We recently connected with Kahlel Hale and have shared our conversation below.

Kahlel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

So I started my cinematography journey once I graduated high school. At the time when I was in high school, I was just trying to be an artist, so making my own instrumentals and engineering my own songs, but then I realized that I needed to put visuals to my songs. I started using my IPhone 6 to record skits and promotional videos for my music videos. That’s when my friends would suggest that I should pick up my first DSLR camera and actually try to take things serious and start making money from my skill . I graduated in 2017 and officially started making my videography business in 2018 .

I wish that I would’ve started recording videos before high school because I feel like I would be way more skillful and way more knowledgeable about the craft in the business today. I feel like I would’ve been further in life with connections also in the industry but you know what everybody always says. Everything happens for a reason, so maybe I started at a perfect time or maybe I didn’t . But I do know that I love what I do now, and couldn’t imagine myself quitting or doing anything else!

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

Hi, my name is kahlel I’m a videographer from Elyria, Ohio. I’m 24 years old and will be 25 in a couple months. I’ve been doing videography/cinematography for about 4 to 5 years. I’ve probably been interested in shooting videos since I was at a young age probably as young is 10 or 11 years old are used to shoot short skits off of my iPhone 6 and 7. For middle school and high school I would create project skits for classes and always pass the project with an a because of my editing skills and directing skills just simply off of iPhone. I graduated in 2017 from Elyria high school and soon after I attended Lorain community college for about 23 years my second year going to college, I applied to Sam’s Club as a cart pusher. I acquired this job simply because it was paying good obviously but also I just needed some money to get a camera because I was shooting so much off my iPhone that friends would recommend that I go out and buy a professional camera for myself to start, shooting my own videos, and their videos also . I probably worked at Sam’s Club for a good 3 to 4 months and after those 3 to 4 months I was tired of pushing carts in the snow and cold weather and also I had enough saved up to buy my first professional camera or entry-level camera to be technical. I was so excited about getting my camera. I started doing photography to start off at my cousin Dominic‘s house on his back drops for cheap prices as low as $25-$50 and soon after that I quit Sam’s Club and started trying to further my skill with photography & videography, and try to make a living off of that itself. My third year in college I was living with my cousin Dominic and I was still in college, but then things started to pick up like going to EST FEST shooting with Chris Goody, shooting mini promotional videos for MGK’s brand and various other artists and then also my music videos were picking up pretty fast. My name started to get out there more and then I also started working with various companies and the radio station in Cleveland . And all of those events took place between 2018 and 2021, but then I had a block in the road and had found out I had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer. Surely enough business had to slow down going through chemotherapy. Chemotherapy took a lot of my energy brought my confidence down and put my mentality in a dark place but I still didn’t let the cancer stop me. I will still go out and do mini shoots even though my doctor would tell me not to exert my body, but I mean I’m very hardheaded, and also videography and photography was how I made my money. I had chemotherapy treatments for about six or seven months and after that I got right back to videos like I never left. At the beginning of 2022 I was finally in remission for my cancer and a couple months later into the new year I had went to the BET awards with incognito from posted on the corner, and also had the pleasure of shooting birthday bash in Atlanta, Georgia and summer jam in Cleveland, Ohio. And since then I’ve had many interactions with celebrities and various artists I hope to one day, maybe be a artist or celebrities, personal photographer/videographer. Or maybe just working doing corporate business /company videos. But for right now I’m working on moving to Atlanta Georgia for better opportunities and hopefully I can open some doors that need to be open in my life.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Having a good relationship with your clients is very important and making sure that you have a great personality for them to also buy into. clients Want to go into buying a product feeling safe and secure. And you got to think, I’m providing videography and photography. I’ve heard plenty of stories of photographers and videographers stealing, and running off with peoples money or giving a very terrible and false advertised product back to them. so you have to build those relationships in order to build your clientele up better. Also, always posting and always letting the clients interact and feel included on social media goes along way. so maybe posting polls and getting opinions from the clients and what they think would be dope ideas and what they would like to see next. being consistent with your social media followers is very crucial. Consistency is key and I’m still learning that.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source for new clients is honestly any social media platforms or Facebook Instagram it could be Twitter Snapchat really anything where you can get your hands on new people, new relationships, etc. many of my clients are music artist obviously because I shoot a lot of music videos, but I hope to transition more into weddings. You could also easily obtain wedding clients off of social media, good advertisement with great marketing videos, and solid promotion. In the next couple years, I plan on converting from music videos over to corporate videos ,more weddings and less music videos.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kahlelproduction.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/therealkahlel?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealkahlel?s=21&t=DZ3RYuhEydnKdx09_HDY5A
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@TheRealKahlel

Image Credits
Firstxxiv , Chris goody, lilwilthagod , Shelovesneo