We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrea DeBrito a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea, appreciate you joining us today. Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.

My business is based on the principal that limited time and resources can be creatively advantageous if applied to a project strategically. I developed a production model that enables a small team to produce cinematic content on a micro-budget. This model grew out of a challenging opportunity that presented itself several years ago to deliver elevated visuals across multiple tv shows at once without compromising production value. After assessing the budget and schedule, I suggested a method that allowed for visual continuity across all episodes and organized the workflow to maximize resources across the board. This model has allowed the company to deliver high quality content for almost 10 years. After successfully applying this method to television, I was able to transfer it to a documentary feature with similar results. At it’s core this method identifies tentpole scenes and condenses them into as few locations as possible. The remaining scenes are reconceptualized then retrofit into the principal locations.

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.

I began as a post production assistant for a TV production company doing deliverables for a series. From there I moved onto producing and directing a 2nd unit that shot animated scenes with a DSLR camera. Over the course of almost twenty years I have become a producer/director working often in the true crime genre. My clients hire me primarily because I encompass two core roles in one – I produce all the shoots from the ground up as well as go on set a direct all the scenes. As the company I worked for grew, and more series were picked up, I was tasked with trying to replicate my pre production prep across multiple shows, sometimes at once. This naturally gave me a need to systematize my process so I could move faster and more efficiently from show to show and sometimes even hire and train another director to apply my method for the same client. I think people are most impressed when they see my team and I in action. We work methodically and quickly while still retaining very high end quality content. I’m also proud that I have cultivated a healthy work environment where creative collaboration can thrive.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I feel like resilience comes from nothing but relentless trial and error. Failing is part of the journey. It’s something I have had to embrace in such a high-stakes, fast-paced industry. Finding innovation is a layered and individual process. For me it was repeating a similar process so many times over again that I realized if I could somehow centralize and organize information, it would benefit me and the entire team and free up loads of time better spent on creative. I didn’t have to be starting from scratch each time we started a new episode. So I pre-built templates that allowed me and my team better communication while minimizing room for error. Suddenly, no project became too daunting a task to break down into more manageable components. It was an exhausting process in the beginning to build the infrastructure but I’m glad I stuck with it to see it take root.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to see my production method applied on a larger scale. I believe this model will thrive is difficult times when funding resources are limited but the demand for compelling content is still there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://adbpictures.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreaadebrito/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-debrito-090177106/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChJshOkJcpNFrh0ioGlkTFg

Image Credits

Rahfee Wormley.