Welcome And ShareGrid Connection

Vipul Bindra 0:04

Welcome to another episode of Studio B Sessions with me, Bindra, owner of Bindra Productions here in Orlando, Florida. This podcast is essentially raw, unedited, unfiltered conversations with other filmmakers and just something for entertainment, maybe education. And just like has been this whole season, we've got Mario on the producer desk helping us make this happen.

Mario Rangel 0:26

Hey guys, how are you today? Nice to see you again.

Vipul Bindra 0:29

And uh, well, a lot of them you may not be able to see because you know they're listening, remember?

Mario Rangel 0:33

Well, nice to for them to be hearing us.

Vipul Bindra 0:36

Yeah, there you go, there you go. Uh, we've got a good healthy mix, though. You know, a lot a lot of people you know watch, but a lot of people also listen. And our guest today is Christopher.

Christopher Crompton 0:46

Hey, what's up, everybody?

Vipul Bindra 0:48

Video business owner. Yes, and obviously, you've done all the other roles and air. Yeah, exactly. Look at that.

Christopher Crompton 0:57

Lover of movies and honestly storytelling.

Vipul Bindra 1:00

Look at that. Look at that. He I couldn't have done you know better than you. Uh, but so welcome. Thank you for coming.

Christopher Crompton 1:07

Thank you for letting me be here. This is uh uh a breath of fresh air being on this side of the camera. Oh my goodness. Yeah, I know, right? It feels weird.

Vipul Bindra 1:15

Yeah, it feels really weird when we're used to like being on the other side, directing people, or you know, you know, just whatever. We're not used to being on this side, so it's always just uh a little bit different. But I think the the fun thing about this is we're just talking about what we talk about anyway. Because we remember uh how we met. What's the craziest thing is networking can be done in so many different ways. And for us, it was to share grid of all places. Uh and uh you wanted to rent some things, you had moved to Orlando, right?

Christopher Crompton 1:48

I think I moved to Orlando in 20 end of 2021.

Vipul Bindra 1:52

Okay, so you'd been here a couple years, you wanted to rent something, you came here, and then we instantly just connected and we were chatting for a while. It's like this could be an incredible conversation for people just here.

Christopher Crompton 2:03

Exactly. And what was crazy is at the time that I met you was when I just started my video business, and I was even talking to you about like one of my first potential clients, which um has now become my main client, and they're amazing. Um, but yeah, I've worked in different aspects of the video industry, um, either as a freelancer or full-time, but I've never actually gone out and done the business myself as the owner, and um, it's been a year now. I celebrated my one-year anniversary in April, and um we're we're doing good. It's been tough and challenging, and I'm a little bit stubborn in some things, particularly learning the business side of things, which you've given me a lot of great advice with. There's still a lot that I have to learn. Um, but honestly, trusting the process, trusting God, and just taking uh baby steps um is a lot to learn. But I've learned a lot as well. So it's been good.

Vipul Bindra 2:59

No, that's what it's about. You know, you finding your own journey. A lot of people just uh I mean, it's okay to find people in your life that you're like, oh, I I like that, I like what they're doing, and you kind of can emulate that, but ultimately it's your journey, it's your path. You know, you have to navigate it to get to where you want to go to, you know?

Christopher Crompton 3:17

And that's hard because you see so many different kinds of people telling you how you should run your business, what kind of clients you should have, what kind of industry you should be in. So it's tough you have all these different voices competing for telling you what you should do. But at the end of the day, I feel like you have to find your own way and what works for you.

Vipul Bindra 3:37

And actually, you say that is why I wanted people to listen from so many different people. You know, I've had people who just do vetting videography, who only do photography, who only do um, you know, social media content. I mean, there's no one single path to this, right? Like you, and and we'll talk more about this, but there's a Hollywood path. Like, there's yeah, there's so many different paths that you can try to go on. But um the the the right thing to do is to listen to everyone, right? And then do what resonates the most to me. To me, leave the bones. Yeah, and and obviously there's there's could be negativity there. I mean, or like as in uh you listen to all these people and then you're like nah. I mean, and and I'm talking good people, people who know what they're doing. But then the the other side of this is some people will go, nah, I'll just do what I want to do, and then they fail too. So that's one you don't want to do that because uh it's okay to admit that you don't know everything. Yeah, uh I don't know everything. Yeah, it's okay to not do you something unique. See, and that's where the the balance is why some people will fail and some people will succeed, and it's okay, it's life. Because if you're trying to do something unique, something different, if none of the people have done it, you're right, they're not gonna understand. You have to try your own path. But there's a high likelihood you could what you think is unique may not actually be desired in the market or whatever, right? Or it'd be something revolutionary and you make the best agency or video company in the world. So there's there's there's there's the thing of A, either you can listen to people who followed a path, you know these path paths work, you can either combine them or follow the person that sounds the most like you that you want to do, or you can carve your own path, path from scratch. Um, and there's a chance you could fail, but that's with anything in life, right? You have to first try it to see how it goes, but you never know what you come back with. It could be something incredible, right? Right? And uh what I love is the the power of networking in our um in our industry because like I said, I just met you and I was like, I saw the spark, I I got excited, you know, start talking about business, and then I was like, Oh, you gotta come to our networking event. And you know, it was so awesome that you came. And then I was like, There you go.

Christopher Crompton 5:43

This is Yeah, which was incredible. I met so every every single person there was so friendly. I learned so much. Uh I love that you guys had sessions where you actually talk about how you run your businesses and different ways that we can help ourselves as budding entrepreneurs. Um, but I also have had the opportunity to work with a handful of the guys in there or just call people up and ask people for advice. So thank you for that. That's been incredibly helpful.

Vipul Bindra 6:10

And like I said, the the least I could do is like as simple as come to this event, you know? And and funny enough, you wouldn't be amazed how many some friends I have who have never been to one of these networks. I invited them a couple times and I get it, schedule doesn't work, or whatever. Uh, but they don't have that network. And then sometimes when the things get slow, they're like, Oh, I I want to come to one of the network. I was like, I don't put these together. I right I can't control when the next one is, I'll let you know when the next one is. So, but there is huge power in that. Like you said, it could be other people hiring you, or you hiring other people, or you just being able to call people up and ask for advice or just coffee or whatever. Man, that it could mean anything, right?

Christopher Crompton 6:50

And honestly, for me, where I was and where I still am at, it's just encouraging to be around other video business owners, other entrepreneurs who are actually doing it, you know, and actually seeing their success and like, oh, this thing is possible. Um, because at the time, like I said, I was just starting out, and honestly, I was kind of like 50-50, like, I don't know if this thing's gonna work out. Yeah, I think at the time I might have actually been applying for full-time jobs, and I think just being in that environment and um seeing your guys' success and how passionate you are uh was encouragement to me to just like, no, I'm not gonna take these full-time jobs. Like, what is that? Uh, I want to live my life and have freedom and do what I love. So, yeah, it really pushed me to just go for it and do it, and it's been going, it's been good so far. Look at that. Let's look at that.

Film School And Hollywood Reality Check

Vipul Bindra 7:37

Let's sort of rewind back a little bit. I know you're one of the few people you went on the, like you said, Hollywood path. Yes. How did that go? Tell people. So you went to film school, the whole Hollywood thing. Yeah, talk about that.

Christopher Crompton 7:49

Yeah, I'm actually wearing um my my school here, Rochester Institute of Technology. Uh, RIT was the film school that I went to. It's called School of Film and Animation Sofa for short. So wow, this is a uh fun full circle moment. Here I am on a sofa talking about sofas. Um I loved my film experience. That's the exact reason I got a sofa. Just for this moment. I know it. Um, I loved my film school experience. And I know a lot of people um can kind of hate on film schools, and some are better than others. And it kind of depends too of like what you're actually looking to do with your career and with your life. But I think what film school taught me is the power of storytelling and how to tell great stories. Of course, they taught us a lot about production as well, which is like all vital information that you need to know, but not necessarily something that you can't learn being an intern for Bendra Productions, you know. Exactly.

Vipul Bindra 8:48

Um so what was your motivation? What did you actually want to do? I wanted to be a Hollywood film director. There you go. Okay. Yes. All right. So now we know what the vision is.

Christopher Crompton 8:56

Yes. And uh they and that's what they encourage the students to do. They have other tracks as well that you can go on, but essentially their director track, you do everything, and then you make your thesis short film at the end of your four years there. Things might have changed since. Um, but they had great professors from the industry, but of course, everything encouraged you to actually go out and do the Hollywood thing. There was there was a little talk of like, you know, owning your own business, uh, because there was one of the professors, the cinematography professor, he had his own video business, but most of it encouraged you to move out to where is this um school? In Rochester, New York, upstate New York.

Vipul Bindra 9:35

Okay, look at that. So you were in New York. So did you move to LA?

Christopher Crompton 9:39

Yes. Immediately after I graduated, I moved to LA because of course everybody's chasing the dream. I actually moved out with uh friends who graduated with me.

Vipul Bindra 9:47

Look at that. So you bunch a group, and that's the power to me of school, right? Uh, the networking again, you you meet other people who want to do similar things. So you bank.

Christopher Crompton 9:56

I currently work with none of those people, but you never know.

Vipul Bindra 9:59

You never know where who one of them may end up and call you. Yeah, so but you bunch together and you essentially went to LA, right?

Christopher Crompton 10:06

Yes, we moved to LA, and um I kind of hated my entire experience. Um LA can be yeah, very, very strong. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that hate hate is also a strong word. There were great parts of it. I learned a lot, uh, but in the end, it wasn't for me. I think the biggest reason for that is I just wasn't a fan of the culture because um it is a lot of what you hear. There is like a lot of fake policy. Yeah, two-faced, and everybody's trying to just get to the next thing and step over each other, uh, which is a huge difference that I've found here in Orlando and working with other video business owners. Like it's very much like, hey, I I want you to succeed, I know you want me to succeed. Like, how can we help each other out? Um, that's harder to find. Yeah.

Vipul Bindra 10:54

But I think even in LA you can find that, but out not in the film side. Right. If you go core, I've met amazing corporate video people in you know, California in general, but LA too. The the reason being is you know, our market is very different than the the film market. Right. Film, there's only certain roles, right? So you have to you want to be on some movie, if you don't know the right people, then you're not getting on the movie. So you'll do anything to get to know these people or be on the sets.

Christopher Crompton 11:22

And that would lead to just like a lot of just negative energy and fake attitudes and personas, and everybody's just looking to get famous, yeah, one way or another. And sure, there's like um there's a way that you can do it professionally and work professionally in the in the industry, but that takes a lot of time and climbing up these ladders and me being the stubborn 22, 23 year old that I was, I was like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to PA for X amount of years just to be able to maybe eventually be a second AD and then eventually do this, and then maybe one day someone will give me the budget to actually go and make an indie movie, maybe.

Vipul Bindra 12:04

But then the stud have you seen the show studio? But then they'll come and tell you, you know, you gotta make a Kool-Aid movie. That's the only way that you get budgeted. Exactly.

Christopher Crompton 12:14

Every way that I thought or around it, I was like, I feel like this just isn't it. Yeah.

Vipul Bindra 12:19

I love that show, by the way. If you haven't had a chance, watch it. I think it's on Apple TV. What is it? It's called the Studio.

Mario Rangel 12:24

Okay.

Vipul Bindra 12:24

Um, it's it's really have you had a chance to watch it, Mario?

Mario Rangel 12:27

Yeah, with uh what's the guy's name? The other guy.

Vipul Bindra 12:32

Uh Seth Rogan.

Mario Rangel 12:32

Seth Rogan.

Vipul Bindra 12:33

Yeah. Oh shoot. It's so good. You gotta watch it, man. I guess if somebody who's into film, it's incredibly funny.

Christopher Crompton 12:40

It's kind of like an inside look in the industry.

Vipul Bindra 12:42

But but it's like kind of funny, but it's like kind of real. What makes it crazy is what's happening. You'd like, I guess if you're not in Phil, you'd be like, this is so crazy. But that's like legit real. Yeah. But it's just hilarious because that is exactly how Hollywood works. Yep. Uh so uh anyway, like one of the my favorite scenes in the show is like where they have a movie, they're making Kool-Aid movie. Again, stupid. Uh, but then they have a cast that's incredible, but then they go, Oh, this doesn't look racially diverse enough. So they spend a whole episode trying to put new actors in there, then it becomes actually racist because you know they uh because they've changed characters anyway. It was funny, but I was like, this is exactly how it works. Uh uh from the stories I've heard from people.

Christopher Crompton 13:25

Especially now, everything's so run by the studios and the producers, there's not really a lot of original storytelling happening right now. Yeah, I believe that's gonna change and probably sooner than later. Um, just because I think people are getting tired of all the same stuff that we see all the time.

Vipul Bindra 13:41

I mean, Hollywood is clearly declining, that's just uh what it is right now. Can it bounce back? Absolutely, because people do love movies. Yeah, regular people love watching movies and seeing great stories. It's just currently what they're being told to the it's it's unrelatable, essentially, right? Uh so hopefully, hopefully, uh because I love movies, I love the whole experience, obviously. You know, that's what kind of started the love. So I would love for this.

Christopher Crompton 14:08

Yeah, that goosebump feeling that you get. Yeah, and then to be able to produce something that makes other people feel that way. Exactly. There's nothing like it.

Vipul Bindra 14:15

But not a lot of movies can do that, but when you do, and my favorite thing is when you go to movie theater and everyone just erupts in laughter or uh you know, applause or whatever, which is natural, you know what I mean? Like it's it's another thing to to enjoy that with hundreds of other people, I'm saying, than and then you know, just sitting at your home and watching TV. Do I like that at home? Absolutely, watching a TV show or whatever. Like I said, but that's not the experience of movies. And currently people don't want to do that. There, I don't think they have they're making movies that make people want to go out and watch it.

