About
I was in front of the camera before I was behind it.
It took me ten years to work out which side I belonged on.
About
It took me ten years to work out which side I belonged on.
The start
I grew up near Paris. I started modelling at six years old and did it for ten years, which means I spent my childhood on advertising sets being told where to stand and when to smile.
I learned two things there. How a production actually works. And that I was much happier on the other side of the lens.
Years later I was travelling, a friend invited me to Australia, and I never left. I started as an assistant for production companies in Melbourne. Photography first, about ten years ago. Video six years ago.
I did a lot of work for free. Shoots for anyone who would let me, just to be involved. That is how it started.
The turn
At first I thought my job was to make things look good.
Then I spent a year with a Muay Thai gym. Training, professional fights, title fights. A documentary, not an ad.
Trailer
And I understood something. Put two gyms next to each other. One has a documentary. You watch it, you see the owner, you see the coaches, you understand what they believe. You feel their values.
Which one do you walk into?
Nobody buys from a business. People buy from people. That is the whole thing.
Once I saw it, I could not unsee it. Video is not decoration. It is how a stranger decides whether to trust you before they ever pick up the phone. And trust is what shortens a sales cycle.
So I stopped being a videographer and started running the ads as well.
What I believe now
An ad has three seconds to stop someone and one thing to say. Most video people have never run one, so they film, and then they hope.
The playbook is different. Campaigns need watching every day or two, not every month. What works for a product shop does not work for a studio.
Ad fatigue on Meta is quick now. Something new has to go in every week, or your cost per lead climbs and nobody can tell you why.
Your account, your pixel, your data. I have seen what happens to a business when it does not, and it is not a mistake I will help anyone repeat.
On being on camera
I was that person. Six years old, being told to smile.
So I know what makes it easier. Knowing what you are going to say before you say it. Filming in short blocks instead of long takes. And nobody ever seeing the ones that did not work.
You do not need to be good at this. You need to know your subject, and you already do.
“I honestly forgot he was in the room at times.”
Kathleen Vergara · Kath V Photography
Next step
The price is on the site. There is nothing to sell you on a call, only whether it fits.