Big Mahalo to our guest speaker Jason Suapaia of 1013 Intergrated (formerly Pacific Focus) for sharing his 20 years of business experience in the Hawaii video production industry.
Jason began his video production career as a tape operator in the Pacific Focus machine room at night while also working another day job. He worked his way up from running tape dubs to running the entire company as a partner and president. Being the president of the state’s largest production company, Jason has learned a lot not just about the technical aspects of being on set or in an edit, but even more importantly, how to build and run a sustainable business.
When I first got into the production side of things, I knew that there were hardware costs like cameras, lenses, lights and computers, but there are so many other factors involved in running a business. Jason discussed everything from business insurance and film permits to craft service and customer service.
Some of the key points discussed were:
1. Budgets Estimates and Rates
2. Customer Service
3. Professionalism
4. Caring for your Crew and Vendors
5. Accounting
As always, we had some toys to play with. Thank you to Banzai Media for loaning us your RED Scarlet for the night to play with and Enlight Studios for shooting event coverage of the night.
And thank you to Berad Studio for bringing out your Sony FS100 and Canon 5DmkIII cameras.
Mahalo as always to HQ HNL for hosting our event. Looking forward to the next one in March.
