Andrew Quinn is a Director, Cinematographer, Father, and Entrepreneur | Ep. 103 | Business Podcast
Summary
Andy Quinn is a long time and we’ve made two short films together. Andy works with award winning film makers and listen in to learn about how James Cameron wrote his recommendation to film school!
He shares his journey building his own business, his experience doing voice overs, building short films, building Kickstarter campaign videos, national brand commercials, directing TV shows, and…
Shares some tips on how to build videos for your company for social media…he does it for some of the biggest brands!
You’ll love this episode.
Check out our two short films Andy and I talk about for FREE
Keeping County
A short film about Australia’s Kimberly and discovering who you are and your “country”.
Watch here >>>
Changing Delta
A short film about the Colorado River and how it doesn’t flow into the ocean anymore.
Watch here >>>
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More Information on Build a Business Success Secrets
Brandon:
Hello Friends. Welcome to the show. Today we’ve got an exciting episode with a longtime friend Andy Quinn, who is a freelance cinematographer and he shares a ton of information how he makes money as a freelancer and how he’s built his business as a cinematographer over the years. He’s worked with amazing people like James Cameron and does online videos for very famous brands that you’ve heard of.
In addition to running a bunch of shorts for Kickstarter campaigns and things like that. We talk about his business, how he even got into this business, how his business works and a bunch of tips that will help you build short video clips and shorts that can promote your brand in today’s social media world. He has a lot of experience running this very successful campaigns. He does an amazing job. You’re going to love this episode cinematographer Andy Quinn, Here we Go.
Welcome to build the business success secrets. The only podcast that provides straight talk for entrepreneurs, whether you’re an entrepreneur starting with an idea or growing your business. This show is for you. We’ll teach you how to build a strong mindset, powerful body and profitable business so you can achieve success. And here’s your host, Brandon. See White, Why are you so deep?
Andy:
Do you have a processor on that end?
Andy:
Yeah.
Brandon:
My barrel chest.
Brandon:
Oh, I thought it was a rode shotgun mic going through a processor that’s doing that.
Andy:
No, it’s probably because we haven’t, we don’t normally speak on headphones.
Andy:
Oh, they probably preserve some more of the base.
Brandon:
Maybe we should get you to do more voice overs.
Andy:
I’ve done voiceovers.
Brandon:
Well you did, you narrated that whole movie?
Andy:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Alright.
Andy:
Delta.
Brandon:
Right now, what do we call it?
Andy:
Uh Changing Delta.
Brandon:
Changing Delta about the colorado. You narrated that whole thing.
Andy:
I’m still impressed about that when I go back and watch it.
Andy:
Yeah, cool. Is I mean it was good work for sure.
Brandon:
So today we’re talking about, I was trying to I was writing down and I was like, just ask handy on, on the air.
Brandon:
Why not?
Andy:
But what do you, what do you effectively call your career? Is it a video? Because you’re more than just a guy who shoots video? So what when you sell your service or someone who’s listening, what do you call it?
Andy:
Well, that actually we’re we’re recording now.
Andy:
We recorded, we’ve been recording.
Brandon:
That’s my style. You know, that I don’t know if it was planned, then it would feel plan. That’s not what we do here at uh, build a business success secrets.
Andy:
Andy no problem.
Brandon:
I’m in your hands. No, I, so it depends on who’s asking honestly. But if someone asked me on the street, what do you do? I say? I’m a nonfiction film maker, I say I’m a nonfiction film maker or a documentary and commercial filming, but depending on a gig to gig, I’m a director of photography and the director, I’m a cinematographer.
Brandon:
Um Sometimes I’m just an editor.
Brandon:
I’d like to steer away from the term videographer because videographer is more like uh uh someone who’s just running a video camera at like an event, say, you know, whereas the filmmaker is someone who’s putting thought into the story in the process, not to say a videographer.
Brandon:
So are you thinking about getting good shots and angles and coverage and everything?
Brandon:
But there’s like a the distinction there to me, you know?
Brandon:
Yeah, I understand it’s like the difference between and probably a bunch of people get mad but I don’t really care.
Brandon:
Um the difference between a web master and a software engineer, there is a big difference, not that one is better or worse than the other, they’re just very different in their role and I think people confuse that.
Brandon:
So about a cook and a chef maybe.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Yeah, like it doesn’t once on better or worse just different.
Brandon:
So how did you get started in this actually, you know I’ve known you for?
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Oh, 23 years.
Andy:
Sounds about right, 22 years.
Andy:
Um I actually used to be taller than Andy.
Andy:
How tall are you?
Andy:
Mhm.
Brandon:
Probably at some 0.6 65 Yeah, no, I was never taller than Andy I think ever.
Andy:
Um But it has been a while.
Andy:
Um How did you get started in in this profession?
Andy:
And I also interested in where you would, where you thought you would go and if you wound up in that same spot.
Andy:
Well, so how I got started in filmmaking was I wouldn’t call the second career because I didn’t have a first career.
Andy:
But I went to undergrad first for to study sciences.
Brandon:
So I was my my bachelor’s degrees in um aquatic biology or marine biology.
Andy:
Let me translate that for the listeners and viewers.
Andy:
Um we now have viewers Andy We’re gonna be in 80,000 homes believe it or not, but um on cable.
Andy:
But um that means that Andy was diving in the Channel Islands, enjoying himself on a regular basis, going to school in santa Barbara pretty much.
Brandon:
I can’t recommend that university.
Andy:
I’m with my wife and I met there, we ended up moving back here now with kids.
Brandon:
We live in the same time we went to college.
Andy:
It’s you can’t beat santa barbara and and the science program science programs and engineering at U.
Andy:
C.
Andy:
Santa barbara are fantastic.
Andy:
But my I was a transfer there and my junior and senior year went through this program to become certified as a technical scientific diver.
Brandon:
And so my schedule every week was monday Wednesday friday classes and Tuesday thursday sunrise to sunset.
Brandon:
I was on boats diving at the Channel Islands dive along the coast doing you know sampling or measurement or monitoring of all of the you know graduate laboratories marine experiments.
Andy:
So it was it was awesome to be a 2021 year old driving boats around scuba diving all day.
Andy:
And I wanted to go into I wanted to stay in that profession to become a marine biologist and I was going to go to grad school masters or PhD program for the sciences.
Andy:
But then I found out about this program at Montana State University in as a Master’s of Fine Arts in Science and Natural history filmmaking.
Brandon:
That was new at the time.
Andy:
And basically the program was they only accepted people with at least a bachelor of Science degree or higher degree in science and they thought it’s so difficult to make scientific, you know, scientifically responsible films.
