Meet Marshall Rosales | Producer & Director of Photography

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

Hi Marshall, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
What was your thought process behind starting your own business?

I was laid off from working for a company that had a video production department in August of 2016, and my immediate reaction was to scramble and look for another similar job. In a moment of clarity it dawned on me that I didn’t really want to have a boss again. I realized that in owning and operating my own business, I’d be able run projects properly and efficiently, rather than being required to adhere to whatever arbitrary guidelines the corporate office put in place that needed to work for all employees, whether in customer service, engineering, or a film set. I think the biggest drive for me to make the jump into starting my production company was the idea that I would be the one in charge to iterate and make changes when problems came up, and that if I ran it correctly I’d only have to deal with a frustrating situation once because I’d be able to make a business change to either avoid it or alleviate it going forward.

Do you have a budget? How do you think about your personal finances and how do you make lifestyle and spending decisions?

I pull a fixed salary from my business, and I’ve set my life up to live on a very frugal monthly budget to ensure that I won’t be stressed for income to keep a roof over my head. Owning and operating my business has given me the greatest freedom in life, and so I’m more than willing to sacrifice the creature comforts and lavish lifestyle that a “day job” might better afford. I also make it a point to live debt free after paying off a ton of credit card and student loan debt, so any big spending comes about by way of saving up for it.

Risk taking: How do you think about risk? What role has taking risks played in your life/career?

I think it’s fair to say I’m a fan of the calculated risk. Yes, I decided to start a production company as my sole source of income, but I did so in a measured and careful way; I’m definitely not the type to run out and get a giant business loan to purchase a studio’s worth of equipment and hire a full team. I’m not averse to going out on a limb, but I do like to keep one hand on the rope, as it were. For instance, I try to operate with a safety net of funds just in case something upends the business and/or my life. And in March of 2020, I was very, very glad that I had that, as I was able to stay afloat for over 6 months without any work whatsoever. I also apply the calculated risk when it comes to purchasing new equipment for the business – I won’t buy new gear until I’ve already booked a job that requires it. It’s very easy to get sucked into the attraction of a shiny new plaything, but I’ve learned to be very disciplined.

Where are you from and how did your background and upbringing impact who you are today?

I was born in Aurora, Colorado, but it’s probably more accurate to say that I’m “from” New Braunfels, Texas. My parents divorced when I was very young and I grew up there with my mom. I also spent a few years in Santa Fe, New Mexico before moving back to Colorado for high school, and I’ve been back pretty much ever since. I’m sure my parents’ divorce, and growing up only ever seeing my dad for about 10 weeks out of every year had a huge impact on who I am, but I’ve never been able to afford the therapy to dissect it.

As for my upbringing, I would say that between my mom being very adamant about how through hard work I could achieve anything I wanted, and my dad being the front man for a local rock band in the 80’s (complete with tiger-striped skin tight jeans and a mullet), I was pretty well set up to be the self-assured, big-dreaming creative that I’ve grown to be. I was raised to value excellence, and curiosity, and kindness; and I’ve spent the grand majority of my life trying to measure up to those qualities. That has definitely led to some probably unhealthy levels of self-reflection and over-analyzation, but it’s also seemed to have steered me pretty well so far.

What is the most important factor behind your success / the success of your brand?

The single most important factor behind the success of my business is that I absolutely love what I do. I am most myself when I’m on a film production set. The multiple disciplines involved all converging to tell a story, or convey a message is incredibly invigorating for me, and so the fact that I get to help my clients achieve their goals using a medium that gives me life just shines through in every aspect of my work. At least I hope so!

And the affinity I have for what I do elicits a very strong sense of protection for it; I don’t ever want to lose my passion. I want to do everything I can to ensure that a project is joyful, both in the final product and in every step along the way of its creation. I do everything I can to eliminate pain points before they come up, and I always walk away from every project with ways to evolve my business or my process to help make sure the next one goes even more smoothly. So the fact that I’m never really just punching in or checking boxes has also really contributed to me staying in business.

What value or principle matters most to you? Why?

Empathy is easily the value that matters most to me. Each of us shares space on this spinning rock with nearly 8 billion other people, and it’s imperative that we not delude ourselves into thinking or acting like we don’t. Every single one of those other people has fears and hopes, they shout when they get hurt, and they laugh when they’re happy. Empathy is this super power that we all have to tap into the collective similarities across all of humanity, and to bridge the gap above the few differences we have. Just about every major issue we face in this life can be either tempered or outright remedied through empathy. We are all we have, so it matters a great deal to me that we do everything we can to work toward mutuality.

Work life balance: How has your balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance?

