We were lucky to catch up with Zack Patrick recently and have shared our conversation below.
Zack, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I’ve been fortunate enough to be full time from creative work since 2018. I was in college at West Virginia University studying for a degree in National Security and Intelligence when I first picked up a camera. While in college I partnered with a local media agency to get my feet wet in the business of videography by working with their extensive list of clients in the surrounding area. This taught me a lot during this time that there is money to be made with a camera and that it doesn’t have to be just a hobby. I was fortunate enough to still be in school while learning these beginning lessons which allowed for me to make more mistakes and learn quicker while having my financial security from my student loans. After graduating with my degree I decided to take a chance on this second path and see how far it can take me. About 7 months after graduating I packed my bags and drove across the country to my new home in Los Angeles. After getting a glimpse of the work available in WV I knew that in a region like LA that if I could break into the market there and network that I could remain busy and continue to grow much faster. Although that was the idea, it didn’t start out so easy. After several months of barely being able to get work despite spending hours every day cold emailing, I was definitely at my rock bottom. I remember the morning I was putting on my shirt and tie to go serve at a restaurant after picking up a job to help manage my bills and as I was about to head into my first shift I had my first true panic attack. I couldn’t fathom that I had this big dream to move out here and make it big yet somehow ended up a server. I called out of my first day and decided that I could go a little longer with cold emailing and hope that one way or another I’d figure it out. I definitely had my fair share of months where I had to spend time driving for doordash and postmates to make ends meet, but fortunately, this plan worked out. Shortly after quitting my schedule began to pick up exponentially. I was able to start traveling a lot for work and started to regularly contract with an agency, Lens Media House. I even got to spend two weeks in Australia and New Zealand while being paid and finally felt like all my time was paying off. Over the course of the next 2 years I continued to be very regularly busy thanks to Lens Media House. This provided me, for the first time, a true sense of security in Los Angeles. I was continuing to grow my network, make new friends, and make a name for myself. To this day my greatest source of work is word of mouth. It’s important to understand that it’s not about who you know, but who knows you in this city. The only way to do that is provide value to each and every person you come across whether that’s in business or in friendship. This city keeps you on your toes and constantly can push you forward if you let it. Today, I am grateful that I have now crossed off 5 years of full time freelancing. In that growth I have shifted my focus from event coverage and music videography to refining my craft more to become a true DP and work on projects higher end, well crafted projects like commercials and documentaries. The biggest lessons I have learned out here are that this industry is endless. Both in the opportunities and the growth. There is never a dull day where there isn’t new knowledge that you can gain, and no job is the same. I’ve heard countless stories of how people think cities like LA are two dense with people in this industry but that couldn’t be further from the truth. There are so many opportunities out there that someone like me can stay busy day in and day out. I didn’t go to film school and growing up never felt like I had a creative eye, I taught myself all I know simply by ingesting more and more of what I wanted to create myself. The more I made it my life the more I grew closer to what styles and projects I wanted to create. I don’t necessarily think there was any way I could have sped up my process. As much as it would have been great to come in year 1 and somehow get everything figured out, I think that a year of figuring out myself and dealing with the financial insecurity really taught me a lot. In this industry you need to be prepared, work isn’t always constant. Some months you are so busy you don’t have any free time and the next month you have to shift due to less work days and focus on constructive tasks like spec projects, portfolio organizing, and outreach. I suppose if there was one lesson that I wish I learned sooner it would have to be the power of creating spec projects. A Spec project is the practice of funding and developing your own ideas without constraints of clients. The beauty of this is that you are free to implement whatever style you are itching to try and can move yourself closer towards the portfolio that you likely wish all your paid work was. In doing so, people will then get more of a glimpse at your capability and move you closer to the type of work you want to be doing.
Zack, 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 name is Zack Patrick and I’m 27 years old living as a DP and licensed Drone operator based out of Culver City, CA. I grew up in Northern Virginia and in 2019 made the trek out to California to pursue a career in video production. Initially I moved out with the goal of working in the music industry and touring around the world. After getting my fair share of work in that industry and living in LA I quickly realized how much more there is to it than that. My interests shifted over time from run and gun events to more higher quality visuals by utilizing talented crews within my network paired with newfound knowledge of lighting and composition. The best decision I made was to begin to focus and be more intentional with my craft vs in the event space just making sure you’re capturing what was going on. By being more intentional and methodical in my approach it has allowed me to craft images that I’m much more proud of which has been a rewarding process that has opened tons of new doors for my work.