Brandon:
I guess that they thought it would be easier to turn scientists in the filmmakers than to try to get filmmakers too figure and like scientists and document science in a certain way.
Brandon:
No offense to them.
Brandon:
But that sounds like a terrible idea.
Brandon:
I don’t yeah, I think it’s not true at all.
Brandon:
I think that that that’s, yeah, that’s their different and you can, you can do both or you can do one or the other, but they’re not.
Brandon:
Um, they’re not exclusive.
Brandon:
Uh, so yeah, I went, I went to that program as a three year Master’s program.
Brandon:
I dropped out.
Brandon:
So I’m a film school dropout.
Brandon:
Why did you drop out?
Brandon:
I remember that, but I remember why.
Brandon:
Yeah, it’s so it’s a back up a little bit.
Brandon:
My my then girlfriend now wife also applied also from U.
Brandon:
C.
Brandon:
Santa Barbara.
Brandon:
She got in like, no problem to this program.
Brandon:
I got wait listed I think because they didn’t want to people from the same school.
Andy:
So I drove overnight from santa Barbara to bozeman Montana, met with the instructors and the dean of the school and everything.
Brandon:
And I told him how much I wanted to do it and they they let me in.
Brandon:
Um and then I said, they said, you know, we’ve already got somebody else from UC santa Barbara said, oh yes, that’s uh my girlfriend.
Brandon:
So we were both in that program and dropped out for different reasons.
Brandon:
I just realized I didn’t need a masters and filmmaking to be a filmmaker necessarily.
Andy:
I didn’t want to teach and the masters would be something I could use to teach, you know, college level courses or something.
Brandon:
But think so much of filmmaking once I got through the instruction portion is just doing the work.
Brandon:
Um, and having a degree doesn’t mean you’re any better at doing the work.
Brandon:
So I dropped out and started working.
Brandon:
But what, what, what, well, both you and your wife have changed industries or careers.
Brandon:
Um, but what made you think about filmmaking?
Brandon:
Was it just, hey, I think that’s interesting.
Brandon:
Was it because you saw a film that had a science bend on it?
Brandon:
Was it because you were filming underwater stuff and you’re like, hey, I think this is cool.
Brandon:
I want to make movies.
Brandon:
What was it?
Brandon:
Do you remember?
Andy:
Yeah, I’ve always been a photographer and um, since I was small, I’ve always had a camera studied it from the age of 10 or 12.
Andy:
I got my first camera and took photography the all through junior high and high school.
Andy:
So I’ve always, even when I was doing science stuff, I had a camera and I was documenting science and that sort of stuff.
Andy:
But what really got me into it was in my summer between junior and senior year of college.
Andy:
I was cast on a tv show to be a researcher.
Andy:
Really?
Andy:
Yeah, I remember that Ocean Challenge.
Andy:
It was a co production of Gene between jean Michel Cousteau uh and James Cameron.
Andy:
So I applied as they were looking for young, enthusiastic ocean minded people.
Brandon:
Uh It was like a reality show, you know, and they were gonna it was gonna be a sort of reboot of Jacques Cousteau’s calypso crew where they sailed around the world.
Brandon:
Explorer was awesome show.
Brandon:
I do remember that you were on that boat for a while.
Brandon:
Yeah, so a bunch of people tried out, I got cast along with a young woman from Sweden, I think she was from Sweden and we got sent to Iceland to the Vestmannaeyja or the Westman Islands off the southern coast of Iceland to basically free Willy.
Brandon:
If you remember keiko, the whale from the movie Free Willy.
Andy:
Now I remember you telling me a story, I don’t know if you want to tell it, but anyway about the, about the whale, Pete and Pete on Free Willy a few times unintentionally as part of the training, you know, you’re on a boat, you go off the back of the boat and he was so desperate for human context as a result of being in captivity and with trainers his whole life that he any human activity he just would glom onto and you going off the back of the boat and they say pretend like he’s not.
Brandon:
They it happened a few times.
Brandon:
What happened with that show?
Brandon:
Did that show air?
Brandon:
It didn’t know it never aired, the pilot didn’t air?
Andy:
I think it was just a, you know, to high level type, a male producers decided they couldn’t get along on what the storyline was or whatever um, and they scrapped it.
Brandon:
So yeah, I never went to air but on that I was on camera meaning I was being filmed as a protagonist Learning about this project where they were trying to reintroduce a captive oil back into the wild where he had been captured like 21 years previously as a juvenile.
Brandon:
But in that process, when they found out I knew how to take good pictures and video.
Andy:
They started sending me up with a camera where I was going up in the helicopter for spotting.
Brandon:
Um that kind of stuff.
Brandon:
And I also saw the film crews side of it and I thought, wow this is you can because science, you’re, you’re documenting the natural world when you’re studying the sciences, you’re studying something and then it’s often menu sha for years documenting it so that you put out that peer reviewed article to further the the the foundation of the understanding of whatever that realm of science is.
Brandon:
And I saw this film making is just a different avenue for relating, documenting and relating scientific concepts, concepts about the natural world.
Andy:
But in a much more broad and digestible way.
Brandon:
Then the journal of fill in the blank Marine snails International or something, you know, so that’s how I got into.
Brandon:
That’s how I transitioned from the sciences in the film making us, what I saw as a potential career was James Cameron with you.
Brandon:
Uh, he was not in the field with us, john Michelle I think was there once.
Brandon:
But James Cameron’s who hired me and funnily enough after the show is over.
Brandon:
I went back to school then I saw this flyer about this um, masters of fine arts program and science naturally street filmmaking and like any grad school application need letters of recommendation.
Brandon:
So I had a letter of recommendation to film school from James Cameron, wow.
Brandon:
Well, I think that’s why they agreed to meet with me.
Brandon:
Like who is this guy?
Brandon:
Who is this kid?
Brandon:
Yeah, I’d say that’s uh, that’s uh, what like ace in your back pocket.
Brandon:
Right?
Brandon:
So you go there and you, you just decided that what they were teaching, you didn’t necessarily need to be a filmmaker mainly because I don’t know, mainly I’m asking because you did you realize it was more of an art than a science?
Brandon:
No pun intended here?
Brandon:
Well, I think I did need what they were teaching me for the 1st 15 months, the instructional stuff, that’s all the technical, the theory um film school basically.
Brandon:
And that was extremely useful.
Brandon:
And I had great mentors there.
Brandon:
My cinematography mentor, his name’s Rick Rosenthal.
Brandon:
He was one of the underwater DPS or directors of photography for the Blue Planet series, which was like the benchmark at the time still is for that’s sort of they called blue chip natural history documentary, just like knock your eyes out.
