We recently connected with Marcus Neudigate and have shared our conversation below.

Marcus, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I very much wish I would’ve picked up a camera sooner.

My creative career is a long and winding road of seemingly niche fields. Prior to my work as a videographer, I spent 10+ years teaching drumlines across the country and touring with professional marching bands called Drum Corps. In addition to teaching, I was also arranging/writing music as well as consulting for several groups. I picked up a camera towards the back end of this career and started learning all the technical aspects of photography and videography – purely with the help of YouTube.

I had experienced some pretty significant burnout in late 2019 and decided that I wanted to shift away from a creative career and do something that had a better time-to-money ratio. I picked up a real estate license and went into Apartment Locating – which is more akin to “sales” than it is “real estate.” I continued to do some creative projects on the side and ultimately decided that sales was a little too linear for me and that I felt most at home in the chaos of creativity.

It wasn’t until 2 years ago at the ripe age of 31 that I started to make video & photo work my full time job. I was able to apply a lot of general art concepts I learned over a long musical journey, but a lot of technical things about cameras and *visual* art are so much different than *audio* art. I know the level of work I’d like to produce, but feel like I’m 1000 reps from the technical-skill-level I’d like to be at. Storytelling techniques, camera composition, lighting, etc are all things that take time and repetition to develop a consistent know-how. Meanwhile, our access to better technology and knowledge has led to some incredibly skilled and talented 20 year olds. On one hand it’s inspiring to see a 26 year old with an fantastically impressive portfolio; on the other hand, it’s hard not to feel a little sense of “damn, I need to catch up!”

I’d say two truths exist though. I’m pretty happy with the course my life has taken and grateful for all the experiences I’ve had along the way. But from a pure skill-acquisition standpoint: man I wish I would’ve started at least a few years earlier.

Marcus, 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?

My name is Marcus Neudigate, and I own a video production company called 4AM Creative. Our primary focus is currently on documentary filmmaking and creative commercial video. With a tagline of Motion & Emotion, we tend to work on projects that have a deeper impact than just pure *visual spectacle”: with stories in sports & outdoors, music & dance, and non-profit. We curate and deliver content packages to best tell a story over a variety of timelines using long form content, short form content, and photography.

Our approach is viewer-first. Your story is important, but the ultimate intention is for the viewer to relate to it in some way, shape, or form. We navigate the best way for your story to have the biggest impact while staying true-to-you.

One of the most common pieces of feedback I get is along the lines of “I FELT that more than I thought I would.” It’s pretty awesome to hear when people who might be a little jaded to their own story, are suddenly re-impacted.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My driving force has always been singular: to affect others. Way back when I was studying and practicing for my music performance degree, the hope was always to play music so well that people would be affected in some way. If it was an aggressive piece of music, I hoped they could feel some of the adrenaline I was bringing to the stage; if it was a somber piece of music, I hoped they could sense it and relate in some way. As I transitioned into teaching music, the hope was purely to inspire.

Now that I make videos, the goal is still the same. I’m not aiming to “just make cool stuff.” The hope is that someone will watch my work and be impacted in some way. Our time on this planet is finite. And by having work that impacts others, your presence and effect on that world is just a little closer to infinite.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Currently in the middle of a niche pivot right now. When I started doing video – I took on pretty much any kind of project that I could. I shot weddings for a while, live events, real estate, etc. Kind of a fun but disorderly process of finding things I like to shoot & edit vs things that have an ideal time-to-money ratio. Now I’ve pivoted away from the things that aren’t quite as exciting to me, and focus mostly on things that bring a great deal of joy to work on. It can be tough telling a few old clients, with whom you’ve developed great relationships, that you’re changing the approach and are moving to different niches to film. But I like to hang on to a fairly popular quote “the longer you entertain what’s not for you, the longer you postpone what is.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.marcusnmedia.com
• Other: *Jordan – admittedly this website is a little out of date. I’m not super great at keeping up with the portfolio as new projects/clients come in. Perhaps is best not to include, but is here for reference in case you want it!

Image Credits

Jake Lyons
Joshua Ricks