Crossing the Axis - The Commercial Side of Film Production

Imagine bringing in revenue of $3.5M one year only to find that you’re actually $1M in debt? That’s where Guy Bauer found himself at the end of 2018. His production company (Umault) was more successful than ever, however, due to poor financial management, and lack of direction, Guy was only months from bankruptcy. 

Listen in as Guy shares candidly with us how he successfully relaunched his company, slimmed staff from 32 to 4, moved the focus from “the gear” to the creative, became highly profitable, and most of all, started enjoying his job again. 

Guy and his team have officially killed the corporate video - and it has paid off in spades.

In this episode we meet Cole Heilborn of the pacific northwest production company, Portside Productions.

We at Crossing the Axis call Cole "the hustler" because there's nothing Cole's afraid of to move his craft forward. Here are some things Cole is doing that are quite out of the box in order to get the kind of work he wants.

• Hosting his own podcast interviewing marketing people who are the type that would ultimately hire him. Genius.
• Creating (and getting funding for) a documentary based on his love of mountain biking. Note - this puts him in like Flynn with those mt. biking companies who also need commercial work done.

So, take a listen to this episode and learn how you, too, can hustle. And how the key to it is knowing "there are no rules" to growing your production company.

Emma Wilson of Wengen, Switzerland makes the most beautiful wedding films you've ever seen. Forget about the cheese that can sometimes sneak into this industry. Emma creates from-the-gut, perfectly crafted mini-features to celebrate her client's special day.  Her films are a testament to the idea that it's never the subject matter, or the corner of the industry, but always what you bring to the table as a craftperson that matters.

But that's not enough for this 20 year veteran of the BBC's TV newsrooms. Emma, in addition to creating said beautiful wedding films,  has started Evolve Videography Training specifically geared towards women commercial filmmakers.  And, in addition to that, Emma runs a highly successful corporate film company, Story Creatives.

Emma sits down with host Max Kaiser to talk about what it takes to create truly exceptional wedding films, why she thinks women have a tough time in our biz, what she's doing to change that, and finally, how she balances running three companies with a very consuming home life and downhill skiing schedule. 

Today, as a celebration of finishing 10 podcasts, we’re going to do a recap podcast where we go back and cover incredible tips we’ve learned from our guests.

Hiring Your First Sales Person for Video Production

• Don’t call them a salesperson
• A sales person must be an integral part of your team
• They love video
• A “pro” salesperson will rarely work as a video sales person

The Seasons of Sales

• Know your client’s calendar
• Hit them with ideas when they need them
• Clients and agencies LOVE ideas
• Know their fiscal calendar

Managing Client Relationships for the Win - With Elements Studio of North Carolina

• Put everything in the SOW
• Make sure to DO an SOW
• Good fences make good neighbors
• This really helps with the client is doing some of the stuff for the project
• Don’t hesitate to OVER-communicate
• AND…Make the first 30 minutes on set completely awesome for the client

Making Sales Easy by Going After Low-Hanging Fruit with Jen O’Brien

• Get a referral from every job
• Land and expand
• Pitch different departments
• Take advantage of making explainers, talking heads, etc. for other clients within the org

Creating Systems to Grow Your Video Production Company

• Basic Gear Management System as your starter system
• We all have this problem of not having all our gear on set sometimes 
• Start small on systems and grow out from there
• Don’t recreate the wheel on every project

Creating a TRULY Creative-First Video Production Company - With Tony Fulgham

• Take your creative seriously
• Practice your creativity with - “experiments”
• Pitch your creative properly (make sure they understand the process)
• Get paid for your creative - even if it’s only a little in the beginning

Doing Well by Doing Good with Soulcraft - With Aaron Straight

• Following the thread of your career, what gives you satisfaction and pleasure in life
• Your career doesn’t have to be all planned out - you can go from one thing to the next and follow your bliss
• You can open many doors in pursuing what you love
• You can really start to define your niche in this way, too