Brandon:
Beautiful cinematography.
Brandon:
So I got that out of it.
Andy:
But then it was like, well the next year and a half for two years is just making a film and having, going through that process is important.
Brandon:
And I have friends who went matriculated through the program, got their degree and they’re happy, but at this point in our careers were all pretty much at the same point, you know, okay, pretty much, you know, it didn’t didn’t didn’t propel them forward, but if you had been a teacher, maybe it gave you some credibility, but that was never your intent.
Brandon:
Yeah, but it is it’s it’s you know, it’s it’s a craft to use this like the chef analogy, again, you can go to the C.
Brandon:
I.
Brandon:
A.
Brandon:
The culinary Institute of America and you know, where the coat and the hat and learn from the best of the best for how many years ago to that program?
Brandon:
Or you can learn on the job by going to working thomas Keller’s kitchen, the french laundry and after a few years, you know, you’re sort of get into the same point just through different paths.
Andy:
It’s the, you know, educational training versus apprenticeship model.
Brandon:
And I chose to go the apprentice ship, learn on the job kind of model more or less.
Andy:
So when you, when you leave, did you have an idea how you were going to make money?
Brandon:
Like pay your mortgage?
Andy:
No, I drove a forklift at the home depot, dropped out of film school and drove a forklift at the home depot and you know, started getting jobs.
Andy:
I went back to um I apprenticed with James, Cameron’s Director photography and Vince Pace for, I don’t know about six months or a year working with them.
Brandon:
They were developing a three D.
Brandon:
Camera system that was the Inception for what they used to shoot avatar and some of the other three D.
Brandon:
films.
Brandon:
And so I was basically a uh huh camera tech handler operator for them unpaid, just sort of figuring out how this camera system works.
Brandon:
You’re interning from that for them.
Brandon:
Where was this?
Brandon:
Uh they were based in Burbank and you moved to Burbank?
Brandon:
No, I would just drive down, you know, for a day or two every week or the week from santa barbara because you had moved back to santa Barbara.
Brandon:
Yeah, and you are driving, driving the forklift to pay your bills while interning more or less.
Brandon:
I never knew that.
Brandon:
I just missed that somewhere in the journey, you know, because it’s uh it’s the existence of being an independent filmmaker is, you know, it’s the same now as it was then.
Andy:
It’s just, I’m good and people know I’m good at what I do and so I get jobs now, but it’s all a gig based existence, you know, So back then it’s just, you’re trying and trying, I’m apprenticing doing free work for a super a list, you know, celebrity filmmaker, thinking, oh, this could lead to something and maybe it could have been stuck with it, but I didn’t like this sort of good old boy mentality of straight up apprenticeship, so I stopped the, the apprenticeship and just start trying to get gigs and what does that, what does that mean?
Brandon:
You didn’t like the good old boy mentality of apprenticeship?
Brandon:
I don’t know, you know, I’m not the type of person who was in fraternities in college, I had the opportunity to play Division One football and said no, because I don’t, I’m not that type of person who sort of gets along and the the yes, sir, yes, ma’am, sort of um structure, you know?
Brandon:
Um and I just, yeah, I felt like the unpaid apprentice stuff, Hollywood track just wasn’t really for me, I wanted to try to do my own thing and learn my own ways I guess.
Brandon:
But you did probably meet some important people there, I can’t imagine that.
Brandon:
Right?
Brandon:
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, but I mean I, I left that and then couldn’t find regular gigs after sort of turning my back on that approach either.
Brandon:
So I ended up getting a full time salary position with a production company um for about a year, but that my pathway that was then on Nantucket island off of massachusetts.
Brandon:
So I lived on Nantucket for a year, working for a company out there, it was called Plum tv and it was started by, remember Nantucket nectars as juice bottles?
Andy:
Remember you’re working for plum tv?
Andy:
And they launched a, they launched that tv channel that was going to be there Martha’s vineyard is that right?
Andy:
Yeah they had this so uh huh Nantucket nectars is owned by Tom and Tom and Tom Scott was one of the times and he’s from Nantucket, he bought a local access uh tv station there that they would put like committee meetings and basketball, high school football games and stuff like that and hired some talented people and invested in some equipment and turned it into a local sort of H.
Andy:
G.
Brandon:
T.
Brandon:
V.
Brandon:
Type channel.
Brandon:
So you have a place that’s a resort market like that with a lot of food and wine and and seasonal celebrities at a film festival and writing festival.
Brandon:
So there was like a weekly news magazine, there were cooking shows with celebrity chefs, interviews with the A.
Brandon:
And B.
Andy:
List celebrities who live out there seasonally or visit out there and coverage of like the culture of an interesting place.
Brandon:
And so they had that Nantucket Martha’s vineyard, the Hamptons Aspen Vail, Telluride Sun Valley in Miami Beach.
Andy:
So did they go and buy all the local access channels effectively or by a channel, a local channel on that?
Brandon:
Whatever cable distributors network in each of those markets they bought basically the channel that would have shown Wayne’s world, you know, the local, the local cable access channel that everybody had whether you had a rabbit ears or, or you know, satellite tv or cable.
Brandon:
And um it, so I worked on Nantucket salary as a producer shooter editor for a year and I was at that point a few years older than most of the younger people who they hired.
Andy:
And I’ve been and you know, I’d studied filmmakers at the masters level even though I didn’t have my Master’s degree and I’ve done all of this work with high definition video cameras, through the work I did in Iceland and then also the high end stuff with James Cameron is DP working on there Camera system.
Brandon:
So I had this access and knowledge of HD that a lot of people didn’t at that point because this is now 2000 five, which is really the transition period from like regular video, standard definition video to HD.
Andy:
And so I got a reputation like the somebody who could run HD productions and shoot higher end HD content.
Brandon:
So after a year of being on salary, I then was engaged to my girlfriend, which is the whole reason we moved to the west coast as my wife is a veterinarian and that’s where she went to bed school as tough university out there.
Andy:
So, uh, we moved across the country together only for me to then work 100 miles away on an island.
Andy:
We hardly saw each other.
Brandon:
So I thought this is absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Brandon:
So I want to get out of here Back to my fiancee.
Brandon:
And so I approached the company and made them an offer to become a contractor, independent contractor with them.
Brandon:
And that was in 2006 and that’s Basically how I still operate today, 15 years later as an independent contract.
Brandon:
What happened to plum tv?
Brandon:
They, they went under a few years later or dissolved or I don’t know that they ever really turned a profit.
Brandon:
I’m not sure.
Brandon:
But all the people that were there, you see him on linkedin, they’ve all spread out to other places.