Christopher Crompton 14:47

No, they're not, unless you're a Marvel Super fan. Yeah, but even then they're not making good movies.

Vipul Bindra 14:51

Because I remember watching to going to uh the Spider-Man, I think, four uh or No Way Home, I think is the one. Latest the three. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, whichever one the latest one was going to that, and then actually the theater was full. And there were moments in there that people enjoyed them, and the movies after them haven't had that, you know. Like I've even not wanted to go. Uh I kind of want to see the uh the Fantastic Four movie, but I'm saying outside that I haven't seen that many even superhero movies where you're like, you want to go to the theater because they're not making them at that level anymore. I think it was just the end game and think Spider-Man, the last one, the two that I would say where you you if you were a fan, you wanted to go to the theater. Right. Because outside them, you're like, okay, I'll just watch it when it comes on uh on Disney Plus or whatever, right? Right.

Christopher Crompton 15:37

I have a feeling they were like, hey, this is successful, let's figure out how to do it and do it quick. And then keep doing it. Yeah, keep doing it, and probably somewhere along the lines, it stopped being passionate and just about you know the profit, and that's when things decline.

Vipul Bindra 15:53

Exactly. And maybe they can bounce back, but if not, you know, there'll always be something or uh right. Um, so but yeah, so uh do you have any funny stories or something crazy where you were like, I gotta get out of here?

Christopher Crompton 16:04

Um not necessarily like working in the production side of the industry, but actually I have a funny story of interning for a producer, a very, very well-known producer in the film industry. Um, she actually was a producer on Interstellar. Oh, look at that, and a couple of other uh Matthew McConaughey movies. Um, and so I was interning in her office. Um, I felt very out of place. Um, I don't know why, but I just I felt like because I don't get the LA vibes from you.

Vipul Bindra 16:38

Yeah, but yeah, yeah, so I get it.

Christopher Crompton 16:40

Yeah, so you probably yeah, yeah, and um, yeah, I'm just not fitting in with the culture. Um, she tried to talk to me a few times and she was just like, like, who are you who even are you? And what do you want to do? And why why are you even in my office? It was very much that attitude. Um, and so the whole time that I was there, we were more so like her extended personal assistance. Um, we would do some like office work and like some script reading and whatnot. Um, but this whole time we were trying to coordinate this mirror that she had bought. And of course, she owns this beautiful house in the hills. And every single week there was an update on the mirror. It either got lost in shipping or something happened and we had to troubleshoot it and figure it out. So the mirror finally arrives. This is towards the end of my internship after like two months, and they tell me to go meet the delivery people at her home and to put it in her house. And so I'm like, okay. So I drive up to her house in the hills and they deliver it, they set it down, and I think they put it like in the front hallway. And so her actual personal assistant calls me up and says, Hey, can you put it up in her bedroom where it's eventually gonna go? I'm like, Yeah, sure. Um, so it's covered with a blanket. I go and put my hands on the top of it, you know, it's covered in a blanket. I pull it up, all I hear is crack. Oh and this is something I don't know how much money she spent on it, but it must be a lot.

Vipul Bindra 18:18

Yeah, because if you're tracking it week over week, it seems like yeah, and coordinating this thing over two months.

Christopher Crompton 18:24

And so at that point, I literally thought my life was over.

Vipul Bindra 18:28

Yeah. Um, so it wasn't your fault though. I mean, all you did was try to do what they told you, which is to move it. It seems it was fragile. Did it have a big fragile written on it?

Christopher Crompton 18:37

Being uh 21, 22 year old in Hollywood. This is what I feel like is my big break with a big time Hollywood producer. I thought my life was over. Yeah, and the blacklist is a real thing. I'm like, she's gonna blacklist me. I'm I'm never gonna be able to work in this industry, like I'm never gonna be able to like keep living here in LA. Uh it's just not gonna happen. And so, literally in that moment, time stopped, and I was like, my life is over. Like, I have to give up on all of my dreams. Or what do you think about super glue? Right. I can't remember what we actually did. I think we might have done that later. Um, so anyway, her um there was a maid that was there and she was kind of helping me, and she kind of saw it, but she just pretended like nothing happened.

Mario Rangel 19:24

Yeah.

Christopher Crompton 19:24

And so I just put it where it needed to be, and I start driving home. I actually call my mom first. I'm pretty sure like I'm I'm crying on the phone to my mom. I just broke this big time Holly producer's mirror that she has been trying to coordinate for the last two months. She already doesn't like me. I'm gonna be blast blacklisted and never gonna work in this industry again. Um, and so then I call up the personal assistant and you know, I tell her the truth. Yeah, and she was like, All right, um, go back and just like see what you can do to make it look like you know it's not broken. So I think I did, like, I kind of like put it back together and just kind of left it there. And I think we did eventually send somebody to like super glue it back together, and uh they hung it up without her, the producer ever being there. And I don't think she ever found out. Uh yeah, I broke her possibly a hundred thousand dollar mirror.

Vipul Bindra 20:20

To me, what's crazy is that you can break a mirror that easy where all you try to do is lift it and you know, well, you know what?

Christopher Crompton 20:27

I honestly think that she got scammed with buying this mirror.

Vipul Bindra 20:31

Yeah.

Christopher Crompton 20:31

Um, because it was like, I don't know what you call it, but it was kind of like a fiberglassy, almost like foamy material. It wasn't foam, but it was something that was like this is not wood, it was something that was made to look like wood. So I think she got scammed on what she was buying, and it was actually a cheap product, but she doesn't know.

Vipul Bindra 20:50

Yeah, like I say, if it broke that easy, it has to be so unless it's some fancy, you know, again, designer stuff, you never know. I mean, they'll they'll sell the toilet paper roll for a little bit.

Christopher Crompton 20:59

Yeah, who knows?

Vipul Bindra 21:00

But this mirror was the topic of discussion for those two months that that's so crazy. What I find, and this is why I'm like, uh, you have to intern with the right people because sure, you know, you were interning with this amazing producer and you know, like trying to get you know get your Hollywood track going. Right. But then I'm like, you're coordinating her mirror. How's that relevant to Hollywood? No, right? It wasn't. And and that's what I'm saying. A lot of people take advantage of people who are interned.

Christopher Crompton 21:27

Yeah, nobody that I interned with, there were at least four other interns. I don't think any of them are working in the film industry.

Vipul Bindra 21:37

See, that's the yeah. So it's crazy to me, because yeah, what I assume is like if you intern somewhere, you then you're gonna learn. Sure, I get it, like you know, you may be doing menial tasks, but at the end of the day, you're still learning the next step. You know, um coordinating a mirror to me is not the next step to anything Hollywood. But anyway, but that's the life there. The the thing is uh, you know, I I realized very quickly. That I was like, eh, I'm not gonna do any of the film industry route because A, I enjoy TV more, I enjoyed, you know, but I was like, also, I don't want to do this whole political thing. What I hate is like being fake. Yes. That's just not my thing. And that's just what you have to do. And it's okay if that's what you want to do. Look, there is making movies is awesome. Right. I don't I don't want to say making movies is not awesome. It's just there's a lot that goes to get on those sets and make those movies, and that is the part I don't like. Right. But if somebody's listening and that's all they want to do, then they should do it. Yeah. I don't I don't think I want anyone to discourage anyone to not make movies, obviously. But it is not an easy path. And like I said, making movies is the easy part. Getting to make the movies is the hard part. Yeah, getting the budgets. Yeah. Or or even just being on the sets. Like you said, it just takes a lot to get on a set of a movie that you really want to be, or with the producer, director, whatever that you want to be. And uh, like you say, you even just being on PA on these can take apparently years to, you know, I never actually know the right people.

Christopher Crompton 23:08

I never actually made it to an actual film set, but I did make it to uh pre-production um rehearsals for um the movie with I can't believe I forget her name. Um it was one of Protozoa Pictures. This is terrible. Mother! That movie Mother with her. Oh, yeah, uh Jennifer Lawrence. Yeah, Jennifer Lawrence.

Vipul Bindra 23:32

That movie was interesting too. I was just like, what? I actually never saw it. Oh, yeah. I never saw it. See, I like movies and art, like you know, Christopher Noel Interstellar, beautiful. Wow, you know, mother, I was like, what? I don't know. I I'm not a fan. I'm sure somebody is watching is like, what are you talking about? It's the best movie ever. And that's the thing about it.

Christopher Crompton 23:52

But Mario liked it? You liked it?

Mario Rangel 23:57

I don't know if I like it or not. Okay, for me, it was uh interesting thing to watch. I I don't know if I'll watch it again. But yeah, it's a crazy, crazy movie.

Making Movies Without Permission

Christopher Crompton 24:07

Yeah, yeah. So I think the reason I didn't actually watch the movies that I was sort of involved with is sort of because I was like traumatized by these experiences. I totally get you working in these uh offices as an intern. And I think the reason why I went that route instead of trying to get immediately on set production is at the time I wasn't really a fan of production. Like uh I wanted to make movies, and I was told the way to do that is either get on a producer's good side or a director's good side, or you have to go out and make the movie yourself. And honestly, if now this is like eight years later, I think if you want to be a good Hollywood director, if you want to be a good Hollywood producer, you have to go out and make the movie yourself with however you can do it. You can't rely on other people to do that.

Vipul Bindra 24:54

No, that's my yeah, entire point. If you want to make movies, go make movies, you know. Grab all your friends from school and just just figure it out. Yeah. And yes, will your first movie be the greatest movie ever? No. But but you know, you can make incredible things together, and that's I think way m easier to get noticed. Uh, because like I said, at the end, what are you looking for, right? It's a director, you're looking for a budget, you're looking to make something incredible, a good script if you don't have it. Are we gonna make a movie? I mean, I'm making a movie. You know about a movie? Yeah, yeah. You're making a movie, right? Mario's writing it, or he's already written. Okay. I don't know.

Mario Rangel 25:32

We have to get back to it, but yeah, we're we're doing it. We're doing it. Okay.

Vipul Bindra 25:35

I've realized, see, this is what I'm saying. I've realized making a movie from scratch takes a really long time. So that's what kind of I've uh uh what do you call it was a reality check for me because I was like, you know, here's the thing it's not like I don't like making movies. I've been DP on many movies, I've I've helped make a lot of movies, but that's just not my passion. My sh my passion to make commercials or cobra videos or whatever, right? Or or even TV. I'd like that more to make, not that I don't enjoy movies. So anyway, but I was like, if I'm gonna make a movie, it's gonna be like my style. So I came up with this uh really cool movie in my head, or at least to me it's cool, right? Anyway, and I was like, now, but I'm not a writer, I don't want to write it. So that's where you know Mario and I got connected initially, and I was like, uh, because I DP'd on a movie he was an 80 on, and I was like talking to him about I was like, Oh, I'm a I can write, and and then so I basically one day we met and I just blurted it out to him like what was in my head, and I was like, that's what I want to do. And then he wrote it. How about that?

Mario Rangel 26:33

Remember, we needed somebody. Yeah, I have somebody too. I have a to check the script.

Vipul Bindra 26:38

Really? Uh-huh. I gotta tell you about her, yeah. Awesome. Exactly. Yeah, see, so we already have a talk after this. Yes, exactly.

Mario Rangel 26:47

You can get a ball writer, Christopher.

Christopher Crompton 26:49

I can write. You can write. So basically, the the stage we're at I write my client scripts. Look at that. I mean, and they love movie. Yeah, so a little help from AI, but just a little.

Vipul Bindra 26:59

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We should just throw in chat and be like, make it Hollywood. Right. My entire point was so I was like, if I'm gonna make a movie, right? Obviously, it's gonna be an indie movie. There's no budget behind it, but I'm gonna make it the best looking movie. Yeah, because a lot of indie movies you can immediately look and be like, indie movie, right? It's very obvious. It's because the resources were very limited, they're using cheaper cameras, cheaper audio, cheaper. But right now, everybody loves that. Yeah. The look. But but see, here's the opposite thing. I'm like, I have the equipment, yeah, so I'm gonna make it look like the best looking indie movie ever. I don't uh but now I uh you know I want to make sure that the script that we're writing is good. Because you know, that's why people would watch the storytelling, not because and that's what they say in film school is like if your script sucks, yeah, your movie sucks.

Christopher Crompton 27:43

Exactly. So that's it. It's a great script, no matter how bad it looks, people are still gonna enjoy it.

Agency Life To Orlando Opportunities

Vipul Bindra 27:49

Exactly. So what we're we want to do is kind of now refine the dialogue, make the script tight. You know, it'd be if I'm gonna make a movie, let's say Netflix ready is the word, let's say that I want to have the script be Netflix ready, and that's not there yet. Um but yes, we are making a movie, we will, and I would absolutely call you. Yeah, it's gonna be a really fun movie. I think the story's incredible. Uh we've talked about if anyone wants to know more, watch Mario's episode from last season. Uh we go into detail about the movie. Uh, but yeah, no, very excited about it. But like I said, not typically a movie director, but can I make a movie? Yes, and are we going to? Yes. The only thing I don't like is how slow the timeline's moving. But like I said, it's outside my control. I can direct and DP it very fast. I need I need to have a script that's you know, like there. And I currently am like, this is good. This is not good enough to, you know, yeah. We'll get it there. That's the process. It takes a long time. Exactly. And that's the that's the process, right? You're like you said. So anyway, but yes, I will eventually make a movie, but I don't mind sometimes, you know, again, that's not my number one thing I do, but I don't mind sometimes deeping out people's movie or uh, you know, helping them any way I can. Uh, because it's not like I don't have a passion for filmmaking, it's just I have a passion more for other stuff, so I tend to do that more. Um, but anyway, but that's good uh to know you about your Hollywood adventure. So you packed your bags. How'd you make so Rochester to LA? How did you end up in Orlando?

