We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dalton Okolo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dalton below.

Dalton, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

1108 spawned out of a growing want to create and distribute a variety of media in an empirical fashion. Throughout my professional career I’ve been afforded the ability to work in every part of the media production process – from conception, to screenplay, to shooting, to editing and finally archival, I’ve gotten to do it all. Ultimately, in January of 2021, I decided to try and consolidate these skillsets into the broader package of a full-service media production boutique – in comes 1108.

My first year was really just spent building a portfolio, doing a ton of pro bono work while also spending my own capital to produce original narrative content. As time went on I began to slowly build out a client list while also gaining more and more experience on film sets. The second year (2022) we begin to pull in some small-business clients while growing our production capabilities through further experience on larger cinematic projects. In 2023 we continued this trend while keeping an eye focused towards building a sustainable business model and worthwhile professional relationships. We’re now at the point where, I believe, 1108 has established a standard of fidelity that our clients and viewers can expect from our work, while also creating room for us to continuously iterate on our processes.

Dalton, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Back in the heart of pandemic-2020, a friend and I tried to make this short about a normal guy who goes from flippant to paranoid about the virus while isolated in his house – it was going to be called ‘Asymptomatic’. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens when you first try storytelling, we were a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work a film takes to craft and never finished the project. But there was something there. By the next fall, I had formed my production company, 1108 LLC, and had produced ‘Missing You’, an award-nominated short about political apathy in times of mass civil engagement. The following summer, with a cast and crew of over 40 people, we produced the award-winning pulpy, crime-drama, ‘She’s Mine Now’.

I think the most exciting thing about 1108 isn’t just the ability to tell original narrative content but it’s flexibility to be a tool for other creatives and corporate clientele. Throughout the time I was making the aforementioned films I was also working on smaller productions that allowed me to build a network and sharpen my skillset. My hope is to grow the company into a DMV-based media production boutique that people feel is a worthwhile collaborator and originator of creative work.

Have you ever had to pivot?

For me, starting and leading a business was in and of itself a career and life pivot. Before this I worked almost exclusively in supporting capacities, contributing to a collective goal but never leading any part of the end-product’s lifecycle. Starting 1108 gave me the opportunity to continue participating on the same media projects I always had, but this time I was spearheading them. With that came a ton of setbacks, long nights and long-term lessons as I was truly green in understanding the delineation between operations and operational oversight. I’ve still got a long way to go, but I wouldn’t change this pivot or ensuing screw ups along the way as they’re part of the journey and, have provided me room to grow.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Delegation. If you’re running a production you need to be aware of not only your strengths but also your bandwidth. Thinking that you can handle every part of a shoot is a recipe for disaster and negates the opportunity to network with talented professionals. So much of my working knowledge has been built by collaborating with the various craftsmen that I’ve brought in to help me execute on a vision. On top of that knowledge I’ve gained an understanding of how to calibrate my abilities and the necessary contributions of those around me to meet the demands of each production.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.1108media.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1108media/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/1108media
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMLgpjMsBphdijVA1mE8zlQ

Image Credits
All image credits: “1108 Media”