Today we’d like to introduce you to Gustav Wilde.
Gustav, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My love for film was fostered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while studying Philosophy and Communications. I have always been filming various things with my friends growing up, but never considered it a career path until joining Student Television in College. I quickly climbed the ranks and was producing my own late-night sketch comedy show for the student television cable that I also served on the board of directors. Upon graduating, I immediately considered moving to either LA or ATL. Atlanta was the sensible option since it had more opportunity and less competition.
I moved to Atlanta and found an editing job for an inspirational TV talk show. The producer quickly became my mentor and still is to this day. He gave me my first freelance client which eventually became my production companies first client.
My passion is storytelling and getting a message out to a large audience. Video is fascinating because it is composed of many different art forms: Graphic design, music/composition, framing and lighting of photography, just to name a few.
My goal is to direct films you watch in the movie theater. My path to achieve that goal consists of producing quality videos to help other people achieve their dreams such as promoting their businesses, or teach people a skill that they want to share, capture a wedding day that will be remembered forever, or live stream an event someone spent the last year organizing. Our clients are wide ranging, but the diversity keeps me interested and motivated. We produce many “passion projects” such as our short films, comedy sketches on YouTube (user: birdsonawiretv) and video workshops we call “InCogito”
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road has been far from smooth. Anyone will tell you it is not easy to be an entrepreneur or everyone will do it. The hardest part is starting a business debt-free. We have not used any loans or given any equity to an investor. I literally started with one camera and worked as many jobs as I could until I could buy a microphone. Once I got a mic, I worked until I could afford a light set and so forth. Today we have everything we need to film just about anything we want. It has been a long journey but we are proud of the progress we have made thus far. If it was an easy journey, the progress would not be as special as what we have seen!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a video production company that specializes in lifestyle video. That is a term we use because we have such a variety of clients. From a broad perspective we do Live Video, Promotional Video, Educational Video, & Film.
Our live clients are often large corporations that need to communicate internally in “town hall” meetings. We will stream the CEO, or oftentimes some executive, that will broadcast his message internally to the company. We also stream live events and performances.
Promotional videos are mostly small to medium sized businesses that want to get their message to more people. We think outside the normal run-of-the-mill standard videos and produce our projects so they easily stand out from the rest. Often with humor, cinematic filming, motion graphics, storyline/narrative or incorporating experimental elements to the final product (or any combination of the above!)
Educational clients are often specialists in a certain industry. They are tired of teaching classes or being booked for shows. They prefer to film their lessons and sell them so they are much more efficient with their time. We also produce educational content for ourselves while we hope to inspire future filmmakers with our InCogito series where we introduce budding videographers the basics of creating quality content.
We are an entertainment company, and what we are most proud of is our entertainment projects.
We have many short films and web shorts to our name and continue to add more as time progresses. We are excited to begin our first feature length film by shooting this winter!
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was very concerned with my college application. I had an involved role with everything I could be a part of including school government, sports, church, community groups, etc. I was always more interested in creative projects and not so organized (my room was always a wreck). Soccer and swimming were a big part of my discipline and they taught me that hard work pays off. I have a very supportive family that always encouraged me to aim high and taught me self-worth. I loved the theater and participated in our community theater growing up. A lot of my childhood was in western North Carolina, so I have a great appreciation for the outdoors.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2144 Hills Ave, Suite D2 Atlanta GA 30318
- Website: www.gocogito.com
- Phone: 404 300 9510
- Email: info@gocogito.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/cogitoatl/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/CogitoCreative/
- Twitter: twitter.com/gocogito
Image Credit for Gustav’s photo under headline: Casey Jones
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