Christopher Crompton 29:17

So I I didn't give up on the dream uh quite so soon. Um, you know, obviously I needed to make money, but um honestly what was preventing me from just like getting PA jobs on film shoots was I knew nothing about coffee, which is crazy because now I love coffee, I know everything about coffee, but at the time I didn't drink it, I knew nothing about it, and I just someone had told me like if you PA, you have to know how to make coffee, and I didn't, so I just I didn't go for PA jobs, I just didn't do it.

Vipul Bindra 29:48

I can't be a PA, I don't know how to make coffee, yeah right.

Christopher Crompton 29:50

But the one thing that I knew was my way around Premiere Pro, and so I just started applying for like random editing jobs. I eventually got one as a freelancer, like basically a permalancer for uh what is yeah, they're still around. Uh LiveMe. Have you ever heard of Live Me? So before TikTok live, there was live me, and all this live, like uh social live stuff that all started in China. Um, funny enough, this is insider information. Um the reason all that started and why going live became popular on social platforms, uh, or even just in general, is because over in Asian countries, it's a lot less common for men and women to interact on a daily basis. Okay. So these uh women started to stream and they would just get tons of men coming in. And this is it's not even sexual. I mean, maybe some of it is, but most of it is like purely platonic. But just because there isn't that normal interaction, um, this uh industry just like blew up.

Vipul Bindra 30:58

That's crazy to think about.

Christopher Crompton 30:59

Yeah, and so that's how it kind of caught on over here. These Chinese companies started bringing over their their tech and their platforms over here. And so I was honestly, uh, they weren't a startup because in China, like they had already been doing great things, um, but they were kind of like a startup in the US. Um, and it was it was going well for them. And you know, of course, I was just editing their social media content, maybe a couple ads here and there, um, really just getting my editing chops down. Um where was it gonna go with that? Oh, uh, but what's funny is uh, you know, I don't know how it all worked behind the scenes, but obviously TikTok caught on to LiveMe's success and they kind of perfected it, and you know, now they're the leaders in it. I don't think live me really has much okay.

Vipul Bindra 31:48

Yeah, no, I didn't know about live me, but even TikTok came out of nowhere, you know. It was kind of like you couldn't ignore it, it was just like everywhere when it became popular. So I was like, okay, I can't ignore this anymore. So I probably just ignored if I even heard about Live Me. Because I feel like initially, and this is uh obviously people know about it. I've changed my stance. Initially, I was just like one of those filmmakers that was like, Nope, you turn your phone, you know, uh, you know, landscape. Like, we're not watching vertical content over here, you know what it what blasphemy is. I've come around, yeah. But now I'm like, you know, after years, you know, uh I was just like, Yeah, this ain't going back. You know, after TikTok became popular, I was like, nope. Yeah, it's it's the way it's here to stay is vertical video is a thing. And as a filmmaker, you know, uh part of what we have to do is evolve. And so I felt like I had to evolve and just accept that, you know, this is a thing. Clients are paying us money to make this thing, so we better make it amazing, right? Instead of me fighting, like, no, we gotta make landscape. You know, people can turn their phones, it's just people don't want to turn their phone. Yeah, they will if they're watching long-form YouTube or Netflix or something like that. It's so crazy to me how human brains work. You're like watching Netflix, you automatically put put your phone to side. You open TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, uh not YouTube, well, YouTube charts, but Instagram, you are not turning your phone uh you know aside. And I don't get it.

Christopher Crompton 33:10

I think because people relate horizontal to long long form content, so like I don't want something long, I just want my quick fix and be done.

Vipul Bindra 33:19

Yeah, you want the addiction, right? Of uh the swipe. Yeah, exactly. I wonder how many people's thumbs are gonna need surgery in 10 years. Oh, I I I have my own addictions now. This is something we're working through. Yeah, oh my god.

Christopher Crompton 33:32

Because I need to spend more time working on my business and not scrolling.

Vipul Bindra 33:36

It's called, you know, it's it's actually design in the algorithm. Every time you stop, it literally analyzes and and tries to next time make you not want to do that. It's it's because that's where the money's at, right? They just want you to consume and they'll do algorithmically. I'm not saying there's and again, a lot of people see this and they go, There's some one person in Facebook going like keep watching Instagram reels. It's not that, it's just the algorithm is designed and they keep tweaking it, obviously, to make it you know, you keep doom scrolling. Yeah, that's this is the the algorithm, and it's learning, it's designed to learn your pattern and your behavior and show you the content that you want to watch. And a lot of things to me is crazy is these companies will say they're not listening to your microphones. They clearly are. How many times I've been on the dining table eating or whatever, and I'll say something like, Oh, we need to get this, and I literally open my phone, it's right there the exact thing. Yeah, so so the phones are listening to you at all times, even though a lot of these companies say they're not, you know, because clearly, when you know you clear did not search for something, you talked about it, you open your phone, and it's right there, right?

Christopher Crompton 34:43

So and whatever the learning software in there is just so incredibly advanced because even uh I mean, sure, uh all the video business business owners out there, we get ads for that kind of stuff all the time.

Vipul Bindra 34:54

It's like, yeah, and it's so cringy to watch a lot of it, yeah.

Christopher Crompton 34:58

It is, and they're all telling me stuff that I don't want to hear, yeah, making me feel bad about myself. Does your video business suck?

Vertical Video And Algorithm Attention Wars

Vipul Bindra 35:06

So coming back to yeah, Orlando. So, how did you get to Orlando? So you were uh editing Yes, okay.

Christopher Crompton 35:12

So I was editing for this live streaming company, um, just doing my thing, hoping there would be a break at some point. Um, some coworkers that I worked with there went off to a creative agency. So that started. So I had this whole maybe like three, four-year stint of working for creative agencies. So they recommended me. I got in with one of them out in LA. Um, and even after I moved to Orlando, I was still working remotely for uh different advertising agencies. There's a buff, a bunch of different ways you could call them marketing agencies, creative agencies, advertising agencies. Um, all of them do different things, have different kinds of clients, work in different aspects of the industry, but ultimately they provide creative and marketing and advertising for their clients. And usually they're they're big-time clients, like you know, Netflix, uh Disney, Nike, you know, whatever it would be, these big corporations. Um, they're taking all the big business from us.

Vipul Bindra 36:10

I mean, I I like to partner with them. See, I think that's where the the other side, a lot of people could say, you know, oh, they're taking our business, which I mean they're they are the video side at least. Uh so you can go and fight about it, or you could start one of those agencies. That's another way. Yeah, or the other thing I say is sounds like a plan. You guys take the advertising part of it, the alt part of it. How about I do the video production part of it? Exactly. Let's do a partnership. I'm willing to even do it because you know, I get it. It's a filmmaker thing again. You have a complex of credit. I know a lot of people who do this, they want the awards, they want the credit. Like, oh, they want to tell everyone, look, I did this commercial. I genuinely don't have that, and I think that's also helped me because I'll go to these agencies and I'll like I'll do this white label, like I'll put on your shirt. So for that day, we are your video production department, we'll work with your team, right?

Christopher Crompton 36:59

You know, because they usually work creative production companies all the time, they usually don't have in-house production people.

Vipul Bindra 37:06

So it's like for me, it's like, yes, are we getting just a very small chunk than we should be getting? Uh they're keeping majority of the chunk for doing the creative, but then at the end, say, I like I said, if I want access to these big commercials, you just have to say that's just the route. So at the end, I've just I just have really good agency partners where I'll go just make the commercial for them. Right.

Christopher Crompton 37:26

I'm still trying to convince my former contacts um to use me as a production company, they're coming around to it, so you know I think something will break eventually.

Vipul Bindra 37:36

Yeah, you just gotta build, keep building that relationship. That's what it's about, right? They're watching, yeah.

Christopher Crompton 37:40

They're watching, they're seeing what I'm what I'm doing, and every now and then they'll be like, hey, like you're doing this thing on your own now. Yeah, yeah.

Deposits Net Terms And Profit Margins

Vipul Bindra 37:47

There you go. And that those connects are worth everything. Yeah. Because if you're not even in the running, it doesn't matter how good you are, you want to be in the running to get one of those, and then you want to do your best, obviously. On that, that's how you know you can keep growing and keep getting more. But that's again, it's if you want it. I've talked to so many people. Even making big commercial isn't for everyone. Because a lot of people think big money. The thing is, by the time a brand has picked a number, right? Uh, agency is gonna take their huge cut. Then by the time you're you get a production budget, and that's if even they hire you as a total company, a lot of times they'll even break down, just hire you as a as a role. So let's say they even hire you, they partner with you, you're the production company. Uh, then by the time you are done hiring people and equipment, it may not be a lot of money left. Probably not. Yeah, it's usually like 20, 40% if you're really lucky. 20 is pretty normal. 20 to 40, let's say, it would be the range. So that's not a lot of money left. You can make way more money doing these three to ten thousand dollar jobs for local businesses. You get to decide how much you're profiting. Exactly. And then and if you do smartly, obviously, there's a cheap way to do it. Don't do that because that's how you don't get repeat clients. Right. Uh, but if you do it smartly, you can make more profit. I'm saying it's easier to pull a 40-50% profit, I'm saying, if if maybe even more if if if you're cutting corners, I'm saying on that side than it is on uh commercial side. So which I have a funny story to talk about. Profit. But hold on, we gotta we gotta get the no no talk about it before you forget. We can we can start go back.

Christopher Crompton 39:21

Yeah, all right. Um, so my first the client that we've been talking about, I'm not gonna name them. Um, and hopefully they don't watch this. If they do, whatever, they they love me. Yeah um the first job that I did with them. Um, I had been doing this mentality when it comes to payment of the 50 up front and 50 on completion. I don't know how you do that, but I quickly realized on larger budget projects that does not work. No, yeah, not at all. Yeah, um, and so now I have just been asking for everything up front because I need I need to spend that money. Yeah, exactly. I need to spend it on the production. And so I was forced to work with half.

Vipul Bindra 40:02

Yeah. And now you're like, how do I make this happen?

Christopher Crompton 40:06

And I'm also at the time, I'm I'm just working month to month, like paycheck to paycheck. So I'm like, I don't there's nothing left over that I can put into this. Um, so I was forced to work with half of the paycheck, and it was really difficult, yeah, but I made it happen. Um and afterwards I was like, oh, I'm never doing that again. Like, I'm not gonna just use 50%, like I'm gonna spend 80, 80, and then I'll keep 20. Um, I did that, and that was also great, but now I'm like, you know what? I did it for 50, and I think if I get my systems down, um, get organized, really get better at pre-production, I think I can get it closer to you know, 50% profit.

Vipul Bindra 40:53

You never know 40, 30, but and it also depends on the project that you're doing, you know. It's it depends on what you're doing. A lot of time, if it's like something very simple, you know, and I again what I mean by is like where the costs aren't that high. Right. You know, so each project is different too. Sometimes I'll take projects where we want we go overboard and we want to. It's not a client's asking us because I'm like, oh, this is a really cool project. So I'll just overspend a little. Because like you said, I'm the company owner, I get to decide what I want to do, and it's a choice I'm making because we have projects where it's just a talking head, we're doing some reels, I can easily make a lot more profit there. So I'm like, okay, so and that's the balance of it, right? It's like as a company, we try to make 20%, you know, uh revenue, uh, or not revenue, a profit out of the revenue um after all expenses are paid. But that's you know, averaged out. So there will be projects that we may make a lot, lot more, and there'll be some where I'm willing to even, you know, pretty close.

Christopher Crompton 41:54

Yeah, if you are passionate about video, you're passionate about storytelling, you're gonna naturally want to spend a little bit more to make not only uh a great product for your client, but be like, hey, this is my brand. Like I tell great stories and I'm not gonna cut court.

Vipul Bindra 42:07

Exactly. And it's not every project, like you say, it's selective. Uh, but but yes, talk about pricing. My strategies uh initially was you know, like you said, you start out when you're freelancing, you obviously realize a lot of people want to do net 30, net 60, net 90. And then I was like, first of all, I like net one, you know. I like if I do the shoot today, I get paid tomorrow or something like that. Because I get it, same day you're leaving at night, people don't have time to pay you. That was my freelancer thing. But you know, not all jobs were like that. So it's like, first of all, that's interesting. But then two, when I was like, okay, when I start my company, I'm gonna charge 50% up front and 50% at completion so I can pay my freelancers because I wanted to treat people how I wanted to be treated immediately, like hey, I'll sell you the money, or I'll write you the check right now if they need paper check. I don't do that. I try not to do that, but some people still want to check. But what I'm saying is that's how I approached it, and I was like, okay, so 50 will be for production, pre-production production, and the remaining 50, 30 will be for post and 20 will be for me, if that makes sense. Yeah, it was very easy. So that was the like you said, it didn't go overboard because the per uh post-production would be paid after the client paid the final thing because you know revisions are done and they have to pay before they get the files. It worked for, like I said, initial company. When you start new first year, I think it was a very good plan. Then I quickly realized, like you said, as as the projects go above the 10, 20, 30k range, you need more production money. Because you know, as as the see, it's easier when it's like a 5k, let's say, project to divide. Like, yeah, I could do 2500 production, I can I can pay, you know, thousand bucks post production, the rest can be profit, something like that. I'm just saying. But when you're at 50 grand, a lot of time production may be 30 grand. I'm just saying. And and so or sometime even 30 grand post production may not be that complicated or whatever. It just maybe you needed to do either spend more. More per day, or you had just so many days, or something like that. And that's where I was like, Oh, I'm not gonna self-fund it. And I didn't like it, where sometimes uh in the beginning I had to be like, okay, guys, I'll pay you, you know, in a little bit or whatever. Sure, they were friends, but that's just not the way to do it, you know. And I was like, that's not cool. You know, they're not a production company, they're a freelancer, they shouldn't have to wait on my paycheck. Yeah, so anyway, so so I came up with the initially a tiered system, which was again 50-50 for less than let's say 15k projects. Anything over that, we're gonna do a tiered system, you're gonna pay me 50 up front at signing, 25 before shoot, 25 at you know, push production. But now I just do 100%. It's very simple. If you're an existing client, I'll still do 50-50. That's okay because you've known me for years. Uh, I don't want to hassle them. Uh, but I've kept it very simple. I basically do that for old clients, but new clients, it's just 100% up front. And sometimes I'll do you can do split it, but I'll say, okay, you can deposit, like do a 50% to book it, and then the other 50% do before the shoot, if that makes sense. But I ideally want before the shoot the hundred percent of the money so I can spend the money.

