Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erica Rowe. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Erica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Talk to us about building a team – did you hire quickly, how’d you recruit the first few team members? Any interesting lessons?

SHRUG Productions is a production company, so for us it works a bit differently than your usual run-of-the-mill hiring process.

When we first decided to pursue making short films together, it was a core group of about 5 of us. As time has gone on, our core group has gone down to 3, but in the process we’ve accrued over a dozen crew members that we consider to be vital to every production.

For most of our productions, we have returning crew (who we basically can’t live without, at this point), and we usually end up with a few new faces. Some are wonderful and work out beautifully, while others prove to be incompatible. For any new crew, our process usually starts with someone expressing interest in joining us, or we send out an ad for a specific role (usually through word of mouth or social media), and we follow up with a phone conversation to get a feel for them. And we progress from there. As I said, sometimes it works out well, while other times it really doesn’t. I think you have to take a chance on a person to really know.

Erica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

SHRUG Productions is a production company working out of the DMV area. We generally make short films, usually (but not limited to) comedies, and always try to give it an emotional twist of some kind. I think that’s part of what sets us apart – the way we craft our stories is very “Shrug”.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

So the core members of SHRUG all met at a film camp. We were all staff members, and every year we all couldn’t wait for those 2 weeks of camp to come around so we could see each other and have fun being creative together. One year we all had an epiphany – it was ridiculous that we waited for camp each year to see each other. So we took the next step and started having creative meetings about what sorts of films we could create. It just naturally evolved from there.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Each of us in SHRUG have our own reasons for wanting to create films and our own goals we strive for. And I think that’s why we work so well together as creatives. We each bring something different to the table. For me, I consider myself a storyteller more than anything, so when I sit in a theater of strangers who watch and react to something I created and I hear their reactions, it’s an incredible feeling. You can’t help but feel both accomplished and humbled.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ericarowe.com
• Instagram: @shrugproductions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shrugproductions
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shrugproductions1266

Image Credits

Daniel Sadler, Erica Rowe, Wyatt Unger, Maya Elby, Donovan Randolph, Brian Booker