Brandon:
So you have a company.
Brandon:
I don’t think a company exists anymore.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Andy:
Um, but that was my pathway.
Brandon:
That’s how he became a freelance filmmaker.
Brandon:
So I went from, that was the turning point.
Brandon:
And then I started to, they were, they were my only client when I went freelance.
Brandon:
And then I got more and more.
Brandon:
And now I have clients I’ve been working with, Uh, since 2006 basically that I still work with off and on and clients come and go.
Brandon:
Sometimes I do broadcast, sometimes it’s independent, you know, foundation work or um, documentary work or feature film, feature documentary shooting, uh, everything.
Brandon:
And what’s your preference?
Brandon:
What I like to work on?
Brandon:
Yeah.
Andy:
Like if I was like, hey Andy, you can, because you just went through the menu of things and you also do brand shoots, right?
Brandon:
You do, uh, there.
Brandon:
I don’t know where they called like mini short films.
Brandon:
The two minutes, cool things that you do.
Brandon:
The term that’s come around the last couple years is branded content.
Brandon:
So yeah, when a company wants you to shoot something that isn’t necessarily highly featuring their product, but the lifestyle associated with it, that’s branded content and that’s fun.
Brandon:
But what I like to shoot is not so much uh dictated by the the what the deliverable is, whether it’s for the web for tv for big screen, it’s more about the what the like what I’m actually filming and I like to film people in the natural world.
Brandon:
That’s what I gravitate towards.
Brandon:
No matter whether it’s a science topic or a personal documentary um or anything in between or or or broadcast commercial tv spot.
Brandon:
My favorite thing is working with natural light and people in the context of the natural world or the environment and that’s not necessarily mean it has to be an environmental issue.
Brandon:
Could be a footwear brand or a travel company or whatever, but if you look at the work I’ve done when people hire me, they see that I’m drawn to that.
Andy:
Uh And that’s what I think I do best.
Brandon:
I’m going to say back what I think it is.
Brandon:
I mean I know what you do, but for other people out there listening, who might not understand what that means, basically means that you don’t do set work.
Brandon:
No, not not.
Brandon:
Yeah, so I don’t do, I’ve never worked in the narrative environment, which is narrative films are fiction, You know what you think of as a feature film?
Brandon:
I do shoot on sets and in studios with commercial clients, product photography and videography and that sort of stuff.
Brandon:
Um But you like the natural like uh you did that whole thing for that brand with the uh western horse.
Brandon:
I actually saw the lady on instagram the other day with her kid face down in the paddock in the mud.
Brandon:
Uh Yeah.
Brandon:
Um So that you know out in nature effectively working with natural light and and a more realistic um recording or story of of someone in their natural environment.
Andy:
Yeah.
Andy:
Even when I do more commercial stuff, it’s always with that um Yeah that angle that like this is this is being captured naturally.
Andy:
Uh It’s not a lot of staged, a lot of directed stuff in that sense.
Andy:
A lot of fakery or acting or anything you observe quietly.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Yeah I’m a large person but I like to feel like I’m not really you know, standing out or driving things as much as knowing where to set people up for where to set myself up to capture things that come across as natural.
Brandon:
That’s my there’s gonna be a lot more to that, you know?
Brandon:
Yeah, yeah.
Brandon:
Um, but it’s, I mean, that’s not to say you’re not directing, it’s just a different approach to it.
Brandon:
Yeah, no, it works out.
Brandon:
I like it, it’s more real and I think, yeah, the word is authentic.
Brandon:
I don’t, that seems to be an overused word these days, uh, fake people tend to use the word authentic, which I’m conflicted about when I see it on the internet.
Brandon:
But um, I think that’s what basically is happening around.
Brandon:
But I have another question when you, for people listening out there, because I know there’s there’s some people listening who are interested in how you actually pay your mortgage every 30 days as a gig, I don’t know, gig economy border freelancer, effectively, right?
Brandon:
You’re your own contractor, you eat what you kill, you’ve got to sell, negotiate film and do the product.
Brandon:
Like you’re a very small shop who has to effectively do it all in the, in the sense of the, in the sense of the business.
Brandon:
And then there’s some people out there who I know are, are thinking, wow, well, I’d like to make a film or I’d like to do a brand, what do you call it?
Brandon:
Brand narrative, a branded content, branded content.
Brandon:
And, and one of the things that you and I talk about, I’m always, even though we, we’ve done two films so far, I’m always surprised at is how much footage you need To actually get a two minute branded content.
Brandon:
So how much footage do you have to shoot to get a two minute branded content type thing?
Brandon:
So there’s different approaches in the old days of documentary production, they would say the shooting ratio For a feature film.
Brandon:
So something that’s scripted, not a documentary, uh, something that has a script and actors and everything is planned out.
Brandon:
The shooting ratio for a normal film is like 20-1, meaning if it’s a two hour film, you’re rolling 40 hours of, of, of film Because I have to think that you take one Take 13, you know, you’re repeating things and that’s just based on performance of the crew and the actors and everything of getting the red shot with documentary.
Brandon:
It’s more like 100-1 because nothing is nothing is planned out.
Brandon:
So people, people work.
Brandon:
You know, I think the average length for documentary that you would see on netflix or amazon prime or in the theaters, That’s a feature length documentary.
Andy:
It’s like 4-6 years.
Brandon:
Typace for a documentary from the time you think about doing it to the time when people see it, because you’re talking about people’s lives, you’re not setting things up, you’re waiting for events to happen.
Brandon:
You’re figuring out who the characters are, what the stories are.
Brandon:
And then so much of documentaries happens in how you edit them together.
Brandon:
So yeah, in terms of how much you have to shoot for its a lot.
Brandon:
Uh, but then when you get down to the stuff that’s still considered nonfiction, like a commercial, um, uh, the commercials that they make now, which are sort of what they call lifestyle, where it’s not necessarily like a family of actors sitting around the table eating cereal.
Brandon:
They want to have someone who maybe is like an instagram influencer who’s known who you go out.
Brandon:
You think about like a car ad.
Brandon:
Now, all the car ads have some instagram Phanom photographer, outdoor, beautiful young person who’s like driving their car around.
Brandon:
That’s still nonfiction.
Brandon:
But you get into something like that and you have shots and shot lists and storyboards.
Brandon:
So you’re shooting ratio is way off.
Brandon:
But if you’re talking about a strict documentary, It’s a huge amount of, it’s 100-1 ratio in terms of what you have to shoot to get your final product.
Brandon:
So with that included a branded content type thing where you do a two minute or a minute 50 or 2 30.
Andy:
So is it 200 or 100 minutes for every one minute of video?