Christopher Crompton 45:11

Like I said, in my short experience, I've noticed that clients are actually happy with that. Yeah, it's easier for their financial departments, and if they already like you and trust you, it's not a difficult decision for them.

Vipul Bindra 45:26

Yeah. Because I mean, if you have a working relationship, then they get it. And then you know, at the end of the day, uh, it's not like again, we're trying to take the money. Again, good production company, I get it. There's some, you know, people who are like, oh, I'll take all of it. Let me hire a couple of students and then you know you're done. Uh, but that's a short-term, you know, look at it, right? Uh, but most of the time, at least for me, uh, you know, we're spending the money back, and I have you know, my contractors, my subcontractors to pay for it, and I want them to have a good experience. You know, I want to pay them within a day or two, yeah.

Christopher Crompton 45:57

To work with you rather than somebody else or a company.

Vipul Bindra 46:00

Yeah, exactly. So that's the the way I treat, and I like I said, I treat people how I want to be treated. Uh, and the only way I can do that is by having money up front, right? You know, because costs are more than 50%. Uh, but but there's creative ways to do it. The only one I don't like is any net anything. I don't like doing net 30, net 60. And now I get it. There's some clients who only do net 30, net 60. So I've accepted that those are not my clients, unfortunately. How cool the project may be, I'm just like, not for me. That's the deal breaker. Unfortunately, yeah, I just don't want to do it.

Christopher Crompton 46:32

Even if it's like a 50k plus project.

Vipul Bindra 46:35

Yeah, but are you gonna spend 40k out of pocket for and wait for 60 days to get paid? Are you gonna finance it?

Christopher Crompton 46:42

Yeah, you're right.

Vipul Bindra 46:43

Yeah, I'm not a bank, right? I mean, being real with you, and that's okay. Again, I have cli I have friends who do do net 30, net 60, net 90 projects, uh, and they're happy with that. Yeah, you know, but I've also heard horror stories of clients not paying. There's this I'm saying there's all sides of coin. Right. So uh I didn't even think about that. I don't want to discount like that there are companies that have financial procedures that you know it are that, like it is what it is. Uh it's just my thing is I don't want to be the bank, I don't want to finance anything. I'm your producer, right? Then I'm on set your director. So, but as a producer, when you initially hired me, my job is to look at the budget and spend it most sufficiently, right? Without wasting anything. Because, you know, I am on your s on their side. So I don't want to finance anything because guess what? Uh you know, even as sure, I I've been doing this for a while. That doesn't mean I've got a bank here, you know, or that Bendra bank that I can just go in, all right. 50k project, let me pull 20k, right? So they can't. You can take equity and all your equipment. Yeah, I know, right? And so who's paying that interest now? I already have a low profit, so you know, I can't cut into that. So anyway, I they're not for me, like I said, but that doesn't mean they're not for everyone, right? But I don't do it. Yeah, you you're open to it? No, probably not, yeah, especially not at this point, yeah.

Christopher Crompton 48:04

Because you're right, if if there was a situation where either they weren't happy or whatever they didn't want to pay, then I'm totally out of a business. Yeah, exactly. I'm drained of everything, yeah.

From Layoffs To Dreamers Only Media

Vipul Bindra 48:14

And because you probably would have financed by your credit card or family or friends or whatever. You know, at that point, I don't want that. I don't know over my head anywhere. Um, then even now where we're sure we may have sometimes, you know, a couple of let's say fifty thousand dollar projects happening. I could pull from here, but again, I don't want to do co-mingling between two projects. I just do it like this is a project, it's the money I can spend, let me spend more, you know, like or spend me here or whatever. I don't want to pull from here, then it's like I can't pay for this one or whatever. What you know, you get the point. Um, so yeah, but that's a very good question. A lot of people don't want to talk about pricing, but I think it's very important to be able to understand how you charge. There's not a set rule, um, but like I said, I've tried both ways, and I find the bigger the number, the easier the client pays. So most of my big uh numbers, clients just wire the money. Yeah, I send them an invoice, they wire me the whole money. We never even have the 50-50 discussion, if that makes sense. The only time I have a 50-50 discussion is when the project is oh, the client doesn't want to spend as much or whatever, and that's what I'm saying. It's already starting out in the negative anyway. And it's okay to help small businesses, I don't mind that, but then it has to be where I can manage the project in the 50, or otherwise, what's the point of taking it here? Right. Yeah, yeah, I've had the same experiences so far. So, how'd you get to production company owner?

Christopher Crompton 49:37

So you're in Orlando, yeah. So I'm in Orlando, I'm working as an editor for these agencies. Um COVID hits, uh, I lose all my work. Um still living out in LA, and a bunch of things happened, but I decide to move home. Um, eventually start working for this other agency remotely, uh, this time as an art director instead of an editor. And at this point, too, I'd been like fed up with editing for these agencies. And actually, what's kind of cool is I became known in this like kind of LA agency circle as like the editor who fixes things. Okay. So if something was bad or didn't go as intended, and they're like, We have to deliver this project to the client and it has to be good, but we don't know what to do, they would call me.

Vipul Bindra 50:23

Okay.

Christopher Crompton 50:24

And um, I hated that, honestly. Like nobody wants to be handed garbage and be like, here, make it a diamond. But hey, that's a talent though.

Vipul Bindra 50:33

It is garbage into gold. I mean, that's that's yeah, that's that's a kill, yeah.

Christopher Crompton 50:37

Yeah, so um it was great financially for a while there, but like it was really like just weighing on my soul. Like, I just you know, I I don't want to work on bad projects anymore, I just don't want to do it. Um, and so I had been trying to push myself more into this director role, like working more in the pre-production side of things. Um, and one company decided to hire me. I just um someone saw my resume and they had a conversation with me, and they just thought that I was cool and that I kind of understood their vision. And so they decided to give me a shot. And so art directors do a hundred kinds of different things in agencies. Um, but some agencies will hire video art directors, and essentially that person is in charge of uh helping with the concept, assisting the creative director come up with the concept for whatever the video campaign is gonna be. Um help them create visuals to either pitch projects or almost like storyboarding for the client, like helping the client understand what we're doing for them, what the overall vision is. Um, and so there were some things that I got to actually put in my two cents of like, hey, what should the ad actually look like or be? But mostly I'm just assisting the creative director in doing that, and it was a lot of fun. We got to work on advertising for um a handful of different Netflix films. That was like my my claim to fame for a while. There was um I worked on advertising for Netflix films. Yeah, and it it was a great, yeah, it was great. We worked with uh Tanu Muinu, who she is a Russian music video director, famous for directing um Lil Nas's Lil Nas X's um what was his song? Starts with an M. Mario. Do you know?

Vipul Bindra 52:33

The one that got famous?

Christopher Crompton 52:34

The one that got famous where he goes to hell and everything.

Vipul Bindra 52:39

Let me check, let me check. Yeah, I know the song you're talking about.

Christopher Crompton 52:43

Yeah, so it was around that time that that released, and so you know, she's hot. Everybody wanted to hire her for things, so they hired her to um direct some ads for Montero. Montero, yes, yeah, um, and so yeah, that was fun. Yeah, that's pretty good, yeah. Yeah, and I got to be on set and everything. Um, didn't really do much while I was there. I was supposed to direct the photography, and I knew nothing about photography, but I didn't want to say that. Yeah, and uh the photos turned out pretty terrible, not gonna lie. Yeah, they're not great. Oh my goodness.

Vipul Bindra 53:20

So far, there's a pattern. I'm like, people are gonna be like, why'd you get this guy? You know, you're like, I did this, and uh, it wasn't like I did this and it wasn't great. All right, when is it gonna get good? Yeah.

Christopher Crompton 53:31

Um, so I I kept working as an art director for uh two different agencies at the time. Um, and I don't know, I think I just realized like, oh, I'm not an art director. Like, this actually really isn't my skill set. Like, I got to do some cool stuff because the first creative director I worked with, uh, he had a lot of the same skill sets that I did, so he just liked working with me. Um, but really art directors are at least in the agency world, like graphic designers on steroids. Like, not only can they design, but um they can conceptually visualize a project as well. But I didn't have those design shops, so a lot of spaces I didn't really fit in. Um and we had a there was a uh a recession scare in June of 2022.

Vipul Bindra 54:25

Okay.

Christopher Crompton 54:26

And anytime, at least from my experience working with agencies, anytime there's some kind of like financial thing going on in the economy, like agencies freak out and they fire people and whatnot. And so I got let go of the freelance gigs, even though there was no recession, they just there was no recession, there it was just yeah. It was a just a scare, and they went on hiring freezes, they let me go. And actually, I was interviewing for both companies for a full-time position, and I was expecting the salary to be really nice. Um, and they went on hiring freezes, and I never heard from again.

Vipul Bindra 55:06

Look at that. Like you cannot predict the the world, right? No, uh, and that is true, you know, and and again, nothing wrong with the nine to five, but when you are doing a nine to five, you're kind of relying on all these things, you're relying on other people, you're relying on economy, things that you cannot control, or whatever their hiring you know, practices are all of that. You're you're kind of just relying on other people, and that's why I like entrepreneurship. You know, it's not for everyone, but when you are your own boss, you decide when to fire yourself. Yeah, you know, nobody else can tell you, you know, you're laid off, right? Yeah, and now I I don't think I could ever go back. Yeah, because you get freedom. But but I'm pretty sure you work more hours now because I do, you know, you work 60 to 80 hours a week. That sounds that sounds realistic, yeah. If you do have to put in those extra hours, then they would be pulling in, you know, but then at the same time you get more freedom, you get more income, you know.

Christopher Crompton 56:01

And I I don't feel completely drained all the time. Yeah, sometimes when I don't manage my schedule well, but yeah.

Vipul Bindra 56:06

So, what at point do you go? I need to start this production company thing.

Clients Through Community And Outreach

Christopher Crompton 56:10

So actually, it's not until two years later. Oh, okay. Um, around the same time, I got connected to my church and I just loved it so much. Uh fell in love with Jesus, and I was volunteering doing videos for them, and I was like, you know what? I lost all my work. I could do I could do what I'm helping them with, I could do this full time. And so I submitted my resume, and they hired me as their on-staff videographer. Oh, look at that. And I did that for two years. I loved it at first. I mean, I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Um, and then over time I realized okay, there's a cap of what I can do here. And I was like, you know, I think it's time that I go off and try to uh chase my dreams, whatever that looks like. Um, and I wasn't exactly sure if I was gonna start a production company, if I was gonna go back to freelancing, or if I was going to try to do the uh filmmaking dream again. I really didn't know. Um and ultimately I decided, you know, I want to get realistic about my goals. I want to get married, I want to have a wife, I want to have children, I want to have a house like Vipple. Um and I know you want a house like Vipple, but yeah, we'll we'll winter par. Um and ultimately I decided, you know, I think doing this video business thing is gonna help me achieve those goals and to have eventually to have stability. Um not that I have some stability right now, but obviously I'm still pretty new into it. Um so yeah, um, so then uh Dreamers Only Media was born. Dreamers Only Media LLC. Look at that. I got my official yeah, I got my LLC in May of 2024. We're in 2025, right? Yeah, May 22nd, 2024 is when I officially filed for it. I was working on some stuff before that.

Vipul Bindra 58:07

So, how do you go about so here's the crazy thing, you know? A lot uh, you know, you start a company, right? A lot of people get there. The the biggest thing is then the most important thing. How do you find customers? How do you find clients? Great to actually start making money.

Christopher Crompton 58:24

Nothing. Oh, you didn't do anything? Uh no, because the Lord is gracious, and honestly, um, so far, all of my clients have come through church. Okay, and like um church is amazing for community, and there's a lot of different business owners in there, but actually, uh, one of my coworkers that I had worked with, uh, she has now become uh a client. Look at that, yeah. And so she was my connection into the um uh public university that I'm working with at the moment. Um, and she kind of acts as like the executive producer over all of our projects. And yeah, it's been wonderful. And um, I would say they're um one of my two main clients, and then I work with you know small businesses here and there when I can.

Vipul Bindra 59:14

So you you're telling me you've been lucky enough to not have to go hunt for any clients that have just come to you. Uh, and that's the power of networking. You know, I want people to know it's not just has to be obviously you know you should network with other video people, yeah, clearly. Uh, but but the real money, again, and this is to make money as a production company, does not come from other video people, it comes from end clients. And uh then you gotta look around you, find resources everywhere, whether that's church, whether that's where you worked in the past, you know, or uh your friends, you gotta reach out to everyone and tell them what you do. Uh because you're right, you know, you never know where your lead is coming from.

Christopher Crompton 59:53

It's great that you say that because um she actually didn't ask me. Um, I texted her, not expecting anything.

Vipul Bindra 1:00:00

Yeah.

