Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Mitra.
Hi Mike, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve had a peppered career that’s lead me into all kinds of roles in the creative space and somehow I landed where I am today. I started as a magazine designer and photographer while a student at the University of Oklahoma. From there I was an assistant photographer for a small shop that did photography for the Oklahoma City Thunder. While there I also designed posters and other collateral for collegiate athletic programs – Oklahoma, TCU, Michigan, Florida State, to name a few. I spent some time as a designer for a start-up that attempted to make magazines and books easier to consume online with what was then a very early iteration of responsive web design. The start-up failed but the developers went on to be the first devs to create the templates for what we now know as Squarespace, so I felt cool being at the spearhead of that.
Most of my professional experience was built at a small Austin agency called Drumroll. I started as a designer and over the course of seven years climbed my way up to associate creative director. As an ACD I had the distinct pleasure of helping other creatives be the best they could be. I tried really hard to be an advocate for others, arming them with the tools they needed to not only create great work for clients but more importantly do great work for themselves and be proud of their own growth.
Throughout all of my creative endeavors, photography has been the closest thread to weave through them all. While at Drumroll I was the art director and photographer for a number of projects, ranging in client size from a protein bar company to Fortune 500s. Last January I got the chance to take both my experience in advertising and my photo/video skills and combine them and I embraced that opportunity, becoming the creative director at Row One Productions with my close friend and business partner Scott Rowan.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has had its mix of smooth and rough but all told I’m very thankful to be where I am today. I’m a recession kid, so I spent the first few years after college not really knowing if I had a future in what I wanted to do since jobs were scarce and upward mobility was difficult. The recession ended up being the adversity I needed to keep pushing and trying to make myself indispensable wherever I am. Because of that, I’m now a Jack of all trades and can adapt to whatever is thrown at me. None of us really saw the pandemic coming and hitting as hard as it did, but because of the rocky start to my career I was able to adapt and we’re still working and grinding.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Row One Productions is spearheaded by me and my business partner Scott Rowan. Scott worked in Hollywood as a producer for Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and together with my advertising background, we offer a unique mix of video production services as well as creative agency services to work as a hybrid team for companies large and small. Row One offers traditional video production services, so we shoot, produce edit and finish videos for clients, but we also offer creative services like photography, art direction, illustration and brand strategy to name a few. We’re like a creative department at an ad agency and also the video production crew for your videos. We’ve worked with international companies but also pride ourselves in working with nonprofits to help them achieve funding goals for their causes. Working with nonprofits gives us that extra bit of satisfaction knowing the work we’re doing is going to a cause higher than ourselves. It’s that bit of feeding the soul that makes working at Row One something special.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love Austin, I’ve made my life friends here, I’ve met and live with my ride or die here, it’s given me safe haven in tumultuous times like the recession and the pandemic. I’ve watched the city grow and be more progressive, be a symbol for our future and how I’d like to live and grow as a person. The thing I love most is that it is constantly evolving, it’s not set in its ways, it doesn’t get stale or slowly die, it’s always something different for better or worse. The thing I like least about the city is that it’s still seen by the country at large with a bit of baggage. People see it on TV or in greater popular culture and think one thing, people who live here think another thing. Austin is weird in that it’s not at all what people portray it as and it is also not the same city that locals hold on to. I think people have to embrace that it is constantly changing and that nothing quite stays the way you think it should.
Contact Info:
- Email: scott@rowoneproductions.com
- Website: rowoneproductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rowoneproductions/
