Summer Camps to Fortune 500: Taking Your Company To The Big Time w/ Brad Walker of Lighthouse Films

When most of us think about making a career shooting films, we’re only able to come up with a few routes to success. Sure there are the wedding and corporate/brand film industries, but they are often crowded markets with a ton of high-quality filmmakers vying for these jobs. A lot of us dream of landing high-end commercial clients, but have no idea how to even get started.

So what do we do?

Brad Walker is the Founder of Lighthouse Films, based in Wilmington, NC and has been thinking outside the box ever since getting out of film school. He got his start by becoming a specialist at making promo films for high-end summer camps before shaking up his business with a risky (but calculated) investment and making the jump into commercial work.

He’s worked with brands such as Ford, JP Morgan Chase, Red Bull, IBM and many, many more, always with the aim of humanizing these large companies through authentic storytelling.

Brad shares with us how thinking outside the box and taking smart risks in your business can open up worlds of opportunities for you. Particularly, he discusses how we often spend too much time thinking about our gear and our product, neglecting one aspect of our business that is just as important if not more so: People, and connections.

What are some of the unique projects you’ve taken on that most filmmakers might overlook? Have you thought about niching down to the extent Brad did when he started out? Leave us a comment below!   

In this episode:

- The importance of focussing on people and connections at every point in your business. Staff, clients, industry contacts, other filmmakers, talent and more.
- How taking some big risks and diving in helped revitalize Brad’s business from cruise control
- How to approach stock videography successfully

Quotes:

“I love working with people who share the same mindset, ‘It’s not good enough. This product is not good enough. This shot is not good enough, how can I make it better.” [29:54]

“With stock, it’s about what are you going to try to say in a frame that feels real?.” [33:02]

“If you shoot what you love, the money will come. That’s been our motto with stock” [34:46]

Links:

Lighthouse Films
Lighthouse Films Equipment Rentals

Camp Watitoh Promo
Chrysler Mexico Spot
Bespoke Coffee Shop Spot
JPMorgan Spot  

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