Christopher Crompton 1:00:01

Um, she's a good friend as well. So I text her, I said, Hey, uh, do you guys need any video work? That's all I said. Yeah. And she was like, Um, I don't think so. Okay. And then uh maybe a week later, she goes, actually, yeah, we can use one, right? Yeah, actually. Um, and so I had some conversations with her and um with her people, her team, and it they actually needed a lot of videos. Look at that. And uh, what had actually happened, and I know you're you're big on this, um, was they had been working with previous videographers who did not treat them well, did not give them great products, and so they had put the idea of video in the back of their mind, like we're never doing videos again because we've only had terrible experiences. Um, but of course, with any kind of business, the need for video is always gonna come up. So, inevitably, you know, just the timing worked out. I was like, we don't want to do videos, but we have to do a video for this, so we need somebody to do it. And so they gave me a call, and they were a little hesitant about it because you know they hadn't had great experiences in the past. But what I learned from you was that the client experience is key, yeah, it's very key. I that lipo, that phrase, whatever you said to me was playing in my mind the whole time like, how can I make this experience great for them? Not even knowing that they had poor experiences in the past, and so every time that I've done a project for them or um someone you know within their department that needs video work, um, they always come back and say, Hey, you treated us so well, you made us either feel like celebrities or just felt welcomed or made the space peaceful for us, or the people that you hired were so friendly to us and accommodating. And uh that was all that I learned from you like really early on.

Vipul Bindra 1:01:53

Well, I'm so thank you. I if you know if I can help a little bit, it makes me feel good. Yeah, because my entire thing is, you know, uh, and again, it comes from a good place, it comes from not just you know, and and and you know this, we talked about this, but like from a place to just you know be fake or whatever. Like it comes from genuinely treating people how you want to be treated. Right. My thing is if I go in a business and they don't treat me right, I don't want to shop there, I don't want to buy whatever they're selling, so I just walk out, right? Um, and and obviously I know there's people who'll fight, they'll you know what I mean, like or argue like customers, right, or whatever. But the thing is, you can just look around you, tell, see where where you went and they treated you well and you went back, right? Right, or you spread that message on social media or whatever, and the then the reverse, and people are more proactive about it. If you weren't treated right, they'll go blast everywhere and tell all their friends that do not go there or do not talk to them. So so when I started the business, it was a very easy concept for me. And I it may be because my first my I've only had like two companies I've ever worked for, just you know, and my first company I worked for Disney, and it may be that my initial training ever in the world of having a job or whatever was just you treat people right, because you know that's what Disney teaches you, right? Yeah, the Disney, what do you call mind the wires that they put in you? Like, no, you you say yes, and you know, like you help people, you help them, you know, in the Disney world, whatever, do whatever. Uh so even when I would talk to, and I'm talking this is like a 19-year-old me, you know, at a peep guest at Disney World, I'd be just nice to them, you know. Like if you see a lost kid, help them, you know. You know the basic things. You see trash, you pick up. So I and maybe I'll give them a little bit of credit. But ultimately, when I started the company, I was just like, I'm gonna treat people how I want to be treated. It's very simple, and it's not always great, because I'd be real. Sometimes I want to be treated as be told the truth, and a lot of people don't like being told the truth. So there is a balance. I'm saying it's not always perfect because I don't want to go around the bush to get to where it is. Sometimes the answer is no, right? You know what I mean? So what I'm saying is, but I treat people how I want to be treated, even if it's bad news, I wouldn't be just given, and I don't want to be, you know, not given it or given in a roundabout way that just annoys the crap out of me. So again, I treat people how I want to be treated, and that makes life so much easier. But I also find that's how you get repeat business because every single time they say, Oh, you made us feel like a celebrity, or you made us feel good, or the and then the product was great, and and you know, they just want to keep bringing you over and over and over again, and uh, you know, you help them, they help you, you know, everyone wins type of thing. Uh, but like I said, now there's the the slight negative side of it, coming back to it, is just that sometimes I've had where you know, usually I try to accommodate, they'll ask for something. I'm like, let me see. Oh yeah, okay, we can we can figure it out, right? At the end day, I'm the producer, I can figure out how to make this happen. Usually what the requests are, which is simple things, you know. Um, like, can we not have this thing or can we put up this prop here, or you know, like simple things, or we really like this room instead of this room, even though it may not be cinematic, so we can figure out how to move things there or whatever. I always take their suggestions, you know what I mean? It's my job, and to figure out now how to make look cinematic is on me. But then sometimes they'll request, oh yeah, can we do five other interviews today at the same time? No, yeah, it's one thing I could accommodate maybe one more, but you know, we have a tight schedule. Like, no, we're gonna have to come back the next time. We don't have a timeline for that. Uh that's what it is, I'm saying. Whether it's negative or not, you're being upfront, you're being honest. I think it's okay to be be real with people too. Right. And not then eat because you could do it too big, like, yeah, let me try and fit it, but you can't fit that many in trees.

Christopher Crompton 1:05:33

Yeah, and ultimately you're gonna lose money.

Client Experience That Creates Loyalty

Vipul Bindra 1:05:35

Yeah, that too. And but but ultimately uh, but also it's like you can't if if you have a day planned out. A little bit deviation is okay because it's corporate radio, but a lot is not okay, or or them adding a whole production day is not okay. That's when I just simply go, yeah, that obviously uh let's add another production day. Let me send you an in what's right. You know, it's very clear, like it is what's gonna what it is. So, anyway, coming back to it. I'm so glad I was able to have that conversation with you. It helped a little bit.

Christopher Crompton 1:06:01

Can I tell you something else that you helped me with in the same realm? Um, I think you mentioned it at the videographer meetup, uh, the importance of hair and makeup and how that makes the client feel good. And so, right before this first project that I did with them, and this was everything was riding on this project because you know, whatever their experience would be with this would determine our relationship thereafter. And um, I was meeting with my DP, and I had not budgeted for hair and makeup partly because I only had 50% to warn.

Vipul Bindra 1:06:35

Exactly. Yeah, sound and hair makeup cuts cut the the first thing, and those to me are very valuable. But yes, but you're not the only one I'm seeing. That's what I'm saying.

Christopher Crompton 1:06:45

I've learned the sound thing recently as well. Um, and uh his wife actually does hair and makeup for film video. Um, and you know, those your words again, they ring in my mind. I'm I'm literally walking out his door and I'm like, you know what? Let me just see if like she's available. And um, I actually I was gonna spend the rest of the money that I did have on another camera operator, but I opted with with my uh DP's um actually suggestion, he said, you know, I don't mind having one less camera operator if you want to hire my wife to do hair and makeup. And I think that actually made the whole experience for the client. Like I would say 80% of their great experience was the hair and makeup. Just the fact that they had it and that they were able to walk onto the set feeling confident that they looked good was everything to them and something that they had never experienced before. And the reason I say that is because afterwards they're like, we need you to have that every single shoot we do.

Vipul Bindra 1:07:53

Like, I don't care what we do, yeah, there needs to be hair and makeup. Exactly. See, once they experience it, they're never going back. It's just uh look, uh the the world that we live in, productions are getting smaller, budgets are getting smaller, and what usually ends up happening, especially clients who don't understand the value of it, um they always cut. That's like I've I've learned there's a pattern to it, you know. They cut hair and makeup, yeah, cut sound. You know, you do guys do the sound. This is how it happens, and and uh 50% of the video is sound, it needs to sound really high quality. And so if you cut 50% of the video, and not that we can't do, I mean, there's tools now for cinematographer. I I mean look at my audio kit, but I'm saying we can definitely do audio. It's just uh having somebody dedicating that 50% uh is really important. And then the second thing is uh here in makeup, not only it gives people confidence that we're filming, and uh, but it also makes them actually look good on camera. Yeah, it makes our job uh you know as directors and cinematographers a lot easier when you know makeup is helping them look better because that's what they want. People want to look their best, and uh a lot of time doing corporate commercial video, uh, they're also our clients who are paying our bills. So if you make them or sometimes their clients, because you know, it could be like you said, um, I don't know, a marketing manager, so yeah, their clients would be like their CEOs or their customers that we're doing testimonials for, making them feel great is also part of client experience.

Christopher Crompton 1:09:24

And the thing is when they watch the videos, they're not paying attention to the lighting or the motion graphics or the cinematography, they're looking at themselves.

Vipul Bindra 1:09:33

Yeah, yeah, they're they're they're more interested in that. Yeah, yeah.

Christopher Crompton 1:09:36

They're like, how do I look? How how do I sound? How am I coming off? And if they love that, then you know, yeah, gold.

Vipul Bindra 1:09:43

It makes it everything so worthwhile because uh, you know, I don't know. I like I said, I hold it so the way I do my proposals is I do a proposal, but the only constant thing is always there. Hair makeup, highly recommended. You know, it's optional, but I'd be like optional, but highly recommended, and same thing with sound, yeah. Sound guy, highly recommended, you know, uh optional, but because uh the because the I want them to check those boxes because and I can say it's not even like as a company I'm taking that much profit or anything from that. Uh because you know, once you had kit fees and day rates, it's like a decent number. Uh so I'm happy to pass majority of that to these people because they're gonna make my video look better, yeah, and they're gonna get me more uh you know, repeat business.

Christopher Crompton 1:10:27

So what's your reasoning for even including it as an option instead of just building the price into your package anyway?

Vipul Bindra 1:10:36

So very good question. It's because most things I'm doing are corporate, and most corporate people don't want to pay for that. They're they're just when you're when you're going with an existing client, slightly different because I know then I don't even do any breakdown, right? Here's the price, right? Let's do it. Right. I'm not bidding against someone, but when you have a new client come in, uh you know, they're generally talking to two, three people. Let's be real. This is how it is. So I don't want my number to look higher just because I have hair and makeup in it. Oh, okay. That's the unfortunate part because most 99.9% of any other video people are not adding that. Right. Especially I'm saying under 10k budget. Right. Sorry, that's just not a thing. So usually it's gonna be like, you know, we're gonna give you extra camera or whatever, right? You know what I mean? That's where where people leave too. So my entire thing is hey, this is the project, but these are the two additional things that I think we needed. But if they don't, to be real, I can do it without it, obviously. Corporate video. Uh, and it's not like by the way, that's where it separates me. It doesn't mean we don't do high-quality sound. My sound package is probably better than 99% sound people locally. Like it's gonna be chef sound, really high quality, recording 32-bit directly on the microphone, and we still have mattifying powders and everything that we're gonna apply on them. So to be honest, they're still getting good service. It's just obviously I'm not a makeup artist. We're not gonna like sit there and put makeup on them, but we can at least make sure there's no shine. We can make sure that um, you know, that that they sound really good with the best mic possible. So obviously, you know what I mean? Like, even at that price, I'm gonna do that. But it's a lot easier when I have a dedicated audio person because I have people that I can bring in, they know how to operate my kit, it makes life easier. It actually is very cost-effective to get a sound guy through me because I already have better sound equipment than most sound people. I just need a dedicated person on it. Because what happens is if one person is doing two tasks, your attention's divided. Yes, and you don't want that. And and again, if the budget isn't there, obviously we'll do it. I can do it. Mario's done it for me. But if if the budget is there, I highly recommend one person just focus on sound, one person, you know, on camera, whatever. Uh, and again, we're talking lower budget projects, obviously. And then same thing with hair and makeup. Somebody's there, dedicated, because you know, they like we are artists. I can look at a skin tone, I can decide lighting, how it needs to be, whatever. Uh same thing with a makeup artist. They see a person's skin tone, they see uh what they need to do. What I'm saying is they're the experts, how to make them look best. Yeah, and especially the the hair and makeup artists who understand video because there's a regular hair and makeup artist, but then there's the person who understands video because a lot of times the makeup doesn't look the best in person, the one that looks best on camera. So I also like the people who understand a little bit on what looks good on camera, right? Because then they know you know how to apply it or whatever. Uh and that that's even better.

Christopher Crompton 1:13:24

Because sometimes I've had where they'll go get hair makeup done themselves and then it'll look the best, especially when they use the highlighter and stuff that they look wet, they look sweaty, and it's like, oh, you the wrong products.

Vipul Bindra 1:13:37

Yeah, because they this is designed for real events or whatever, and we're not doing that. We we need to look nice on camera, right? So, and that's why you want somebody who understands what makeup to use for camera and eat skin tone and blah blah blah. You get the point. They're experts, just hire them, right? Let the makeup artists do their thing. Uh, but most projects, especially locally, I'm talking about their sub, you know, 10, 15k. Hair makeup artists is unfortunately not in the budget, especially I'm trying to do multi-cam, you know. So by the time you account for, you know, cameras, editing, you know, post, you know, pre-production, the budget is gone. Yeah. So uh, but anytime I can, that's why I always add that as an option. Like I add this because then I know for a fact that we can have it. Uh, but on bigger projects, absolutely, yeah. Anything more than 20k a day or whatever, yeah, absolutely. That's not even a you know, option at that point. But those projects are very different, you know, how you bid for them, right? So those ones uh I generally include it because they they understand that's part of what what's needed. That makes sense.

Christopher Crompton 1:14:40

That makes sense, and yeah, that's kind of how I've done it, but I wanted to get your reasoning on why you do it.

Vipul Bindra 1:14:46

Yeah, and and it's okay. Again, if it were at the end of the day, it's just how it works. You know, I have clients, uh, I've talked about this where you know, I call like they call me or whatever, they say we need a video. Here's the budget, end of story, done. It's so simple, like the conversation, because you've had that relationship. Or sometimes they'll explain to me, like, hey, this is what we want to do. Uh what do you think it'd be, you know, even if we worked a few times. Well, I'm like, you tell me, you know, we we did this video, this range, we did this video, where where are we heading? Right, right. And then they can give you an idea. But I'm saying conversations are usually very short, easy, to the point they know what you produce. You're not selling anything, you're trying to just do the most for them, right? In that budget. Versus new clients is very different. That's where I'm like spending a lot of time. Like, so what are you looking for? What have you done? Let me see some reference videos, let me understand what you want before I give you a price point because you know I have no idea what they're wanting. And like you said, they could easily call a student, uh, because they don't know, right?

