6162 Productions Celebrates 10 Years in Business
I am excited and proud to celebrate 6162 Productions’ 10th anniversary this year! Thank you to all my clients, collaborators, and creative partners who helped us achieve this milestone.
Let’s take a look back at how it all started…
How 6162 Productions Began
As a child, I was creative and loved dressing up in costumes, putting on plays with my younger sister, and making worlds come alive through my Legos and other toys.
When I was 13, we borrowed a friend’s video camera to make a video for my grandparents who lived out of state. One day, while my parents were helping my older sister move, my younger sister and I filmed a movie about spies. I shot the whole 50-minute epic on this old camcorder, rewinding the tape every time there was a flub on set. That’s when my passion for storytelling and filmmaking was born!
Over the next few years, I wrote, filmed, directed, and starred in several amateur films and even got a couple of them screened in a movie theater. My older sister, Alaina, worked in PR and marketing, so she booked some TV and print interviews for me. When I started my business, the nonprofit Alaina worked for also hired me to do several pieces of video content over the years, and we enjoyed working together. She joined my video production company in 2022 to help with business development, marketing, and client relations (but more on that later).
I named the company 6162 Productions after my parents’ address–the home I grew up in and where I found my passion for filmmaking. 6162 is a reminder of those humble beginnings, fueling my desire to make every project just as special as the first time I hit the “record” button on the camcorder at age 13.
When I started the business, I worked on various projects to see what I liked doing. Some of these projects included weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs, which I decided weren’t for me. I produced a lot of nonprofit videos, which I did find a passion for.
My first official nonprofit client was Denver Hospice. We created the video below, which educates viewers about all the services Denver Hospice provides and shares personal client testimonials and stories.
The first big video project I ever traveled for was the American Sustainable Business Council conference in Washington DC, so that was exciting! We filmed interviews with business leaders and B-roll content during the conference and incorporated stock footage into the final product.
Some Stumbles and Lessons Along the Way
I’ve had great tenacity, hustle, and desire to get into this business from a young age. When I was 15 and looking for my first job in video production, I called about 25 production companies out of the phone book. I finally got someone to pay me minimum wage (at best) to be a camera operator on a shoot.
Building my company to expand into full-service has been a generally smooth road, but this type of business definitely has an unpredictable nature, so there have been times that it was slow and scary. Learning how to do business development in a streamlined way – building relationships and planting seeds – takes a lot of patience to make the business grow. It can be daunting and frustrating at times to go through a large number of leads and long sales processes to get clients and no one likes rejection, but I’ve always had the drive and determination to keep going because I love the work! Whether it’s discussing pre-production details or content marketing strategies for corporate videos, I’ve genuinely enjoyed working with all of our clients.
I built a strong network in Denver during the first three years of my business (plus growing up here and making film school contacts helped). I moved to Seattle in 2016 and had to add a new market while still operating a business in Denver, which was challenging, but it turned out to be rewarding and profitable. It takes a lot of perseverance to keep going and make it happen, which can sometimes be discouraging for small businesses to navigate, but it’s worth it.
Early on, I discovered that my strengths and passions lie in creative directing and producing, not filming. So I contract with expert cinematographers and videographers, rent studio space when necessary, and hire the right animators, motion graphic artists, and editors for each project. This model has not only helped grow the business and keeps costs down, but allowed me to bring together many talented individuals with years of experience to create stellar work for hundreds of nonprofits and companies around the country!
Types of Projects and Clients
At the heart of what we do, we want to support organizations and companies that are moving the needle or making a difference. That translates into high-quality video projects ranging from simplistic, animated infographics to help a donor understand a nonprofit’s fundraising initiatives (like an explainer video) to a marketing video to support a big corporation’s product launch. Whenever possible, we focus on human-centered storytelling to emotionally connect with an audience.
In our next blog post, we will showcase some of our memorable clients and projects from the past decade. Until then, you can get a taste of more of our projects on our YouTube channel.
Favorite Aspects of Running 6162 Productions
When I was 14 – shortly after I discovered my passion for filmmaking – I said my dream job was to own a production company. I’m proud to say that I made that happen and there’s so much about it I like:
I enjoy the diversity of those I work with and learning about different industries and programs that I wouldn’t otherwise get to.
It’s novel and every day is different.
I feel like I’m helping people’s efforts to get the word out about their businesses/organizations/missions/products in a creative way.
There is a lot of flexibility in my schedule, which allows me a great work-life balance.
I enjoy the ability to work remotely and travel, being a digital nomad when I want.
I am an ambitious person, so the idea that I can grow and expand is great. The sky’s the limit on how big I can grow the business. It’s always been inspiring that I can make my company what I want it to be without someone else’s constraints.
I love supporting other talented people in the video industry and collaborating, putting together different skill sets for a project, and learning from each other - from storyboarding to editing and everything in between.
It’s been so fun and rewarding to work with my sister, Alaina! We collaborated in different capacities over the years, but it’s great to officially work together to build the business and serve our clients.
Thanks again to everyone who helped us get here. To celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we are offering 10% off any new projects! Contact us to get started today.