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

Seth, appreciate you joining us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

I traveled to Poland this past summer to film a short documentary of Montanan Tucker visiting some horrific holocaust concentration camps. There’s been a rise of antisemitism and holocaust deniers, and anytime she would speak up on her social media platforms, she would get a lot of hate. So she decided to hire a film production team to help raise awareness. She also wanted to go back to her roots and see the concentration camp that her grandmother escaped from. It was a life-changing job to stand in the same camp where so many Jews were slaughtered. This project gave me a new perspective that I’m so thankful I was able to capture this story. Through the impact of her social media following, she reached millions of people, and the campaign was a success.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve only had one real official job: slinging chicken at Chick-Fil-A. I was 18 working in Charleston, South Carolina. I knew I didn’t work there forever, and my brother Jeremiah invited me to move to Florida, work at his recording studio, and learn the creative ropes. At the time, I knew that video was becoming more popular, and I wanted to explore the craft, but I needed to know how to break through. So I got lost on YouTube and watched hundreds of videos on how to use cameras. I started a wedding videography company and shot weddings for five years. I grew up in a massive family and didn’t travel much, so finding success in the wedding industry was very exciting. I traveled to many beautiful places to capture weddings, Italy, Columbia, Iceland, and many other unique places. After doing this for five years, I started to become stagnant. I wanted to further my filmmaking/storytelling to the next level, so I stopped shooting weddings, started a production company, and attended an acting class. I always wanted to explore acting, but I needed to be more confident to jump in. Fast forward five years later, and I was the lead of a feature film, and I started a production company, Foundry Mass with my brother Jeremiah, amazing girlfriend, Lauren Starr, and my sister-in-law, Mindy. We focus on narrative storytelling, commercials, music videos & documentaries. We just produced our first TV show, Pilot! So look out for Mount Mystic Rangers.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

We live in such a wild time! You can learn anything online. It’s remarkable. If I give any advice to someone starting, I recommend learning as many different things as possible. If you know something completely unrelated to your craft, it can help your art form or business in ways that you wouldn’t expect. For example, before I started my acting class, I didn’t realize I had intense anxiety. So I started yoga and meditation, and that helped my acting tremendously. It also helped when I was on set behind the camera because it gave me more confidence to go with my gut and try different things on set. I love using MasterClass. I learn about filmmaking, philosophy, writing, and many other crafts on that platform, and that’s just one of many resources you can use to expand yourself to new things.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

There’s a common misconception about being a creative. People think it’s effortless to be self-motivated and self-made. But it’s super tricky. We’re our bosses. We must find work and be active in our creative community to remind people we’re still around. There is also a balance between working and not making time to relax and be still. When I was in the wedding industry, I worked all the time. If I wasn’t filming two weddings over a weekend, I was at a coffee shop editing away. So I’ve had to build my schedule and not work past 5 pm. We’re working with agencies and people with a 9-5, so I try to keep a good work-life balance and do other things unrelated to my craft to keep myself sharp.

Contact Info:

• Website: Sethdunlap.com Foundrymass.com
• Instagram: Sethdonalddunlap
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SethDunlap