Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#294: Steve Giralt (Founder of The Garage) (pt. 1 of 2)
Today we released part one of our interview with visionary photographer and videographer, Steve Giralt. He combined his skill as a commercial photographer with his interest in robotics to create The Garage, a 10,000 sq ft studio in Brooklyn’s Industry City Complex, that’s fully-equipped for both photography and film shoots. Steve’s goal as a director is to push the art of tabletop cinematography forward, and empower artists to create their most innovative work.
Tune in to hear how Steve built his hugely successful production company and utilizes robots to help deliver his artistic vision and compelling story telling for top global brands such as Pepsi, Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret and the Wall Street Journal! https://www.the-garage.tv/
Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heiss and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. I'm Andy Heiss and I'm Nick.
Nick Petrella:Petrella. Steve Giralt is on the podcast today. He combined his skill as a commercial photographer with his interest in robotics to create The Garage, a 10,000 square foot studio in Brooklyn's Industry City complex that's fully equipped for both photography and film shoots and film shoots. Steve's goal as a director is to push the art of tabletop cinematography forward and empower artists to create their most innovative work. Make sure you visit his website in the show notes to see the library of commercials he's made for some of the biggest brands in a variety of industries, including Pepsi, starbucks, victoria's Secret and the Wall Street Journal. Thanks for being on the podcast, steve.
Steve Giralt:Thanks for having me, guys. It's going to be a fun one.
Nick Petrella:Why don't we start by having you give us a thumbnail sketch of your background and how you made the transition from commercial photographer to launching the Garage?
Steve Giralt:Sure, wow, let's try to keep it the short, short version for you all. I know your time is precious. Try to keep it the short, short version for you all. You know I know you'll, your time is precious. So, uh, yeah, I moved. I went to rochester institute of technology, which is part of what connected me with you all here. Um, I am still on the advisory board to the school today as well. And, um, I moved to new york city, worked as a photo assistant, uh, and then really quickly moved into being like a digital tech, as digital photography kind of took off.
Steve Giralt:A few years later I started my own studio in Manhattan doing all stills probably about 10, 15 years of doing that and then I started playing with video and filmmaking because I kind of wanted to push what I did a little more. I was getting a little bored. So that's where my interest in hobbies kind of wanted to push what I did a little more. I was getting a little bored. So that's where my interest in hobbies kind of came together, where I started taking classes in woodworking and metalworking and plastics and epoxies and electronic circuits just all these kind of weird curiosities, let's call them and it kind of came to a point where I was just like how do I bring all this new knowledge and passion I have for creating things in with the commercial work that I do and kind of also use that to pivot into video from stills? So that's where I think we'll talk a little bit later about the Burger Drop video I made it kind of was that pivotal moment and it was kind of a way of showing this is where I want to go and this is what's really interesting to me right now.
Steve Giralt:And then, shortly after that, it was just like, okay, we kind of gone down this path of creating all these systems and abilities to shoot things and, you know, revolutionary new ways using the robots and all the different mechanisms that we're creating.
Steve Giralt:And I was just like I don't want this just to be for me, I really want this to be for, you know, to help the industry in general, help other artists, you know. So that's where the idea was to start the garage as a production company that really kind of focused on artists, that could kind of do things a little differently, leverage all the tools that and innovations that we could come up with at the garage and use it as a way of playing around and really kind of pushing image making forward. And that's why it is called the garage right. It's like where we put all our tools and you go in there and you can play around and it's kind of like a safe space to kind of experiment. Bring some friends over, have some beer, you know whatever, and you know, and really kind of you know, not be scared to fail and just try something new it's great that's really cool.
Andy Heise:Um, can I ask you about the studio? You said you ran your own studio for 10 to 15 years doing primarily stills. What was that? What was the nature of? What was the nature of that work?
