Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack Hummel.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Jack Hummel, and I started Pillo Productions back when I was in highschool. The Pillo we have today wouldn’t be possible without my business partner and co-owner Carlos Avitiuh (Avitiuh on IG), as well as our gaffer and drone operator Colton Smith (coltonnssmith on IG), our photographer and production manager Marah Ranger (marahshootsfilm on IG), and our Graphic Designer AJ owner of Bad Apples Market (apples_market on IG). Together we started from humble beginnings to all now working as a unit to produce the highest quality film projects around!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There has been trials and tribulations for all of us here at Pillo. I can only speak for myself but coming from a skating back ground I had a love for making films and editing clips of friends. That moved me into photographing my friends as they graduated which snowballed into weddings. Around that time of grinding through weddings weekend after weekend I finally got my first AC gig on a commercial gig. After years of doing more weddings and filling in on sets every time I could I decided to make the step into full time set work, making music videos, and producing commercials of my own. Right around that time Covid hit, everyone got laid off from the wedding firm I was working as a day job, so my opportunity had come to finally dig into a new path. My last wedding for the firm ended in all of my camera gear getting stolen the night of the shoot. After months of shooting photos again and taking anything that came at me, and blessings from my family and friends in donations to a go fund me to get a new camera system. After 6 months I was back on my feet and making strides in making more music videos and decided to really set off and make Pillo a name in Oklahoma. The formative years included working with Kristo Blanc, a multifaceted artist from Oklahoma City. We created our first several videos under the Pillo tag and the races were off. Later on I had been blessed with an opportunity to direct a video for Fire In Little Africa (FILA) and MoTown for a song my close friend St. Dominick made with M.C. and Hakeem Elijuwon called “Reparations”. A few weeks prior Los (Avitiuh) had been directing his video from the FILA project called “Shining”. I was filming bts that day and just hanging around and not too long after seeing what he created I asked him to edit my project. After the first session I think we both knew we had something special in this duo. The year after that video Los and I created several projects for himself and his music as well as passion projects here and there. Soon after we began what is now Pillo production. We’ve been blessed to work with not only MoTown records, but also Atlantic record (Gang51June 2023), 88Rec (Hugh Glass 2022-current), among a multitude of amazing independent artists pushing the boundary in Oklahoma, Chicago, Tennessee, and more.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Pillo Productions specializes in producing unique timeless pieces for our clients. We are most known for our Music video work. We are most proud of the artists and peers we’ve been able to cultivate a community with in our state. As we’ve grown it’s been very reassuring to see that our drive to create the best thing possible has spread and become infectious among those we surround ourselves with. I would say that thing that sets us apart from anyone else in our state is our desire to go above and beyond to accomplish our visions. From spending weeks on creative planning, filming for 12 hours, and at times for multiple days for one project, Pillo will go 110% to make sure we complete the mission.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Skip (just would rather not have this in the article)

Pricing:

• Music videos : 1,500 starting
• Commercial work: 1,000 starting
• Short films: catered by project
• Features: catered by project

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pillo.io?igsh=MTFsMnY0c21tdXY2bg==
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@pilloproductions?si=6v8RCbET8_LMRhc_
• Other: linktr.ee/pillooo

Image Credits
@its.thesweetlife
@datadenial
@marahshootsfilm