Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Wright.
Bryan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I was younger, around 6th grade, I started making short movies and videos with a few of my friends. We just had a crappy little digital camera and Windows Movie Maker, but we it was awesome. We were doing music videos, fake trailers for movies that didn’t exist, and short movies that we thought were hilarious and had great writing, which I still think were pretty good for what we had at our disposal.
Throughout high school, I never really filmed anything, obviously too busy dealing with the HUGE problems high schoolers face like asking out girls and trying to be cool. It wasn’t until I went off to college that I thought that a career in film was something I could do for a living. At DePaul University I met my friend Brian Almalvez who was way ahead of the curve in making video production a full-time job on the day.
Along with our friends Jp Quindara, and Bryan Casallo, I was the last piece in the puzzle to Pogi Studios, “Pogi” (Poh-Gee) meaning “Good looking guy” in Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines. Since then it’s been a journey filled with a lot of ups and downs, successes, and failures. Some days we want to kill each other, but those feelings always give way to the bond we’ve formed over the years, and we can’t wait for the future to grow Pogi Studios and develop ourselves as artists.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Pogi Studios is 4 friends that started a company in college hoping to one day quit our day jobs. We are everything that you shouldn’t do when trying to be your own boss. In the beginning, we underestimated the amount of work that goes into building a legitimate business.
At times we would all put selfish priorities ahead of Pogi, which almost cost us the business and our friendships. None of us were the “Sit down and share your feelings” type of people but at the end that is what helped us all the most. I personally still struggle with a work/life balance, working a full-time job from 9am-5pm and going to Pogi Studios from 6pm-10pm every weekday and occasional weekends.
But I find the stamina to keep working because I believe in my art and the artistic skill of everyone in Pogi. It’s kind of fun because I feel like I’m actually grinding like I never have before, and I know it will pay off.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Pogi Studios has most notably done work that focuses on fashion, sports, and lifestyle commercial films. We specialize in integrating ourselves into our client’s perspective. We strive to tell the whole story in our films, in able to connect with their viewers. I am personally most proud of us for getting this far.
We’ve built something that we feel will take us further than we could have hoped and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. I think what sets us apart is that we are still those kids from grade school and high school having fun making films. We are just older, have better equipment, and get paid for it.
I’ve freelanced for companies that have lost that spark and are working towards a paycheck and nothing else. There are always going to be challenged, but we turned something we do for fun into jobs, I don’t know what’s better than that.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I was always an explorer, a wanderer. I got my artistic side from my mother, who can sketch beautiful drawings. I would love watching movies and would dissect them with my extremely limited knowledge, trying to figure out how scenes were shot.
Other than that I was your typical Chicago city kid. Little league baseball, and riding my bike around the neighborhood when I was young. Hanging out at my friends’ houses and being stupid high schoolers. And finding myself in college through much reflection, successes, failures, and late nights at parties.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1932 S. Halsted St. #411 Chicago IL, 60608
- Website: pogistudios.com
- Phone: (312) 788-7644
- Email: contact@pogistudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pogistudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pogistudios/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/pogistudios
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
