Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lucas Hicks. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lucas, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I quickly learned I had a passion for story at a young age. In fact, where learning story first began with me was in the closet of my bedroom. I had action figures of all sorts where I would set up a main character and develop a journey where I would guide them through ending with a conclusion. I would lay in my bed at night and think up new story lines. I looked around my room to find a path I could take my hero on. With the action figures being so small, my room seemed to be a massive world I could take my character through with obstacles they would have to overcome.

I believe this is the first step that I had no idea it would later develop into my career path. For me and my business STORY IS KING. All the professional camera’s, lighting, sound, and fancy tools are only ways to polish a story. I believe early in my career I cared more about how to make a video look cool without going back to my roots and thinking through story first. I see that same mistake in many young film makers and creatives. They start with “what is going to look good” instead of “how can I connect emotionally with my audience.”

Without first knowing how to tell a good story, a film or video project falls flat. You can always learn the technical ways to go about filming a project, however if you are unable to connect with your specific audience, the project ends up being just another “cool” video. We lead with our emotions. Story must be the denominator of how to effectively relate to a target audience. That is the skill that is most essential.

Lucas, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into video pretty early on and figured out I wanted to be a film maker a bit later in life. When I was in middle school, I used to go over to my best friend’s house on the weekends and we would make music videos to Death Cab for Cutie. I remember going to school after posting it on myspace and everyone at school was talking about it. The most impactful compliment I got was from a girl in my class that said the music video we created made her cry. I was lost for words. I never thought I could create art that would actually have an impact on people. It was then that I decided I wanted to be a film director.

It wasn’t until college where I got my first film job working for Nicolas Cage as his personal assistant on a film. I quickly learned on that film that there was a ladder that you must climb in order to make it above the line in film. As cool as that job was, there was no creativity involved. No way for me to have any influence on story which is what I cared most about. After working on that one film, I spent the next couple of years working on a multitude of project where it became clear to me that in order to achieve where I wanted to go, I must create the ladder myself into being a film maker and director.

So I created Killshot Media. Within my production company we take the art of storytelling to businesses. We approach each client with a tailor made approach figuring out who their target audience is and how we can emotionally wrap a story whether docu-style or narrative in order to be effective. Creating this company gave me the opportunity to not only hone my directing and film making skills, but has allowed me to take a percentage of the funds my business brings to create my own passion projects of film.

What we have done so far is make two amazing short films and this past summer we shot our first feature film titled “Chasing June”. This was all funded under my company with no outside investors. The way I was able to do this was creating a separate bank account where I would take a portion of each job and put it in the “film fund” to create my own films that I was passionate about. And so therefor, creating my own ladder.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

When first starting out in video/film the gear is not the first investment. The first investment is a plan. Knowing where you want to go and what your specialty is that you can personally bring to the table. When starting a business you may find that you only want to be a director or producer and having gear is not even necessary because you either rent the gear out or hire on other professionals that own their own gear. Many times the first thing young videographers or film makers do is spend excessive amounts of money or take out a loan they don’t have to buy gear they may not even end up using.

I have easily over $100,000 in gear and on the last two commercials we did not even use any of the gear I have. That is because I hired on a team where my Director of Photography shot on his camera, my gaffer used his lights, and my grip provided a grip truck with all the stands. When putting together a proposal I always charge for gear, even if it is my own. This allows me to ensure I have what I need for the scope of project I am going after. I am not saying that having your own gear is not important. You may find that you actually have a niche for being a videographer, so therefor buying a camera makes since. However, knowing where you want to go and what type of projects you want to shoot is the first step. If not, you end up with closets full of gear and no use.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I believe the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to make money doing what I love. So many people go through life and never take the chance on making their passion a job. I wake up every single morning excited to work. To create. In all honesty, money has never been a huge factor for me. Money is there to provide for my family and when I end up landing a high paying job, it is more of a confirmation that I am doing something right. No one told me to start a film production company. No one told me to shoot a film that is going to cost me tens of thousands of dollars. That is something I chose because of the love that I have within film. The reward for me is taking a risk, learning from my mistakes, continue creating and growing from the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.killshotmedia.com
• Instagram: killshot_media
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/killshotmediaATL
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/killshotmedia/
• Youtube: youtube.com/@killshotmediaproductions
• Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5838715/

Image Credits
Daniel Shippey