Steve Giralt:so it started out being mostly editorial working, for I did a lot of, uh, food network, ray magazine, gourmet, like a lot of that food and lifestyle kind of magazine work. And then that shifted into catalog, doing a lot of stuff for Victoria's Secret, johnson, murphy, like caviar brands and you know, a lot of catalog work was just like a little kind of steady, consistent work, um, but kind of had like a cap to how far I could go. Right, I was only one person. You know we only do so many shoots in a day and that just kind of got easy to me. You know, for lack of a better word, godiva, chocolate we did all their catalogs for a while too. And then, um, yeah, that was. And then we got into advertising right, so it was more high-end brands, a lot of what you see now in video that I was doing in stills for like the Pepsi-Cos and the Hershey's and all of that. So it was kind of a progression from editorial through catalog into advertising.
Nick Petrella:And would you say you do more video now?
Steve Giralt:Oh, a thousand percent. Yeah, oh, a thousand percent. Yeah, I, you know it's rare that I do just a still shoot, in that we do plenty of stills alongside video now, or let's say we're running a video set and then we'll do a still set, or we'll shoot stills on the video set, uh, so yeah, there's definitely plenty of hybrid, but it's rare. Maybe once or twice a year I'll do it, just still shoot. I'll be like oh, it's so easy.
Andy Heise:This is great. Yeah, far fewer moving uh fewer moving parts, right? Yeah, um, and we're going to talk about, um, you know where you get your work from, uh, your customer, your clients and things like that in in a little bit. But, uh, it sounds like maybe you already had some of those industry relationships when you transitioned from doing from doing your own photography in your own studio to moving then into video.
Steve Giralt:Yeah, no, absolutely. Some of my first video jobs came from my stills, clients. Right, because it was also there on their side.
Announcer:They're like oh.
Steve Giralt:I don't know anything about video and they, like, they're asking me, they want video and like, yeah, we kind of look for some of us. We kind of learned together and we knew that, you know, we were going to kind of figure it out as we went a little bit and we did a lot with very little budgets, because once again, I didn't know I should hire a 50-man crew to do a thing to be more efficient, but I knew how I could do it right. So I always stayed within my understanding of like this is the task at hand. This is how I know how to do it today. So that's how we're going to do it, and if they went for it, it was great yeah.
Andy Heise:And when? Approximately when was that when you kind of started making that transition to doing video? I?
Steve Giralt:mean video first first started probably almost 10 years ago now, I'd say, you know. So it was probably about five years of like learning very slowly. And then there was kind of a switch that was just like, okay, this is really where I'm going, all in and kind of kind of made that transition where that was a little challenging client wise Cause the old stills clients were like, oh well, you're here now and I can't afford, or you know, that doesn't make sense for us. So there was a little moment, kind of a freak out moment, where it was just like, you know, jump out there there's, you know, hopefully there's solid ground where I'm going. But sure, you know, I think, uh, there's definitely some scary moments there also with the 2010, you know, 2009 recession and all that stuff too right, yeah so do you think social media and website really influence the video or no?
Steve Giralt:Yeah, no, well, and for me in general, for my success starting out too right, Like the first. I mean, I was on Instagram showing photos. Back then, right, and uh, the fact that I've been put that burger drop video, which we'll, you know, get into on there and that went super viral, it went everywhere was also me learning about like, oh wow, social media. This is what it's about. This is how it could work for you, um, and to me. So many clients started finding me through social at that point. Before that, nobody hired me from, you know, my instagram, putting like pictures from my iphone up, right, because like that's not what they did, right, like influencers weren't really a thing yet, right, so much. You know so, but they, because that's not what they did, right, influencers weren't really a thing yet so much, but they're like that's cool, we like cool things, so people were interested, right I?
Andy Heise:want you to make me a viral video.
Steve Giralt:Right, oh easy, yeah, no problem, I did that one on purpose like that right Exactly. It's how it always works.
Andy Heise:Oh, you want a viral video. Oh, okay, we can do that.
Steve Giralt:Oh, that's just $20,000 more, that's right.
Andy Heise:You said you moved to New York City from Rochester as a photo assistant and a digital tech for other people photographers and studios and things like that and then you opened your own studio. Was opening your own studio something you had always wanted to do? Like even like before you moved to New York and maybe while you were in school?