Andy:
Yeah, I mean there’s not really a set, There’s, yeah, it’s so variable.
Brandon:
You know, the, some of the stuff I shoot, I can shoot in a day to get a 32nd ad and it’s fantastic.
Andy:
Um, other stuff because of the nature of the topic, you might need different locations.
Andy:
So also for a 32nd ad, it might take a week because you’ve got to get, if states a car at, you’ve gotta get some skiing, you got to get some stuff at the beach, you know, because that’s where all the car goes.
Andy:
So there’s no, there’s no set come out.
Brandon:
There’s really, it’s really a lot of work.
Brandon:
It’s a huge amount of work.
Brandon:
And I tell people that filmmaking is like, actually doing the work Is like my 3rd job because you’ve got to find work, which often, once you get to a certain point, the work finds you, but that doesn’t mean it just, your calendar fills up.
Brandon:
You know, you’ve gotta, you’ve gotta pitch people, you’ve got to convince them that yes, you are the right person to do this job or you’ve got to, you know, put a bug in somebody’s here.
Brandon:
Like, what you thinking about, you know, doing something this spring for this product or this subject or this campaign or whatever, like, Oh yeah, let’s talk about that.
Brandon:
Um, so there’s that whole sort of sales person mode you go into of just cultivating work and so often the, like the ideation of, of the topic that’s often not paid at some point, they’re like, okay, we’re gonna do it.
Brandon:
Here’s our agreement, here’s our contract, there’s a creative fee associated in that to pay you for the time.
Brandon:
That’s not actually physically production, but pre production and writing and research and all that stuff.
Brandon:
But everything leading up to that is just talking, finding work.
Brandon:
It would be like, you know, riding bikes are surfing with some people in the valley up there just to figure out where your next deal is or investment is or something like that.
Brandon:
And then on the back end there’s the reverse, you know, as a one person operation, your invoicing and you’re tracking expenses and dealing with quickbooks and, and all that kind of stuff.
Brandon:
So do you outsource any of that?
Brandon:
I don’t work, You’ve told me a shirt, get me up for like how many years most of um, the, yeah, that’s super hard.
Brandon:
What’s your, what’s your least favorite part of the business?
Brandon:
Part of what you have to do, moving cases and suit bags of equipment around, you know, that’s yeah, uh in november for the western product, uh, the western shorts that you saw.
Brandon:
I went through the whole length of texas by car because Covid didn’t want to fly everywhere in over the course of a week.
Andy:
So we were in, we went from Amarillo to Houston, which is basically the whole state north to south.
Andy:
and I think in seven days I had In eight days I had seven different hotel rooms.
Brandon:
And that’s just tired when you have, you know, six or eight cases of equipment And you got to go to this hotel and get it all out of your car because you’re not going to leave $150,000 or $200,000 with equipment in your car at some hotel in middle of Texas or anywhere.
Brandon:
So the other that it’s because you get done with shooting at at last light, you always shoot to sunset because that’s the best time of day for me when I do natural light stuff, I’m always filming through sunset.
Brandon:
Then you got to drive back to your hotel, which is typically not right down the street from where the beautiful places you were filming, you get to your hotel at some point you eat and then you guys start offloading all your media and charging all of your stuff when you have a team with you, this is spread out throughout the team, but when you’re doing it at the level that a lot of productions want to do it, especially now with Covid tighter crews and all that sort of stuff, everyone’s wearing all sorts of different hats.
Brandon:
So You’re sometimes I’m still setting alarms for three.
Brandon:
a.m.
Andy:
Even though I didn’t go to bed till midnight and I have to get up at five to transfer my batteries on to new charges for the next day.
Andy:
We’ve got, you know, eight full batteries instead of only four.
Brandon:
So the, the logistical side of making all that equipment work, which is getting it places and keeping it charged in memory cards free and unloaded to your redundant hard drives.
Andy:
That’s the that’s the most tedious part.
Andy:
That sounds really hard and awful.
Andy:
Uh and I know it’s hard.
Andy:
I don’t know if it’s awful, but it’s definitely hard and sometimes miserable because I’ve lived it with you.
Andy:
But what keeps you going to keep doing this for 15 years as of as running your own small business and basically being a soldier in your, I mean, I would love to develop myself into a more of a business.
Andy:
Have partners have, you know, a larger stable of creative people that I work with on a regular basis, that we’re all contained within one unit.
Brandon:
There’s lots of people I collaborate with all the time, but they’re often like me independent or uh, whatever.
Brandon:
But your question is what keeps you doing it if It’s like, I mean, getting up at 3:00 AM to change the batteries is awful.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
What keeps me doing it one?
Brandon:
I’m of the mentality I like to do stuff.
Brandon:
Uh we’ve we’ve bike together several times.
Andy:
I’d like to challenge myself.
Brandon:
I’m a large human being and I like to bike up steep hills and hike up steep hills and I like challenges.
Brandon:
But even more than that, I like, um, I like learning new things, not necessarily about my craft, but just stuff in the world and meeting people, experiencing different cultures and viewpoints.
Brandon:
Um, learning about new topics.
Brandon:
I love jeopardy as a kid.
Brandon:
You know, I love having that that like, oh, I’ve been there, I’ve seen that I’ve, you know, talk to somebody who does that at this point in my career.
Brandon:
I mean, I’ve filmed so many different things and so many different places and that so many different people that as much as I am enviable of colleagues and friends in my profession and in totally different professions who have uh more stability than I do.
Brandon:
I think a lot of them envy the opportunities I’ve had to see things and go places and kind of just like do cool stuff and that’s the most fun.
Brandon:
And I love taking, capturing images still or moving when you’re out somewhere in the light is just perfect, somebody’s in front of it and it’s just everything comes together.
Andy:
It’s like such a cool feeling to know that you got that and that there’s not a lot of people who who have the, the patients to wait for those moments that I that I really cherish, and also the stamina to make it through those crappy hotel rooms for a week just to be kneeling in the mud to get some cool perspective that someone hasn’t thought of before.
Brandon:
It’s fun.
Brandon:
It’s like a scavenger hunt of images, you know, I think that’s a good way to put it.
Brandon:
I like that word, stamina, stamina is a, is a underutilized word that that really sums up though, what you gotta do to be an entrepreneur.
Brandon:
One thing I was thinking of what you were talking, because you did a few, didn’t you do a few Kickstarter reels?
Brandon:
I found some of those.
Andy:
Yeah.
