We recently connected with Gage Hingeley and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Gage, thanks for joining us today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

As a creative, it’s very important to surround yourself with people who inspire you to be your best. I wouldn’t say I have ever had one specific hero. I have an entire network of people I really look up to. Each and every one of them has taught me so much about the film industry and how to run a business. Within the production crew, I have learned great information from Production Assistants all the way up to Directors. Early on, I wanted to work in every role within the crew. By doing that, I was able to have a better understanding of each person’s role and how they contribute to a successful crew on set. At the end of the day, it’s not one person executing the job. It’s an entire team of people who are really good at what they do. There are hero lessons to learn from each and every one of them.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Cameras have always been a huge part of my life since my teenage years. My first camera was a Canon 60D around the age of 14. Growing up an avid surfer, I naturally fell into filming my friends in the ocean. Over the course of a few years, my craft led me to work with professional surfers around the world.

Around the age of 20, I realized to continue to progress I needed to be working with a crew instead of filming as a one-man band in the surf industry. Through some of my surf contacts, I was able to gain some leads to the commercial industry in LA.

I started off as a production assistant and camera operator and quickly realized the commercial industry was a completely different world. From the set language to the camera tech, it was a new beast. The surf industry taught me to think creatively but it didn’t teach me about production on a larger scale. The feeling of being uncomfortable on set was a clear indicator of an environment I could learn from.

Over the course of a few years within the commercial industry, I have been able to learn from many projects and creatives to expand my skillset into what it is today. I now focus on Directing and Director of Photography work. While continuing with my freelance work, I have now created A Collective Outwest, a production company based out of San Diego, CA.

A Collective Outwest creates commercials and short documentaries for clients within the sports and outdoor world. We are a band of creatives who blend a passion for creating with years of experience producing commercial content. The website will launch in September of this year. You can see some of our current work for clients on my personal website in the meantime.

The idea of creating a production company was born to bring my network of creatives together to produce and shoot story-driven content. Every brand has a driving force that propels them forward. We want to collaborate with these brands to give them an opportunity to share their story.

My favorite quote is “The creative adult is the child that has survived” by Ursula K. Le Guin. Our professional expertise and skillset are driven by the same excitement we all started with when we were kids filming with our friends.

We love the process. Part of the process of creating compelling commercials is having an absolute understanding of our clients and their brand. We’d love to work with you on sharing your next story!

Any advice for managing a team?

One of the best pieces of advice for managing a successful team is to leave your ego at home. Creatives do their best when they feel they are in a positive environment and their skillset is needed for the project. When an ego is introduced, it starts to make people feel they are no longer needed and their contribution isn’t as important.

I always strive to have a positive and fun work environment. Even when times get stressful on set, it’s important to maintain a calm composure because your vibe will set the tone for the entire crew. A good vibe on set makes the day go by so much smoother.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One of my favorite stories to look back on was from my high school days. I wanted to start selling some photography prints but I wanted to specifically target all of the high-end homes on our San Diego coastline. I had a contact with a helicopter pilot and had the idea to shoot aerials of a bunch of waterfront properties.

We flew the coast and I took aerial images of about 50 key homes in Del Mar and 20 homes at La Jolla Shores. The images turned out really beautiful. The images highlighted each home and you could see the sand, waves, and surfers right in front of their properties.

For each of those individual homes, I created and mailed a custom flyer offering the sale of the aerial photograph. The flyer had a mock-up of their personalized image hanging in a beautiful living room to give them a representation of what the print would look like.

After sending out all of the flyers, I waited a couple of weeks with no responses. One day after coming home from school, I had 50 of the 70 flyers I had sent out back in my mailbox. What I didn’t realize was the homes in Del Mar were a part of an HOA that did not accept “spam” mail.

The process of capturing the image, editing the image into the personalized flyer, verifying the right address in google earth with the corresponding aerial image, then sending it out was a painstaking process. To have more than half of the mail come back was a total letdown and what felt like a waste of time.

After feeling defeated for a couple of weeks, I received a call from a homeowner at one of the La Jolla Shores properties. He said he loved the image and he wanted a print as big as possible for his living room. He ended up purchasing a 40″x60″ canvas and it made it all worth my time.

Delivering the print to him felt like a major success. It also taught me the process of creative thinking and turning an idea into a sale.

I will never forget the feeling of the sale. It taught me that resilience can be rewarded with success and I think it’s something we all chase as entrepreneurs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gagehingeley.com & www.acollectiveoutwest.com
• Instagram: @gagehingeley
• Other: To see one of our most recent films, Sea To Sculpt, visit www.gagehingeley.com/sea-to-sculpt