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

Michael, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One the greatest projects I’ve worked on was actually a short documentary I helped my good buddy Reiss complete for his senior year project. We were both in a documentary film BFA program together. We were at The Livery in Benton Harbor one Friday night were we met a band. I’ll keep their names out of it because this project ended poorly but I still consider them friends. After the show we asked them if we could come film the next show, just to practice filming something outside of school. Well a couple shows later we decide to bring up the idea of filming a short documentary on them and life on tour. We traveled all over Michigan with them filming and that’s when I first started to pick up concert photography. At this point the only time I picked up a camera was for my intro to photography class I was required to take. This documentary was special, even through the rough patches of making it, ie directive conflicts, loved ones leaving, myself moving away, but it allowed me to go all in on something I wanted to be doing with my life. It was a necessary stepping stone to personal growth, it gave me a “steady platform” to experiment and find my video and photo style, but most importantly through this documentary I was able to expand my client base to the point I was able to move to Grand Rapids to work with musicians and now more recently move to Detroit and cut back my client base where I’m now working for a handful of bands that love and respect my work.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Originally I wanted to go into the NFL and do photo or video work for them. But right after I got out of school for Documentary Film I started working with that band and was able to grow my client base from there. I was able to move to Grand Rapids and then more recently to Detroit and even scale back to working with a handful of bands.

What I provide for event coverage/festivals/concerts really depends on the clients and what they want. I’ve done everything from a short 40 second social media highlight clip, to filming a full song for a music video to even doing multicam full set coverage.
One of the things that sets me apart and makes me believe I’m one of the top concert videographers/photographers is that I basically become an extra member of the band. I’ll shoot from the first note until the band is back in the van loaded up. It’s one of the reasons I don’t work for venues because I’m not following their silly 3 song rule. I’m going to be on stage with the band getting the cool shots and angles but l I’ll also be in the crowd making them feel as much of a part of the show as I am. I’ll be in the van for 7 hours sometimes or dying in 95° heat at some festival and clients seeing that level of dedication I feel opens them up a lot more to the camera on stage. I believe this is what sets me apart from other videographers/photographers, and makes me one of the top in Michigan. Especially in house photographers that show up, shoot for three songs then bounce. I’m going to be running around making sure my client looks super cool and I’ll be just as sweaty at the end of the show as they are.

I think what I’m most proud of is the ability to make something out of nothing. I was just in Austin this past March for SXSW covering the Michigan County Hop & Roll Showcase. Thinking of just do a short recap video and photos. I was actually able to make a 10 minute documentary for Louie Lee and his showcases and have a longer 30 minute non narrative doc coming soon that will hopefully be screened at venues around Detroit.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Honestly this is probably not a great way to start out, or maybe it is and I went the wrong way with it but I just got an Amazon credit card, bought my camera and a lens and slowly paid it off. Being in video and photo I can’t just start out and say, I have a degree it will cost you $1000. I had to slowly start off by doing some free shows until I was able to prove my worth. I bought the LUMIX GH5 when it first came out and I’m still using it today. It’s a work horse of a camera.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth. I’ve never advertised myself, and I rarely get any hits on social media. Working with musicians there are usually always other musicians in the crowd and they either come directly to me or wait to see what I do at the show then hit me up later. Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys I got as a client through working with other Grand Rapids bands, Corey Dakota I picked through working with Gunnar, Louie Lee I picked up from working with a man named Yorg, which I met through my buddy Nick that I film with. So everything is just “oh I know a guy!”     

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/mikeyoungmedia
• Youtube: YouTube.com/mikeyoungmedia

Image Credits
Yorg Kerasiotis for the photo of myself.