Andy:
And um, I know there’s people out there who are they always ask me, I haven’t done a Kickstarter or a crowdfunding campaign yet, I’ve talked to you about it, but when you did those, did you find that the, that having a high quality, real or short or whatever that is, is really important to that sort of, that sort of applications to be able to raise the money and get people interested, definitely, And they’re not that difficult to make or expensive to make really, depending on what it is you’re trying to raise money for.
Andy:
But typically if you’re at the point where you’re doing a Kickstarter, you’ve got some sort of deck or many iterations of the death of your, your product or your service or whatever it is.
Andy:
Um, and it’s really easy to interview you have someone interview you as the entrepreneur who’s trying to make this happen, um, in a documentary format and then edit it together with some b roll of you working hard at your computer and, and some elements of that deck, whether it’s animations or stills or schematics or architectural drawings or what exploded views of your, your cad design or whatever.
Andy:
You throw those in there and yeah, everyone that I’ve done for clients.
Andy:
Um, I mean it’s not a controlled experiment, but everyone’s raised more than they’ve asked for when they’ve got a good video to go along with it.
Andy:
Yeah.
Andy:
I mean, people are going to read through everything.
Brandon:
They want to see a short video.
Andy:
They want to be entertained all the time.
Andy:
So moving images and stories are a great way to do that.
Andy:
I have a question for you.
Andy:
You’ve done all these web videos and, and branded content and shorts for Kickstarter and things like that, beyond your dark films that you’ve done and, and some cool, uh, what was the, what is the chain down in L.
Andy:
A.
Andy:
That you did that commercial for the chicken chain?
Andy:
Right poi loco.
Andy:
There you go.
Andy:
Yeah.
Brandon:
That, I mean, you asked what type of work I like to do.
Brandon:
Um, and it’s natural light, you know, on a mountaintop or, or diving in this big surf or whatever.
Brandon:
But if I was to pick a career for myself, commercial film director, that’s like if people listen to me and say I want to be a filmmaker, set your sights on that.
Brandon:
Well, I don’t understand something you said, if I were to pick a career, you can pick any career you want.
Brandon:
Why didn’t you just pick that career?
Brandon:
Yeah, good question.
Brandon:
Um you know, it goes back to the the William as a as a person.
Brandon:
I’m not a uh a uh well shrewd isn’t the right word, but I need someone to tell me how to build a business.
Brandon:
Brandon stubborn, sometimes stubborn, impatient all at the same time, we’ll give you a lecture on how you should build your website.
Brandon:
And that’s why that’s why I called myself the burly bison, stubborn, but you know, it’s like, it’s like the tortoise and the hare, kind of like the tortoise but my mind moves a lot, like the hair does.
Brandon:
I don’t know, I’m an enigma but know that the national tv spots is a good business to be in and it’s fun.
Brandon:
It’s you’re working with a big crew, it’s like working on a feature film.
Brandon:
And so I directed to ads for el Pollo loco over the call sheet, which is what gets sent out every morning um Of, you know, this is the whole crew, this is the locations at the time, this is everybody’s contact info.
Brandon:
That’s a call sheet.
Brandon:
The number one line in the top of the line on that is the director.
Brandon:
So it was Andrew Quinn director.
Brandon:
There were like 65 people below me on the call sheet.
Brandon:
For these, these ads, you know the daily budget for these probably room $200,000 or more.
Brandon:
Um, and so it’s fun work because you’re working in that there’s a little intimidating the first time I did it because I thought, well, yeah, I know if this was just me in a restaurant, filming this chef at the grill, I know I would nail it, but there’s so many people there who are working to make it exactly like the storyboards, which, which I developed, which, you know, with, with, with help and guidance and input from others.
Brandon:
But I create a story board and a pitch for This 32nd commercial and then all these people show up to make that approximation happened in real life.
Brandon:
Um, so the shooting ratio on that is very tight.
Brandon:
You don’t, there’s not a lot of coverage because everyone’s putting so much effort into this, you’re spending a whole day for a 32nd ad that has 12 or 14 shots.
Brandon:
so you’re spending, you know, 45 minutes to an hour on each individual shot and then boom, you nail it and you move on to the next one.
Brandon:
So there’s some stress involved in the end.
Andy:
As a director, you’re like the architect of a big project where you trust all of your subcontractors and, you know, yes, I I’m a director of Photography, I’m uh, I know plenty about lighting, but I’m not a gaffer gaffers a term for someone who does just, you know, lighting and lighting control.
Andy:
Um, and you you sort of put yourself, surrender yourself to the fact that there’s all of these specialists who are really good at what they do and your job is to just steer the ship.
Andy:
And it’s, it was intimidating at first, but really fun in the end, and I have to say easier than work.
Brandon:
That pays a fraction as much where you have to do everything, you know?
Brandon:
So I think you like the pain.
Brandon:
Yeah, I’m not, I’m not good at standing back like this and you know, you know, do that.
Brandon:
That looks good.
Brandon:
All right.
Brandon:
I like to be in there doing it.
Brandon:
So that’s the only hard part for me.
Andy:
It seems like a lot of responsibility.
Brandon:
It is.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
And there’s a lot of lead up your to do a commercial on that level.
Brandon:
It’s basically a month of talking to stylist casting, who’s gonna be in the act, talking to wardrobe, stylist food stylists as a whole specialty profession.
Brandon:
You think about, I mean these were el Pollo loco adds burritos and in case ideas and whatnot.
Brandon:
But you think of any food, fast food or food ad, you’ve seen those shots of like the steam coming out of the, you know, they slice the burger and open it and the steam comes out bastard to do that every night when we’re done dinner, eating a healthy meal and then I see that stuff and I’m dying so more often than not if that steam wasn’t created by computer graphics in post, it’s just done with a steamer on the set and when they opened that burger in half and it looks perfect.
Brandon:
That’s because a food stylist and his or her four assistance with tweezers have gone through and taken this red bell pepper that’s faced and grilled just right and like put it right in there and often the back sides just filled up with like potty or something to give it heft.
Brandon:
Um, so it’s a whole, there’s a whole art food styling and it’s impressive.
Brandon:
There’s a lot of work to that.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Um, I want to go back to my question that we got off topic on or not off topic on topic, but derail from which is, what do you think in today’s day Internet age is the right length that a person will hold their, a person will pay attention and it will hold their attention.
Brandon:
Two, is it a minute like, I feel like back in the early days people would watch longer Clips, you know, and I don’t know whether you, I’m interested in your thought whether that was three minutes and now it’s a minute 45.
Brandon:
I almost feel like two minutes is as crazy as it sounds, feels long now.
Brandon:
So have you, what do you think about that from all of your experience?
Brandon:
I think you need to have a, like a diverse, a set of deliverables for the same product.
