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.”
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!
