We were lucky to catch up with Tennyson Tanner and Jonah Atkins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tennyson and Jonah, appreciate you joining us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

Tennyson – One of the most unexpected issue we faced and it really threw us for a loop and still does from time to time was that we were way underbidding projects. At one point an agency told us our quotes were so low they were laughed at and couldn’t even be shown to clients. Being from a smaller town and smaller area this caught us off guard. We always delivered what we considered to be high quality projects, but we were just used to doing it with a smaller team and on an even smaller budgets. You never imagine clients telling you, we love your work, it’s just too cheap.

Jonah – This happened to us several times. I even remember agency creatives telling us while quoting to add 10-20% onto our quotes before we submitted them. The way we processed it was that we thought, won’t everyone be happier if we do it at this price? The client saves money, the agency increases markup, we’re clearly happy with the price or we wouldn’t have quoted it. What we didn’t see at the time is that the drive is just as important as the destination. Even though we were delivering high quality projects, the clients were more comfortable when we could bring on a couple extra guys to help the shoot days run smoother.

Tennyson – It also allows us to focus more on creative and on the client during shoot days. In the past we were juggling 5-6 roles each on a shoot, where as now we have an additional 5 or 6 guys there, so we can really focus on composition, performance and collaboration with the agency creative when needed.

Jonah- Quoting projects is still difficult. Luckily we have garnered a reputation with clients where they trust that we’re not trying to take advantage of them, or make our year on one project. So, in a lot of circumstances they’ll be upfront with where they would like the budget to fall.

Tennyson Tanner and Jonah Atkins, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Jonah – Guerrilla Film functions on a couple different levels. We’re a directing duo, a production company, a post-house to some extent and in special circumstances we’ll offer collaboration on creative direction.

Tennyson – We started out just collaborating with agencies on smaller projects, which gave me time to feel out where I wanted to function. I really enjoy director of photography and directing. As we started to grow and get into larger projects, we initially focused on working as a directing duo and on post production as we really like to see projects to completion when the opportunity is there.

Jonah – Where Tennyson is gifted is definitely in visual story-telling and creating a shot. I gravitate more toward producing and directing. I don’t have near the eye that he does, but have picked up quite a bit from working with him. Our ideal projects now are really projects where we can collaborate with a creative agency, produce, direct an do post. Production has become a larger part of the business especially as we move into larger projects and we love to oversee that as it gives us a chance to really direct the entire piece and give 100% of our focus to that project, which in our eyes insures a better outcome.

Tennyson – We chose the name Guerrilla Film for a reason, we do things a little differently. We flex up and down to a projects need and are open to varying tactics to make sure we deliver the outcome that we promised within the parameters of the clients budget. We don’t just work 9-5 on a project, or just work on shoot days and pre-pro days. In most cases we’ve shot a spot at home multiple times before we ever set foot on the set. We start by photoing the angles and shots we want to get when we’re bidding, then once awarded the project we’ll pre-shoot the hole thing with iPhones, drones, sometimes even a jib and red cameras.

Jonah – On our last production, it gave our client so much comfort knowing that the spot was already shot and edited before we started. There were no questions on whether this shot or that one would work as we already had a working edit they could see, not of the same caliber, but enough to give them clear visual cues of what they would get and let them know that some of our crazier ideas would work.

Tennyson – I think that’s one of our strategic advantages is the fact that we do whatever it takes to get it done. We’ve done 24 hour days, pre-shot everything, created rigs to get shots when there wasn’t gear to get the shots we wanted. We even created camera dune-buggy to capture some driving shots years ago before the black arm was a thing.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Jonah – The best source of new clients for us has been old clients. How you treat people is so underrated. Yes, we’ve gotten clients from social media, but where we’ve made our greatest gains is in people getting promoted and/or moving to new agencies. When you work with a client, be nice to everyone there, never give anyone a reason to not want to work with you again. One area we struggle is in staying connected with people, but we see that when we do it pays dividends. You will come across people you enjoy working with, they may leave and you may not get a chance to work with them for years, but as long as they enjoyed working with you and trust your level of work, that opportunity will come again.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Tennyson – I think the best resources are other people, people that have been or are where you want to go. I’ve always enjoyed learning how things work and operate. I even enjoy reading manuals, so developing the technical aspects necessary to function in film was somewhat easy to me. The more difficult parts were navigating the business aspects, running a set, understanding client expectations. I connected with a seasoned director/photographer and operated as his director of photography on a few shoots and did post for him. This helped me see what a large set is supposed to look like and we were able to grow from that. Had we had this mentorship relationship a few years earlier, I think we’d be even light years ahead of where we are now.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.guerrillafilm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guerrillafilm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TennysonTannerCinematography/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahatkins/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/guerrillafilm_?lang=en
• Other: Feel free to send an email to [email protected] as it’s our quickest way of reply.