Steve Giralt:Yeah, no, for me, I always want to be my own boss. I knew you know that kind of going into it. It's just like I'd seen what it was like to work for other people. You know, actually I transferred into RIT so it wasn't like your standard 18-year-old, I went there when I was 21. So I had a full-time job growing up in Miami already Actually probably the worst job ever but so useful, in that I was a high school yearbook photo photographer basically. So I would shoot the underclassmen photos and the sports and the senior portraits and that was my full-time job for a few years while I was going to school part-time and I was like I don't want to do that. But I think there was something to this love for photography and that's kind of where RIT really helped. You know, encourage the path of like oh, there's all this stuff outside of like weddings and portraits, you know.
Nick Petrella:Yeah Right, yeah, cool. Well, let's change lenses here. See what? I did there I like it little, little photography humor so while the garage right there, while the garage is clearly creative, you employ a lot of tech and, and I assume, back-end, ongoing, honestly.
Steve Giralt:So the first step was, like me, taking all these hobbies, tinkering, making these devices that do all these things and drop burgers and whatever it is. But I quickly learned that if I want to be the guy directing dp head of the business, I can't be in the workshop tinkering half the day, right. So the after? Well, I already, at that time, as a still photographer, I had a studio manager, so that was like my first person, right, to help me with that as a photographer. Right, do the billing and the bookkeeping and order lunch for everybody and all that stuff, uh. So then the next position was, uh, matt huber, who's our special effects person still today here. We're, uh, funny enough, we met on Instagram. We're like, hey, dude, you do cool stuff, hey, you do cool stuff. And, um, he uh also was a still photographer, but he had lived in New York and he'd moved to LA and then he had just moved back to New York at that time and I was like, oh man, let's get together for coffee, whatever it is. And we found we spoke the same language and just like, oh, you know what a pneumatic valve is and you know, like, it's just kind of a funny thing that most still photographers wouldn't know, right, and that kind of ran parallel with Hershey's coming to us for this Hershey's s'mores video. That also went viral as well, and he's like I was like, hey, why don't we work on this together, where you just do the rigging and the effects stuff for the s'mores and I'll be the director and I'll do all the other stuff, you know, and that was like the beginning of a long marriage of wonderful good times and, uh, lots of creations at this point. Um, but yeah, that was, that was the number one. I saw that that was an essential. I could not be the one doing that.
Steve Giralt:The next layer was when the motion control robotics came into it too. I learned how to use the robots and how they worked. But I can't be there tinkering and playing with the robots all day. I need to be marketing and I got to be doing all the business side stuff. So Dan, who is still with us today, is the lead on our robotic side of things, and then, as we got into the garage and bigger productions, we needed more producer help. So it really is like you see, the need, fill the need.
Steve Giralt:People reach out to us all the time like, hey, are you hiring? I'm like, what do you do? Because what are you really really good at? Because I only hire somebody to fill this very specific need. So the most recent one was this year, where tommy, who does all our unreal engine, uh, virtual production stuff, is the latest edition, because once again we went down that vertical and we needed something to kind of lead that side of things.
Steve Giralt:Um, so, yeah, no, I mean, that's kind of how we hire here. It's basically where, you know, steve has a passion to go explore some new thing and I think there's money behind it and people are going to hire us to do it. So let's hire somebody to help us with that. And you know, sometimes we're lucky where, like with Matt, I could hire him as a freelancer first and then he came on full time, you know, which is the most ideal thing to me. But we have some amazing people who honestly would show up probably if they weren't getting paid. Here they're just like you know, we collect really passionate people that you know just really love exploring their vertical within the garage and collaborating.
Nick Petrella:So that's a really good point, Do you often? You know date employees before you marry them, so do you let them freelance a little bit?
Steve Giralt:Some, if it's possible. Yeah, like even our uh, equipment manager, studio manager. Now he was an intern first, you know, straight straight out of film school, you know, and you know I was like, okay, it's like a, you know, three month internship and then maybe it'll become a job, and like two months and I was like I love you so much, please work for us full time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, where possible, it's great to do that, but it's not always possible.
Steve Giralt:Just like, um, well, actually, even in a similar but different way, john, our newest executive producer, who's been with us over a year now. We actually work with him on an outside production where we were just doing the robotic stuff for, and so he was a freelance line producer and you know, dan came back from that shoot and he's just like, oh my god, this production was so well put together, the producer was great and the director was wonderful and funny enough. When I was like, oh, I need another executive producer, I was like, oh, hey, are you interested? And he was in. So it kind of was like we try to lean on the people we know first for sure, you know.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, before we go on the next question, I just have one follow-up here. Where did you learn robotics? Cause in my research you have an advertising and photography degree. Were you in robotics in high school, or just a hobby? Nope.
