We caught up with the brilliant and insightful d5 Pictures a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, d5 Pictures thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

d5 was born out of not knowing what to do in the year of the pandemic; we weren’t going to school in person, we were stuck in our parents’ houses, and we were all hungry to make something creative.

So, we started a production company, renting a duplex with a hole in the ceiling in Columbus, Ohio, a city with a small but budding independent film scene, and began our journey in freelance work while simultaneously developing our artistic voices through narrative passion projects.

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.

We’re an independent film production company and creative collective of four filmmakers; we’re genre-agnostic and client-based, making anything from indie rock music videos to surreal short films.

Our goal, regardless of project, is to imbue a sense of narrative direction and thematic identity into each piece we make — everything should feel like it has a personality and voice. In addition, we believe form should follow content, whether that’s cinematography, editing, or sound design, every element should service the story.

Lastly, we subscribe to the philosophy of the scrappy, meaning, we aim to make a lot with a little, using our resources to the fullest extent. We’ve spent a lot of time owning one or two lights, only having access to cheap lenses, and making things for $0, so when we do have a larger budget on projects, we spend every single cent as efficiently as possible.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

It sounds like it should be the opposite, but the majority of our job as professional “artists” in the film industry is not creative. It’s a lot of entrepreneurship, a lot of business management, a lot of client reach out, and a lot of numbers.

As much as we’d like to preserve the feeling of being kids in the backyard making movies with a camcorder, the real world calls for laborious paperwork. There’s certainly a part of filmmaking that’s free expression and pure creativity, but how you present and market yourself in a professional setting is essential — that can be a rude wake up call for young artists.

Any advice for managing a team?

It sounds simple, but the most important part of being any sort of creative team, collective, or group of collaborators is to just be friends, appreciating each other beyond the title of “filmmaker” or “creative.” We’re just human beings that happen to have similar interests in making things.

d5 was born out of just being a group of friends that made movies together, and those are roots we try not to forget.

Contact Info:

• Website: d5pictures.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/d5pictures
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/d5pictures
• Youtube: youtube.com/@d5Pictures