We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful the owners of Chateaux Rouge Cinema. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carly below.
Carly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?
The world of freelance film creatives can be a harsh, daunting, and unforgiving landscape. There is a line in the sand; one side is you, the creative, and the other is your client. When you provide an innovative service, you must understand both sides of the playing field, The creative aspect, and the business. Creative freelancers should always strive to improve their work and trade. However, skill alone and fancy equipment won’t get you your first client or any client, especially if your network is lacking. One must ask themselves if one genuinely cares about the success of someone else’s business. How will your services assist your future clients in success, whatever that metric maybe? Deep down, you must care genuinely; the client can determine if you’re trying to make a sale or use your creative skills to help them succeed. Here is how we got our first client. We ate at a local franchised sandwich shop named Cheba Hut BR. We ate here often, the service was excellent, and the food was out of this world. We would come to eat here weekly, and one day we had a discussion amongst ourselves that this shop has to stay here forever, selfishly. We loved it so much that we feared ever seeing it disappear, as the previous two location owners had little success. So we started polling friends and loved ones to ask if they ever tried Cheba Hut or heard of it. We would get an astounding NO. To us, this was unacceptable, and we knew through the power of film production this fantastic good sandwich shop could be boosted to being a local household name through the commercial production medium. So we approached the owners one day and pitched them to be a beta client. A beta, what? In the creative world, you need a portfolio to get work and show what you can do. If you don’t have a portfolio, you can’t get clients. We pitched to create a commercial for them free of charge; if they disliked it, they lost nothing but time speaking with us. They ended up loving the commercial, our crew, our professionalism, and our love for their brand, so they hired us for a paid production a few months later.
Carly, 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?
We are Chateaux Rouge Cinema, a Louisiana-based full-service production company. “At Chateaux Rouge Cinema, we believe that genuine storytelling is the key to connecting businesses with their target audience. Our team is dedicated to creating powerful, authentic content showcasing your brand’s unique personality and message. We promise to craft compelling stories that engage and inspire your audience with every project, delivering results that exceed your expectations.” We started this business as freelance creatives who acquired the knowledge and skills to grow a small community of similar creatives who teamed up to take on significant projects, such as our clients. We are experts in crafting authentic and compelling stories that connect businesses with their target audience and inspire meaningful change. We provide Picture & Motion campaigns that do away with common one-off videos but instead projects that involve taking photos and videos in large quantities vs. a single video. This general idea applies to categories such as Explainer videos, Testimonials, Music Videos, Campaigns, Documentaries, and more. We are extremely proud of ourselves and our team. We would like potential clients to understand that we put you and your struggles first; this way, we both succeed by truly understanding the core issues at play.
If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?
Not only is Chateaux Rouge Cinema a full-service production company capable of executing commercials, mini-docs, short films, and short-form content. We are also a production company that owns a film studio in Baton Rouge, LA. As filmmakers and creatives, we have seen big and small budgets and are community-driven first. Our film studio was created for small creatives, brands, and businesses who don’t have the extra allowance to spend on a location to do their video or photography marketing. We opened our studio to be an affordable option for content creation that bypasses the many permits, insurance, and fees that come with booking locations primed at video/photo creation. This levels the playing field for brands, no matter how big or small, allowing equal opportunity to market your band without limitations.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Marketing is tied to value. You must provide value to others, especially in today’s age. Social media is the perfect playground for such endeavors; how does one provide value? When it comes to service-based businesses, you can provide value by teaching others about your industry or your processes. This can familiarize potential customers who don’t know you with your businesses before they book or schedule a call. Teaching them something of value will allow them to remember you for a long time, which will gradually push them to want to work with you in the future. It all boils down to being community-driven.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chateauxrougecinema.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chateauxrougecinema/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088565989891
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89950559/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chateauxrougecinema
Image Credits
Carly LeDay, Bryce Williams, and Maameefua Koomson