Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Wolfe.
Hi Thomas, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I started out while studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florida. I began taking graduation pictures as a side gig and quickly ramped that up to about 100 sessions a semester. I started to get into club videography at the biggest bars/clubs in Gainesville as it wasn’t used as a marketing tool before. I spent a whole year producing two recap videos a week for the clubs. This led into Gainesville beginning to throw concerts with some big-name artists. I shot my first concert of Dombresky and then proceeded to shoot Diplo, Carnage, and many more. Last October I got my first opportunity to shoot for Decadon at Supernatural Festival in Denver, Colorado, and took it. This turned into me getting booked for Ultra, which in turn got me booked for Forbidden Kingdom, EDC Las Vegas, and many more. Fast forward to today, I’m shooting one to two festivals a month for some of the artists I grew up listening to.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It wasn’t a smooth road. What people say about this industry is you need to truly love it, or you can get burnt out easily. Staying up til 5 am, editing the next day, so the raws are ready for posting within 24 hours, long flights. It was also a learning curve; they say practice makes perfect, and it’s true. Every video I make, I get better and hone my craft more, but I will always learn new methods, new tools to work with. It’s constantly evolving, and to stay on top of all that is the fun part. Overall, I’d say I got very lucky to be at the rate places at the right time, but I deliver when those opportunities present themself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a videographer for musical artists mainly in EDM music. I mainly specialize in recap-style videos as well as raw clips of the actual set/event. I am most proud of the progress I’ve been able to make in 8 short months. I shot my first artist last October and have been able to shoot 10+ festivals. What set’s me apart is my personality and my work. When you hire a videographer, you are trusting them to capture your experience in a creative way, and you’re with them for an extended period of time, so you have to like them as a person too. My recaps are what set me apart as not many creatives specialize in recaps; they focus more on the raws. I try to tell a story with every one of my videos, and it has gotten noticed.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
It’s all about keeping yourself open and networking wherever you go. Let conversations naturally flow wherever they will because you have no idea who you’re going to meet in the artist lounge or just watching a set backstage. My biggest advice is to surround yourself with people who lift you up and are open to giving you feedback. A lot of creatives feel threatened/feel that they are giving away trade secrets if they work with others. However, I feel the greatest tool and asset you can have is the people you surround yourself with. I got myself into a collective of creatives, and we push each other all the time. This industry is all about who you know; one small opportunity can snowball into a massive one. Most important is being able to deliver quality content in a fast fashion. If you’re able to turn around content by the next day, they will continue to come back to you. Also, to everyone else, the people I work with are artists, but to me, they’re my friends. Growing that relationship with them builds the trust that you can get the content they need, and it allows them to be their true self on camera. I also am very open to any photographer/videographer that I meet either on Instagram or at a festival who asks me how I got there or has any questions. I’ve taught myself everything to this point and love sharing some of that knowledge and experience. There’s still a lot I have to experience, and next year will be a big year for me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommywolfephotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twolfephotos/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/twolfeswag/videos
