A Thunder Bay video production company found some southern comfort in Central America.
Costa Rica and Mexico’s Baja Peninsula have become the new cinematography stomping grounds for Westfort Productions, comprised of the uncle-and-nephew team of Bryan, 39, and Matt Popowich, 29.
The decision to reach into international travel marketing was a deliberate act.
After shooting a demo of aerial cinematography of Thunder Bay and northern Minnesota with their quadcopter drone, they sent the footage to hotels in Cabo St. Lucas.
Within minutes, one resort operator bit and offered to fly them down.
For two weeks in December, they shot videos at two resorts: Parador Resort and Spa, and Asclepios, a health and wellness retreat.
“You can see the difference in those two resorts in getting the feeling of what they offer,”said Bryan. “One was very quiet – with yoga and massages – and other is a very Costa Rican experience of actually being in the rain forest with sloths and monkeys around your feet.”
Bryan worked for 10 years at Mercury Filmworks in Ottawa, an animation company that serves as a supplier to Disney Studios.
Co-founded by his brother, Jerry, Bryan rose quickly through the ranks to become vice-president of production, handling the scheduling and budgeting as the company grew from 10 to 150 employees.
Meanwhile, Matt was back home honing his skills shooting wedding and music videos under the banner of Westfort Films.
Largely self-taught, he began shooting video at the age of 10, experimenting with a Sony Handycam with family and friends as cast members in school projects.
“I got a reputation in high school for getting good marks because I would do videos for my projects and everyone loved them.”
His breakout moment was his viral 2010 hip-hip video, My Hometown, of local rap artist Jordan Burnell’s gritty and celebrated homage to Thunder Bay.
Its widespread exposure was a confidence booster for Matt. “From that music video, I knew I wanted to take a crack at this. I knew that it could turn into a full-time job for me.”
“When My Hometown came out, it really clicked in me that he’s more talented than I thought,” said Bryan. His award-winning colleagues at Mercury acknowledged Matt’s composition, timing and use of lighting was fantastic.
With the pull of returning home to raise his young family, Bryan felt Matt’s emerging talent offered a now-or-never moment.
“I knew he had the talent and if I could bring some of my business experience to the team than that’s what I can offer him.”
The Mercury experience of always setting the bar high left a distinct impression on Bryan.
“The big thing was quality. They wanted to be the best studio in Canada.
“There are so many things on a much smaller scale that we try to implement in what we do here.”
One of Westfort’s pillars is delivering a service that’s on par with anything offered in a larger market.
Matt is the director of photography while Bryan handles the day-to-day business operations.
Their portfolio is an eclectic mix of corporate, promotional and public service videos and TV spots for realtors, service and professional groups, contractors, retailers, restauranteurs and the municipality.
“You have to in Thunder Bay,” said Bryan. “It’s good for us. It keeps us fresh and interested that way. But you have to multi-task and creatively switch to do different things.”
If Westfort has a distinct storytelling style, Matt falls back on his other passion for creating music.
“We invest a lot in the music and voice-overs. The timing has a musical pace to it.”
Instead of storyboarding a scene, Matt prefers a natural scenario “and then I bounce around with the camera and getting people reacting.”
“The other thing we really try to offer is getting at the emotion of somebody’s brand and try to tell the genuine side of it, and not be a sales pitch,” said Bryan. “If anybody has a small business, they’re 100 per cent invested in it. They know their business better than anybody, they know their clients. If we can get them comfortable – and Matt’s the king at getting people comfortable on camera – getting that genuine emotion from them, that’s what we do that other people really struggle to be able to provide.”
It remains a learning curve to present to clients on how to best to market themselves.
“Social media has hit a different gas pedal,” said Bryan. “We’ve been trying to educate on how video plays into that. Like any business you’re trying to sell yourself, it’s not an easy pitch.”
Both are hoping to translate their resort footage into more tourism-related work in northwestern Ontario.
With their two quadcopter drones, Bryan believes there’s potential to promote local golf courses to Minnesota and Wisconsin travellers. They posted a video to Facebook of the Cabo Real Golf Club in Mexico as a sampler.
Their near and long-term prospects are a regular conversation, said Bryan.
“We’re staying energized with what we’re doing right now because it’s been so many different clients in Thunder Bay. We’ve dabbled with a short film idea, a space we’ve not gone into that much, more independent and is 100 per cent creatively ours.”
