ABOUT
I got hit by a car on my bike, bought a camera with the payout, and have been doing this ever since.
01 — THE START
THAT’S ACTUALLY HOW IT STARTED
I was commuting on my pushbike when a car hit me. The payout was enough for a computer and a camera, so I bought both and decided I’d learn to film and edit.
IT’S A STUPID ORIGIN STORY AND IT’S THE TRUE ONE.
02 — SIXTY WEDDINGS
WHERE I LEARNED THE CRAFT
I started in weddings, which is where a lot of people start and where you learn fast, because there are no second takes and nobody cares about your excuses.
About sixty of them, learning stills and video at the same time. Then I stopped. Weddings taught me the craft but they weren’t the work I wanted to be doing, and I moved into business and documentary instead.
WHY I WORK ALONE
It isn’t a stage I’m passing through on the way to hiring people.
When one person shoots, directs, edits and delivers, nothing gets lost in the handover. I know what I filmed and why, so the edit starts from a decision rather than from someone else’s rushes. No brief interpreted twice, no account manager between you and the person doing the work, no job sitting in a queue behind three others.
It also means I can say yes to a Tuesday. That matters more to most clients than anything on a spec sheet.
03 — BEFORE THE CAMERA
BEFORE THE CAMERA, THE STAGE
I wanted to be an actor long before I wanted to be behind a camera. I auditioned for Scott Hicks as a young teenager, trained at Peter’s acting agency school, and spent years in amateur and semi-professional productions, straight plays, comedies and musicals.
I’ve directed plays as well, along with a lot of short scripted work.
THAT’S THE TRAINING I USE MOST. NOT THE CAMERA, THE DIRECTION.
Knowing how to get a performance out of someone who isn’t a performer is the hardest part of filming a business owner, and it’s a thing you learn in a rehearsal room rather than on a shoot.
I also went to radio school in the late eighties and did a stint on country radio, which is where the voiceover work comes from, along with years of DJing at parties and weddings.
04 — LONG FORM
WHY I TAKE DOCUMENTARY WORK
BECAUSE IT GIVES ME TIME.
Time with a person, time with a cause. A documentary might be weeks or months across different locations, meeting different people, working out how the story fits together and learning about the thing being talked about before deciding what to say about it.
That’s the part I find interesting. Long form takes a while to develop into anything good, and there’s no shortcut through it.
It also makes everything else better. A three hour interview teaches you more about structure than fifty product videos.
9
years with my longest running client
videos delivered
6
consecutive years covering the same event
THAT’S THE NUMBER I’D WANT TO KNOW IF I WERE YOU. NOT WHETHER SOMEONE CAN SHOOT, BUT WHETHER THEY’LL STILL BE AROUND IN EIGHTEEN MONTHS ONCE YOU’VE BUILT SOMETHING ON THEM.
05 — WHERE I WORK
BASED IN ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
I work anywhere in Australia.
GET IN TOUCH
Jerry Zimmer
0413 706 470
jerry@thebrandedstory.com