Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brandon Burket. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Brandon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I have been able to earn a full-time living from working in the industry I’m in, which is the film production and content development industry. From a young age, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mind, specifically when it comes to anything involving a camera. I attended film school at the Liberty University Zaki Gordon Center for Cinematic Arts, marrying my wife between my junior and senior year. After graduating, I wanted to jump right into freelance work. I had been working for $11 an hour as a porter at a car dealership throughout college where I would basically park people’s cars coming in for service. About two months after film school, one of my classmates asked me to mix sound for her short film/pilot episode for a series she wanted to make. I accepted her offer for no money, besides a little bit for gear rental since I had a few lights and other miscellaneous items she could use to make the film. At that time, I decided to quit my day job at the car dealership and jump right into the world of freelance. A month later, I got my first paid gig for $250/day for 3 days mixing sound for a short film. I got that job from a man who has his own production company and was looking for a sound mixer. He had a connection to the film school I attended and reached out to my professor who recommended me. Since then, I’ve been hired back multiple times from the same man and we’ve had a blast on every job!
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 am a freelance sound mixer for film, tv, and commercials, and I also run a production company alongside my wife. As a freelancer in the sound field, I’ve been blessed to have worked on 4 feature films, 7 tv shows, many commercials, documentaries, and counting. When it comes to the production company my wife and I run, we have been able to work with and serve the biotech industry, non-profit organizations, small and family or veteran owned businesses, churches, and more. We provide full service video production to our clients, which means we handle everything from conception to execution and final delivery. We really don’t have a niche at the moment. Whatever the client needs, we make it happen whether its a promotional video for a medical procedure, a product and services overview video, a brand film, or an orientation video for new employees at a company. My wife is also an amazing photographer and does product photography, event coverage, business headshots, and family/senior sessions. What I think sets us apart from similar companies is when you hire us you get two for one, me and my wife, not just one person. We love working together and make a great team. She has all the creative vision and energy to come up with awesome concepts, and I have the technical skill and logistical mind to execute those ideas. I’m proud of the work we have done and am looking forward to the ideas we will come up with and the clients we will serve next!
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
This is an interesting question because we did not start off the way most business do, and I think most people in the film industry would say the same thing. We didn’t do a traditional business loan to buy everything we needed to get started. It was and still is a slow and gradual process. Personally, I have always been good with saving my money for something big, and that came in handy when I bought our first professional grade camera in 2021. That purchase was $2,500 and was the first step in presenting ourselves as a serious and professional company. There were odds and ends I had like cheap lights, a standard microphone and audio recorder and other basic things you need to make a decent video. As my freelance sound work became more frequent, I was able to buy more professional sound gear that helped me get more high paying sound gigs which equipped me to buy higher ends lights, lenses, necessary accessories, and upgrade existing equipment to a more professional level. Right now I think we have about $40,000 invested in equipment. We are at a point where we can produce high end content with what we own, and anything we buy now is basically just nice-to-haves or something very specialized for a specific purpose.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Word of mouth has been the best source of new clients for us. I don’t think we have had a single client who just found us online or reached out to us without a prior introduction. Handing out business cards, asking previous clients to recommend us if they have an opportunity, and constantly bringing up what we do in conversation are all things we do to get more work. I’m sure we could be doing more such as making a better website, buying ads, and increasing social media presence, but we simply just haven’t taken the time to do so yet. We do have an 18 month old daughter at the time I’m writing this, so she is a big priority for us that can sometimes take away time from growing the business, which honestly is probably a good thing! It’s important to keep a healthy life-work balance, especially in the production world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.headandheartstudios.com
- Instagram: @headandheartstudios and @brandonaustinburket
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/headandheartstudios
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/headandheartstudios/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HeadandHeartStudios
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/@BrandonBurket
Image Credits
Paul Yun
Rebecca Christian