Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Tohill.
Hi Patrick, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I started back before my first son was born. I actually discovered that the canon DSLR cameras could shoot 1080p video. Ha… A friend of mine showed me how he used his camera to capture videos as well as pictures and I was fascinated. After my son was born in 2010, I was able to convince my wife that I could take AMAZING pictures with this new camera. She didn’t care about video. She loved the picture idea so I got the camera and started goofing around.
As soon as I had it, I hit up a friend of mine, Michael Logen. He’s an incredible singer, songwriter. I offered to shoot his video for free and he actually bought a small dolly for me in return. We used it for the shoot. I then went to another friend and offered the same thing. From there I started pitching these two videos as my “portfolio” and never looked back.
I started getting projects over the weekends and just hustled hard. I shot, did all the lighting, edited, and everything. I had no one with me. Just me sweating my face off trying to impress these people. I noticed I was actually making more money over the weekends on these gigs than I was at my day job so I took a huge leap and told my wife I would not return to my day job after Christmas. So, Jan of 2012 I officially moved on and went full time with my work.
Since then, I’ve been blessed with opportunities to grow my craft and work with some of the most talented artists and crew that I’ve ever seen.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s never a smooth road. When I left my day job, I actually had NOTHING booked. It seemed stupid to leave something I had going and I was really scared. New baby and all. And my wife was staying home. I did not want her to work. I felt like leaving my job was foolish.
I will say that as soon as I left, I got a call to go on a week-long trip to film some artists. I of course jumped on and took it. I was out for a week with various artists and while on the trip one artist asked me if I’d be willing to shoot an EPK for her when we go back to Nashville. Of course, I said yes. And then on the set of that EPK, her producer was there in the studio and asked me if I had time the next week to do an EPK for one of his artists.
I quickly learned that if I wanted to do this full time, I had made the best decision to fully pursue it. Within a week I picked up 3 projects and they were all from just being present.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I have an incredible team and we produce some great projects. With the help of my team, I direct and produce all of our work as well as edit the projects. Over the years we’ve built a strong reputation producing music videos and delivering on some big ideas. I’m proud of what my team has accomplished over the years and we are super excited for what’s to come in the future. While we will always continue to produce music videos, we are also pushing to get into the branding game as well. I would also love to direct some shorts in the near future.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Nashville is an incredible city filled with talented creatives. It is also a beautiful part of the world. The city grows every year and new buildings emerge in the city making the cityscape more beautiful. There are a ton of things to do in town and lots of great places to eat. We have a huge range of concerts that come through every year as well. Super fun place to live.
I don’t like the traffic. Ha…
Contact Info:
- Email: patrick@patricktohill.com
- Website: www.patricktohill.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patricktohill/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patrickmtohill/