Brandon:
So you can have that five minutes, 3 minutes, five minutes video that has, you know, your, if we’re talking about for a cup, for a business, for a company, for branded content or or could be also for a nonprofit that has some campaign or initiative could be environmental, it could be social justice.
Brandon:
It could be, you know, fair play in the fair pay in the workplace or something like that.
Brandon:
Whatever the topic is, you can have your short documentary, your 357 minutes, even longer film, but you need to have, you know what you used to call a trailer or a teaser.
Andy:
Now it’s like you actually need to think of that one minute version as the only version most of the people will actually see, I see it all the time.
Brandon:
You know, in the outdoor world that I do a lot of work in After something from Korea or Patagonia and they put on Instagram the one minute version or maybe it’s two minutes and it goes over an instagram tv because that’ll you can play longer form there than the one minute on the screen.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Andy:
You have to assume that people don’t go deep and swipe up for more and go to the link in the bio to watch the full film.
Brandon:
So that one minute thing almost becomes as important as the full thing that you’ve spent so long I’m editing and funding and telling the story for.
Andy:
And then also you need that 15 2nd one that will play in the stories or whatever, you know, a Tiktok version or something like that.
Andy:
So yeah, it’s definitely there’s still a market to make real length uh deliverables films or whatever you wanna call them.
Andy:
But you have to assume that people won’t watch the full thing.
Andy:
Yeah, So it’s 15 seconds, one minute.
Andy:
And then whatever your longer content is, but your 15 2nd and your one minute you better get your key points or whatever your hook is or whatever it is.
Andy:
You got, you got to set it in the, in those two reels.
Brandon:
I mean, it makes sense.
Brandon:
I mean, like the reason that Patagonia funds of 22 minute long documentary about the arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Brandon:
Yes, they think it’s important, but they’re putting their company’s name on it.
Brandon:
They’re generating this, this perception of the lifestyle and value system that they stand for and that’s done just as successfully in a one minute piece that more people see as it is in the full story, sadly enough, as it is in the full story that’s really relevant, um, that fewer people will see.
Brandon:
So I as a filmmaker, I see the value in the finished product.
Brandon:
And I watched the full films for most of these things because I’m curious and I consumed them not just to learn professionally, but like I like them.
Brandon:
That’s why I like making them too.
Brandon:
But realistically you you just associating your, your brand, whether that brand is a company or a non profit with this visual and oral document that translates to people what your values are.
Brandon:
And that’s the takeaway that can be done in 15 seconds through the right choice of shots.
Brandon:
It can be done even more easily in a minute.
Brandon:
Um, yeah.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Well, I think that’s important.
Brandon:
I appreciate you sharing that because we all want to get our message is out there.
Brandon:
Um, but filmmaking and, and Brandon content or short films really has changed.
Brandon:
I mean, in many ways sort of sad.
Brandon:
Um, but there’s this such this speed and clicking and dopamine rushes and all this stuff going on on the internet that um you gotta you gotta do that and that, that takes a real skill.
Brandon:
I am sensitive to your time because I know Andy the filmmaker turns into Andy Father uh at certain time today, which you mentioned that filmmaking is a really good trainer for being a parent if you can survive documentary filmmaking and you know, being parents harder.
Brandon:
I’m praising this the wrong way.
Brandon:
But If you can live on a swordfishing boat for 28 days and sleep just three hours a night.
Brandon:
You know, in 40-foot seas, you when you have a kid and you you don’t sleep that much and you’re tired and sore all the time as you get older.
Brandon:
It’s like, well, you know, I had a good training, I knew I survived one arduous experience, I can survive another arduous experience, namely parenthood.
Brandon:
So, good training.
Brandon:
So you’ve had very good training for your two kids.
Brandon:
Yeah, yeah.
Brandon:
You don’t have that much grey hair, I’m actually impressed.
Brandon:
Um what are three high percentage tips that you would give to fellow solo preneurs entrepreneurs, freelancers, really, people running their own business?
Brandon:
Uh huh.
Brandon:
Um specific to my industry, it could be and just whatever, whatever you feel would be good advice for somebody who’s out there doing that sort of thing.
Andy:
Yeah, I always say learn the syntax of of the job that you do as best you can and I don’t mean lingo as it exists more.
Andy:
The theory, the foundational theories of whatever you’re working on.
Andy:
I think a lot of people in my industry or any industry, they like what’s like, talk the talk use the terminology, but they don’t necessarily know, it’s like someone starting a business without having gone to business school.
Andy:
I think if you, even if you didn’t go to business school, if you can go back and figure out read some books, educate yourself, try to get those like 10,000 hours of knowledge base, however you can in whatever your profession is.
Andy:
That’s what I found has really helped me in recent years, is by being able to, you know, explain and have foundations, or when I pitch somebody on something, whether it’s for me the other day, I was talking to a collaborator and I brought up Aristotle’s views on storytelling and the notion of practice and mythos, and it’s it’s not just to impress somebody, it’s it’s real.
Brandon:
And when you talk about things in that context, it’s yeah, it makes you look smart, but it helps your process.
Brandon:
So that was a long answer.
Brandon:
You know, don’t just talk the talk.
Brandon:
Have some foundational knowledge, deep deep knowledge about whatever you’re trying to get people to pay you to do because at some point they’ll realize just talking the talk.
Andy:
You can’t back it up.
Brandon:
I gotta i gotta think of two more.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
What you call high H.
Brandon:
P.
Brandon:
T.
Brandon:
S.
Brandon:
High percentage tips there.
Brandon:
I converted hyper high percentage spots from fishing is what we call them.
Brandon:
Like, hey, take me to an H.
Brandon:
P.
Brandon:
S.
Brandon:
Today, Brandon.
Brandon:
All right.
Brandon:
Andy, we’ll take you in H.
Brandon:
P.
Brandon:
S.
Brandon:
And you know, you’re going to going to probably catch fish.
Brandon:
It’s a high percentage spot.
Brandon:
So I turn that into HPD is high percentage tips.
Brandon:
Well, I’m gonna I’m gonna use that in my answer them because to be be a good person who people want to get along with.
Brandon:
And the metaphor I’ve always uses, could you live on a boat with this person when I, whenever I want to work with somebody, whether I’m hiring them to right, do electricity in my house or if it’s for work and I want to be on a film crew, like I want to work around people who I can get along with and, and so that’s always my thing.
Brandon:
Like if you could live on a boat with them, then you could be on a film crew with them, then you can be on a start a business with them.
Brandon:
You know, spend hours and hours dedicated to this thing together.
Brandon:
It’s good, it’s great advice.
