Exploring Life & Business with Michael Sharon of 6162 Productions

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Sharon.

Hi Michael, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born and raised in Centennial, Colorado, a suburb near Denver. I have two sisters; one who is 11 ½ years older and one who is 18 months younger. 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 videos over the years, and we enjoyed working together. In fact, she joined my company this year to help with business development, marketing, and client relations.

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.

Today, 6162 Productions is a Telly Award-winning video production company that creates mission-driven brand films that unite story with a strategy for maximum impact.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a generally smooth road, but this business definitely has an unpredictable nature of the client and cash flow, so there have been times 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.

I built a strong network in Denver the first three years of my business (plus growing up here and making film school contacts helped). Then when I moved to Seattle in 2016 and had to add a new market while still operating a business in Denver was challenging, but turned out to be rewarding and profitable. It takes a lot of perseverance to keep going and make it happen, which can be discouraging at times.

As you know, we’re big fans of 6162 Productions. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
6162 Productions is a Telly Award-winning video production company that creates mission-driven brand films that unite story with a strategy for maximum impact. We love helping brands of all sizes with creative, human-centric, authentic storytelling that conveys their vision, mission, and values. Our team is experienced in working with vulnerable populations; we are dedicated to sensitively structuring interviews and B-roll content to ensure comfortability for all participants involved with the filming process.

We thrive in collaborative partnerships, we’ve worked with many agencies on each phase of the production process. We lend our expertise in story structure/pacing all the way through the post-production stage. 6162 operates as a creative collective, giving us the ability to assemble the best team for each project and to easily scale to fit the budget and scope of the video, as well as execute quickly and efficiently. We have amazing video production talent that we can mobilize all over the country, with hubs in Denver, Seattle, Portland, New York, and LA.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
There is more user-generated content every day and the way we advertise with professional videos will probably change in terms of how we can incorporate user-generated content and justifying reasons to hire a professional. There are less people watching broadcast TV, so more marketing and advertising is moving online. There is so much content out there and it’s overwhelming. As marketers, it’s both an opportunity and challenge to figure out how to have a unique and compete against the noise.

Pricing:

• $5k-$50k and everything in between. It’s a very customized industry.

Contact Info:

• Email: michael@6162productions.com
• Website: www.6162productions.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/6162_productions
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/6162productions
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/6162productions
• Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/showcase/9143102