CASE STUDY BUILDINGA CAREER
LEAPOF FAITH DYNAMIC DUO
The offer of a dream commissionmeant that Sam Johnson and Chloe Robinson had tomake a snap decision to become full-time filmmakers, but neither has ever regretted taking that decisive first step
WORDS TERRY HOPE
S ometimes in life it’s easy to play things safe and to put off the big decisions, but ultimately it could mean that you’re missing out on some incredible opportunities. For Sam Johnson and Chloe Robinson, the thought was always at the back of their minds that they wanted to embark on a career in filmmaking together, but both had steady jobs and it was easier to work together on productions in their free time rather than to take on too many unnecessary risks. “That’s probably how we would have stayed for quite a while if we hadn’t have been given a push,” says Chloe. “We’d been talking about making videos together since meeting at university and had created quite a few for people we knew, and then one day, three and a half years ago, this big opportunity came up to make a film for Comic Relief. We realised that we couldn’t do the film and still continue with our jobs, so somewhat naively we decided to quit and go for it!”
For two people that were largely self- taught and who had very little in the way of equipment and contacts at that time it was a massive call to make, and the pair realised they had to hit the ground running. Their Comic Relief film, which focused on how schools might get involved with the charity by planning fundraising events, ultimately came together really well, the highlight being when it was screened during the London Palladium Comic Relief televised live show. Then the really serious work began, as they looked to build on this success and to attract the crucial day-to-day commercial work that would enable them to earn a living. “We spent the first fewmonths getting such things as our website and branding sorted out,” says Chloe, “and we needed a name and came up with The Visuals Team. This works on two levels, both as a small company when we operate as a team of two and as a larger entity
“This big opportunity came up tomake a film for Comic Relief ” for bigger projects. In terms of how we work, we decided from the outset that we would network and hire in specialists as and when we needed them. It’s the way so many filmmakers work and you get to know and trust people so that you can rely on themwhen a big job comes up. “In this industry lots of people have lots of different skills and I’ve compiled a kind of Yellow Pages of people we’ve worked with so that I’ve got a long list of contacts who we can call on. Sam and I also have experience of every role in the team and so we can be flexible in terms of what we do ourselves. There’s also the point that by recruiting a team for each job, it
38
PRO MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2018
Powered by FlippingBook