We were lucky to catch up with Kayla Bierei recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kayla, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Most of what I’ve learned in production has been through trial and error. I never expected to find myself working in production at Gen-Z new media company. I first fell in love with production by sitting in on shoots, supervising scripts, & assisting our in-house production team. I started to gain my confidence on set and helped to Assistant Direct a small commercial for our parent company, Create Music Group and slowly began to take more leadership. Flighthouse, as a start up, doesn’t come with the red tape you might find at a traditional media company and is very much about rewarding people who are willing to show up and do the work. I thrive in communities that appreciate self starters and I saw an opportunity to grow within the production department and rolled with it. I eventually worked my way up from Production Coordinator to Director of Production and although I don’t have any formal production training, I learned most of what I know just by being faced with a problem and needing to find the solution.
I’ve found success as a producer and director by being able to envision the finished product and work backwards. I wouldn’t have been able to craft this skill without being so hands on with our projects from start to finish. I also had to unlearn any parts of myself that were resistant to change early on. In life and in digital media, change is constant and inevitable. The second I embraced that is when I was truly able to thrive. We were one of the first companies to make the decision to start shooting everything vertically – which at the time was not the norm. Now that content is almost primarily consumed from our phones, we are the experts in that space because we took that risk over 5 years ago.
I now oversee all pre-production, production and post production across multiple business units with a stellar team of around 10 in-house editors, and videographers. Most of our editors and videographers, like me, were hired right out of college and are extremely talented and passionate individuals who I would be nowhere without. I’ve learned how important it is to always keep growing and soaking in new information. It’s never a bad thing not to know the answer if you actively are willing to search for it.
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?
I started at Flighthouse as an intern in 2018 when the company was still finding its footing. I was straight out of college with a degree in English, eager to learn and itching to find a position that inspired me. I applied to the digital media internship knowing I had a passion for words, connecting with people and creating art that would inspire. At the time, Flighthouse’s TikTok was considered a tastemaker in the music space, posting a curated selection of songs that users would place in their videos. The account truly began to grow in 2019 when we started bringing creators into our Hollywood studio to shoot content. Our content was revolutionary at the time because we were one of the first media companies to take influencers seriously and give them a platform to show their personalities beyond the screen. Flighthouse has now grown to over 28 million followers with over a billion impressions worldwide and continues to feature talent early on in their careers.
Beyond our forward facing pages, Flighthouse also operates as a music marketing agency providing artists and labels with creative strategy for their new releases (our team has been responsible for over 100 Billboard Top 100 chart entries.) We are also a one stop shop for brands looking to market on social media and I’ve had the pleasure of working on campaigns for Starbucks, Bose & Sephora to name a few. Recently we’ve connected with networks such as Disney and Netflix to promote their upcoming releases. We’ve seen great success with our videos shot during studio press runs because of how different our content is from the content you’d see from a traditional media junket. It’s a treat to watch actors truly enjoy themselves on screen and some of my recent favorites have been the cast of Netflix’s, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Disney’s, Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Flighthouse is known for carefully crafting segments and games specific to the talent which means I have the exciting task of getting to direct a wide variety of segments. One of our most memorable shoots involved a game-show for Totino’s Pizza Rolls in which the loser’s punishment involved getting dunked in a giant tank of marinara sauce. Because we wanted to maintain the authenticity of the experience for the talent, we used real sauce. Our team banded together on a weekend to open hundreds of cans of pizza sauce to fill up a 300 gallon vat. I feel lucky to get to solve unexpected problems like this and love that no two days of work look the same.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My goal has always been to tell a great story and to connect with people along the way. For a lot of the talent that comes through Flighthouse this is their first time on a large production set and it’s such an honor for me to be the one coaching them through their experience. I remember shooting with Flo Milli in early 2020 right after “Beef FloMix” was having a huge moment on TikTok. This was one of her first press appearances and she was understandably nervous and asked to clear the set. We finished shooting the segment with just her and I in the room and it’s still one of my fondest memories. One of the best compliments I can get from our talent is that we made them comfortable on camera and that they look forward to coming back.
When I first started to direct and produce short form content, the world was still trying to understand exactly where social media was going. Musical.ly had just changed to TikTok and then shortly after the world shut down – bringing more users to TikTok than ever before and completely sky rocketing our viewership. We learned how to pivot quickly and were providing a source of entertainment to people when they needed it most.
Although @Flighthouse is our main channel, we also own and operate channels such as @Fieldhouse (our sports centric page), @Retirementhouse, (centered around 6 seniors living their best lives), and @Flighthouseradio (our music arm).
Our brand provides the space for young creatives to experiment and I feel blessed that we have a platform that spreads positivity and gives a voice to a diverse array of artists/creators. Generation Z and Gen Alpha are the future and I am constantly blown away by the quality of art they are putting out.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I met Ashley Stahl, [Flighthouse CEO] the first day I walked into Flighthouse’s office for an interview. I have never met a leader as hands on as she is with every aspect of growing the company. She has truly helped to foster a community within Flighthouse where no job is too small – no person too good to tackle any task. Media is changing so drastically and she’s always had an eye for the future. It’s really important to see women in leadership roles especially in the music and entertainment industry and I’ve learned so much from Ash on how to be an effective, inspiring leader. I admire how great her instinct is and Flighthouse would not be where it’s at today without her guidance. To paint a picture of Ash: She will be the one cheering you on in the crowd at your intramural softball game, giving you the most heartfelt/ personal gift or watching your cats while you’re on vacation. She shows up every time and with the best attitude. She saw something in me 6 years ago and has been supportive of my growth every step of the way, something for which I’m truly grateful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flighthousemedia.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaylabierei/?hl=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-bierei-a3a08aa8/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Flighthouse
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@flighthouse?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/flighthouse/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/flighthouseradio/ https://www.tiktok.com/@retirementhouse?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/fieldhouse/
Image Credits
Jenifer Becerra