Meet Zack Tzourtzouklis of Wave Film Production

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zack Tzourtzouklis.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Zack. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I attended the University of North Texas and ultimately decided not to major in film. Going to film school didn’t seem to be a determining factor in the success of most of the filmmakers who I looked up to and I knew that a film degree wasn’t the most marketable degree in the world. I also couldn’t help but wonder if I would even be as passionate about filmmaking in four years as I was then.

So I decided to go the business route instead and majored in finance so that no matter what I would have a degree that was versatile.

Throughout my four years in college I never lost focus on growing as a filmmaker. I was always working on a short film and creating various videos. I was really lucky to stumble upon the student-ran UNT Short Film Club in its very early days. The downside of not majoring in film was that I didn’t know any other aspiring filmmakers at UNT. When I joined the short film club not only did I learn a LOT about the craft and the industry but I also gained a network of peers that I still work with to this day and who have become great friends of mine.

After college I got a full-time job as a financial analyst for an auto insurance company in Plano, knowing that I had no intention of working there long-term. I was more certain than ever that I wanted to be a filmmaker. I ended up working at this job from August 2015 to April 2016– saving up money and coming up with a plan to start my own video production company. Essentially, I just decided that I needed to take the plunge.

Quitting my job was definitely scary, but not nearly as scary as the thought of getting lulled into the comfort and security of a job that I didn’t care about until it was too late for me to take a risk on doing what I actually wanted to do. That’s how I knew I was making the right decision. The real risk was staying.

Now my full-time job is running my production company and doing some combination of producing, shooting, directing, and editing various video projects for clients. Having more control over my schedule has also allowed me to utilize more of my time to work on creating my own films.

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?
Building my business has definitely been a slow, difficult process. It’s not as easy as saying “I’m going to quit my boring job and follow my dreams and everything will be great!” It wasn’t like I was able to seamlessly transition straight into a successful career in video production and filmmaking. I’m still making that transition now at 18 months in, but to think about where I am now versus one year ago is kind of wild.

The first few months were especially challenging; starting a business from the ground up and landing those initial projects that you can then begin to build off of. That’s when your belief in yourself is tested the most. I had never started a business before and I had never done projects on the level I knew I would need to in order to make it work. But filmmaking is essentially a language and I’ve been confident in my fluency of that language for a while now. That’s what helped me through that period, the deep-rooted belief that I had what it took and I just needed to execute on that potential while continuing to grow. And I anticipate that this is what will help me to continue reaching new levels over the next decades.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business — Wave Film Production — is a video production company located in Dallas, TX that specializes in the production of a range of commercial projects, music videos, and wedding videography.

I own and operate the business by myself and have a small group of filmmakers that I’ve been working with for years who are a part of the production team on a project-by-project basis. Simply put: We are a team of filmmakers making cinematic, story-driven content.

I think that’s the important thing sets us apart from many others: a ‘team of filmmakers.’ We approach our commercial, music video, and wedding projects with the same mindset as when we’re working on an actual film project. From a creative standpoint I think it’s all the same thing at its core. Our job is to communicate a feeling/emotion/story via the visual language of film. Everything else is secondary.

What were you like growing up?
I became fascinated by movies at a very early age. We watched a lot of movies in my family and frequently had “movie nights.” Looking back, it’s kind of funny how long it took me to realize that I actually wanted to be a filmmaker.

I was really into fiction books when I was a kid and even attempted to write a few books myself (let’s just say I’m very glad that those Word documents have been lost forever). But when I was reading or writing I was always visualizing how the stories would play out in a film. I was thinking about how my favorite book series could be adapted to film or TV and what the production and release schedules would look like. When I listened to music I was imagining detailed scenes that could be backed by the song or conceptualizing a music video. I loved film & television, but hadn’t yet connected the dots that this was the thing I wanted to pursue or even that it was a possibility.

My last two years of high school, I finally connected those dots. I was making my own videos and short films with a camcorder, a $20 tripod, and the help of my friends. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a video production class as an elective my senior year and couldn’t have asked for a better teacher to help lay the foundation of my knowledge and skillset.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
A big thing is the passion I have for what I’m doing and my drive to always try to do it better. That’s sort of the center of everything. It means that it’s completely automatic that I’m going to put everything I have into a project to make it the best it can be. But I don’t think it’s merely enough to be passionate and talented at something. There’s the reality that you still have to be very practical and strategic about how you’re going to constantly get better at your skillset and advance your career to new levels. I try to stay disciplined with how I structure my workdays by building my work habits around routines that will maximize my consistency. I do my best to value long-term thinking over short-term. I’ve been working on a feature-length documentary film for a little over a year now and I’m in the early stages of conceptualizing my first narrative feature film. These two projects alone require a lot of work that I don’t get paid for in return. They’re poor investments of my time and energy in the short-term but I believe they’re absolutely critical for my future success and getting to where I want to be in 20 years. Mastering the balancing act of short-term benefit vs. long-term strategy is a big focus of mine.

Contact Info:

• Website: wavefilmpro.com
• Phone: 8172918447
• Email: zack@wavefilmproduction.com

Image Credit:
Charles Barker
German Torres

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