The View From the Top with Shane Dillon

• The best companies COMMUNICATE
• People who really listen succeed
• Companies that really listen reduce scope creep
• Prod. Co.’s that really listen have the best relationships with their clients

Scaling Video Production with Multiple Offices and SEO - With Blake Barnett

• Be willing to think outside the box to grow
• You’ve got to think outside the box in our business to be able to get attention and be successful
• One way is through good Search Engine Operation (SEO) 
• Another way is launching side ventures (likes Shoots.Video) to boost your brand

Max and Jake break down the importance of making a profit, what you can do with the profit, and how to insure that you make the profit you need.

• What profit is?
• Why profit is crucial to growth?
• The "No Profit" Trap People Fall Into
• How Much Profit Do You Need?
• How To Calculate Your Profit Into Your Job Budgets? 
• "Bottom up" example from Jake
• How to apply profit metrics to each and every job
• Profit and sales people incentives
• Keeping tabs on profit throughout the year

Max and Jake speak with Blake Barnett of Blare Media about how they have successfully scaled their operation through very unusual and clever tactics like having multiple satellite offices (they have 10!!) and mastering the art of SEO.

Blake goes on to talk about Blare's strategy to hit $5M in revenues with his new venture Shoots.Video, an online listing service for production companies and production staff.

It is a true cornucopia of interesting and unusual tips for growth. If you're feeling stuck in your current revenue and client base, and looking for new, exciting ways to grow - you'll want to listen to this one!

Hear what industry veteran Shane Dillon sees as the difference maker between the good and the great production companies.

Shane and his company LightPress (www.lightpress.tv) do post for so many of the big agencies and production companies in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We thought it would be interesting to talk to Shane about what he sees as the difference maker between the good and the great production companies that come through his shop.

Listen in as Shane talks about how it comes down to 4 basic ingredients:

• Communication
• Hierarchy
• Organization
• Openness to ideas and TRUE collaboration

On top of this, Shane shares some fabulous pointers about getting paid for your creative and managing scope creep. You won't want to miss it!

Max talks with Aaron Straight of Soulcraft Allstars, a production company that has proven you can be the change you believe in.

Aaron and his team have done work with Amazon, Addidas, Gates Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Seattle Pacific University and more. With Soulcraft Allstars, Aaron has turned a a passion for making the world a better place into a great, globe-trotting gig for he and his team.

Listen as Aaron and Max discuss: 

• How Aaron turned his passion for social justice into paying creative work
• Aaron's goal of producing "values based storytelling"
• Aaron talking specifically about his ongoing work in Haiti, and he flipped the script on his client work to truly give something back to the community there
• Why Aaron looks to be forgiving to himself in his work
• How has the Soulcraft Allstars team come together
• How people interested in bringing a social justice angle to their video work can thrive

Max interviews creative director, writer, director, production company-owner Tony Fulgham of All is Well (www.alliswellstudios.com) about how to create a truly creative-first production company.

Tony shares a huge amount of great advice here for anyone looking to make their production company creative-first, like: 

• The importance of writing
• The importance of getting paid for creative
• Tony talks about getting work and the state of industry
• Setting the tone with clients about how you work
• Only way to stay creative is to do things that “are not for sale”
• How to work with the client and share the process of “how you’re getting there”
• How to go from the Pitch Creative to the Actual “Shot” Creative
• Talking about “Experiments”  (stuff you and your team creates on the side to explore creativity)
• What you have to go through to get what you want to see made

It's a fabulous episode where you get to learn from a soft-spoken master who you normally would never have access to. Take a moment, and listen...

Max & Jake discuss how you can (and should) create systems to help grow your video production company.  We also include some examples of systems that you can copy for your own company. 

• What is a system?
•  Why do we need systems?
•  What’s an example of a basic system that has made a big difference?
•  Where did you learn about systems?
•  Importance of starting small and getting buy-in from your team on your systems
• Why you need to have someone to manage the systems
• How systems can work for single person companies, too