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

Hi Shane, how have you been keeping yourself busy during quarantine?
My absolute favorite thing during quarantine was the extra time I found to spend with my wife. Being a business owner, entrepreneur and freelance filmmaker takes an incredible amount of time so finding myself on a couch, with my wife in the backyard watching the sunrise or set (with a cocktail in hand) was very peaceful. However, I still kept very busy reaching out to our clients and pivoting to create new products like live-streaming packages and shelter-in-place video projects.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started my professional career in 2010 when I formed CinemaStory with my childhood friend. Since then I have published over 1686 videos from commercial work to wedding films and everything in between. I have definitely come a very long way in my career, but I always look forward to where I am headed. For me, the passion is in the challenge. It is very difficult to start, compete and thrive in the video and film industry. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to remove obstacles and do everything you can do to push yourself to grow in your career. It is uncomfortable and you will fail, over and over again, but learn from those mis-steps and continue the climb because the view is ultimately worth it. We have had our ups and downs as a creative company in an oversaturated market but in 2016 we started to see a 100% increase in annual revenue and that growth lasted for 3 years in a row. I truly believe that was all God’s plan and timing but I also believe what sets us apart from other agencies, freelancers and large production companies is our personal relationships. We not only care about the art of filmmaking but we also care about the story. Building relationships with our clients and staff has been key in creating meaningful growth while giving our brand true purpose. CinemaStory is all about being a creative guide in the collaboration of cinematography and story, to produce a meaningful moment in our client’s journey to success.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is a tough one because there are so many great places in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to explore and I hope that is still true after this COVID19 crises. I always break down my options to visiting friends into three buckets: Denton, Dallas or Fort Worth. Denton has a great “small-town” vibe that has great food, music and bars. It is a college town with two large universities (go Mean Green!) so there is plenty of people watching, community events and social scenes to explore. I highly recommend the downtown square where there are several great options but my ideal trip would include a Roosters Roadhouse burger for lunch, a stroll over to East Side Draft House patio for a beer and then finish the evening off with some great music at Dan’s Silverleaf. Dallas has so many “neighborhoods” that are worth checking out such but my go to all-day adventures are Deep Ellum music and pub hopping, the Design District art and brewery tours and of course my very close to home option of the Legacy area in Plano that has seemingly a never ending supply of restaurants. I don’t make it out to Fort Worth as much as I would like but I love the laid-back friendly attitudes at the stockyard and of course the very fun vibes of the West 7th party zone.

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?
My journey has been filled with so many meaningful guides, mentors, good books and loyal friends. There is no way I can name them all but a few that immediately come to mind would be… Tammy Lane with Capernaum Studios has given me so many epic opportunities to grow as a filmmaker. I traveled to India with her to co-produce a documentary about lepers, orphans and widows. I was her DP/Tech Director on a reality tv-show about mission workers filmed in Central America. More recently I’ve worked on several of her narrative projects at her studio out near Weatherford, TX such as The Crimson and Washington’s Armor. I am very thankful for her mentorship, friendship and creative opportunities. She really helped me get a start into creative filmmaking! Michael Goms really took me under his wing in the early stages of my career back in 2012 and got me involved in editorial content creation. I learned a lot about the technicalities of camera gear and how to edit very quickly to keep up with his workflow. He’s a great filmmaker and early mentor of mine that I cannot forget to mention. Most recently I’ve been influenced by one of my own mentees, Joey Nicotra. I hired him to be the Creative Director of my company in 2019 and he impresses me daily with his creative drive, business-minded direction and overall skill as an artist. I’m honored to call him a mentee, great friend and now business partner I look up too a lot! Big shoutouts to Kelon Moore, a business consultant and good friend that I hired in 2019 that really helped bring identity and structure to CinemaStory. Also Ryan Killian my childhood friend, original business partner in 2010 and more recently our legal counsel has always been a solid go to source to talk business. “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller has been a game changer and I highly recommend to anyone in business to read it. Finally it goes without saying but my wonderfully wise wife, Kirsten Reitzammer, is always my first go-to source for advice.

Website: https://www.cinema-story.com/ and https://www.cinemastoryweddingfilms.com/
Instagram: @cinemastoryproductions and @cinemastoryweddingfilms and @shanereitzammer
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-reitzammer-26140a13/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cinemastoryproductions & https://www.facebook.com/cinemastoryweddingfilms
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Shanefilms2012

Image Credits
Timothy Alsbrooks Sara Burns Photography