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Meet Noah Mittman of Snowman Films in Lakewood/Central Denver

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Noah Mittman.

Noah, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Take a journey with me back to 2006.

I am a 16-year-old teenager in Moraga, California with too much energy, who hates high school and has a burning love for movies.

The kind of love that on a Saturday I ride my bike over to blockbuster fueled by the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack on my walkman jammed uncomfortably in my pocket, pick up five movies, a sandwich and a vanilla coke, come back home and watch all five back to back. Perfect day to me.

I’m watching The Matrix DVD and there is a behind the scenes featurette showing how the movie was made. It transports me onto the set of the action movie, and I see that there were a bunch of people working on this movie.
I am chewing my turkey and mayo sandwich, in our family room with the blackout curtains all the way down, our Aussie Shepard Alma laying at my feet and my eyes get wide. I take a sip of soda and I realize it takes lots of people to make movies, I realize this can be a career path. I want to be a filmmaker.

I feel this energy in my chest, my heart starts beating faster and my mind starts racing faster than normal. I have to stand up. I walk around the room as a helicopter on a crane surrounded by cameras around shows on the tv. All I want is to film cool shit. I get a canon Handycam for my 17th birthday and the creative journey begins.
From there, I just start filming everything I can. I see a video of David Belle on YouTube doing parkour and immediately make my first parkour video. My first parkour video: https://vimeo.com/195488030
I move to Denver in 2007, find a local gym that has parkour classes and becomes the filmmaker for the group of friends I’m training with. Denver Family Parkour group shenanigans: https://vimeo.com/196479695
I start film school a couple of years later but never finish it because of finances.

I am filming in 2012 with my friend and mentor Brian Taylor making a movie for him called Something Different: https://vimeo.com/36525071

He tells me that I’m good enough at filmmaking to do this professionally, I get excited and I immediately jump in with both feet.

I found Snowman Films LLC that same year and get my first couple gigs shortly after. I get to travel to Nashville for one of my first jobs with a client who I still work with today. My first real gig: https://vimeo.com/61694700
Since then, we have only grown. Now, seven years later, I have a family with my wife Lexi. My son Grayson was born in 2017 and my daughter Autumn was born in 2018. With having my family now, Snowman Films has really focused on revenue and sustainability so I can support and provide for them with my art and expertise. We nearly 10x’d the business this past year and achieved $90,358.40 in revenue. We’ve learned the ins and outs of making accessible, cinematic video content. In other words, we are really good at making passionate, talented people look good on video.

Here is our current 30-second commercial: https://vimeo.com/300740066
Here is a good summary of where we came from and where we are today: https://vimeo.com/343429850

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?
It has been both the bumpiest road imaginable and yet still drivable because I’m following my passion and purpose.

Being a filmmaker is a really hard career path, like seriously if you don’t love it you will quit early. I got a tattoo a few years ago on my forearm that is a camera shutter and it stands for my commitment to make the majority of my income only through being a filmmaker. I’ve come up with a lot of creative ways to make money as a filmmaker, and that commitment is what keeps me on track.

So why is it a bumpy road? For one thing, film is subjective. Everyone has their own opinion about what they like and what they will pay for. So, making films and videos in my specific style and voice is the only way to move forward. I have to hope that potential clients like my style enough to want to work with me. That’s the first bumpy part. Secondly, I didn’t go to business school, I went to film school. Film school teaches you how to make movies. Film school doesn’t teach you shit about how to actually get work, how to run a production company, what your rates should be, nothing is covered about how to survive once you get out of school. So, for all of this, I had to teach myself, and that education continues to this day. I learned by trial and error, and literal blood, sweat, and tears. All of those liquids have come out of my body during this journey.

Now, for the kind of drivable part of the bumpy road. Let’s elaborate on the tears part. I have cried many versions of tears during this rollercoaster ride of owning my own production company. I’ve cried sad tears when I’ve delivered finished videos and a client just decides not to pay me, god it punched the life out of me so hard. But the next day I remember my commitment, gather my teeth and my dignity, and its back to work to find another source of work to fill that loss. I’ve cried happy tears when a client payment comes through a few hours before rent is due and I get to keep this crazy journey working for another month. It gets me emotional just thinking about how many times work has come through at a time when I needed it the most to keep my family fed and a roof over our heads. Like literally so many times I’ve lost count, so the road is drivable when you follow your purpose and passion because I’m going to get a bit spiritual here, I am following the path that I’m meant to follow in this life. I am aligned with what I was put on this earth to do, so I believe that is why it keeps working. And lastly, I’ve cried happy tears when I show my work to an audience and get exactly the reaction I was going for, validating my intent and hard work with the film. This is one of the most fulfilling experiences every time it happens, having people come on a journey with you and react exactly how you want them to react.