Steve Giralt:Nope, yeah I well. All this stuff, I didn't learn any of it. I didn't go to film school either.
Steve Giralt:um, I am very good at learning things, yeah, me and youtube, uh, tutorials, you know, on fast forward, we could, we could do a lot. Um, no, yeah, that once again, I had no intention either, right like it was, just like I it's always the creative leaves, the tech, leads the technical or just like I want to do a shot like this to tell this story. Okay, how do I do that? And that's where I'm unique, where I could actually just go and tinker around and figure it out. Um, versus, somebody else might call somebody and be like, hey, I want the camera to do this. You know, can you come do this for me? Uh, so we, I learned about, uh, high speed robotics, camera movers, arms, basically. Uh, when I was looking to do the burger drop and I met the two people in new york city that had them at the time, just like, hey, tell me about your robot, how does this thing work? And you know from there one of them, let me use theirs for that shoot.
Nick Petrella:And there we go, you know, yeah you know the term youtube certified usually usually has a bad connotation, but I mean, when you think about it, this is, it just speaks to what you're doing and the amount of information that's out there and I mean you're, the future is just bright yeah.
Steve Giralt:No, and getting the thing in your hands too that's the thing. I think that's part of the garage too is right, like it's one thing to like rent it and then you could use it, then you give it back, but then you only get to know how to use it a little bit, right. So it's another thing to like okay, we rented the robot four times for shoots. Okay, I'm going to buy one. Like, this is part of my future. Same thing with the Phantom camera, which is, you know, amazing camera, but it's also $100,000, you know, and it's just like you get the thing and unreal engine led. Well, now we have one in here too. It's just like we're getting so good at it because you could you need those 10 000 hours, right, or whatever.
Steve Giralt:The whole thing is right to learn, not just being a filmmaker, but to be a virtual production filmmaker or be a motion control filmmaker. You know, like to be really good at all those subsets. Um, which is also part of what inspired us to start, uh, the garage rentals, which is basically the services side of everything under the garage we could rent out to other productions, right? So the robots travel. Our rigging specialist was just on another job for two weeks doing fire effects and other stuff for another production. So basically my people also get to go out and not just work for garage directors but all sorts of directors and all sorts of productions and they bring that knowledge back to the garage with them.
Nick Petrella:You're the videography version of Backline.
Steve Giralt:Yeah, Music Backline In a way. Basically yeah, yeah, wow.
Andy Heise:I mean, that's like I think about, like Blackbird Studios down in Nashville. That's a huge revenue stream for them. They have every microphone and piece of gear under the sun and they, they, you know, sometimes only one or two of them exist in the world and they've got them, and so that's where they make some pretty good money, through rentals too yeah, no, it's funny, we've gone, worked on all sorts of apple tv series and yeah, uh, you know we, you know we have a job tomorrow.
Steve Giralt:We've worked with, like you know, billy Joel music videos and live on SNL with two robots on SNL, with, like you know. So what's going to work out? Every challenge we learn something and that's where kind of the engineering base of what we do is like shows through, is just like oh, when you engineer something like now you have a process, you have a device that can help you do something more. Right, so, right Now you have a process, you have a device that can help you do something more. But that also goes towards knowledge. The more you're challenged in a new way, you can bring that and reapply it to something new and that feeds the machine of creativity, right, I'm sure you've gotten calls like hey, we want you to do this thing.
Andy Heise:You're like well, I've never actually done that before, but we have all the stuff and we'll figure out how to make it happen. Yeah, oh, actually done that before, but we have all the stuff and we'll figure out how to make it happen. Right, yeah, oh, all the time. Well, I, the whole garage analogy I I love and honestly I didn't put it together before you before you started talking about it here. But, um, you know, I grew up in a garage also and, um, there's also this, this notion of like, like this DIY sort of thing. Now, like where I say it all the time is like doing like home projects or something like that. You, just about the time you get good at it, you're done and you move on to the next thing and you don't do it again for another, like 10 or 15 years, yep absolutely, I'm very handy at home too sure, yeah, let's see how can we?
