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

Matthew, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked on various extraordinary projects but by far the most meaningful I have ever worked on would have to be The Cold Red Podcast. Hosted by two of the most well-respected FBI Profilers (Ray & Fitz), Cold Red highlights the victimology aspect of building a criminal profile with expert guests in psychology and law enforcement weighing in on different high profile cases. This project is meaningful to me because before deciding to produce a true crime podcast, I did not realize that the content was going to be so impactful to our audience. Early on we wanted to pay homage to the victims (often the most overlooked aspect of any crime scene), choosing not to highlight infamous murderers, while also providing the audience with tips on how to not become future victims themselves. Some of our most engaging stories are from the family members of victims along with living victims, who survived their attackers. The response was overwhelming, especially following the recording of a recent episode about one of the worst stalking cases that the FBI has ever been involved in. Since then, we have focused on raising situational awareness amongst our audience through the stories of some of these survivors and how they currently handle PTSD.

Matthew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began my career as an independent filmmaker directing shorts up until I debuted my feature film GONE in 2010. After months of pitching my screenplay around town I realized the only way to see it on the big screen was to create it myself. I spent the next year working 3 sometimes 4 jobs at a time and waved goodbye to my social life. The first 6 months of production were spent filming weekends and holidays in order to complete principal photography, in a somewhat timely fashion. The next year was consumed by post-production before finally premiering in Los Angeles. The following year was spent running the film festival gauntlet before landing a distribution deal. Shortly after, I was hired to direct commercials and was eventually hired to produce in a different form of storytelling: documentary television. After about 10 years of being involved in various television productions, I formed my own production company, with help from a few longtime colleagues, where we currently produce everything from short form video marketing campaigns for small businesses to long form episodic series. I am also an award-winning screenwriter so additionally we offer writing and script doctoring services along with packaging and pitching original projects to various networks and distribution outlets. While retelling this brief point in my filmmaking history, what stands out most is tenacity. If you want to do something you have to go out and do it yourself. No one is going to help you. The sooner you realize that, the quicker you can get realistic about accomplishing your goals. I absolutely love the creative collaboration process. There’s always a problem that needs to be solved for the client, no matter who they might be, and that’s where we fit in. Whether it’s a television production or a brand campaign, at the end of the day we are being called to solve a problem for someone and it’s always nice to hear that sigh of relief from the client when we come through on whichever platform we might be working on.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think completing my independent feature film GONE would probably be one of my great stories of resilience. I turned the word can’t into a motivator. Every time someone told me, “Matt, you can’t…” I channeled that can’t into resilience, making sure to tip my hat to the nay-sayers along the way. A low budget independent film will test any seasoned filmmaker and I think our journey was your typical uphill battle. But at the end of the day, our ragtag team pulled it off and lifelong friendships were formed amongst the crew, due to the resilience of the production.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the creative collaboration. I love networking with great minds. There’s no greater feeling than being in the middle of production and watching that moment when your team is in flow. It energizes everyone involved.

Contact Info:

• Website: coldredpodcast.com
• Instagram: matty.glock
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069626317962
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-mclaughlin-9ba0ba1b/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/matty_mcl
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ColdRedPodcast-tb2lb/videos

Image Credits
Jonathan Gary, Reaves Washburn, Adam Fischer, Anthony Sturmas, Chris Brake