Brandon:
I think you, I think I’d take that a step further and just morphing into if you want to be with a, you think you’re gonna do a business with someone, go on a boat trip for a week and this is not a cruise ship.
Brandon:
This is something that is a smaller quarter.
Brandon:
So I’d say less than 75 ft.
Andy:
That’s a good one.
Andy:
Yeah.
Andy:
I mean if you can if you can dine and eating Cleveland and poop near somebody and still get along.
Andy:
Day three is the key.
Andy:
Yeah.
Andy:
Day three is the key.
Brandon:
Like the first two days.
Andy:
Uh you can people can fake it and then I mean maybe this is bad advice but like don’t I’m not a big proponents fake it till you make it.
Andy:
I think the I always try to be honest and humble and ask questions when someone says something to me that I don’t know the terminology I like right away.
Andy:
What does that mean?
Andy:
H.
Andy:
P.
Andy:
T.
Brandon:
What was H.
Brandon:
P.
Brandon:
T.
Brandon:
Um Just for me personally, I like to to um learn something every day I guess is what that comes down to ask.
Brandon:
A lot of questions.
Brandon:
Don’t pretend like you know everything about everything because no one will believe you ever do everybody learn something every day.
Brandon:
I don’t care who you are and don’t try to hide that fact.
Brandon:
No, I like that.
Brandon:
I think you know has expanded and to take responsibility when things go wrong because the people who want to give you 50 excuses what they don’t realize is that you basically when they do that have told you that they’re not in control and that it could happen again.
Brandon:
And I like that advice which is really take responsibility and and what is what what you’re doing, Like, hey, I don’t understand that.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
His life is not a sitcom.
Brandon:
If the fish dies when your kid goes out of town, don’t try to buy a new one sneaking in the tank because that’s just not gonna end well.
Brandon:
That’s like a comedic plot point.
Brandon:
You know, if something goes wrong, own up to it.
Brandon:
If you can’t do something, say no and why not?
Andy:
And it’s often not because you don’t know how it’s because they’re not paying you enough for whatever the reason is like, don’t be afraid to say no, tell the truth.
Andy:
I don’t know.
Andy:
I think it’s, I think it’s good advice.
Brandon:
I was thinking of what’s that Ben Stiller movie when he paints the cat, you know?
Andy:
Uh, The Fockers.
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
Meet the parents.
Brandon:
You meet the parents when he paints the cat.
Brandon:
So hey man, thanks a lot.
Andy:
This was great.
Brandon:
I actually learned some things today about you and that I didn’t even know.
Brandon:
Um, which I don’t know.
Brandon:
Maybe that’s a reflection on me.
Brandon:
I haven’t asked enough questions now.
Brandon:
I think it’s more of a reflection that you don’t talk when we ride up the hills and I ask all the questions and you don’t talk.
Brandon:
Well, I weigh about £100 more than you is physics.
Brandon:
Brandon can’t talk my french non said he’s like, you talk all the time.
Brandon:
I’m like, yeah, I’m we’re just riding up the hill.
Andy:
I need something to talk about.
Brandon:
Uh well knows.
Brandon:
Yeah, well, I understand that too Well.
Brandon:
Thanks a lot, man.
Brandon:
I do think that I know you have to go here in a minute.
Brandon:
So I do appreciate you taking friday afternoon and sharing this information.
Brandon:
And I know people be grateful for it because doing what you do is hard.
Brandon:
Um It’s hard, everything like hard being a sole procure hard being the filmmaker, the editor, the script writer.
Brandon:
Uh, you’ve done voiceovers, You’ve done you’ve you’ve uh composed original music for Or one movie.
Brandon:
So you’ve done all sorts of crazy stuff.
Brandon:
Well, it’s yeah, I’d love talking to you as usual.
Brandon:
It is far, but it’s not a sob story like what I do.
Brandon:
No, it’s not a sob story.
Brandon:
You’re not suffering.
Brandon:
You wouldn’t keep doing it.
Brandon:
So thanks a lot.
Brandon:
I do.
Brandon:
Um, yeah, thanks a lot, man.
Brandon:
No problem.
Brandon:
Any time.
Brandon:
Thanks for being generous with your time and joining us for this episode of build a business success secrets.
Brandon:
Before we go.
Brandon:
Let me ask you a quick question.
Brandon:
Are you the type of person who wants to get 100 out of your time?
Brandon:
Talent and ideas?
Brandon:
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Brandon:
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Brandon:
So hey, I do want you to do a voice.
Brandon:
Would you do, would you, have you heard my voice over?
Brandon:
Uh we’ll listen to a podcast tonight and listen to the professional intro.
Brandon:
Okay.
Brandon:
And tell me I have the script.
Brandon:
I wrote the script.
Brandon:
Tell me if you think you can do that better.
Brandon:
Sure.
Brandon:
I never even thought about it.
Andy:
But then I heard your voice and you know, I was like, oh, I go.
Brandon:
And when I do voice overs, it’s totally different, more enunciation and you know, but you’re not very deep voice.
Brandon:
I have to use this damn road castor pro to um deep in my late night FM DJ voice.
Brandon:
Have you ever wanted to build a business?
Brandon:
You go, There you go, listen to my thing.
Brandon:
Why don’t you why don’t you charge for that?
Andy:
I will pay you for it.
Andy:
I’m just saying why don’t you market that as a as a service?
Brandon:
Yeah.
Brandon:
I guess I’ve seen an agent Andy don’t look tough.
Brandon:
You should use that if you you have another mike, don’t you?
Brandon:
I know, I know like yeah, you could do it.
Brandon:
Uh Yeah, I’m gonna Why don’t you, will you listen to that this weekend?
Brandon:
It’s just uh I do an intro and then there’s the professional promo that I paid some guy to do.
Andy:
I wrote the script and I actually had to edit it and speed it up because it was like to slow, I was like, people get on this podcast, they need to be jacked up.
Brandon:
We’re doing fun stuff.
Brandon:
We don’t need to be slow.
Brandon:
And then I so I sped it up and then I just got tired of going back and forth and it’s better than what I had.
Brandon:
But I think you could do a better job.
Brandon:
I’ll listen to it.
Brandon:
I can I can get some super quality mics from my brother in law down the street, you know, to my brother in law’s a feature film composers.
Brandon:
They’ve got all kinds of recording and mike stuff at their disposal.
Brandon:
Well yeah, all you have to do is get a decent Mike that you have and we can clean it up with Dolby two.
Andy:
I’m post processing and dolby now.
Brandon:
Oh cool.
Andy:
Yeah, when I record voice over I just use a shotgun mic in my closet surrounded by close it softens everything.
Andy:
There’s no echo or anything.
Andy:
Yeah
