We were lucky to catch up with Abigail Tuano recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Abigail thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

So Life Films came from an encounter I had in 2017. I was at church and I was listening to this preaching where my Pastor was saying “The youth need to have multiple sources of income” and immediately I had this vision of different businesses and Life Films was one of them. Everything I did I wanted to do it to glorify God so when I kept thinking of the name of the business I remembered that God equals Life and Films was something I would love to produce one day. Wedding Films, Baby Showers, Graduations and just capturing Life’s special moments along the way and that is how Life Films was born. The next few months and years was pretty fun because I remember being in college and having this dream of building my studio and long behold a few years later I got the chance to build my dream studio. Getting ring lights and cameras, investing any money I got into buying a laptop and tripods just to sustain this business. I decided to launch Life Films on April 2017 and didn’t get much traction until really putting myself out there and now I get booked to do weddings, graduations, baby showers and so much more. I think the most beautiful things about the events are the moments that are captured so by me being able to capture the events in front of me in real time is so amazing.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Abigail Tuano I am the CEO of Life Films and I got into my business by being someone who didn’t want to stay in the 9 to 5 but to be able to build something for myself. The services that I provide is anything videography and photography related. So if you need family portraits done, headshots, weddings, graduations, start up business commercials and so much more I am your girl!

What I believe sets me apart from others is the passion that comes with the photography. I believe anyone can pick up a camera and take a photo or take a video and post it on social media but when it becomes about the client and you’re able to capture that one specific moment that changes everything is what inspires me to keep on going.

I am the most proud of this series I got to do called Mighty 90 where it was 36 videos of 1 hour classes where I got to shoot, create and edit all of it to be and be able to do it in the course of 3 months while working a full-time job as well as hiring Joseline Donoso to help me edit as well.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A fun story that I get to share would be to ALWAYS have a deposit when working with clients because you will never know when you could get scammed. The year was 2018 and I was a young girl in her mid 20s about to graduate from college when I met my classmate’s friend who needed a photoshoot and video for their music career. I took the opportunity to gain exposure and of course get paid so I decided to take the shoot. Their call time was 11pm – 4/5am in the morning so I remember driving about an hour from my house to this abandoned location to start the shoot. The place reeked with smoke however, I got to shooting. 5 1/2 hours later I tell my client we’re good to go and then I left. He asked me if he can give me half of the money now and half of it later but my nieve self said “no I’ll get paid in full at the end.” So I turned in the photos and the videos and never got paid. For 3 1/2 months I would contact my client but then they ghosted me and changed locations so I didn’t have access to them until 4 months when they only paid me the first half but by then I was already getting more shoots so it wasn’t about the money anymore.

So from then on I always have a deposit when dealing with clients.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I needed to fund my business and I actually got my first camera sown / given to me by someone very close to me that believed in me and my business. It means a lot that she believes in me and my growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://abigailtuano.wixsite.com/lifefilms
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/life_films_/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PZpQJtaKqgWtYeGkUkTeg

Image Credits
Picture Credits: Life Films @Life_Films_