We had the good fortune of connecting with Caleb Chicoine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Caleb, what role has risk played in your life or career?
At Benshi Creative, a core of our business is the production of action sports films. With our business, we face all of the risks a business typically expects, as well as the physical risks imposed by the actions we film and participate in.

While the risk of avalanches, hypothermia, and even death, etc… are not risks typically related to running a business, I’ve learned how to adapt the risk assessment and tolerance from these experiences, and apply them to my business and personal life.

When we are out filming ski movies, there are serious threats that we have to carefully evaluate every time we go out into the mountains. There is a never a day without risk. Ultimately, it boils down to a very important decision; how much risk can we tolerate.

To be able to make a thoughtful risk assessment, you need to have the knowledge, education, and experience to accurately estimate what risks exist, how severe the consequences are, and the likelihood of such an event.

In the mountains, you need an acute understanding of the local weather patterns and history, education in avalanche forecasting and safety, knowledge of the area and it’s geography, and experience with a crew of people you can deeply trust.

While this all can help keep us alive in the mountains, it also can help keep our business alive. We need a deep understanding of our customers, our work, our software, etc…, we need to be able to look at past patterns and make accurate predictions for how they will affect the future, and we need to have a team that we can collectively trust.

Ultimately, risk is incredibly present in our daily lives, and is a crucial component to both our safety and our business.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our business, Benshi Creative, is a film production company that I started with two of my friends in college. Long story short, I moved to Montana because I wanted to ski and make ski movies. I met one of my business partners Cam while in film school at Montana State University. Cam shared the same goals as me, and we set out to make our first ski series called “Before Tomorrow”. That is when we met our other business partner Alex.

At the time, we didn’t have specific intentions of making Benshi our full time career. We just wanted to make cool films that we enjoyed to make and that we enjoyed watching. After the release of “Before Tomorrow”, we started getting approached by brands and agencies to start making ads.

This opened the door to the possibility of making this real, making our passion our job. Since then, the snowball just kept rolling, but certainly not without hiccups.

Looking back, what’s been the driving force in our business is making films that we are proud of. It is easy to get comfortable, and get into a spot where you can crank out work and it becomes routine. It’s in those moments when you slip. For us, continuing to try and push our creativity and boundaries on every film, no matter the size or content, is crucial for keeping us relevant. I want to try and bring the same excitement I have for a ski film, to a short tourism commercial.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Coffee – Rockford Coffee Breakfast – Western Café
Lunch – El Rodeo
Dinner – Blackbird
Drinks – Plonk
Summer Activity – Floating the river
Winter Activity – Skiing… of course…
Night Activity – Last Best Comedy

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shoutout to my business partners and co-founders Cam DeMars and Alex D’Agostino. Also, thanks mom!

Website: benshicreative.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caleb_chicoine/?hl=en

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.