We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katherine McFerren & Christopher Commons a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Katherine McFerren &, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Every video production project is a risk. You can’t control everything on the day of shooting and you can’t always gauge the audience’s reaction to a finished product. We’ve had projects fall through, even after shooting. There’s always a time investment that isn’t guaranteed to bring results. We try to break through stereotypes and norms of specific genres, while still creating something artful and authentic. We view risk as essential, especially if you are wanting to make a splash or start something new. With this production brand, we are focused on the work rather than the payout. We are in agreement that the up front risk and investment is the best practice as we grow our brand.

With some projects, we try to elevate the ask from the artist to a whole different level. This can be a risk when you invest and have a larger vision for a video and strategically try to flex the budget in the right ways to produce something bigger and better. For “Time” by The Devil Wears Prada band, the ask was elevated from a vague inspiration of cult imagery to the dynamic cult-style dancers that fill the music video scenes today. Even if the client is unable to envision the final frame, we work to create something that fills their ask and pushes it to the next level. In this instance, they were even asking for more scenes with the dancers, which was a great success in our concept.

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?

Christopher Commons is a freelance Director of Photography (DP) working in Kansas City while Kate McFerren is a video editor working for a marketing agency. They worked together on a project in 2018 called “Love Color” for Chris Conley, previously a Kansas City Chief, wide receiver. They realized their workflow meshed well while managing the post production. From there, they pitched their joint talents to a local artist and TikTok celeb whom Kate had previously attended high school with and has recently risen in fame, even performing on Ellen, Anson Seabra. Anson became their first client launching the KatDog Studio partnership in 2019. The work with Anson attracted other artists as the brand continued to create music videos in Kansas City. Recently, KatDog has partnered with The Devil Wears Prada Band on a series of live streams due to the Corona virus cancelling their tours. In 2021, The band came back and partnered with Katdog studio to create another live stream, album teaser and music video for their Zombie 2 EP releasing in may of 2021. Most recently, they released a music video for the The Devil Wears Prada’s, “Time” making that the 6th music video they’ve created for the band. They continue to book exciting work with bands – so keep an eye out!

“KatDog” was coined as an effort to show the yin and yang of the partnership; the pair even have opposite personalities as well as responsibilities in the overall creation of their work. It also combines Kate’s first name with Chris’s first production brand, Bourbon Dog.

The production brand hopes to continue to create polished commercial level work with their indie hustle as they bring production work to the talented film industry in Kansas City. Bringing in artists from Sweden, Georgia, and throughout the Midwest, they aim to put KC on the map.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

When we hire crews for our projects, we always want to make sure that we are fostering a great work environment. For the film industry this looks like, providing lunch on shoot days, providing snacks while on set, and facilitating a laid back production. We intentionally hire the same faithful crew members, who eventually know each other better and better. It begins to feel like you’re working with friends on a fun project. Kate and Christopher personally aim to create those personal connections and really care about the members on the crew. These interactions bleed into all areas of how they communicate and run the business. A great work environment means the crew members will perform their jobs well and will want to work with KatDog Studio again. It fosters a longterm relationship with each production member that is hired. We love providing Kansas City talent with exciting, creative projects and continue to bring those opportunities to Kansas City.

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

Kate was a commercial editor in Kansas City industry while Christopher was working freelance as a DP. When Christopher was hired on to shoot a QuickTrip job, he ended up sitting in Kate’s editing suite to work through the edit. That was the beginning of the professional connection and the first experiencing the cohesiveness of their collaboration. When Christopher was hired onto a job for Chris Conley’s short film “Love Color,” he suggested Kate as the, having had a positive working experience with her previously. From there, they collaborated in a year long post production process for that film. The constant problem solving, post talent resourcing, and finishing, paved the way for their idea of continuing to create together. When Kate noticed a high school friend doing well with his music, but lacking a music video, she decided to reach out. This was their first client, Anson Seabra. Since then, they’ve branded themselves, opened an LLC, and added Christopher’s wife to the business, an Assistant Camera Technician in the industry and their social media manager.

Contact Info:

• Website: katdogstudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katdogstudio/

Image Credits
Photos taken by various crew members or musicians on set. Kate & Chris photo by cameronstoryphoto.com.