I never really think of ourselves as marketers. It’s not my field of study, it’s not even really an interest of mine. Our work comes from a different place. If I had to distill it, I would say we are “putting out the good word.”We’re not selling a bottle of ketchup or a pair of sneakers, we’re making material that fundamentally alters people’s life paths.
The friends they meet, the people they marry, the universities they attend, the countries they travel to. The school you attend becomes the foundation of the life you go on to lead. This is quite a weighty thing to realise. When this insight reached me it stopped me in my tracks and I almost wanted to hang up my spurs. Who am I to carry this degree of responsibility?
Well, I’m a passionate product of boarding school myself. I’m a great lover of learning, I’m an attentive listener and I have a skilled ear for picking up the nuance of what I’m being told. I was born with various gifts and talents that have made manifest in the shape of film, photo and music making.
I could hang up my spurs and dedicate myself fully to making my own films, but there’s something that keeps me from diving in the deep end. I didn’t quite know what it was at first. I know now it to be much simpler than I thought: I love working for schools.
I believe in young people. I see the good in them. I see the promise and excitement in their youthful smiles. Through this context of life that we call The Film Guys, I get to work closely with young people and show them a side of themselves they might have never realized they have.
We make big screen actors out of everyday kids. We bring beautiful, intentional and storied communities to life on the screen in a way that I have yet to see any other company do.
We have embedded ourselves in a number of communities now, and have been invited back to a variety of them as well. There are dozens of schools around the world that I can safely call home. Places where I would be greeted with a warm embrace of great gratitude for the effects of our work.
For the schools we revisit, we’re often inundated with students telling us “that video is the reason I chose this school”, and each time I hear it, it humbles me.
We’re not selling bottles of ketchup, we’re selling life paths, and I take that responsibility with all my heart.
