How you began...

[hYpnochronic]

For those of you who have shown the drive and tenacity to begin your own business (small or otherwise), how did you get started? This is knowingly a very vague question just to get some ideas thown out there about the initial processes and hang-ups. I'm trying to get all the information I possibly can to put together a 6-month plan for getting started with an all-inclusive digital services business. I am basically starting from scratch except for my computer which will serve comfortably as my editing workstation. I'm a long time reader of this board but have seldom posted anything. Hopefully sometime in the near future I can be a contributer vs. an inquirer. Thanks in advance for any contribution!

 

[Zak Forsman]

i was working freelance for other companies that do motion picture trailers, DVD bonus features and EPK's. to make the most of my taxes, i already had an LLC that they were paying (and then I would pay myself from my company). so the next step was to hunt for some office space and take out a loan to buy my own HD edit suite. i put together a reel and information packet and have been stealing clients from my former employers ever since. and because I get the entire budget now, I have something like a 40% profit margin on budgets upwards of $250,000.

 

[RandyRosenthal]

Here are some snippits of my story:

North Miami Beach 1980. I was 16 and one day I'm hanging out a friend and had the idea that I was going to be on TV or in the movies. I asked a friend of my father , "uncle" Tony (who happened to be connected to the teamsters) to help me get in a movie. I spent the nest two months on the set of a very low budget feature being shot in my neighborhood.... Porky's. Most of the shooting was at night with a 6:00pm call. I remember feeling upside down as I drove home to go to bed as everyone else was just getting their day started. I think I was the youngest member of the cast. Most of the other "teenagers" in the group of 20 or so of us special extras who were in most every scene were much older. It was an eye opener. I earned enough to buy a car. I failed math.

cut to:

Raleigh NC. I'm 24 and fresh out of school with a degree in psychology. No jobs. I freelance for a friends brother's video company schlepping a 3/4 inch deck around trying to keep up with the shooter I was thethered to. Camcorders were still to come. One day I was on a shoot when a producer from NY came into town in his crumpled white shirt to interview some professor for a documentary. The whole day I kept saying to myself, "I can do this." From that day on I read every book and manual in the shop. I started shooting and producing. The guy I worked for let me because I worked hard and cheap. I volunteered to stay all night making dubs so that I could practice editing in the betacam suite.

Three months later I quit and printed up cards that read: Randy Rosenthal Producer / Director with my local address and phone. I called every ad agency around trying to get an appointment and got none. Its probably just as well because I had no reel. I tried again but this time I threw out the old cards and printed up new ones with a New York address and phone (a friend's). This time everyone saw me and I landed a documentary on historic preservation for a whopping $10,000 budget. I thought it was a million dollars and I spent every dime of it making the best film I could. Now I had a reel. But I feel like I am faking it.

Cut to:

Ten years later and I am sitting at a coffee shop in Tampa Florida hanging out with a crowd of regulars. I live here. Its quite easy to fall into a comfortable routine of getting a gig, working for a month or so and the taking the next three months off. I'm getting jobs as a director most of them are commercial, documentary or marketing. The work wins awards but I really don't care. What I don't know is that I'm about to meet a woman who will change everything.

At a grand opening for a new post house I am introduced to a smart & spicy young advertising exec. When I reach for her hand a spark shoots out bridging the tint gap between us. Really a spark. It kinda hurt. Fast Forward and we are seeing each other. She hates her job. I, who has never had a job, convinces her to quit and work with me. We start a production company out of our living room. It takes off. 1 + 1 = way more than two.

Ten more years: We've bought a restored 100 year old bungalow and turn it into a studio. We hire a talented staff. We pay freelancers immediately (I remember how hard it was to wait 60 to 90 days to get paid) and we we have together built something bigger than ourselves. A creative entity with its own momentum.

Today we are growing still and have fun playing with media in all sizes and shapes from cell phones to giant stadium screens. Sometimes I still feel like I'm faking it....

Randy
www.tricyclestudios.com