We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mike Roth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mike thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name “Fly Line Productions” really encompasses the different areas of TV production I’ve worked in.

The way I got my foot in the door in reality TV was because I was a Steadicam operator, which was a very specialized skill. You’ve probably seen pictures of Steadicams in behind-the-scenes photos from movie sets, sporting events, and award shows. The operator literally wears the Steadicam and it allows him/her to run around with the camera without any of the shakiness of their moving body being transferred to the camera. Reality TV is mostly a handheld medium, but when the producer wanted a sleeker looking shot, they would have me use my Steadicam.

When one is operating a Steadicam rig, one is said to be “flying” it, because it literally looks like it is just floating in the air. And then, one of the first exercises they teach you when you’re first learning how to fly a Steadicam is to put a line of tape on the floor and have the newbies practice flying the cameras smoothly over the line. It takes a lot of practice! But that’s where the name “Fly Line” comes from.

But even for shows that didn’t require me to use a Steadicam, the name “Fly Line” was still a perfect fit. This is because in unscripted production (reality TV, documentaries, etc), you’re always working on the “fly” — there’s no script, and you just have to react to situations as they happen. And there was also a philosophical “line” between the cast and the crew, meaning that the people behind the camera tried to interact with the people in front of the camera as little as possible, so as not to affect whatever story was unfolding.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Mike Roth and I own a video production company called Fly Line Productions. We create branding, marketing and promotional video content for small to medium-sized businesses, big corporations and nonprofits.

But before I got into that, I worked in TV news and unscripted television (aka reality TV) production for 30 years. If you’ve ever watched a reality TV show, there’s a good chance you’ve seen my work.

My career started in my home state of Michigan as a TV news cameraman and editor before I got a job at my alma mater Michigan State University producing promo videos for their academic departments.

A couple years later, my TV journalism career took me to Los Angeles, where I shot and edited at least a dozen stories per week at NBC 4 LA. I also did a stint as their helicopter cameraman, covering live police chases, hostage standoffs, rescues, and multi-acre brush fires.

When reality/unscripted TV took off in the aughts, it presented tons of opportunities. I loved the fast-paced production adrenaline rush, and I got to travel the world. I worked on shows like The Amazing Race (CBS), The Apprentice (NBC), Dancing with the Stars (ABC), Secret Millionaire (ABC), Love in the Wild (NBC), Flavor of Love (VH1), Road Rules (MTV), and lots of others.

I originally concentrated on camerawork, but as I continued in the industry, I added several more skills to my resume – directing, producing, writing, and editing.

I worked on every show format imaginable, at every budget level, and my work appeared on every broadcast network and just about every cable network.

And then, the pandemic hit, and TV production stopped.

So I pivoted.

Instead of wearing one hat as part of a hundred-person staff to make a season’s worth of one hour TV shows for a television network, I started wearing all the hats to make short form marketing video content for businesses and nonprofits.

The length of the finished product was shorter, the budgets were smaller, the content was different, but the formula was the same — tell an authentic and compelling story, and the audience will be engaged.

So my company Fly Line Productions creates video content for our clients that looks like it could be on network TV, but at a fraction of the price. Sometimes people want a single hero video for their website or regularly updated content for their social media feed.

The first thing we do is figure out which of our client’s stories differentiates them from their competition. From there, we take care of coming up with the creative, working out the logistics, filming the shots, editing it all together, and adding the finishing touches like graphics, music, and sound effects.

We handle the process soup to nuts, and make everything easy for our clients.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most important thing to remember about growing your clientele is that it all comes down to personal relationships. I might be technically hired by a company, but it’s the person at that company who knew me and my work that sent that email and booked me. So I make a conscious effort to value those personal relationships and nurture them. As they say, people don’t do business with other businesses, they do business with other people.

If it’s a slow month and I’m looking to pick up another project or two, I’ve found it’s not very fruitful to throw a bunch of intro emails or resumes into the internet abyss and hope that something lands. Instead, I’ll check in with my existing clients and colleagues. If they don’t know of any projects coming up, I ask if they have any colleagues who might, and if they could make an introduction. If they don’t know of any colleagues, then that’s a great time to just schedule a zoom or coffee meet up and just catch up. It’s important to stay on peoples’ radars because when they hear their coworker mention a project that I’d be a good fit for, I want to be the first person they think of. “Oh yeah, I just had coffee with Mike last week. He’d be perfect for that, let me introduce you.” And just like that, I have another client.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

You have to be good at what you do. That’s a baseline. I’m very good at creating video content. But what my clients remember long after I’ve delivered the finished project is the experience of working with me. In my case, they say I was easy to work with, made them feel comfortable on camera, never missed a deadline, and fully incorporated their feedback into the final product. You can be the most brilliant craftsperson in your field and turn out incredible work, but if people have a negative experience of working with you, that’s what they’re going to remember. My goal is to always make them remember that they can’t wait to work with me again… and more often than not, they’ll make sure that they do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.flyline.tv
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flylineproductions/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlyLineProductions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flylineproductions/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FlyLineProductions

Image Credits

Edwin Santiago (for the three headshots of me; BTS shots don’t need a credit)