Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Brady Anderton on Fueldfilms

Brady Anderton on Fueldfilms

Summer Finley and Brady Anderton each took different paths to get to their partnership at Fueld Films.

Brady grew up in San Antonio, TX and Salt Lake City, UT. Growing up in Utah his family were all skiers and filmed everything they did. After receiving his BS in Civil Engineering from Brigham Young University he developed a lip balm tether for the ski and sports market. To promote it he began making original content and commercials with a small production crew. After selling the company Brady turned his focus towards commercial production, co-founding Fueld films with Ben Hurst in 2007.

Summer grew up on a cattle ranch in west Texas and spent her teen years in Austin. When auditioning for colleges, the dean of theater and film school at the University of Manchester, Rose Bruford in the UK, considered the Julliard of the UK, recruited her to college in England.  Her career launched just after college with her first job as a casting assistant. After finding 30 competition-ready body builders in Austin in 5 days time, she earned a reputation as a miracle worker in film production. She joined Fueld Films as a partner in 2009.

Brands are facing 10x the amount of content they needed just a few years ago. There is a need to address this hunger for more content, and faster.

Fueld’s solution aggregates the most creative regional markets into a single, comprehensive network.. By aggregating the talent in regional markets they have been able to attract an extensive, diverse list of acclaimed Directors, they offer a new way to search for directors that agencies wont find on any list With this they are able to deliver exciting new talent for productions with budget limitations.
Fueld serves advertising agency producers, creatives, and brands across the country who have high-quality creative concepts but are facing challenged budgets. They also provide a steady flow of business  for crew members, vendors, and actors  in an uncertain industry.   

They faced a difficult path in getting Fueld off the ground. As Brady describes, “If Summer and I had approached 50 industry experts about what we wanted to accomplish as a production company based in Austin, TX we would have been told 50 times that we would fail. That taught us how to trust our gut as we tried new things.” Summer adds “The uncertainty is hard. As a startup you have no choice but to wear all the hats in the beginning.”
Along the way, Summer and Brady drew inspiration from FAST COMPANY magazine.  Says Brady, “I have always been inspired by pioneers in their field. We are voracious readers and stay curious about everything and everyone around us.”

As they build Fueld, they try to keep it authentic. Brady says, “People come to us because it feels like coming home. We don’t consider doing the right thing a weakness, as it’s more of a way of life for us.  I think some are afraid people might take advantage of them if they admit to being kind.  We want to change this paradigm. We set out to prove that you can be nice and produce great work.”

Summer recognizes that film production can be a high-stress environment but says “we see ourselves as very blessed to be in such a creative industry. Fueld is known for assembling great teams that are not only talented and reliable, but enjoyable to work with. Working with Fueld its like working with family – dedication to the end and honesty all the way along to get us there, and hugs at the end.”

Now that Fueld has shown that new models of uncovering and exposing local and regional talent to a national market are viable, the next steps are to simply pour gas on the fire, without blowing everything up. Brady says that “we have found that growth is best accomplished with equal parts expansion and shoring up the base.” 

The best advice they have for entrepreneurs? Be great. It's ok to dream. We're all in this together.


Says Summer, “When you are young and untested but have a clear vision about something you should just realize that in the beginning its far better for you to simply go and do then to talk about what you could be. A seemingly small accomplishment can easily be amplified once its been proven.”

Brady adds, “Treat everyone with kindness and respect.  You never know who you’ll be dealing with in 10 years, and people never forget the way they were treated, good or bad. “

When you’re faced with a daunting task be the person who won’t  take no for an answer.  There’s always a way!   

When Brady thinks of starting again, “I think I would do everything the same, just fewer Redbulls.”