Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ryan Atkins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Ryan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?
A great example would be my time entering into college. I was never an attentive or a good student in general for most of my schooling career. I always had other things I wanted to daydream about or other interests with friends that I wanted to do, and I never saw my studies in elementary, middle school, or high school as the highest priority. I would complete my assignments in hopes that I could do what I really find to be fun later in the day. The one exception would be the music program. I was forced to pick an instrument to play in middle school and I chose my dad‘s trumpet when he was in school. I never cared for any of the lessons and I definitely didn’t care about playing in the band in middle school. It wasn’t until freshman year of high school That I began to feel a family atmosphere and also felt like I was part of something bigger. Until the winter months, I played in the high school marching band and that was an experience that I remembered just like yesterday. The role of any marching band in high school or college is to primarily provide entertainment during the halftime when the football teams are convening and discussing what they could do better in revving each other up for a second half of the game. The band also is supplemental music for any successes in general energy build during the game itself. The same goes for the jazz band during basketball games during the winter months. Entertaining audiences during halftime and providing supplemental music during various points throughout the game.
When he came to choosing a major, I was so enthralled in the music program and felt like I found my calling that I wanted to major in music education. Because I never took any of my other studies seriously my GPA was not conducive to some of the other universities, my friends were applying to, so my options were very limited. The local college had a music program that required an audition, in which most music programs that the university level do. The one skill that I never wanted to listen to that I needed improvement on was my confidence. I had serious stage fright, whenever I had to do a solo on stage for the jazz band, and I also had social anxiety within groups of other people whenever I had to speak up about whatever the topic matter was. My band Director didn’t feel that music education was the best fit for me but of course being a teens teenager. I knew everything and I was not going to allow my parents or my teacher to tell me what I could or I could not do.
When I get the opportunity to audition, my rehearsals went fairly fine with the pianist at the university. It wasn’t until the day of the audition and I was not aware there would be an additional two others in the room. This added to my social anxiety and I struggled through the peace. I completely bombed the audition and I was mortified and could not believe that all this time rehearsing and all the compliments I had received in high school seem to be for nothing. I was distraught and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life as it was the only option for me, so I thought.
In addition to enjoying the music program in high school I developed a hobby for computers in the late 90s. I didn’t want to do a career in computers because it felt it was a thankless field, and also was not fulfilling the entertainment part of my brain that I had an itch to take care of. I ended up finding a major that I inquired about called electronic media production. I did some research on the Internet and found if you professors within that department to inquire about the major. Today I know that all college professors will talk very positive about their department and they generally will not dissuade any prospective student from entering into that major. Functions as job security for the professor in the long term. But I got my positive affirmation and they recommended I check out the program.
Long story short, this was just a tip of the iceberg for what would be my career now. I created a ton of connections in the department, out of the department, and also at the University helpdesk that I was also working at. Because I went with a major that I actually had an intuitive set of skills, that helped me get a promotion into the media services department of information technology at the university. I was working with various professors around the campus and getting their video projects completed, usually on an educational basis.
This all lead to me now working as a cinematographer and post production specialist with a company that provides a video production services to client of all kinds. I completed my first feature film last year, I am in development on the next feature film, and have completed a slew of other television projects and short films on the nearest side. I now have nearly 20 years of experience doing corporate and commercial projects, narrative projects, and also teach interns the basics of how to function as a video pro producer.
If I did not fail at my music audition, who knows where I would be today. Being honest with yourself is one of the greatest lessons I have learned in my lifetime. While you could “fake it till you make it” for a little while, eventually one of the sides is going to find out and it may not turn out the way that you want it to. Be honest with yourself and ask others for their feedback. I am glad I failed that audition because I also kept a piece of my appreciation from music and everything that I do. A solid soundtrack is a necessity for every movie in music is something that is turned into being a universal language for everyone, including myself. I am grateful for that experience and I utilize those lessons every day.
Ryan, 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?
My story is definitely”unconventional”, compared to the stories of other filmmakers I have learned about. To start, I did not receive a camera from my dad at age 8 and make films of trains crashing. What is happened with me is rather very unconventional from the “conventional” stories we all know.
I grew up in a small town of Ashland, Ohio. My family consisted of businessmen, school teachers, and doctors – almost no-one doing things that were creative. My grandmother’s primary profession was a teacher but had a fond interest in creative writing. I firmly believe the rest of my story is her fault, in the very best way possible.
The two films that I consider to be the pinnacle of what got me started are Ghostbusters (1984) and Jurassic Park (1993). When I say, “got me started”, I do not mean with cameras. For both films, I later saw the behind the scenes for both films (broadcast documentary of Jurassic Park with James Earl Jones and BTS section on the Ghostbusters DVD) close in my timeline of life. Both films had elements that I knew were real and I had nightmares from each.
For Ghostbusters, I received a child’s plastic Proton Pack from my Uncle Phil, I believe for Christmas. I then reenacted scenes, hiding under my mother’s desk, the bed, closet – whatever I could find to make me feel like I was also “busting ghosts”. Ask my mother and she will tell you all about it. So, I started reenacting scenes from other movies as well. Jurassic Park was the exception. That movie terrified me and left a lasting scar. It was a scar that taught me how important it is to connect to story and characters via emotion. How to make an impact is the goal of storytelling.
After seeing documentaries of how both films were produced, I was blown away. Not a single element was real. Who would have thought… My fascination for movies only transpired to me building an imagination though.
Fast forward to high school. I began a fascination with computers prior to high school which bled into senior high. I also become reacquainted with a childhood best friend, who was involved in the video production program. I was heavily involved in the marching and jazz bands. We began to hang out once again, soon diving into making home music videos, via his interest in music production. We shot them with a simple 480i “point and shoot” camera (maybe 15 frames per second?) and cut content together using Adobe Premiere Pro CS2 and CS3. I also developed a hobby in photography, taught by my best friend. However, this was still not enough to convince me there was a burning passion for filmmaking.
