Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Rowan.
Hi Scott, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I started working in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles after graduating from Loyola Marymount University’s Film School. Like a lot of kids starting out in the industry, I was an intern and production assistant around town working for shows like Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, The Ellen Show, Dexter, Dance Your Ass Off, and a few other random gigs. At one point I even took a job as a ticket taker at Universal Studios, but that only lasted two days as I got a call from a friend who needed a replacement as an office admin/editor at a small production company called Retrofit Films. That temp job turned into a full-time job and while there I worked my way up, eventually becoming a producer.
At that point, I ran many of their projects including all the DVD bonus content for season two to four of The Vampire Diaries, and worked with many clients like Disney, Marvel, Fandango, and more. After four years working there, I decided to break off and go freelance, eventually moving to Austin with my now wife. That’s when my freelance work turned into Row One Productions. After two years of working with agencies and nonprofits in town, I got an offer back in Los Angeles as a supervising producer at Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. So, we moved back to L.A. while still keeping the Row One fire stoked in the background. I worked there for two and half years and we eventually realized how much we missed Austin. We packed up the truck again and headed back with a few promising contracts already in the works. The culmination of this experience put us in a good position where I was able to hire my friend and partner in crime, Mike Mitra, as our Creative Director.
His agency experience and my production experience have turned out to be a nice one-two punch and we’ve been able to pivot and survive even during COVID. While growing my career as a producer, I’ve also been focusing on developing the hosting and performance side of my skillset. I’ve performed improv for years and have studied at The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade, and have performed stand-up comedy many times at The Comedy Store in L.A. I have been able to combine performance and producing in a fun way that has led me to be the host of a show we produce for HostGator called “Hosted” (ha!) and have done audience warm-up for Rotten Tomatoes’ live show, “Your Opinion Sucks.” Bottom line, I love entertaining people from both in front of and behind the camera.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The path has not always been smooth. In the earlier part of my journey, figuring out exactly what I wanted and how to get there was tough. I come from a family of teachers in southern Oregon, so I never had the Hollywood instinct. I had to shift and pivot and hustle and charm my way into learning the ropes, all the while learning the parts of the industry that I loved… and the parts that I hated. Basically, the biggest challenge in the process has been navigating the balance of passion and interest with opportunity creation. Navigating business ownership was a big leap in the beginning as well. There was one month where I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay rent. Then luckily, pivoting to focus on working with nonprofits started generating enough work to survive. And of course COVID has been tough. I hired Mike in January of 2020, then the world went to shit… so good timing. I am proud of how we’ve been able to pivot creatively to a lot of work-from-home content, allowing us to still provide top-level service while on lockdown.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Row One Productions is a boutique video production company. With a passion for storytelling rooted in the drive to inspire and uplift, we focus on developing and creating original cross-platform video content and providing production services for a wide range of clients, from major brands to nonprofits. We like to emphasize producing video for good, so we strive to focus our energies and services on projects that somehow make the world a little bit better, be that helping people get jobs, bringing a smile to the faces of web hosting newbies or helping nonprofits raise money to end the cycle of child abuse. What makes us unique is our combination of years of experience in both the production world and agency world, so we know how to walk the walk AND talk the talk. We are able to use this combination to deliver on whatever needs our clients have from creative development through full-scale execution of branded digital series, to social campaigns, animated explainer videos and everything in-between. From a brand perspective, I am most proud of the fact that one of our core values is happiness, so we like to foster a comfortable and friendly yet professional working relationship with our clients. We are easy to work with but get the job done.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
So many lessons! But the most important is that to succeed, you must find a balance between patience and persistence, all while having the ability to see when it’s time to pivot.
Contact Info:
- Email: scott@rowoneproductions.com
- Website: rowoneproductions.com
- Instagram: @rowoneproductions
- Facebook: @rowoneproductions
