenland (location flexible)
The Arrival
An expedition yacht enters Greenland's fjords carrying instruments, generators, and an idea.
The Artist
Fred Again.. at the center. Billie Eilish, Bon Iver, or Aurora join as collaborators.
The Message
Coordinates posted 48 hours before. No tickets. Boats reroute. Helicopters lift off.
The Performance
The yacht becomes a floating stage. Midnight sun. Music built from glacier and wind.
The Moment
Greenland becomes the center of the world. Then the stage disappears. Silence.
Fred Again..
Billie Eilish
Bon Iver
The Stage
The Encounter
Pilot 2 — FIRE
The Disappearing Match
Maldives
The Crossing
An expedition vessel crosses blue water toward a sandbank that vanishes at high tide.
The Athletes
Coco Gauff, Alysa Liu, Tom Daley, Ryan Trahan. One match. Ocean in every direction.
The Court
A court drawn into sand. Lines marked by hand. The yacht holds position offshore.
The Match
Golden hour. Rallies against the horizon. Movement and precision in total isolation.
The Disappearance
The tide rises. The court vanishes. By morning, it is gone — as if it never happened.
Coco Gauff
Alysa Liu
Tom Daley
Ryan Trahan
The Vessel
The Location
Series 2
Architects of Awe
A client makes an extraordinary ask. These are the people who pull it off.
Rob McCallum, FRGS
Founding Partner, EYOS
The Deep Archive
A "client" wants to create a photogrammetry model of a historic shipwreck for the science community — then explore the language of sperm whales. Rob makes it happen.
Tim Soper
Founding Partner, EYOS
The First Descent
A "client" wants the first ski descent from a yacht in East Greenland. Tim puts a helicopter on the helideck and finds the peak.
Captain Ben Lyons
CEO, EYOS Expeditions
The Blue Meridian
A "client" wants to combine surfing and deep-sea ROV exploration off Vanuatu. Ben assembles the vessel and the crew.
50+
Assets
200+
Stills
10+
Social Cuts
What This Creates
A permanent content ecosystem.
Brand Authority
Define the expedition category before competitors claim it.
Owner Loyalty
Deepen every relationship through shared cinematic experiences.
New Buyers
Stories that sell yachts at a scale brochures cannot reach.
Cultural Reach
A to C-list talent brings audiences far beyond the yachting world.
The Vision — 2029
Three years from now.
The Library
6-10 episodes across ICE and FIRE. A cinematic archive owned by Damen, deployed globally.
The Channel
Damen's YouTube becomes the destination for expedition yachting. Millions of organic views.
The Brand
No longer competing on specs. The builder that tells the most compelling stories on Earth.
The Pipeline
Every Xplorer prospect has watched the series before they walk into a meeting.
The Distribution
Festival premieres at Tribeca, SXSW, and Monaco. Streaming conversations with Netflix and HBO.
The Legacy
Cousteau put a camera on Calypso. Damen puts a production team on an Xplorer. Same tradition. Next chapter.
Project Once x Architects of Awe
Some moments are too extraordinary to repeat.
The stage disappears. The tide rises. The fjord falls silent. But the story travels everywhere.
Contact
Stein Retzlaff
Executive Producer — Stein Studios
530-386-5371
A Co-Production by STEPT Studios and Stein Studios · Curated by EYOS Expeditions