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

Hi Damian, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

I’m a working Director/Cinematographer in the Film Industry. I’ve been at it for about a decade now, and I’ve had my hands in a lot of different pots. (I believe this is a really important part of the process early on if you end up sticking with a creative career like this long-term.) This work is seemingly very random, and I’ll tell you a few highlights to give you an idea of what I mean – I’ve shot over 18 short films and a feature film, I’ve been a grip on a couple of local union feature films, I’m a member of a specialty unit that does arm car work (car commercials), high speed tabletop work (liquids and products for large brands), and general commercial work on location, I shot a documentary for Build a Bear Workshop with Mike Tyson, I’ve been around the country shooting events and commercials for the Japanese Government/Kobe Beef, and I’ve directed over 1000 interviews already in my career.

Up until a couple of years ago, I would have classified myself as “jack of all trades, master of none” and I still take on a lot of random work on the freelance side. To be honest, I enjoy the variety – it gives me a high to be on a large pharma commercial set one day, to a micro-documentary set the day after, and then flying across the country for a social media piece the day after that (literally my week last week). But, as I’ve approached a decade of doing “this” (whatever that is), I’ve started to feel the desire to build something of my own.

Early on, I invested a lot of money in equipment and education, and have been able to use those investments to excel my career faster than the average filmmaker. I didn’t go to film school, I went to business school. And I wouldn’t say it helped me at all, but I mention it because I have always been entrepreneurial-minded. I’ve always been interested in business and finance and how the economy works, really because it’s a reflection of how the world works. I think this focus has always given me a leg up in a way, because so many of my peers are focused on the creativity that is required for film (the process), and I’ve always been able to speak the language of the client and see things from their point of view (the end goal). I’ve also never felt much ego or pride in the work I do, and as I’ve worked on bigger jobs and seen how much ego people carry into the work they do, I’ve actively worked to avoid ending up like that.

All this context is meant to paint a picture of my perspective of this industry. Since I can look ahead, see things from a business mindset, and I don’t care much about the clout, I’ve been actively looking for a niche to carve into so I can grow a small production company. I wanted to look at a niche that also didn’t care about ego, didn’t require massive budgets (the bloat I’ve seen on large commercials is ridiculous) and provided enough variety that it would keep me interested long-term. Earlier this year, I finally found it – Non-Profit work. My background in almost every kind of storytelling means I have a really diverse toolkit to pull from. I built my product around the idea that I wanted to create “80% of the quality on 10% of the cost” because that’s the direction I see the industry going. The added benefit of a docu-style approach means that it’s future-proof – we’ll always need to film real people and their real stories to create that empathetic connection that Non-Profits need from their donors.

So, what do I do differently from the industry standard? I deliver a product that’s 80% of the quality on 10% of the budget. I roll in and film for 1 day, on ARRI Cinema Cameras, with a small team (Gaffer, Assistant Camera, and Sound) and focus on story above all else. My clients LOVE the videos we make, and the budgets we create them with. All because I put aside my ego and built a product around the end goal, not the process.

Damian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Director and Cinematographer, and Founder of Heart Brand Stories in Portland, Oregon – I specialize in making compelling fundraising videos for Non-Profits. My goal is to build Heart into the number one nonprofit production company in the nation.

We focus on a very specific kind of video in a very specific niche, which allows us to solve a specific problem and speak to the client in a very direct way through networking. Nonprofits want MORE donors, and they want those donors to give MORE dollars. So, we solve that problem.

Our approach is to provide a product that looks better than 90% of nonprofit videos out there while staying nimble with the budget and process.

Have you ever had to pivot?

What finally pushed me over the edge from a freelance Director of Photography to building Heart Brand Stories was August 2023. I had about $30K projected in “confirmed” jobs for the month, and within two weeks, every single prospect “pushed”. (That’s industry lingo for cancelling a project). As a freelancer, unless you establish a contract ahead of time, you aren’t entitled to any compensation for dates that you hold for a project if the project cancels. Why not just have contracts for everything? It’s another hoop for a client to jump through, and with 50 hungry freelancers at your heels ready to take that job, you want to create as few hoops as possible for a client to book you.

This loss of income put us in a precarious position, and I finally decided I was sick of the inconsistency and wanted to build something of my own.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Anytime someone asks me for advice these days, I just say meet as many people as possible. At the end of the day, your job as a freelancer is getting the job. You certainly have to deliver, but there are far more people who CAN deliver that aren’t working because no one knows about them than the inverse. Plus, if you take something that’s over your head, you can always hire a team that knows more than you to help support you and fill in the gaps.

Contact Info:

• Website: damianbyington.com, heartbrandstories.com
• Instagram: @damianbyington
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damian-byington-1830042b4/

Image Credits

Scott Gaede, Evan Engstrom, Dillon Vibes