Hey! I’m Calum! Well, those three months have flown by! In October 2021, I left the world of freelancing to become a Director/Producer at Coolbox. I took the decision to move away from the world of freelancing for a number of reasons, a global pandemic and the uncertainty that comes with that for one. However, the main reason was that it was a great opportunity to join a company that creates incredible video content, based in the centre of Manchester and to come into a job role with a lot of responsibility.
Over the course of the three months, this is one of the things that I have loved the most about being a part of Coolbox. I have been given a lot of responsibility, from writing project proposals, dealing with budgets, being the point of call for client communication, directing and producing on shoots and being trusted to take charge of my own shoots. This has already made me feel like an important and valued member of the team.
Literally during my first week on the job, we were out on two shoots, one all the way down in Chichester, which gave Marc and I the chance to bond over our love of beer, and one slightly more local in Nantwich. Personally, I love being thrown in at the deep end and having these two shoots within the first week of the job was a great opportunity to learn how to use a lot of video production equipment that I’d always wanted to film with. This included the Sony FX9, the Ronin RS2 Gimbal and a bunch of Aputure lights. Another personal highlight was being given the responsibility to take charge of my own client project. A company restructuring firm, Kroll, got in contact for a promotional video. Initially, I worked closely with Marc to work out the logistics and creative for the project and then I put all of this information into a proposal, including budget, for Kroll to look over. I went down to their London offices for a site visit and then a further two days, including an overnight stay, for the shoot days.
Finally, and quite recently, Marc and I worked on a promotional film for a new drinks brand called Sipful. This was done in the studio at Coolbox HQ against a coloured backdrop and is a style of video content that I have wanted to do more of but in the past, never had the means or need to. We spent a day in the studio, creatively working through ideas and putting them into practice. Overall it was a really enjoyable project to work on and very creatively fulfilling.
I think one of the best things about the job role I’ve found in the first three months is that there are a lot of different facets to it, which to be fair, is often the case in video production. I know people are always saying that “no one day is the same”, about their job but I really do believe that this is the case, in my case. I could be writing proposals and budgets one day, directing and producing on set another day and jumping on edits the next. It’s never boring, which I think for a creative person, is key. In saying this though, the working environment at Coolbox isn’t tense or frantic, which again, lends itself to optimising creativity. There’s also a dog in the office. Need I say more?
So then, the future. I’m really looking forward to continuing to learn and develop my video production skills, especially on bigger projects that I didn’t have access to previously. I’m also looking forward to creating really dynamic, engaging and meaningful video content that our clients are excited for, but also that I’m really proud of. I’m really excited to see how this role develops as the business develops and grows!
See you on the other side,
Calum