Film Courage: What kind of projects does your production company specialize in?
Rory Karpf, Filmmaker: My production company has done a lot of sports
documentaries but we've done all kinds of documentaries series unscripted reality
corporate videos sometimes you do one for the meal one for the real so and and more recently our
first scripted so pretty much everything under the storytelling gamut we've done and so when you were
still employed as an employee you were setting up an LLC and getting all the paperwork ready
and yeah it's pretty easy actually I mean just go to the Secretary of State you get Incorporated
and I did that I had had some experience trying to do little side hustles when I had a job anyway
I had a personal training business or I had a fitness radio show and different things that so
I knew to get Incorporated and I had I just said if I can just match what I made at my job I'll be
fine if I could just match that salary so I had two projects set up and again it's relationships
that do people working with you are you easy to deal with are you Cooperative it's just striking
that balance because I've met filmmakers who are very talented but they don't do well in
that client relationship they don't do well with notes they don't do well and it's just being able
to strike that balance so the first year I had my production company I doubled what I made at
NASCAR which I was happy with then the following year after that I doubled that so every year I was
doubling what I was making from the previous year so it started it was going really well
and so I would say if you're going to start your own production company it's easier now than ever
but you have to have some you do have to have some infrastructure in place I had a cinematographer
that I knew and also too at the time I added I did it a lot myself I edited my own work I
directed it I produced it I wrote it in fact I don't know if I'm going too off tangent but
this one guy who had a company a full production company with a staff of 40 people
he was asking me on the book of Manning he's well who did this and I'm that was me and
he said well who did this that was me he's who's your production coordinator I'm me so
and he was asking where did you do your editing at and I just remember
talking to him on the phone I just looked over and it was a fold out card table that I had in my
gym at home that's where I did all the editing I didn't so I actually had bought a book this
might be helpful to viewers I bought a book called rework which is about why companies fail a lot in
their first five years and a lot of it is just wasted money wasted resources doing things more
for vanity they think they have to go to an office or they have to have an assistant and one of the
biggest lessons was just spend money on what you have to have and that's what I did so I worked
out of my home, kept crews really minimal, treated people really well tried to do that
so that was helpful that book what do you think some of the things that are spent on vanity aside
from I mean assistant you could say some of that's a necessity so you don't burn out because it is so
so easy to burn out yeah being on your own but but what do you think a lot of people spend on vanity
that that could be cut away well you see a lot you saw it during covid offices I mean think about how
many people started working from home during covid and realize that they don't necessarily have to go
to an office I saw it after I got divorced I have 50 custody of my kids so when I would get hired
a lot of times they would want me to come to LA and sit in the edit Suite if I was working on a
project and I would say no I'm not I'm not able to do that or I could do it every other week but this
was non-negotiable for me and you can do a lot remotely you can do I think people are catching on
now but for a long period of time it's things were still being done from 20 years ago how a producer
has to sit in the room with the editor you have to be on location you have to especially in post
just things that and and also too I've seen treating all Productions the same so a documentary
shoot is being treated the same as a commercial shoot a commercial shoot is huge I've done
commercials and there's people there who are just in charge of walkie-talkies I mean there's every
little job is one person and on a documentary you want to have a more intimate crew and especially
if you're doing something really personal and emotional sometimes you only want three people
with with the subject if that so they're different but I would see some people applying that same
commercial mentality to a documentary so those are some of the things I've seen money being wasted on
how did you assemble your team and what are some of the qualities you look for in your
collaborators that's a good question I assembled my team by people I've worked with previously
at the NFL and NASCAR cinematographers audio editors so I would say it's twofold
Talent is important obviously but to me not as important as being low maintenance I can't
I can't stress how important that is you want people that are going to go with the flow I'm
looking for Bruce Lee to be on my crew be water you conform to The Container because production
is constantly changing it's not accounting or doing life insurance you go out there especially
in documentaries but in scripted to what you think is going to happen that day and what happens or
usually they don't line up all the time so you want to be with people that can be flexible and
that you want to spend time with in a van driving down the highway so I and not everybody may agree
with this but I would rather have somebody let's say that is an A-minus cinematographer but I
really and puts me in a good mood to be around than someone who's an A-plus and a huge pain in
the behind that's me because to me life is short and I have to spend time with these people and I
want to get a I want to get along with who I work with I don't look at it work and personal to me my
work is personal because I'm spending my time and it's it's time I could be doing anything else so
I would say the people I work with are my friends genuinely and when it comes to documentaries some
people have and I've heard this been said and to me by the way don't be friends with your
subjects don't be friends you’ve got to keep that distance and I see the argument in that but also
I think when you're friends with someone you develop trust and when someone trusts you they're
more willing to be open and I look at being friends that sometimes you have to tell someone
hard truths so it doesn't mean you're going to sugarcoat things and and I think you just can
get a better working relationship when you are friends or at least friendly with the subject
and I just did my first scripted feature and we had our premiere at the Santa Barbara film
festival and my parents came and my the one thing that that touched me a lot was
that my dad said “Boy, everybody that you work with really likes you and they really
seem they're your friends,” and I was great that's awesome because I want to be that way
with the actors the crew and all that so I try to hire people that I get along with.