Christopher Crompton 1:15:43

If you haven't thought about that, having them send you reference videos, yeah.

Vipul Bindra 1:15:46

Because it's it just helps, you know, to know because what because you know, honestly, that'll probably help you charge more. Yeah, no, because if they send me, I've had that happen where somebody, like, for example, okay, I'll tell you real world example. Somebody wanted animated videos. So we're starting a course being animated videos. Like, absolutely, I we we we got great animators here. And then I'll look at the and I was like, send me a reference video, uh, if you have one, you know, or inspiration, something. They sent me a video, and I was like, what's your budget again? We were like 500 a video, and I'm like, Yeah, you're not getting that, you're not even getting remotely close to that. And then I had to like reel get with them. I'm like, hey, why do you even want animated?

Christopher Crompton 1:16:24

Still PNGs on a keyframe.

Vipul Bindra 1:16:26

Yeah, I'm like, no, but but then that's where you can drill down if you're real, want to help them. I was like, why do you even want animated videos? Because you're telling me you want to make a course, right? You're the expert, right, about whatever the subject is. And why aren't you gonna be on camera talking about it? Why do you want animated video course? I I I didn't understand that. I was like, I get simplifying complicated systems through animation that I get, but why aren't you the one speaking on camera? I never understood that, right? Initially, so they're like, yeah, it should be me. I was like, exactly, let's do that, and then we have the budget for that. You know, we combine all that. Let's do that first because you can actually go to market with the course, and we can come back and add the animations later when you actually start making some revenue. So it could be things like that, you know, figuring it out with them.

Christopher Crompton 1:17:16

That's something I'm still working on is having the confidence to tell the client what they need.

Vipul Bindra 1:17:22

Yeah.

Christopher Crompton 1:17:22

Um, because mostly I've been working now is like they tell me what they want. For the most part, I give it to them. I do offer my advice here and there, but I really do need to kind of be help them be more strategic and be like, no, this will actually help you more if you're gonna do it.

Vipul Bindra 1:17:37

And it's okay because I have some clients where they have their own marketing teams, right? Yeah. So I can't really go and tell them what they want, but here's how I do it. So they'll come to me and they'll say, Okay, we need this, right? Like, we need you to make this for us or give us this footage or whatever. And I'll handle it. That's fine, it's part of business. But then at the every time I'm there, I'll throw a little idea. Hey, how about we how about we do this? Have you thought about this for the next time? And you know, it doesn't happen every second. Like I say it and they're like, let's sign the contract. That's kind of how it's been. Yeah. Three to six months later, yeah. They go, you know what? We really want to do what you talked about. Because it's not like you're just trying to, again, if you come from the great the the right intention, I feel like most people will see that because you're generally trying to help their business. Uh, it just may not be in their in their mind. Now you've thrown that what do you call uh that bug, right? Like that for them to like keep thinking about it, and then and then they go maybe a month later, it could be three months later, it could be six months later. But I usually get that call where they're like, oh, I we were thinking about doing this, and sometimes they would present it as their idea too. So crazy. I've had that happen. Sometimes they'll say, Oh, we like what you said, let's do that now. And I'm like, awesome, let's do it. But sometimes they'll say, Hey, we just had a marketing meeting and we thought we would do this type of video. What do you think? And I'm like, absolutely, you guys are geniuses. Let's do this. And I'm like, Yeah, I said that to you six months ago. Right. Uh, but but again, it's not about ego, it's about like, hey, we finally got where what they need. Um, but uh that's why my favorite ones are where they don't have these huge marketing departments. We can work directly with either the marketing manager, CEO, and get things done, like the balls rolling so fast. I don't know, makes life easier for us.

Christopher Crompton 1:19:19

Yeah. I have a question for you.

Niching Down Versus Staying Curious

Vipul Bindra 1:19:21

Okay.

Christopher Crompton 1:19:22

So I I feel that I've reached a crossroads in my business, and I may not have. Yeah. Uh it might just be what I'm perceiving. Um, but so obviously there are clients who have larger budgets and clients who have smaller budgets. And I have been hustling because I'm trying to do all this great work for the larger budget clients while trying to squeeze in the smaller budget projects in between. And what I've noticed is that um, not that the overall work for the larger projects is sacrificed, but I know that it could be better if my time wasn't so divided. But at the same time, um you're losing out on those clients that you know are gonna keep coming back.

Vipul Bindra 1:20:18

Yeah.

Christopher Crompton 1:20:18

Um, and you never know if you could lose a client in the future. So uh could you tell me about what was your experience um navigating that transition yourself? And then do you still navigate that? Is that still something you're saying?

Hiring Help Systems And Soft Skills

Vipul Bindra 1:20:37

I mean, that's it's part of being a business owner, right? Being strategic. Now, yes, here's the right answer. I'll give you very quick, then I'll tell you the real answer. So the right answer is yes, you niche down as much as you can. Like I help businesses with this many employees in this industry, like I help, I don't know, bodybuilders who go in competition and and win prizes. I'm just saying that is the most successful agencies. Like I help lawyers who have 10 to 15 attorneys on staff, you know, or I help uh law offices that have over a hundred teams. We help large law firms with over a hundred um you know attorneys on staff. What I'm saying is the best way to succeed in what we do, I'm talking as an agency owner, as a production company owner, is to quite literally niche down into something really specific and become the expert on that in the whole country, right? That's the right way to approach it. Now, let me tell you what I do. I would get bored, I've said this before, I would get bored out of mind. If I was just working with attorneys all day or doctors all day, or dentists all day, whatever I'm saying, I would I would lose my mind because you know then you're kind of get repetitive. And I'm sure there's some projects that are different, but at the end of the day, if you've mastered this one industry and this one size of that industry, then to me that's boring. As a business, that makes sense. Yeah, so that would be the ideal thing. You sit down and say, who do we want to actually target? Right? And that doesn't mean you don't take other projects for now until you you become the number one, but you should present yourself only as that. Like I only help universities, you know, or public universities of this size or whatever that is. Right. You need to have, and this is the correct business advice I'm saying. You need to be very specific, very niche down to who you help, how you help, and why you help, right? Right. But coming back to reality, I do this because I love this, not because I want to make just money. I could I can go and finance, I can do a lot of things if I just wanted money. So I could not niche down this much because I would lose my mind. So I decided very early on that yes, it's not the best business decision, but I'm just gonna call myself uh a video agency or video production business for brands and businesses. That's my niche, which is sure, I don't help your personal side, but I help your businesses. Now it's very broad. I guess it's a niche, but it's not a niche. And then we prefer to do corporate commercial filmmaking, maybe corporate docs. That's what Bindra does. Now, in one way it's niche, but it's in a way it's very broad. And the reason is I love being able to go one day and work with this industry. Like I'm working with a doctor's office, now I'm working with the law office, now I'm working with a big brand, and you know, I'm working with a car company here, I'm working with a solar company here, right? The industries change. I'm doing an event one day, I'm doing live streaming the other day, and then I'm doing directing a big commercial the next day. I hope that makes sense to me. That's fun. It does, and that keeps the life inciting and very interesting. Now, uh, you know, so I could never niche down, and that's why I know I have a ceiling because I can only do so much work and so much marketing as a broad company. Um, but uh, but that's what I enjoy and that's what I like. So coming back to your answer, it's like you have to decide. You have to sit down and say, Do I want to take on these bigger projects? Does that make me happier? Or do helping these small clients help make me better? You and then you prioritize that. Right. I don't think you should at this stage just not take anything. You know, you should take everything because that's what new companies are. Um again, don't take obviously bad projects. I'm saying take all the good ones, whether small or large budget, but you have to prioritize what is best for you and what you enjoy the most, right? And and and sometimes that is the smaller projects, like I said. Uh and then once you pick that, then that will be like, hey, this is number one. And if you can fit these other in the schedule, then you do, absolutely. And then the other side is do not forget the power of uh white labeling or or bringing other people in. Uh as see, it's different. When you are a DP, you're a freelancer, then you're you are, you know, the work. So you want to do everything, right? And that's how you make money. You're like, okay, I'm booked this day, here, this day, there. But when your production company owners more than you, yeah, and a lot of new company owners don't realize that they're like, I have to be on every set, I have to do every pre-production, I have to do every post-production. That's not the truth. The truth is you will not grow at all or very slowly if you are everything. Right. So the best thing I did was to let go. So first thing was, oh, post-production. I gotta let go. I'm just starting to hide. Initially, I was like, I did some, then you know, then it was all, and then it's like the same thing. Yeah, sometimes uh, you know, like I said, I love being the director, producer, DP, but sometimes projects I'm like, I can't be a DP. Or um, so I bring in other people to DP, or I need more camps, or I need somebody here, or I need somebody to be a project manager on this. Can you produce this? What I'm saying is you never know, or bringing other owner operators in different states if it's a project that I'm like, I can't I need to shoot in five states for this project, right? Which ones am I gonna fly to? Oh, I can touch these two and then these three I can hire somebody local to do it. I hope that makes sense. Or send sometimes it's not even hiring local, send my friend, like as somebody I trust that'll get the vision right. So if you have the budget, what I'm saying is you don't have to do all five. Like, first thought is like, how do I make it to all five? Or how do I do this on my own? And I think that's just the nature of what we do. You just start to tablet. And I'm like, no, you have to slow down and go, what's the best where you can use your time most efficiently? Because you could be using that time to do one of these maybe smaller ones or focus on a bigger one or whatever, where somebody else could be getting this for you. So biggest thing is to start when as you start to grow, is to just let people come in and you know help you basically as needed.

Christopher Crompton 1:26:30

I I feel very similar to how you approach that. I think you say your passion is for video. I think my passion is for storytelling, but you know, I do that through the medium of video and filmmaking. Um, though where my mind goes when you talk about that is well, why don't I niche down, make a bunch more money, hire people to run the business for me, and then I go do whatever my passions are over here with the money that I'm now making.

Vipul Bindra 1:27:02

I mean, you could, but then the thing is the business is probably gonna run to the ground if you don't run it daily. The problem is you're not selling a product. Now, you could do that. A lot of people do that. You know, you can open a coffee shop, train a couple of people, baristas, you and cut around a hire manager and go away, is what I'm saying. You don't need to usually I'm saying again, I'm not business advice, I don't run coffee shops, but I'm saying that type of business, or you you make a product, you know, you make headphones, put them on shelves, find partners, then you kind of you know, you don't have to like every day run it. You have time for your passions. But with that's why I tell with video business, you hopefully are passionate about it because most agencies, uh, you know, you have to run the agency because you are the agency, right? Now, yes, can you bring in a creative director? Can you bring in a staff? Can you automate the whole thing? Absolutely. But then at that point, you need millions of dollars and you need a huge staff, and you need people who are actually passionate. Right. All doable, but it's a lot easier then for those people to start an agency. Right. Because if let's say you have a head, you know, you you would have to find somebody who's really motivated like you to grow the agency to have it running. But then that have the same time be have the personality who doesn't want to run their own agency then. Yeah. Now, yes, there are some people like that, but those are very rare to find. So the hardest part would be finding someone who'll run it like you would passionately. But so so coming back, actually, that's a great thing you bring up. So, what is your passion? What would you rather be doing if not this? You know what?

Christopher Crompton 1:28:36

I thought I had it figured out, and I've gotten to the place where I actually don't know anymore. I don't know anymore. Like I told you, I do love storytelling. I think there's a lot of ways that you can do that. Um so I don't know. I'm I'm I'm re-finding what that is.

Vipul Bindra 1:28:53

So I think that that that's a very good thing, and to say it's okay to not know. Yeah. And maybe that's where you need to go next, is just do keep doing what you're doing until you figure it out. And when you do, that's when that decision needs to be made. Like and but video business, I'm saying, is one of the rare ones where it's hard to run it without you. It can be done. I'm not saying can't be done, but typically I'm saying it's a hands-on business, right? Right. You can automate each project, like you can have uh obviously call me and other people like me. Like I help a lot of people, like the one in we did in Chicago, it's my friend, right? He's like, hey, I need you to come DP for this me. Right. And I helped him, like, hey, hire this person. We need this person, we need this, we need hair and makeup, or whatever, right? So there's people I'm saying who can who can come help you. And I wore his shirt, even though I helped him, you know, kind of put this together. I know, and I don't want to discount what he did. He did obviously found the project, he directed the whole thing, whatever. But I'm saying it's a collaboration, right? You bring the people, or I I helped um Adam, who was on the podcast. You know, he's like, I need this shoot on a farm done, and then and that's going with him. But then he sent me to uh DC last year that I talked about on the podcast with him because he wanted um uh this doc shot, but he couldn't fly. So I went there and I helped him remote produce. Like I I brought him in as a remote producer and I did the whole thing. And then I've done shoots for him where he's not there at all. So the point I'm trying to make is uh that's when you call your friends. Now, would I do that for just anyone? No, obviously my primary income comes from me working directly with end clients, but I'm happy to have friends go. I'm saying be their DP. I'm the owner operator, right? They hire like I do other states. So what I'm saying is there's ways to take on more than what you can handle. Because that's what the agency is, like, it has to be bigger than you. And I like to have full oversight, so I make sure to manage each project, whether small or big. But I don't personally go to every project, you know. Uh I'll I'll sometimes, you know, send someone or hire someone, especially on photography. Like, we also do photo technically. Like, so I don't do photo, but I have enough photographers on demand that somebody wants a photo that I'm just like, hey, you want to do this? This yeah, I've been starting to do that too. Exactly. And I'm helping other friends make more money. It's perfect for me. My clients love it because it's coming from me, they don't want to have different vendors for that. Um, the point I'm trying to make is at the end of the day, it has and again, it doesn't have to be, but usually I'm saying a video production company is bigger than a freelancer, and the best way to manage that is by bringing help. Because as a one person, it's A not gonna be the best agency because you can only do so much, right? You're one human, and then B, uh you have to have help, man. That's just how life is, you know. We can't do this uh the alone. I don't know. I can't. I mean, if you can, then you know you're a superhero, but usually, and and that's the hardest thing, at least for me it is, letting go. But when I do, it's like the best thing ever. Like a lot of times, like even when I have Mario on set, like, hey, um, you know, I need you to just take this camera, like here, take the sound and just operate it. Yeah. Now, you do I am passionate about it? Do I want to go start setting every little thing in there? Yes, but guess what? I then can't look at the bigger picture. I'm trying to be the DP director here and also the producers. I gotta make sure I can look at that bigger picture and then let go because I do trust him and other freelancers that I bring in. And I'm like, then if I hired them, then it's also my job to just step back and let them do their thing.