Upon entering college at Ashland University in the summer of 2006, I wanted to major in music, but failed my audition as I learned I have a fear of public speaking. I decided to major in “Electronic Media Production”, which translated to ‘Television Production’. I took an intro class and was assigned to run a camera for student on-air talent. With the combination of my computer/IT skills, and fascination for visual imagery, I fell in love with the camera. Soon enough, the Media Arts dept was not enough for me. I wanted to something more than news. I used my first Mac in 2007 while working my campus job in IT and became acquainted with Final Cut Pro 5 via departmental promotion to “Media Services”. My life changed from thereon. I was also in the university marching band and ended up leaving the organization in 2007 or 2008 to focus on my degree requirements for Television Production and my part-time job (student employment could not exceed 20 hours a week).
2008 ended in me failing out of the Liberal Arts education, being that I was spending so much time in my video production position, almost 100% self-taught. I decided to move out on my own and enter into a new educational system. In 2009 I entered into (formerly) Virginia Marti College of Art & Design in Cleveland Ohio, where I majored in Digital Media, having some self-taught experience in Final Cut Pro 6 & 7. Concentrations were in Cinematography and Editing. I started my career there, creating my evolving portfolio, working on music videos, corporate videos, behind the scenes, and some independent software training videos.
In early 2011 I almost failed out of college then as well, until a college professor saw more inside me and recommended, I come in for tutoring help for a drawing class that was the bain of me. I barely passed his first class and nailed his second class. I realized the value of hard work and putting time into being “great” at something. The same greatness taught by my high school band director. I graduated college in 2011 with a degree in Digital Media, an active website, portfolio, and a plethora of experience. From there I learned my way into the fascinating (and sometimes brutal world) of filmmaking. My portfolio expanded with countless titles within corporate video production, music videos, narrative films, providing experience on a variety of cameras, and convincing me to switch back to Adobe using their Creative Cloud suite, including Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc. I use the most updated version today on a powerful upgraded Mac Studio workstation.
I moved to Chicago with my brother in mid-2014 to restart my career, after a series of unfortunate financial mishaps that serve as learning experiences. From there, I took on some corporate work for several clients including the Chicago Fire Department, Sarpino’s Pizzeria, some entrepreneurs, and independent artists. I later dreamt up, wrote, shot, directed, and cut a story together on bullying and the effects it can produce, which won an award at a film festival – entitled “A School Paper”. Many contacts were made, and experiences had.
When on a break from my last project I became inspired to write a short scene to put into my demo reel. This ultimately evolved into what is known as ‘Conrad Series’ today, which I served as Co-Creator and Director of Photography for. Last year, I released my first feature film that I served as Director of Photography, Post-Production Manager, and a Producer. That film is now out for distribution. I am also in development with my team on a Christmas movie and have completed a slew of other television projects, short films, and commercial/corporate projects over the course of the last nearly 20 years.
My main goal is to evoke an emotional response for the projects I work on. For narrative that word be a response that is appropriate for the genre. It romantic comedy needs to be loving and funny. A horror film needs to be scary. If I’m doing a piece about a product service, then that product and or serviceneeds to feel interesting in something that has appeal to its intended audience. Being appealing I think is the goal of all of the media that I have created and will continue to create.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
How I Met my business partner was completely by random. It was in very early 2016 and I had just completed a very emotional and mentally exhausting short film. I found myself watching a string of movies with a strong female lead or female support. Those movies were Salt and Gone Girl. My favorite show at the time was House of cards, and there were usually many scenes where two individuals would meet at a dimly lit restaurant booth.
I decided I wanted to create my own scene that looks like one out of house of cards but switch things up by putting in a female detective, and she was interrogating a male suspect. The characters were from the two movies in this set location derived from house of cards. I made a post on Facebook that I was looking for this certain character eventually set up auditions at a library in Chicago.
Jennifer (who is now my business partner) comes in for her audition and everything goes really well. She asked me if there was anything more to the character and I told her that there could be. We ended up collaborating a little bit on expanding the character as well as the story. The expansions grew, little by little, and before we knew it I ended up giving Jennifer the script to make any changes she wanted to. It seems she had ambitions to create something bigger with this project.
Long story short this expansion to the project turned into being our TV pilot, which is now on Amazon prime. Jennifer considers the time working on the TV pilot as her film school. We have been working together since 2016 and in business together since 2021.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Funny enough for many people the film business sometimes does serve as side hustle because it can be difficult to make a living, depending on what you do in the industry. At the time when I graduated college, I was not very good at marketing myself and ended up having to take other positions in information technology, and then working film and video projects on the weekend. I eventually did find myself, finding a few contracting in full-time jobs within video production. It’s while I did major and video production. It was not an area that I was always working in and did have to function as a side hustle for a short period of time.
Understanding the business side of ‘Show Business’ is now becoming crucial because no longer are our digital cameras unaffordable. Most of us carry a phone with camera capabilities in our pocket so the competition is even more fierce with content creation. What sets you apart from the other person? If you do not market yourself, in a name for the brand that you want for yourself, you will definitely find yourself holding this field as a side hustle and working another position that you may not be as happy with. It definitely takes a lot of work.
Contact Info:
- Website: atkinsvisuals.com / lakefrontpictures.com / lakefrontcreativegroup.com
- Instagram: atkinsvisuals / lakefrontpictures / lakefrontcreativegroup
- Facebook: atkinsvisuals / lakefrontpictures / lakefrontcreativegroup
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lakefrontpictures
