Video production in Madison Wisconsin… Why??
April 25, 2011
In conversations with people, we are often asked, “Why have a video production company in Madison.” The follow up is usually something to the flavor of “Shouldn’t you be in California.” It’s understandable since Madison isn’t known for its video production, but its liberal hippies, cute weasels, and cellular biology. California, on the other hand, is the mystical land of movies. Wisconsin winters can sometimes start as early as October (snow for Halloween!) and continue into April (it just snowed yesterday). California, much of it, has no idea what winter is. This means we have a handful of months to shoot outside in Wisconsin, whereas Californians can do it almost year-round! That said, we don’t operate in Wisconsin because of the weather; we do it because we live here.
John and I first met at the University of Wisconsin Madison, where we were both studying Film. We started creating videos for local groups, and Backflip Films was born. We saw a need for fresh video production in Madison, so in 2007, we officially incorporated as ‘Backflip Film Productions LLC.’ Realizing this was an annoying mouthful, we subsequently registered ‘Backflip Films.’ By this time, we’d already graduated and gotten other jobs, but requests kept coming in for videos, so we kept chugging along. Shortly after, in 2008, I got married. Not to be outdone, John got married in the summer of 2009. Both our families, I now have two daughters, and John has one son, decided to stay in Madison.
Even more than the practicality, we discovered that we could create every kind of marketing we needed here in Wisconsin. From Corporate Videos to Commercial Production, Training, Live Production, and everything in between, we can make it here. We have the best technologies and talent, and we even have seasons.
Thoughts of moving to LA cross every filmmaker’s mind. For us, however, Madison is the place. Who knows, maybe we’ll make our first feature in LA. That is, as long as it’s not a movie about endless snow. On Wisconsin!
