We recently connected with Simeon Muller and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Simeon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.
When in school, everything was about being a Director, or a producer or a DP. There were no other paths to choose from in the video world. Those were the only success stories, and everything else was looked at almost as a failure. When I entered into the industry, you learn very fast that very few people are ever directors, or producers, at least, in a major way. You find yourself stuck in the production assistant world for years and then you might move up to an assistant camera or an art role or even a production manager but reaching the top end was one and 1000. If the school system would show that there are many other avenues to a successful career in Film, many more people would find fulfillment in it. Filming for your local community TV station or filming for local businesses for in-house video. It’s not big and flashy, but it would pay the bills and even give you a successful career. It’s not about the limelight, it’s about doing the best for your client. But again the school system only says Director producer or DP..
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.
In my early college life, I wanted to be a film animator. I wanted to explore the world of 3-D design and create impossible worlds. This was in the late 90s and CG was just becoming huge with Jurassic Park and the new Star Wars. So when I went to school that’s what I was aiming for. About two years into my college life they canceled the computer animation classes so I became a Director of TV and Film. I had always had an interest in visual media and had been taking pictures on my brand, new canon Elon iiE film camera. So I figured how hard could the switch to being a Director be from taking still photos? When I graduated, I got Jobs working for Michael Bay’s commercial company and Anonymous Content in the commercial sector.. Up to that point I had never thought about the commercial world as a film media let alone Michael Bay creating some of the ads that I loved.
I was a lowly PA, and was fine to be right there. I watched the world of film and how it worked and realized you can do so many other things inside of that world. I went onto be the head of visual media at a movie Makeup magazine called Makeup Artist magazine, creating graphic design, and creating their video content for a trade show they put on.
After I left there, I created my own production company with some of the people I had met in my journeys, and Kid Giant was born.
We focus on smaller brands and creating any content that comes our way. Our slogan is “little guys doing big things” because we are a scalable company. Currently I am the only employee, but we scale up and down depending on the job. We try to make the best product possible no matter if it’s a boring interview or filming a house or a full-blown commercial. Since we are a small company and have no overhead, we can keep projects on the cheaper side. In the last few years, we upgraded our cameras to use REDs cameras and have been putting even better content out since that move.
We like getting to know our clients and creating friendships with them rather than just business relationships. Most of our clients are actual friends that we talk to about non-work related things on a regular basis.
I’d like to say that we aren’t your typical Film production company, and that when we create a project for someone, it’s actually a fun experience. I’ve learned over the years that you can make good products and have a good time while doing it. Not everything in the Film world needs to have the stress that people bring with it.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I believe that being friendly with clients is the best way to build a reputation. For me, I treat each of them as a friend and go into the job as if I’m filming for a friend. I keep the sets very light and personal and get to know who they are, and what they want out of the video, so that when the first draft comes through, they can be satisfied and excited about any changes that will come up. Most of my clients come from referrals from past jobs that have gone well. I think that’s a testimony to our product. If someone’s willing to recommend another company that they’ve used because of how well the the final product came out, it speaks volumes more than social media, or a random ad that someone happened across while searching for video services.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
One of the hardest things to learn, when starting out, was how to collect money from people. At first, I would leave invoices open for months at a time hoping the client would pay at some point. I figured that I’d send them the invoice so they should pay it and they shouldn’t have to be reminded. At one point I started putting penalties on late invoices rather than just calling and seeing why the invoice was late. Most of the time it was because the client had seen the invoice and forgot to write a check. they weren’t trying to get away with not paying or to get a free product. It just slipped their mind. But to me these checks were my life source that would feed my family, so why wouldn’t they remember to pay me? I have become more bold as time has passed, realizing that everyone else has bills and priorities, and my invoices aren’t always on the top of Their list. There were a few months there that the bank account was negative and I had $20,000 in unpaid invoices floating out in the ether that I knew were comming but I didn’t know when. That doesn’t happen anymore.
Contact Info:
- Website: kidgiantfilms.com
- Instagram: Kidgiantfilms
- Facebook: Kidgiantfilms
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/kid-giant/
- Twitter: Kidgiant
- Youtube: Kidgiant
Image Credits
Daniel Rheame