Christopher Crompton 1:32:28

And uh, that's something that I'm starting to learn now, the importance of systems and processes, so that you can step away in confidence that whoever you put over a certain area is gonna understand what the standard is that they need to meet and how to go about that if they're unclear.

Vipul Bindra 1:32:44

Yeah, exactly. You want to be very careful with who you hire, because especially when you're not there, the biggest thing can be soft skills, which are not even art skills. So, like somebody could be a great camera operator, but if you step away, you don't want somebody saying something silly in front of your clients. I mean, it's okay to be funny, I'm not saying that, but I'm like something um that wouldn't be appropriate. Right. Or um them talking to your client rudely because they don't know who they are, right? They could just start talking, be like, what are you doing there? Why are you sitting there? And then next thing you know, they are the ones who hired the whole production crew. You like because you are the one who's been contacted stuff like that. You want to make sure that you bring in people who are gonna represent, like you said, systems and processes, who understand what we're doing there, why we're there, what's the level of professionalism that you're looking for, or whatever. And that doesn't mean a boring set, you know, you gotta still have fun and enjoy the set. But I'm saying that you don't want to bring people who are gonna ruin your relationships because that's what the key is for a company to succeed, right? Yeah, yeah.

Christopher Crompton 1:33:41

I spent about six to eight hours the other day uh preparing like a document and like uh project set up for like the simplest edit. But I was like, you know what? I need to do this in order to get back what I would have done. And I'm like, even though I spent eight hours for this project and doing this, and now that probably doesn't make sense budget-wise. Um it's important, and if I do it now, I can eventually standardize this across multiple projects and it'll benefit me in the future. We're getting there.

Agency Partnerships And White Label Work

Vipul Bindra 1:34:17

Yeah, and no, and that's very smart, and that's what takes the longest time. Trust me, I I've been doing this six, seven years. I'm still uh trying to, you know, standardize my processes or put some on documents and uh get you know it'd be more efficient or whatever it is. It's a constant thing, right? And that's what makes you a business owner versus a freelancer, right? Being able to build those processes, being able to have consistency, because it shouldn't matter who's coming in your team, uh, they should be able to perform at their best, and they can only when they know what they're doing, right? And that's on you to tell them what they're doing, you know. Right. So uh and and that's why you should be, you make more money because a lot of people got like, you know, I'm a freelancer, I could be a business owner. It's like, yes, as long as you're willing to put in that extra that comes with being a business owner. But I mean, to be real, don't be on hard on yourself. You've only been doing this uh a little over a year. You were you're killing it over there, and you found really good clients. And also once you know that's how it is. Usually, most company business owners, small scale, only have few big clients, and then obviously you'll have smaller clients that come and go or whatever, and then some of that could turn into one of those bigger clients. Uh, but it's it's okay to not have you know lots and lots of I'm saying big projects every day. I mean, if that happens, it's awesome, but it's not normal also either. So don't be hard on yourself. Thank you. I think you should just keep doing what you are doing, which you make great content, you know. And like I said, treating people nice, treating your clients great. That's what it's about, man. And having fun. Are you having fun? I am, I am, yeah. Uh on most projects. Yeah, so those are the ones you want to eliminate from your life. And I'm not joking. Yeah, as a business owner, when you're new, one of the hardest things is to go, I need all this money. I'm living paycheck to paycheck or month to month, like you said. You you that's when it's scary to say no. But that's literally the best thing you can do sometimes for yourself. Because guess what would do? Let's say you're like, I really need this money, right? Obviously, don't be like where you're gonna start or not have food, I'm saying. But let's say you're like, I really need this money, but this project sounds awful. This client feels like not the right fit. I would personally rather say no, yeah. And go back to the table, go now what? Right. And I know it's a pressure, but I work best under pressure. So I would then sit down and be like, okay, now I need the money, but I don't want to work with them. So where do I find the people I want to work with? And to me, that would put the fire under me to go, no, I'm gonna get the person, right? Or whatever I need to do. So, how did you get connected with these agencies? You just work over the years, right? Somebody hires you as a freelancer. So remember, I was a freelancer, so I had a job, but I was a freelancer from 2010 to 2018. So I had eight years of freelance work. So when I became a production company, I had the simplest thing, right? An email, hey, starting this production company, we're gonna have the best of equipment, we're gonna have the best of the rates, and you know, it's me, you know, like come on, let's work. And then, you know, it takes obviously it's not like I sent that email and they were ready to let's go, let's go. And are these local? No, no, they're all over the country. I try I fly everywhere. But I'm saying, even when I started, you know, everyone uh and again I've told the story before, but mainly everyone was like, Oh, you can't do that, or whatever, whatever. And uh funny enough, my first all clients were none of them were old clients, they were brand new clients. I just went out, okay. I'm a I'm a full count time company, now I need to get full contracts. So I just went out and I I closed contracts, and they were they were all decent-sized contracts. I think uh like 30, 40 grand in the first week or whatever we closed. So yeah, I remember you saying that before. Exactly. I'm like, this it's not that complicated. And then agency started to come back slowly. I'm saying that wasn't that was just the introduction, right? Hey, I'm an agency. That doesn't mean, like I said, the next day the phone started ringing. Uh I tell people like it's you have to be realistic about it. But then it was like, hey, by the way, we need this. Yeah. Or hey, we we really it's COVID, you know, uh we need live streaming. And I see you're doing live streaming, and not that many people know what they're they're doing. It's like absolutely, let's do live stream. You know, it's like slowly you you build your way in, you build a trust, and they're like, hey, we really want this, but the client only wants to work with us. Would you would you sign an NDA and you know, work white label? I'm like, duh, yeah, absolutely. I don't care about credit. Yeah. So kind of like that. But so stuff like that. I'm just saying, it's like it's slowly you build a relationship, and then you they realize you can execute. Because to be real, the agency owners are stingy, the truth being. So they'll say, Hey, we want you to do this, we'll give you 50 grand, and you go, absolutely. And then you realize, oh, it costs 50 grand. That's why they were so excited. Give me 50 grand. Right. I got excited because the number was high, and then you know, you don't make any money, but then guess what? They go, Wow, he did it, you know. Uh so you know, that the trust builds. Right. And I'm not saying let people take advantage of you, but I have put myself in crazy situations like that where I took projects where I was like, Oh, I see what they meant. Why they were so excited to give it to me. Because I've had that happen where you know, where you go, wow, I'm so lucky, I'm doing so great. And then like, oh, well, the the numbers seemed high, but you know, the cost was that much. Anyway, so then you you learn from that. So next time you price better and or you become more efficient or whatever. Okay. And then seven years later, you're here. And even now, I'm not saying I'm doing something great. All the advantage I have is just I've done this so long that I have enough people calling me. Like you said, from the video production company side, I usually get emails saying, Hey, we want some video or some project or whatever. So I'm doing that. And then the other side is the freelance side, I still do, where it's like friends like, hey, let's do a commercial here, or I want you to be a DP here. Can you be my gaffer? Or even sound guy, you know. Uh so those roles, then I can go help other people where they can't they get the advantage of having access to this half a million dollars worth of equipment for a to be a real really good deal. And I'm like, hey, I was free those days anyway. My company doesn't shoot every day. So, you know, everyone wins because I'm not doing post, I don't do any post-production. I let Julie handle that, and then uh, you know, so as in like I can go have some easy freelance days where I'm like, oh, I'm happy. Like I shot, I gave you the footage, I'm done. Or I came and I helped your site set get, you know, lit your set, and then I'm done. You're telling me that's awesome. Whether that's bringing gear, sometimes it's not even bringing gear, that's just me showing up. Uh, and and that's the other smaller side of it, right? Yeah, and uh yeah, try to find a balance of it.

Christopher Crompton 1:40:45

Yeah, so I like I said, I do have connections with some agencies in LA and New York, but my thought is like one, they could hire somebody locally, and I think two, um there's some really great talent in LA and New York that far exceed you know what I could accomplish, but you're right on the price points. Like even if I was traveling, I would find a way to do it for a lower budget. So that's something that I hadn't thought.

Networking Lessons From ShareGrid

Vipul Bindra 1:41:12

But also, see, and that's and that's on you, because right now all I hear is they're more talented, they're they're in LA, they're in New York, they why wouldn't they hire me? You know, that's just reeks of and I don't want to put you on the spot, but I'm like, you gotta believe in yourself. You're a talented person with lots of experience, and and and that's you know, again, I hate I uh the the right and I know it's kind of can be foolish, you don't want to be overconfident, but as but you want to be confident, you want to believe in yourself. You have to have that little spark of you know, I'm the best type of thing, you know, because if you don't believe in yourself, then who else is gonna believe in you? That doesn't mean also I'm saying you're in competition. Uh like I tell people, there's enough work to go around that we can all have more than enough work without calling each other competitors. It'd be one thing that the there was not that much work. There's work. Yeah, the only reason you don't have it is because they don't know you or they don't know you exist or your quality of work. You just need to let them know about that. Don't worry about what anyone else is doing, right? And my entire thing is guess what? Your cost of living is not what the cost of living in New York is. Yes, is Orlando expensive? Very, but is it as expensive as Manhattan? No. So you have an advantage. Flights are very cheap. We have direct flights, really cheap flights, and uh ultimately comes down to how good of a director producer you are, you know, and do you fit the um the bill of whatever the project is? And do you have that relationship with them? I would, if I were you, I would reach out to everyone and I would make it a consistent thing. Obviously, don't spam them, but every couple of months you want to follow up, you want to share some uh things with them, ask them about them, uh, and and then just continue, like I said, developing those relationships. And it doesn't have to be those. Uh just continue building relationships. You never know. Like I said, it could be somebody here you hired as a PA. You're literally somebody who's like, hey, I want to learn, man. You're like, sure, come on my set, and you never know. Two years later, they are marketing manager at some fancy company and you're getting lots of work. You have no idea what the future holds. Right. I try to be nice to everyone because you yeah, you never know. And again, I'm not saying do it with that intention, but you never know where it comes. But yes, you have to build those relationships. That's why I tell at least people like look at us. I mean, let's be real. You came here for share grid. I didn't have to say yes to that share grid. Uh I've told this before, and and uh, and again, it's not your fault. You you you saw things you rented, but a lot of times when I get a share grid, I generally like uh sugar, I gotta get these lights out, I gotta uh you know, pack them up, I gotta inspect it's usually just for give it to you, then I gotta wait the next day, then I'm gonna reinspect them, put them back in the vein. I've thought about it multiple times. I'm like, and and and then the thing you have to think is it costs you, I'm pretty sure, way more money, 300, 400 bucks, and then share grid after all the fees and things taken out, insurance taken out, then my they're cut. I probably got 100 bucks. And you know, as running even a video production company for a year, how easy is it to make 100 bucks as in like time-wise, if I spend that much time finding a client, I could make a lot more than 100 bucks, but I still do it because here's the thing I go to these other cities and I need equipment, and where do I find it? Right, usually share grid. I like uh uh getting it from other people, um, and then uh then rental companies. So I feel like rental companies are standard kit versus with owners, you get what you actually need. Sometimes they'll have accessories or whatever that you actually need, you know, um, then than what um a rental house would have. They have a standard package typically, and I'm talking more complicated stuff. Obviously, lights are the easy one. Uh, but in general, what I'm saying is, and and so I do this because I realize that this is not a huge market, and a lot of people need some specific items like a car rig or some weird stands or knuckles or scissor mounts or whatever that most people don't have locally, so I don't mind helping people, but it's as a cost, right? But the advantage is I get to make cool people, like I said, and it's not everyone that comes here and you know we just instantly connect or whatever. I just trying to help them with no intention, but then you know, you meet people like you, you're like, hey, I'm doing this. By the way, I have this client. I'm like, oh, awesome. And I love that, you know, we started having instant business chat, and I was like, Look, uh, here's um, you know, the meetup, right? Come to that, and then it's just you never know. I'm saying something great comes out of that. And then funny enough, one of my really good friends um was from ShareGrid. He just wanted to rent a mic, and I met him just as a share grid person, you know. He's like, I I want to try this mic out, and nobody else has that mic to rent. Uh and I was like, Absolutely. Then I was like, Oh, I also want a recorder because I don't have a recorder good enough to record. So I purposefully added because a lot of stuff on my share grid just added, you know, because people ask, I was like, okay, let me add the recorder for you. So I rented that to him, and then doing that after like a year, it's like, what do you do again? And then you know, you start talking, you're like, Oh, I we should have just hired each other or whatever, right? And then now we work a lot together. So you never know, I'm saying what comes through. And it could be even share grid, it could be another client, it could be another event. And uh, like I said, now look at us, we're having a conversation here, and that's incredible. I'm just happy to know you. Also, you helped me. Uh, if you remember when we did the van shoot initially in January, yeah. So I had built this van and I was like, I wanna, I hate being on camera, but I was like, I want to show it, but I'll show it in a realistic setting. It wouldn't be it'd be very rarely just me pulling all these carts out. So I'm like, it's gonna be in a group setting. So I asked you to come and you were kind enough to come and be in that video. I really appreciate you putting your time into it. That was such a fun day.

