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Issue #81 – Student Successes

Weekly Newsletter

by L. Swift and Jeff McQ

 
Student Successes


When RRFC gets you learning on the job, you gain the tools and skills to forge your own path, and even launch your own business! Read below about a Film Connection graduate who went from having no prior film experience to launching his own film production company in a few short years!

Student Successes

Intersecting business and creativity: Film Connection graduate
Taylor Giddens starts his own production company

   
Taylor Giddens

Taylor Giddens

When we caught up recently with Film Connection graduate Taylor Giddens, he was finishing up some invoices for his Atlanta-based production company, Kelly Productions. “Making sure my editor and my team are on schedule for our project, so just kind of doing some paperwork tonight,” he said.   Seems difficult to believe that just a few years ago, Taylor was an early 20-something with a dream to pursue a film career, but zero film experience whatsoever. In fact, Taylor says it was his wife who first encouraged him to jump into a film career.   “She told me just to try it,” he says. “Worst case scenario, it doesn’t work out. You don’t want to have any regrets of not even trying it at all. So, she pushed me over the edge, and I just jumped into it.”   Taylor began searching out film schools but came up short, at first. “They were all pretty pricey and required me to move away,” he says, “and I already had a pretty well established business that I had started in Atlanta.”   When he discovered the Film Connection, Taylor knew right away it would be a great fit, not only because he could learn hands-on with a real filmmaker, but also because he could do his apprenticeship without having to leave Atlanta. “I’m the kind of person that if I want to learn something, I’ll go out and do it myself,” he says. “That’s why I liked the Film Connection…you teach yourself with a mentor. Instead of sitting in a classroom all day, you’re actually hands-on.”   Even so, Taylor says that for him, having no prior experience, the learning curve was a little steep at first. He recalls the early days working on-set with Film Connection mentor Carl Millender of Starmaxx Media:   “When we first went on set, I didn’t know a lot of terminology,” he says. “So it was a huge learning curve when someone was like, ‘Hand me this, or hand me that. Or can we do this? Let’s do this shot.’ And I didn’t know at all what was going on…I was trying to fake it but without looking like an idiot and trying to learn.”   Before long, Taylor says he caught on, and before he was finished with his apprenticeship, he was even assistant directing on some of his mentor’s projects. His learning experience went far beyond just the camera work. “I learned more about how to, and how not to, run a set, how the process goes,” says Taylor, “how to do stuff in preproduction while you’re shooting in postproduction, the dos and don’ts.”   1008513_10151630767511544_14751182_o When he graduated from the program, already having some prior business experience, it seemed a natural next step for Taylor to take his newfound skills and start his own production company. Today, he stays busy with a variety of projects, ranging from commercial, corporate and wedding videos to creative projects. “If it has anything to do with a camera, I’m ready to go,” he says.   Along with the corporate and commercial projects which keep the bills paid, Taylor continues to create a number of short films while raising money for a feature-length film. Since launching his company, Taylor now has several high-quality shorts to his credit—the latest of which, a fan film called Breakfast With Clark, placed second in the Superman Fan Film Festival. “We’re really proud of that one,” he says. “We had a lot of fun with that.”   As he continues to build his career, Taylor looks forward to a day when creative films can take up his whole schedule. “I’d love to be producing films 100% of the time, but that’s a very lengthy process,” he says. In the meantime, however, he’s finding the intersection of business and creativity by taking a more creative approach to the projects he does for clients—a tactic which is also helping him compete in the growing Atlanta film industry. “We’re trying to establish ourselves as not just, ‘Hey, we’re not just gonna show up and shoot it,’” he says. “We’re like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna do a training video, but how can we do it in a creative, fun, cinematic film way?’ And that’s helped us out a lot.”   As for his wife, Kelly, who first prompted him to pursue a career in film—Taylor says she continues to be a huge support, and the company is named after her.   “She’s kind of like the mother of the production company,” he says. “She cooks all the food, and she likes having people over, so we’ve shot some films at our house and on our property, our neighbor’s house, or have used our house for the base of the shoot, for base camp. She’s been very supportive, and sometimes she’s more supportive of me than I am of myself.”     A few years ago, Taylor Giddens had only a dream. Today, thanks to the hands-on training he received with the Film Connection—not to mention the support of his wife—Taylor is establishing a successful film career. Not bad for a guy with no previous experience.   “In a few short years,” he says, “…Yeah, I believe that I’ve come a far way.”  




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