In all honesty, a balance between work and the rest of life has always been rather elusory to me. The particular medium of my work and interests also makes the line between work and life difficult to define. If I’m not working on a client project for Mile Marker 1 Productions, then I’m most likely either developing an independent creative film project, or watching a movie (and therefore studying and researching my craft). But I also struggled with balance before I did production full time, when I was in school or working retail. Unquestionably, I have pretty big blinders on when it comes to my work and I have a hard time not throwing myself completely into whatever’s directly in front of me. I’ve always been bad at taking vacations (or even time off), even to the point of feeling pressure to make “downtime” productive by researching and staying up to date on new gear, film business news, politics, etc. But ultimately, I don’t think about a work life balance very often at all. I really enjoy what I’m doing and consider myself damn lucky to be able to support myself with it, so I just sort of keep my head down and keep charging forward as best I can. Ha, this would probably be another good topic to explore with the therapist I can’t afford…

What’s the end goal? Where do you want to be professionally by the end of your career?

This is going to sound pretty morbid, but my goal is to drop dead on a film set. I’m already living my dream with my career, so the idea of retirement is utterly baffling. That being said, my ultimate goal is to either transition into full time narrative film production, or to be able to sustainably straddle the commercial and creative sides of my company. Feature length narrative films are what first drew me into this field and I’ll always have my eye in that direction as a target. I know that it’s a near miracle to get a film made in the best of circumstances, let alone make a living doing it, and I’m realistic about the changing landscape of the film business with streaming as well, so I try to keep a level head about it all as far as pressure to “make it” goes.

Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?

My sincere answer to this question is: Why not? I sit right in between the Xennial and Millennial generations and boy did I buy into the “You’re a special and unique snowflake that can do anything and everything you want in life!” that the talk of those times was dishing out. My parents were always very supportive of my creative pursuits growing up (although I think they each had their own adjustment period when they realized I was serious about film as a career), so art and story and craft has really always been a part of my life. But through much of my childhood I actually had my sights set on being a veterinarian. In adolescence, that transitioned to wanting to be a surgeon. There was a brief period where I wanted to be a youth pastor (long story), and then essentially on my 18th birthday I realized I had no choice but to chase after filmmaking with everything I had. There was never any consideration of my career choices being creative or non-creative; they were simply what I wanted and therefore what I was going to do. Thankfully, I wasn’t spared the devil-may-care naivety that comes with early adulthood because my current measured risk assessment approach to life definitely wouldn’t have set me on the same path. Thanks, past me!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oof. This is a tough one; I feel like most of my old haunts have shut down over the past few years. I suppose I would host more of a walking tour of what once was: 1) Emilio’s Mexican Restaurant on Colfax and Logan. They had the best margarita specials in the world, and their smothered breakfast burritos could cure the worst of whatever was sticking with you the morning after a late night out. 2) Leela’s European Cafe downtown. This 24 hour cafe/bar/eatery was THE place to chill after midnight, whether to hang with friends, do some last minute studying, or do some unbeatable people watching. 3) El Chapultepec downtown. You could feel the history of that old jazz bar the second you walked in. It was probably the closest you could get to time travel in downtown Denver, and the city lost a lot of its heart when they closed their doors. 4) Tewksbury & Co. cigar shop and smoker’s lounge. I’m not a smoker in the slightest, but damned if I didn’t love rolling some of their Bar Harbor or Hot Buttered Rum tobacco on the occasional hot summer night. The staff was incredible and their love for all things tobacco was clear the instant you walked through their doors. 5) And then I’d end with a redemption story; The Gypsy House Cafe on 13th and Marion. I was a regular at their cozy spot, usually retreating to the low-ceilinged basement with either some Turkish coffee or a pot of the house tea and a strawberry/mint hookah (I swear: not a smoker). When they closed down, I was devastated, but they’ve now reopened on South Broadway and I’m happy to know a different group of people can enjoy all they have to offer, both in tasty treats and serene atmosphere.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Huge shoutout to my friend Rob Puckett for gifting me Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover many years ago, and shame on me for not reading it earlier than I did! The book’s approach to getting out of debt, living on a budget, and managing money helped to completely shift my perspective and relationship with money in such a way that I would not have been able to sustain my business as my sole source of income for the last four and half years without it. Ramsey has a very good-ol-boy, gruff-high-school-coach demeanor that cuts to the heart of things while also being sternly encouraging.

In 2013 I was severely in debt with student loans and several credit cards, and was even being sued for non-payment on one. That was the wake-up call that finally got me to crack open the book, and start applying the advice it lays out. After three years of some extreme lifestyle changes and to-the-penny budgeting, I was very nearly debt free. When I found out I was being laid off literally the morning after paying off my second-to-last credit card, I cannot describe the relief I had at knowing I would be facing unemployment unburdened from all that debt. If I hadn’t worked so hard over those three years before I was laid off, I absolutely would’ve been forced to find a job working for another company and wouldn’t have been able to go into business for myself. Without hyperbole, the things I learned in Total Money Makeover changed my life.

Website: marshallrosales.com & milemarker1.productions

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marshallrosales/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshall-rosales/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarshallRosales

Image Credits
All photos are titled with the appropriate credits.