Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
I am a Film/Television Producer and a Talent Manager. I love what I do. I want to help recreate the magical feeling I felt leaving the movie theatre as a child for a new generation. I love that when done well, films have the ability to transport you out of whatever you are experiencing in your everyday life and place you into something magical. I love that they are able to teach people things and inspire them. And this is what pushed me into Producing, I want to be able to help recreate all of this for a new generation.
As for being a Talent Manager, I really enjoy working with actors. I love helping them analyze and map out where they want their careers to go and help them take the necessary steps to achieve them.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
One of the things that make me different from everyone else in the Industry is that my background is in Economics and Finance. This has actually helped me a lot as it has allowed me to analyze and look at situations differently than most people. It gave me a lot of experience working in a dynamic industry processing a lot of constantly changing information and having to make quick decisions based on it. It is one of the reasons why I think that working on set came so naturally to me because a lot of the skills I had to use were very similar to the ones I had to use in Finance.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
That moment for me was definitely my first day on a film in Budapest. I was brought on to help the Director a few days after Production had already begun to help arrange logistics and make things more streamlined. The Director was basically turning up set and having to delay shooting by 3-4 hours as nothing was ready to her specifications so it essentially became my job to ensure it was everyday. Some crew members were so outraged by this that they sent emails complaining to production about how hiring me was a waste of time and would not achieve anything. Having come from the world of Finance, I like to think I have a tough skin and remained unfazed by the this. The first day ended up going so well that those crew members came up to me at the end of it and apologized and thanked me and said that they were really happy that I was going to be on for the first of the shoot. This was the moment where I realized I was doing what I was born to do.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
For me one of the biggest challenges I have had to face is entering this Industry and not knowing a single person in it. There is a saying in this Industry that “it is not about what you know but rather about who you know”. And while I do not completely agree with this statement, I have found that it is true to a certain extent. From my experience is you do need to have a solid foundation in the technical aspects of this field but after this it is a lot easier to get opportunities if you know someone that can give you a referral rather than applying through a website. I overcame this by reaching out to as many people as I could including people that I did not even know through platforms such as LinkedIn. This was extremely daunting at first because the idea of having someone ignoring my message or sounding like an idiot was so scary to me. But I found that the more I did this, the less scary it was and the better I actually got at it. I started getting more responses and to my surprise there are actually a lot of people out there who were willing to connect and give me advice and point me the direction of opportunities. This is why my biggest advice to anyone wishing to enter this field is to network as much as possible.
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could elevate your career or business? Why these specific individuals?
The first would be Christopher Nolan, I am huge fan of this work. I think all of his films are epic and are in a class of their own. His concepts are so out of this world and are always pushing the boundaries of filming and reinventing genres. The fact that he does everything for real blows my mind as well. His Dark Knight Trilogy had a huge impact on me and was one of key pieces of cinema that drove me to this Industry. I would love to know more about how he approaches filmmaking since he is also a producer on his films.
The second would have to be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, this is someone who is so inspiring to me and someone that I genuinely look up to. He is someone that came from nothing and has become one of the biggest names in the world of Entertainment today. I would have so many questions for him regarding how to navigate the industry and how to best establish my presence and my brand so he would definitely be at the top of the list. He is so intricate with everything he does that I would just have a million questions from him and would try to learn and soak up as much as I can from him.
The third would be Tom Cruise as he is someone who has been a force to be reckoned with in this Industry for the better part of five decades and someone who is always innovating and pushing the envelope with what is possible in cinema. I would want to ask him what are his tips for having such a long and fruitful career and how to constantly be staying relevant and keeping audiences satisfied no matter how many years go by. He is someone that I would really love to learn from.
Drop your social media links.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hrisheek.panchmatia/?hl=en