2024 - An Overview
In retrospect, I’m starting my year not bound by pent-up emotions, but with a little bit of cash in my pocket, a new job, and a polished career path.
The process of my saving was already in the works, as if Jesus Christ himself put these plans into motion. In March of 2023, I officially began my freelancing career, and in January of 2024, thanks to my long-time friend and mentor, Jackson Tubbs, I solidified that dream and started hanging out with the big leagues—working as a Production Assistant on the newly announced TV show Baylen Out Loud, premiering on TLC on January 13th at 9 pm EST and 8 pm Central. So, for the latter half of this past January, Guts Media, as a company, was taking a bit of a well-deserved break, but I, as a creative, was fully invested in what I had been privileged to be a part of.
In February, things took an unexpected turn. I received an email from a local business owner regarding a commercial for their second daycare location. For the Winchester locals, the daycare is called Tee Spot Drop-in-Play. They took over the old vet clinic on the corner of Berryville Ave and Battle Ave. Off the bat, it was a pretty daunting task, but I thought about it not as a young and hungry creative but as a sure-fire businessman. I considered the people I had connected with during the two weeks of shooting Baylen’s pilot episode.
My mentor is a sound engineer, with 12 tried-and-true lav mics and the best boom arm I’ve ever seen; then there were two new faces whom I can’t wait to work with again. Tom, a DP, whom I drove to Ellicott City, Baltimore, from Charlestown, West Virginia, to see for a third camera body, was a stellar Director/DP for my first professional video project. He even put together a script in virtually 48 hours. The lesson learned here is to never give a client full creative control—there’ll be a lot of learning curves. Then there’s Madison, the AC/DIT on the pilot set, who turned out to be a pretty good storyteller and editor. After speaking with each of them and coming to terms and agreements, the ball was rolling. As Jackson would put it, I was becoming a small forest fire. The shoot itself went flawlessly, and the client loved their slice of movie magic. Voilà, the fire was lit again.
In March, I was called back to PA on some pickups for the show. For the most part, I held cute pups and showed Tom the pictures from the last shoot date. Season 1 began shooting in June of 2024, so I only had a couple of months to make a move outside the help of Jackson.
In pursuit of that forest fire, I also started taking the advice of DPs before me and joined lots of filmmaking Facebook groups. That’s where the next chapter of my freelancing journey began. I met a gaffer-DP duo, Brian and Rob from Croydon, PA, in NatGeoHappy, one of the many Facebook groups I joined. Brian needed a PA in late March for a commercial shoot in Lynchburg, VA. Tom saw the post and recommended me, along with Ramya, an Assistant Director whom I had also met briefly during the pilot. From then on, Brian and I worked right up until the time of my writing this.
Working with Brian and co. has taught me incredible things—not just about filmmaking itself but also about client and team appreciation. He’s brought me out to Southern VA twice, DC a couple of times, and even a full week’s worth of work in North Carolina, helping his team out at UNC-Chapel Hill this past October. This led me to my part-time job search for the winter months. I went knocking at Winchester City’s door in November, and by December 7th, I became their new and first A/V specialist, responsible for all things video-related. I’m just now settling into the position, but my first few weeks haven’t been bad at all.
Unless you’re on a long-term project, you’re looking at a typical net 30 payment schedule, meaning you get paid 30 days after the work has been completed. Most of the industry is okay with that, and I am too—it makes sense. Though in a world where not everything does, having a boss who looks out for you and takes care of you is everything in this industry. Shoutout to Brian, Rob, Davey, and the 360 Digital Studios crew. It’s amazing to work for such a great group of individuals and teams alike.
Shooting a season of any show was something I had never dreamed of, let alone done before. Showing up every day and being around Baylen, the cast, and the crew was a gift. As a person who openly struggles with Tourette Syndrome, she is a walking embodiment of the “you can do it” mentality. There have been so many times on set when I’ve felt compelled to simply say, “Thank you, Jesus,” because the amount of strength it takes to go on national television, tell your story, and tell it proudly is unfathomable in the culture of social media. I love that Baylen defined her narrative and encouraged so many people to do the same. I couldn’t have made it through without the help of familiar faces like Jackson and Dev, who hired me the first time around, as well as the kind and patient folks I met on the first day of Season 1: JB, Jack, and Taylor. Thanks, boys, for keeping it light and showing me how to use a carabiner. A big thanks, especially to Michael Levitt, for shouting out my mom at the dinner table back in January and giving me the chance to be on your show.
Along with all of this, I was also booking clients and shooting personally. Lightroom says I shot 10,000 photos this past year. I know for a fact lots of those photos were from events my mom hosted and planned, maybe one or two concerts, and a few portrait sessions for local talent. I booked three weddings in total this year, one of those being a video project back in April. Around this time, I had also been planning Lem and Lilly’s wedding, set for this past August, as well as being a contender for the late July wedding of Breanna and Thomas. Helix and Lem were the most supportive this year, brothers booking me back-to-back for different projects—video and photo alike. Guts Media wouldn’t have survived the year if not for these two trusting me with their whole hearts.
2024 has been nothing short of a legitimate miracle. I truly have no one else to thank except for Jesus Christ himself. I ended 2023 on some pretty shaky terms with myself, working through all the hurt I was feeling. I looked at photography and cinema with puppy-dog eyes, begging to be saved—and for once, I was.