Christopher Crompton 1:46:55

It was very fun, and I did not expect. I think I don't know if you planned to do two cameras, or if you were like, well, we just have a second camera, so if somebody wants to pick it up, yeah.

Vipul Bindra 1:47:06

No, I fully you were just ready to help out, you know.

Christopher Crompton 1:47:10

I fully expected there to be like no B Cam footage in the edit, but I saw the edit. I think Mario edited it, right? Yeah, I saw the edit, I was like, okay, okay. Yeah, no, you helped a lot, and that's what I'm saying.

Vipul Bindra 1:47:22

That's what happens when there's no pre-production. Because uh, to be real, I was literally even the day before getting the man ready. Yeah, and and and and I was just like, look, I need this, but I honestly need direction here because it's the opposite side of things, right? It's easy. Like you tell me, let's make this video. I'm like, awesome, I got it. But there you go. Versus, like, I need a video. I'm the same way with my stuff too. Yeah, exactly.

Christopher Crompton 1:47:45

You I'll uh I'll hire people to either concept social media stuff for me or take on that, yeah. Yeah, because it's easier, right? For someone else. So, anyway, at least and you get the experience on the other side. I think that helps you with your client relationships in the future because now you know what it feels like to be on the other side.

Vipul Bindra 1:48:03

Exactly. And so you guys were awesome. Like I said, you you were awesome to come by. Not only did that, you were happy to like pick up a camera, you got some great shots, which Mario used to be at it. Also, um uh who was it? Somebody was directing me. I don't know if it was you, I don't, it's been a while, but any anyway, somebody was uh I was like, somebody direct me because I have no idea what I do. I felt you know, as soon as you put a camera, and that's again learning how to do it. Mario was directing, yeah.

Mario Rangel 1:48:29

Somebody was like, yeah, between everybody within you, me, Emmanuel. I mean also was uh I remember Quinton was there, Quintin, Juan, yeah.

Vipul Bindra 1:48:38

Juan was good there too.

Mario Rangel 1:48:39

Juan was the one with the camera, like shooting with it.

Vipul Bindra 1:48:42

Juan had a camera too. He was awesome. Essentially, yeah, again, you know, it was just like people I know. I'm like, hey, who wants to come hang out and do a couple of a little shoot? And I was amazed by uh who was it? Quentin said it. Somebody said to me, I was like, you got a lot of people here. I was like, look, I just put out a thing, and I'm so again, I'm so grateful for everyone who showed up. But I'm just saying, I didn't know. I didn't know if it was gonna have one people or we're gonna have like a group of people. And we had a huge turnout, and I was so happy. This was like, guys, we gotta go have the video. The video was great, yeah. No, video came out amazing. And that was shout out to you and Mario for the editing. Yeah, and you and everyone else who came out to help. Um, and like I said, it made me feel comfortable because um it took me a little bit of effort to, you know, um be able to be comfortable and talk about what I'm doing, even though it was off the cuff. And um, that kind of I think also sparked the whole YouTube thing that I'm doing. Um, you know, where it was like, let me show you the studio, let me show you the cart, let me show you the audio. Because the because I genuinely want to share, but I also am not the most comfortable in front of camera, but I think I have to do it enough to to get there, right? Right. Uh, because at the end they the way I approach it is like, hey, I've done this a few years now, I stumbled my way through here now. Uh, why can't I help other people not have to do that? If I can save anyone Some headaches, you know. Not that you need my help, but if I could save you a little bit of time here or there, why not? Why wouldn't I do it? You know, at the end of the day, and you never know. Like I said, you were gonna be making that next commercial, you need a DP. It may come back, you know. Not maybe not now, maybe a few years, or you're making a movie. That's true.

Christopher Crompton 1:50:19

I really do want to get into commercials.

Vipul Bindra 1:50:21

Yeah.

Christopher Crompton 1:50:21

Because I feel like you have uh a lot more, well, bigger budgets and you have more say in the storytelling.

Vipul Bindra 1:50:29

It is awesome. I mean, you have to obviously make a pitch deck and all that, you know. Yeah. Uh the other thing is, again, the way I see it, budgets are shrinking. So you have to be very nimble. You know, obviously you want bigger budgets, but the sad part is the budgets are shrinking.

Christopher Crompton 1:50:45

Yeah, I saw I can't remember if it was like a McDonald's commercial or something like that, but it was like 10, 12k for a commercial, which is crazy to think about, yeah.

Vipul Bindra 1:50:55

I mean, I would say the the time of the million-dollar commercials is kind of going away. I mean, they're still done for some Super Bowl stuff, but like most productions are like that 100k or less. They're very nimble, and that's what kind of made my company towards, you know, when when people are like, what are you? I'm like trying to predict. And again, no, I have no, I don't know if I'm correct or not, but I'm predicting that that's where majority of the shoot's gonna be, and I want to be the one who can provide that. I'm like, I want to have the nimble crew, like, hey, if you need grip, lighting, camera, sound in one package, one small van, you know, like yes, that's that's where I fit in. And I that's at least where I see seeing is obviously it's uh still decent sized budgets. I'm not saying 50 grand is no money, but I don't think three years, four years down the low, it's like there'll there'll be tons and tons of half a million dollar commercials. There'll be few and far between, you know, most content is gonna be done at at a more lower price point. Right. Uh so if you're uh you know, if you're gonna you're gonna have the ability to basically, I'm saying, eke out every little thing from that 20k commercial, then you're high chance of being more successful than somebody who's like, oh, 20k is just my director's fee. Right. Sorry. You know, I mean, uh, and then I don't know. I don't know if that happens too often in Orlando. Yeah, not in Orlando, no. But but major productions are not happening in Orlando. So if you want to do commercial, you better get on a plane. Yeah, yeah. You know, is what I'm saying. So uh to me, at least corporate and commercial filmmaking, I don't look at Orlando as my market. I look at United States as my market. Because most of my projects I'm just flying. Uh uh most average projects are in Orlando are like 10k or less. I have, I'm not saying uh I don't have. I'm doing a 50-60 grid project right now in Orlando, so it's it's doable, but I'm saying those are again rare. Most of my big projects are where I'm traveling. Right. Uh, because the client's like somewhere else, like you said, New York, California, or one of the or some weird states too, smaller states like you wouldn't think about because they just you're helping me open my mind. Yeah, you have to get a possibility endless. You gotta, yeah, you gotta look more outside Orlando. You pick a home base, which is good. Yeah, you're right. Orlando's a smaller.

Christopher Crompton 1:53:14

I love the idea of just like you know, emailing past connections I have until one day. And you're right, because there eventually comes up that project that they're like, you know what? I don't feel like there's nobody that I know right now that would happily take this project, but hey, Christopher's been emailing me. Yeah, Christopher's like, oh, you know, you're like giving it away.

Vipul Bindra 1:53:34

For this budget that we don't know how it's gonna happen, but yeah, and that and you already said you know how to make garbage into gold. You lean into what makes you awesome. So now also I know. Let me go add in my catalog. If I ever come somebody gives me garbage footage, I know who to call to make yeah.

Christopher Crompton 1:53:50

No, I'm I'm taking myself away from from post for other people, but I would love to. And I made I made really great money as an editor. That's something that I had to break up with actually. The last editing gig that I did, which was not too long ago, I made 6k for just like three days of editing.

Vipul Bindra 1:54:08

That's not bad, actually, for an editor. Yeah, it's really good.

Christopher Crompton 1:54:11

Pretty good, yeah. It's really good. And I had to be like, um, I think that eventually I can make more money as a video business owner if I give up on the editing side. So that was tough.

Pricing Targets And Next Steps

Vipul Bindra 1:54:25

Yeah. No, I get it. And then that's one of the things you have to let go. And and doesn't mean you can't do your favorite projects, I guess, once in a while, but it just editing takes so much time. That's my thing. If you're trying to run a company, unless you're just running a post-production company, it can be really tough to run a company and edit at the same time. Uh, so before we go, let's talk a little bit about pricing strategies. What uh as after one year, what are you trying to price your projects as? Um, and what's like range? Because I know projects are different. Yeah, they're small, but what range are you trying to be at? How are you what type try how are you trying to sell clients on that value?

Christopher Crompton 1:55:02

Um, at least uh I am still figuring all of that out. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but what I the projects that I am join enjoying right now are ones where I can have more of a career. Okay. Where I can bring on a DP, I can bring on an AC sound, hair and makeup, etc. And so my pricing strategy has become okay, what do I need in order to fulfill those roles? And then what kind of profit margin do I want to make? Is it 20%, is it 30%, 40%, 50%? Um and I'm trying to do that. And so right now that is averaging between 8 to 12k is where that comes out after having that many crew members post-production, saving enough for myself. Um, I'm only working with a couple of clients right now. I'm not even thinking about how to sell to future clients. So that's something that I've been telling myself this summer I'm gonna take some couple weeks off and like actually strategize. Okay, what what is my offer to a potential client instead of clients just coming to me saying, Here's what we need, like what can I offer to like a brand new client? That's something that I have not done yet, and I know it's very important.

Vipul Bindra 1:56:17

Yeah. Um, but we're getting there. You'll get there. But I mean, you're already killing it, and and ever since just even when I met you, uh, you're doing great, and you were obviously doing really great since you started. See, that's the thing about it. You just have to look at the bigger picture and uh kind of keep fine-tuning it until you get better and better and better and better. And that's just like I think with anything, right? Yeah, but so far, uh, why that's why I wanted you here so people can listen from somebody. You were great at something, but you you decided to, you know, step away from it to start just something new, and now look, you're finding success here too. And I think that just shows uh what type of person you are. And as long as I feel like people want to do it, that's the number one thing, the want. And then put in the time and the effort and the energy. It's not that hard. It's the whole point of this, is like, you know, it's it's very doable, it's very, very, very achievable. And uh I like about that is like you didn't even go outside your network. You were already working in the church, you you just found connects there, and you were able to find you where you're making a good living, and not only yourself, you're hiring freelancers, so you're you're contributing to their incomes, um, you know, and uh you're making great products, so clients are probably making money from that, a ton of it. So I think everyone wins, right?

Christopher Crompton 1:57:37

And then uh uh Yeah, well, thank you for one having me, yeah, but two for giving me those information and insights that are so important and things that you've learned that have made you successful, yeah, and being open and honest with sharing that and not trying to hide it behind a paywall or something like that.

Vipul Bindra 1:57:58

We don't sell anything here. You know, that's been my struggle, and I don't know, I've talked about this again. I want to really do like a because you know, to me, cinematography is mostly lighting, and uh a lot of deeps and gaffers don't really understand like deep concepts about lighting. So I want to do a really next level, I'm talking more than basics level of course, and same thing. I was like, I want to do it for free. But then I was like, oh, but I only want to do it in an intimate setting, less than 10 people. And I'm like, how do I limit it to the people who really want to learn? And then the the everyone keeps telling me paywall it, paywall, and I'm like, but I don't want to charge, and that's why I haven't done it. So I'm like, nobody's winning. See, uh, because I was like, as soon as I put a price on it, then I feel like you know, if you can't afford it, then you can't come learn.

Christopher Crompton 1:58:38

Uh so I don't know. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Oh, I think the negative connotation with the paywall is often you're not really getting the value that you're paying for with a lot of these things that are being marketed towards us, but obviously with something, someone like you, you know you're gonna get yeah.

Closing And Future Plans

Vipul Bindra 1:58:53

Well, but then it has to be somebody who knows me. So how many people may not get that opportunity? So that's why currently, at least, this has been the best format where I'm like, hey, look, we're gonna shoot the shit, we're just having fun, and there were, but there's so much golden nuggets that people can get out of this conversation. I mean, already just you and me just talking, right? How much information was in there, you know, um, and uh what not to do, what to do, and how to succeed. Because to be honest, uh, like I said, you have huge value to provide to these people because like you did it, you're already doing it, and you're kind of successful, and you're only gonna keep getting successful with what you're doing. And uh, yeah, this has been awesome. It's always a pleasure talking to you. Yeah, so thanks for coming.

Christopher Crompton 1:59:34

This has been so good. I've learned so much, and hopefully, um, something I shared will help somebody. We created something people can play in the background. I've been all over, not only all over the country. I've lived in LA, New York, Florida, Orlando, um, but I've been in a bunch of different parts of the industry and kind of done a full circle and then now doing it myself. And I'm really enjoying it.

Vipul Bindra 1:59:56

Can't wait to catch up with you in a season or two and see where where you are then, you know. But do you stick with this so you move to something different and maybe one day you know direct a movie like you want to? You never know, right? I think it's gonna come. Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely doable, or or at least help me on my movie. Exactly. I would love to, exactly. Yeah, because I think you you would make, like I said, a great person to to to have on set. Yeah. Uh thank you, Mario, like always, for making this happen. Thank you guys. Yeah, look, we will come up until next week. Just joking. Uh yeah, see you next week. Uh, thank you again, Christopher. It was a pleasure, and until next episode, see you again. It's been Studio B Sessions with me, Bendra.