Andy Heise:absolutely, I'm very handy at home too sure, yeah, yeah let's see, how can we, how can we uh put a robot into this uh? Yeah, changing the light bulb and so, after you launched the garage, was there a tipping point where you said, ah, this is, this is gonna work you?
Steve Giralt:I still ask myself that every day. No, yeah, there definitely was, there definitely was. We had some great success actually, you know, because we launched not that long before COVID and we did really well during COVID, honestly because, a because A, we had this tight team of people and robots that could do a lot of the work. We owned all the gear, we owned the space, we had all the stuff. So, and you know, I literally did a shoot where it was just me and a stylist, that was it, and like my house upstate, I was working from home and, uh, we did a national bloodwiser tv commercial, right, like it was just like I was doing fire effects with the grill and flipping a burger and I was like I mean, there's no robots on that one, but working the phantom camera.
Steve Giralt:And then I was on the Zoom with the client and like it was just craziness, but it was just like I don't want to do this on every job, but like I'm glad I'm working again. It was kind of scary. And then we slowly came back into the studio and kind of did a lot with like a four man team, which by modern standards, is crazy small for the stuff that we could accomplish Right Cause you know, at the end of the day the robot is pulling focus, it's, you know, moving the camera. It's doing a lot of things that otherwise you need like three or four people to do to coordinate these things. So I was very glad that we had them, you know, ready to work.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, so as you said at the time of this recording, the garage is about five years old. How did you secure the large number of famous brands in such a short amount of time?
Steve Giralt:Yeah, I think we touched on it a little bit. The fact that I was ready. I came from 15 years of still photography before we launched the garage, right, it's all the same clients, right, that we have today. Right, it was. You know, it's just the different side of that client, right, like sometimes the broadcast and video side don't talk to the still side of a brand or an even ad agency, for that, you know, it's like oh, you have your print producers and you have your broadcast producers. So there was definitely a lot of learning to how a production company does things versus how a still photographer does things.
Steve Giralt:But the fact that I mean we also we were all in, you know, I think is really important when you start something new. It was just like, you know, we don't care about making money right now, let's just get the job, let's just do amazing work, like we'll put in the hours, like we had the people you know. So some of the most pivotal work, you know, was really that, like Hershey's S'mores thing we did brought us tons of more hershey's work. You know, then that brought us the pepsi, uh, global work that we did years ago. Uh, it was the, the thirsty campaign, I think it was, but, um, either way, that was like, once again, we didn't make much money on that at all, but that just brought us to a new level.
Steve Giralt:You know, like it really gave us that opportunity on a global level to be like, oh wow, this is cool. You know, this work is really gave us that opportunity, on a global level, to be like, oh wow, this is cool. You know, this work is really innovative. And then that brought us, you know, more and more work. And we still work for PepsiCo today, right, like it's not, like that was the last of it, right. And it is about keeping those client relationships and some, you know, even from the stills days. I still have like a dive. I'm still talking to them today about a project in video, right, so it's like keeping those relationships is important, yeah, and that's what I was getting at.
Nick Petrella:So that Pepsi point, when you hit that, that was kind of an inflection point. That's when it established you as a major player at that level.
Steve Giralt:Yeah, absolutely. And then with that it was really hard work. Beverage work is really challenging because it's moving, it's liquid, it's sticky, it's fizzy, it's foamy. So I think, showing our expertise in that level and also once again I credit the client they really pushed us too. They're like we don't want just a boring Pepsi, we want a Coca-Cola ad, we want a Pepsi ad and we wanted to have a unique feeling and visually, graphically, and we collaborated with Buck TV, who's an animation, motion graphics studio here in New York. Also on that. They did the motion graphics and we worked collaboratively on creative and we're still working with them actually with Buck on a bunch of projects as well. They're also here in Industry City, where our complex is too. So there's really a fun thing about this complex and all the players that are here and we kind of collaborate, which is awesome.
