Who I Am
Very simply put – I love the work. It would be easy for me to say that we love the work but it’s more important to remind every customer who comes looking for video content that I still love creating: for all types of clients and businesses and projects and everything in between.
20 years ago I moved to Southern California with a dream to make it big in the movie business. That dream takes turns, grows, changes, gets destroyed, gets rebuilt, then settles into life. I can look back at my career and say, “I’m in the movie business.” I can look forward at my career and say, “I can’t wait to see what I’ll be able to create next.
A key selling point to our clients, on retainer and perspective, is that we’re never satisfied with what we’ve put out. I always want a little more time to sharpen an edit. I cringe when I listen to the audio that could have gotten another pass, but that is the curse of what we do. You can noodle a project to hell and back but at some point, you have to grab that loaf of hot bread out of the oven and serve it on a table.
My advice to young creators is this, “put the work out there to the best of your ability but don’t wait on putting it out there.” If you rush the work and the best of your ability doesn’t interest anyone, then commercial work might not be right for you. If what you’re putting out there is tickling people, keep putting it out there. No one cares about the ideas in your head. They care about your ideas out in the world.
An Industry In Transition
WhenI started in video production there were clear lines between a director, a DP, and a camera operator. But the world has changed and we’re being asked to do all three jobs at the same time. If you’ve got to be that filmmaker, that videographer, that photographer, be the best. Don’t be afraid to learn how to light. Don’t shortchange the client on their experience. Remember… you took the job.
So know that I love this and won’t be doing anything else until they drag me kicking and screaming away from it all. On that day you probably say, “that crazy guy loved this game.”