Over the years I have had the pleasure of working with brands like Adidas, Jackery, Budweiser, and more. Two projects that I am very proud of were both fortunate enough to receive film festival selections in the US. One being a short film titled, The Art of Surfing, and the other being a documentary called, Voice of the Silent. We also just recently wrapped filming a new documentary on the sport of Downhill Longboarding which I’m super excited to get released here soon.
Moving forward in 2023 I plan to continue to invest time into spec projects including a few more commercial pieces and even break into the narrative space with a written short film. These are important to me as they continue to allow me to push my style and try new things.
Today most of my work comes from a mix of long term clients, agencies I contract with, cold outreach, and word of mouth within my established network.
My future goal is to be able to create my own production company that works on providing a diverse clientele the highest quality visuals with well crafted storytelling.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Ironically some resources that I wish I knew about earlier on in my creative journey, didn’t exist (well not all of them). I’ve come to learn that an incredibly crucial part to leveling up your work and creating higher quality pieces, comes down to pre production. The 3 main websites that I am on every single day are Milanote, Shotdeck, and Frame Set. These three websites allow me to build any new project from the ground up with the proper inspiration and planning to take what used to be small run and gun projects to well thought out and meticulously planned productions which has yielded me more work to be proud of than before.
Milanote is a project planning website that allows me to build the concept from the ground up. From moodboards, storyboards, shotlisting, scheduling, etc. It has it all. Early on when 99% of my work was run and gun event coverage this didn’t matter as much to me, but now with my shift in work planning is the most important step. This powerful tool lets you properly communicate with your client your vision for a project. You can organize moodboards that capture the essence of what you are aiming to create, you can gather inspiration from other projects that you will aim to integrate into your film, you can even build out full storyboards from templates in order to have the entire film “finished” before you even click record the day of the shoot/s.
The other 2 websites are both similar, Shotdeck and Frameset. Lawrence Sher gifted the community and incredibly powerful site, shotdeck, that allows users to source hundreds of thousands of frames along with technical information from every movie imaginable. Frameset has the same approach but from the commercial world. Both of these websites paired together give you an endless database of some of the world’s highest quality images created which allow you to fuel your pre production process to the max. You’ll be able to spend countless hours diving into different looks, colors, lenses, and styles to come together with a comprehensive plan for any project. If I’m being honest, I spend a lot of time simply navigating these sights to get inspired by some of the incredibly imagery that exists out there even without a plan of pre producing something.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
A major turning point in my career was the shift away from the run and gun social media landscape to focusing on the art of film. Originally when I started I was interested in the music industry and travel space like many others. Over time I began to care less and less about the optics of social media and the appeal of gaining traction and growing a brand on social media. When I made the realization that maybe I wasn’t gaining enough traction in my career in Los Angeles not because of my lack of social media followers but because of my lack of focus on my craft itself. I was spending too much time focusing on the numbers and optics of social media and not enough time on getting better.
Once this realization was made I began studying film more intentionally and aiming to level up my skillset. I wanted to learn more about lighting, composition, lenses and more. All the knowledge and decisions that go into crafting beautiful images that’s worth being proud of. It was very inspiring to discover a new world of possibilities and get away from what I previously was chasing. Today I feel a lot more fulfilled in that I am chasing what feels like real goals and real knowledge. I used to always think studying wasn’t for me in college and high school but realized that I was just studying things I wasn’t as passionate about. Now I spend hours every week either digesting free knowledge online or investing in courses/masterclasses to grow my craft and take my work to the next level all by choice. It’s easy for people to find satisfaction in the social media game and keep their focus there. I think in the long run it’s important to understand that your craft and your skills are what’s going to provide you a lifetime of employment and most importantly pride in your work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.zackpatrick.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/zackpatrick
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-patrick-a76232ba/
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/zackpatrick