Andy Heise:Yeah, and similar to Nick's question, but maybe more generally, is how do you find new work? Are people coming to you and saying we want you to do this? Are you solic new work? Are people coming to you and saying we want you to do this? Are you soliciting work? And I guess another question that comes to mind is, like in a Pepsi example or something like that are you working directly with PepsiCo or whatever the company, or are you often working with an agency who's representing that company?
Steve Giralt:All of the above.
Andy Heise:All of the above.
Steve Giralt:Yeah, how we get work itself is like there we have reps, you know, sales reps, basically east coast, midwest and west coast reps for the production company and, uh, international rep as well. So they're, you know, once again they have those agency relationships. They're trying to bring those storyboards and those projects briefs into us. Uh then no, but once again, our established relationships go a long way with the brands, either directly or through the agencies. As an example of PepsiCo, we work with them directly some of the time, but we also have worked for them through agencies as well. We did a Pure Leaf thing recently that was through DDB New York before PepsiCo.
Steve Giralt:It can get a little messy sometimes because it's just like, oh wait, it's still going back to the same person at PepsiCo. But there's this agency filter on it sometimes, but not sometimes, which has its good and bad moments to it too. With the brand direct relationship, it's a little more personal. We understand the brand, which is so important to what we do, and you know, with that we could, you know, offer suggestions. Obviously, like sometimes sooner than by the time we hear from an agency that has been working on this campaign for a month or two, you know, so they're each. You know good and bad, either way and unfiltered.
Nick Petrella:you have an unfiltered message with that Right.
Steve Giralt:So, steve, when you started the Garage, what were some of the barriers to entry you had to contend with? Yeah, when we started the Garage, I think some of the barriers were the fact that we were just like a startup production company. We had a bunch of still photographers that learned how to do video. We didn't come up through the union traditional way of doing things. I mean, that was a power. Well, ignorance is bliss right. That's kind of what they say.
Steve Giralt:We didn't know what we didn't know and we also knew that we didn't know that. Right, we would lean on one of my executive producers, haley, who came for me, came with me from the stills path all the way through. Uh, learned so much on the fly too about, like, oh, sag rules and this and that and all the you know. Like, oh, you know, there was just a lot of that that we didn't know about and you know. But luckily, you know, people were really nice to us and we were nice people, you know.
Steve Giralt:And like, oh, by the way, you know, you need a break for lunch or else people get angry, you know, in half an hour and all this stuff. But also a lot of our crew kind of grew up with us too, like we really love our people. You know, and you know even our freelancers, you know, were lighting and still photo lighting people became like video lighting people. We kind of learned together. So it's very hybrid, because I looked at the traditional union crew and I was just like this is too rigid for the world we're in today, like come on, I need the guy that has the light to move a stand too.
Andy Heise:Or whatever it is.
Steve Giralt:It's just like and once again I am a thousand percent logic in how we do things. That doesn't make sense. Why are we doing it that way? We look at our whole process, our whole business every day like that. Just because it's how it's been done doesn't mean that's how we should do things.
Steve Giralt:You learn some lessons from that sometimes about why you have a line producer and a production manager and a production coordinator all on a project versus one executive producer doing all of that work, because eventually they're going to burn out and be exhausted if you have three projects going on simultaneously. We have credit to Haley for doing so much for some of that time before we had enough money to actually start and the budget's allowed us to be able to start bringing in enough support help. But when you're in early on something, you're going to do it. I'll be here until 2 in the morning if I need to and mop the floor when we're done or whatever it is. But it's just about getting it done and making the client happy, because that's the only way we're going to get to that next level.
Nick Petrella:And that holistic view with all your employees. If they have that, that's going to allow you to pivot much quicker than a bunch of specialists.
Steve Giralt:Yeah, 100%, no, I mean, I think the one thing I love about my team is I could come in and be like I want to start experiential work, whatever it is, and they're like, all right, let's figure out how to do that.
Andy Heise:Here we go.
Steve Giralt:I saw this cool thing the other day. We could try something and I thank them for their. Sometimes I wish they would say no honestly, because it would keep me in my box a little bit more, because I could definitely, you know, flounder around based on my creative pursuits a little bit, um, yeah, but I think it's a unique. Unique thing about us is that we're a very technical, engineering based, technology based company, but led by creativity. You know, first and foremost, right and storytelling, so it's kind of fun you're not floundering, you're uh, you, uh, you're.
