Today we’d like to introduce you to Bre and Kaleb Hargrove.
Bre and Kaleb, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It’s honestly very simple. Kaleb has been a film junkie since he was younger. He would watch movies with his dad constantly and he fell in love with everything about them. He was in theater all through high school and continued to be a film junkie into his college years. He had an idea back in 2014 (2 years after we got married and 1 year after our son was born) to just be a filmmaker. As it does, life happened but as He also does the Lord opened up doors for us where my husband worked and moved us to Dallas at the end of 2015 while we were pregnant with our second child.
The pastor of our church we started attending held an entrepreneurship class and the rest is history. Kaleb came home that night after attending the class and said, “We’re doing this and we’re doing it now.” We started Hargrove Studios originally as a photography and videography business, using the photography side as a way to help us build the gear that we needed for the videography side. After running it that way for 10 months we finally felt like we were in a place to cut the photography out so we could focus solely on filming weddings.
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?
Absolutely not! I’m shocked when businesses run smoothly in the beginning and we kind of expected it to be hard. We didn’t film our first wedding until 4 months after we started Hargrove Studios. It was my (Bre) sister’s wedding and we filmed it on a Canon Rebel t5i (not a great camera for filming) with one 50mm lens and a tripod. Kaleb actually rigged the tripod up on his shoulder so he had a way to steady the camera as much as possible since we didn’t have a monopod or any other gear you would typically use for filming weddings.
It wasn’t our best film but it holds such a special place in my heart because it was the way we really broke through in the beginning. We also drafted up our own contracts so that was a huge challenge in itself. We had to do a lot of research on what to include/not include for legal purposes. There was so much more to that side than we really ever knew about. All in all, we love overcoming the obstacles and sharing about them with other small business owners once we’re on the other side.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Hargrove Studios – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Hargrove Studios is a filmmaking business. Both Kaleb and I film, he edits the video, and I color grade it once it is all put together. We specialize in weddings but offer video for anything. We have been hired to film promotional videos for a local pregnancy resource center, a Dallas makeup artist, and even a brand new author who is publishing her very first book. I think we’re most proud of the fact that we’ve learned everything all on our own.
We didn’t go to film school or take any classes. We have literally learned through resources such as Wedding Film School (an online film community that teaches specifically how to shoot weddings) and honestly just our own practice. Kaleb had a crash course in editing videos on our Final Cut software and then has grown through just simply sitting down and immersing himself in the editing process. From my own experience editing photos through our Lightroom software, I figured out the color grading process for videos very quickly.
I think what sets us apart from others is how much we love film. I joke with Kaleb constantly about how he has forever ruined movies for me because I can’t sit down and just enjoy one anymore. I am always watching for cool edits and constantly trying to figure out what lens they used to film certain scenes or how we can achieve the same effect in the next wedding we film. So when someone hires us they’re not hiring someone who has a business just to make money. They’re hiring someone who is in love with filming and wants nothing more than to create a beautiful film for them to look back on for years and years to come.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We love filming weddings and telling a couples love story through that but it’s not something we plan on doing for the rest of our lives. Our forever goal is to turn Hargrove Studios into a full-on production company. Our love for movies has led us to want to create, direct, and produce them. We are filming our first short film in a few months and can’t wait to see how it turns out! We plan on attending the Oscars one day and we fully intend on winning for Best Picture.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hargrovestudios.com
- Email: HargroveStudios@gmail.com
- Instagram: @hargrovestudios
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hargrovestudios/
Image Credit:
Landon + Loren
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