So all in all, the struggles make my skin thicker and my fire to win hotter, and the triumphs make me realize there is no other possible way I would rather be spending my life.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
At Snowman Films, we believe that video is the most powerful way to communicate a message.
We believe that positive and purpose-driven video content that tells a story is the correct to market.
We believe that creativity is a muscle that every single person is capable of flexing, and we love helping people who help people.

We believe in empathy, hustle, creativity, excellence, freedom, family, effectiveness, positivity, and fun.
We offer affordable creative content coaching, and a video production subscription service so that more entrepreneurs and business owners can have access to the powerful and positive tool that is video. We make out clients’ businesses… COME ALIVE.

I am most proud of a few things:
1. When we get the ALL CAPS excited responses from clients after we deliver their final video to them, every time that feels amazing.
2. When we see a client using our videos to propel themselves to success. When our clients move towards and reach the goals they want and our videos were built into that process, I get a huge smile.
3. That I’ve built a company that allows me to work when I want (still pulling 60-hour work weeks, but I choose when that time is), allows me to spend time with my family and be an active part of my kid’s lives, and allows me to have fun with what I do, because that’s the point of all of this anyway.

What sets us apart from others? I think I’ll let our clients speak for me here. Here are a few of my favorite reviews about our work:

The footage and memories he captured were amazing, inspiring, and heartwarming. If you need a videographer/storyteller who knows what he’s doing and has high-quality equipment, I would highly Rekomend Snowman films! -Reko Rivera

I’ve worked with the Snowman Films team for a number of years – the finished product has never been less than breathtaking. I don’t know much about film but I know a lot about community and a lot about passion and Snowman Films captures both in a way that leaves the world moved, touched and inspired. -Gretchen Rachlis

Snowman films is so much more than your standard videographer! The attention to detail, the passion, the love for the art is apparent with each and every project Snowman Films takes on and produces. They know how to take your excitement and passion and make it their own. This is who Noah is. The videos and films he and his crew put out inspire, motivate, educate, spark laughter and bring a smile to your face and a tear to your eye. If you truly want the best who can bring your vision into a beautiful reality, Snowman Films is it!! -Dan Booth

Noah at snowman films is my go-to guy when I need a high-quality video produced on a timeline and budget. Not only does he have that knack for knowing how to set up shots, but he also is happy to provide creative input which ended up turning my projects into something even better than I had originally planned. He shoots with top of the line equipment and edits with industry standard tools like premiere and after effects. He is very easy to work with and I would recommend his services to anyone looking for a professional videographer. I have tried other video production companies without anything special to say about their skills and talent, but snowman films is really a step above the rest. Keep it up Noah! -Peter Chen

What were you like growing up?
I have Attention-Deficit Hyperactive ADVANTAGE. My mind moves quickly and I’ve been able to harness that in my adult life to become ultra-productive.

As a kid, it was not as harnessed so I was all over the place. For the first 12 years of my life, we lived in a cabin in a Californian Redwood forest in a small town called La Honda. Life was lived outside with forest adventures, banana slugs, bike jumps, and snowboarding at Sugar Bowl. We moved to Moraga, CA in 2000 and we got our first TV. I’ve loved movies my whole life and because of not having a TV for so long, going to the movie theater was a sacred experience for me, still is. The way the kids feel about the movies in the movie Hugo, that’s exactly what it’s like for me. I get transported into the story and emotions flow, I cry a lot at movies, my wife makes fun of me constantly for it.

But yeah, I’ve been really positive my entire life, even when I would get grounded I would say, “Well at least I can read Archie’s Comics in my room.” I always pushed the boundaries of what was allowed. As you saw in my first freerunning video, I jumped off the roof of my house. This happened more than once. Parkour shaped me a lot when I moved to Denver in 2007, teaching me through training about discipline, controlling my mind to focus on the task at hand so I could land on my feet, giving me community, and getting back up after I take a fall. Looking back I tip my hat to my parents for keeping me on track, I know I was a lot to handle in the early years. What am I saying I’m still a fucking handful, haha.

And again, as soon as I got a camera in my hand for my 17th birthday, I became a filmmaker and started playing. That playing hasn’t stopped yet and I’ll be 30 this year.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Photo taken by Brian Taylor, Snaps And Clicks Photography, Collage designed and assembled by Noah Mittman

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver 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.

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