We were lucky to catch up with Andrew Shepherd recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Andrew thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

The overall structure of my brand, Lost Fox Creative, differs from the traditional format and process of commercial production, in that I’m a swiss army knife creator, with equal parts experience in filming, photographing, directing, producing, editing, and strategically distributing media across social channels. As the sole employee of my brand, it’s fallen on me to streamline my services and provide all I can for clients in the most efficient manner, while matching if not exceeding the quality of larger productions consisting of 10+ crew members, all with their own respective specialities and roles. Through this flexibility and lower overhead, I belong to an outlier crowd of solo creators to specialize in many aspects of the production process, rather than just one. This can be alienating in many ways as you’re always working alone. It also can be difficult to pitch yourself to clients and be taken as seriously as larger production agencies or crew sizes, and your constantly marketing yourself while producing projects for clients. However, the complete ownership of creative and direct line to the client helps form an end-result that matches lower budgets, remains flexible to changing conditions and factors, and demonstrates that high-quality commercial work doesn’t always require large-scale crews/budgets.

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’ve characterized myself as a “roaming filmmaker” on my social media accounts since the beginning of my career in this industry, and that still stands as the most accurate description of my services. I’ve traveled across the country (and globe on a few cases) to document narratives through videography and photography, and work with clients in a wide-range of industries to document their stories and deliver them in a strategic manner to their audiences. Taking time to document moments along the way, my style of filmmaking focuses on capturing candid scenes with minimal direction, but taking lead when needed to benefit the purpose of the project. Working with clients and remaining flexible as the sole owner/employee of my production services allows projects to adapt to what’s needed with little to no notice, and remain close to the core goal of the project, as I have a hand in all aspects of the project along the way.

I’m proud to have specialized in many different trades in my craft throughout the past decade, including producing, directing, filming, photographing, editing, distributing, and managing the strategy of projects throughout the years. There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing both a client happy with their branding and a receptive audience to those projects, and having a role in that process is what fuels me to keep honing my craft and growing my skillset to find my moments to document and greater narratives to share.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being in this industry and having this career, is the emotional responses to projects I’m a part of. For the times I’ve shared pieces of my work with others and witnessed an emotional reaction to it reminds me that human connection through empathy is something I’ve always attempted to capture through my work. This feeling of relatability we have when viewing visual media is one of the strongest effects strategic marketing is capable of, and utilizing that tool for good is my mission when working in the commercial space.

Outside of my commercial work, that same emotional response is my main goal when creating projects; never letting it drive the narrative or sacrificing the integrity of the story just for a quick or fabricated reaction, but rather seeking the genuine moments throughout interviews or scenes, and taking care to convey those factors through my editing.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

A goal I’ve set for myself throughout my creative journey (aside from sharing genuine moments and personable stories) is showing both clients and those with more traditional mindsets in our industry that there’s a healthy balance between embracing new practices and old. In simpler terms; I want those on both the creative and client side of this industry to see that massive crew sizes and bloated budgets are no longer required to make impactful and high-quality productions. A solo filmmaker can do nearly anything they set out to do, and can remain more agile throughout the process with the client along the way.

I hope for clients to realize this sooner than later, and begin to place their trust in these multi-talented individuals rather than relying on oversized agencies for their projects, just in the interest of appearances for what a “traditional” commercial shoot should look like.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lostfoxcreative.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostfoxcreative
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewshepherdkc/
• Youtube: https://vimeo.com/lostfoxcreative

Image Credits
All images belong to (Andrew Shepherd) of Lost Fox Creative