Nick Petrella:You're doing R and D, you're doing research there, you go yeah, Tell that to my accountant.
Steve Giralt:R and D tax credits or something.
Nick Petrella:Right there.
Andy Heise:That's right, steve. It says here you bought a um a palette of duct tape. What was that for? That's R and D, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right, absolutely's right, absolutely, yeah, yeah, they wouldn't even blink, they wouldn't blink at that, yeah, yeah, duct tape's a bad example, but I just popped in my head. Yeah, yeah, um, how many, just just for so? Uh, we talked about your team and we've been talking about your team a lot. How big is your, your full-time team, right now?
Steve Giralt:we are now nine.
Andy Heise:nine okay, so still pretty small, yeah, and are you still bringing in people on a freelance basis once in a while when you need them? Oh, plenty of time. Every shoot has freelancers, Somebody okay. So yeah, we'll probably have 30 to 50 people on a job between stylists and crew and on top of that, so you're managing that whole thing. The stylist, the you're from our producers are yeah, exactly.
Steve Giralt:So once again, I don't have time for that either. So the producers are doing all that stuff too yeah.
Andy Heise:Yeah.
Nick Petrella:I had no idea. It was that yeah.
Andy Heise:That it's encompassing all of those things.
Steve Giralt:Yeah, basically, every lane here has a very specific reason for being there. Reason for being there. You know, I think you have time to talk with us. Yeah, because I have all these other eight people that to do all these wonderful things. Yeah, yeah, the only one that we haven't had is actually a proper it person, because we're all so technical that we all kind of share that hat.
Steve Giralt:Like, oh, I'm really good at networking and oh, he's really good at this, and you know, oh, the light bulb is broken. He's, you know he'll fix that part. And you know, yeah, so you know, it's kind of like growing up at home where, like you know, oh, the light bulb's broken, he's, you know he'll fix that part, and you know, so you know. It's kind of like growing up at home where, like you know, my dad was an engineer, my grandfather was an engineer, my brother was an engineer. I kind of was surrounded by that. You ask, where did this come from? And it's just like I kind of grew up with it, you know, and we weren't the you know grandpa or called our uncle Cause he knew more about washing machine repair and he knew about the pool pump or whatever.
Nick Petrella:You know, it's just yeah, totally, they fixed it, but you had to have earplugs when it was working. Right Right.
Steve Giralt:Exactly no, you just have to bang on it three times and then it'll turn on. Yeah, that's right.
Andy Heise:And and are most of the. Are most of your shoots done on your facility or are you going to other locations to do?
Steve Giralt:So I think here it's important to draw a line between the garage and Steve, right, so Steve is one of the directors at the garage and the first one obviously at that. So, yeah, so me I shoot mostly here, right, like I love my little comfy place with all my tools and all my things, um, I mean, not to say like a few times a year. I won't travel to other markets for other places and other things, um, but then of our directors, about half of them are slightly more in the live action side of things, so they'll definitely shoot in la. We had a shoot for swiffer in barcelona in may. Um, we're about to go to shoot something in Poland, uh, so, yeah, no, so it's a mix of both. You know, yeah, uh, and it's it keeps it. You know, interesting, when we have to, like, get a robot in Barcelona through the door of a house, you know, and it's not our robot and we have to find another robot, yeah, so, um, but you know it's good challenges to have.
Andy Heise:And so the team that you've hired are employees of the garage, or are they employees of your production company?
Steve Giralt:The garage, which is the production company. Yeah, exactly, the garage is the production company and the facility.
Andy Heise:Okay so the production company and the facility are one in the same.
Steve Giralt:Yeah, okay, gotcha, and of those two are specifically on the services side of the garage, like rentals side of it. You know, yeah, okay, gotcha, and then only and of those two are specifically on the services side of the garage, like rentals side of it, you know, but the garage still hires them on our jobs.
Andy Heise:So it's kind of a weird yeah, totally, yeah, yeah, okay, cool. No, I'm glad you pointed that out. I hadn't hadn't thought through that yet.
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