Meet Jake Doucette | Business Owner & Freelance Videographer

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

Hi Jake, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I’ve always had a hard time staying in one place, or under one roof. The amount of Job’s I had by the age of 14 – 25 is quite absurd. I remember being in high school envious of people who knew their life path. I had no idea if I wanted to go to college, find a job, or go to a trade school, so instead I tried it all. I tried college, tried multiple trades, and had 13 different job’s across a few different fields before I started my own business. I Never took a film, or photography class, but I had been curious about it in high school. My senior year of high school in 2012 I’d steal my sisters camera to bring to car shows, and got hooked on photography. Even with my new found passion of photography, I didn’t think I could make a career out of it. The only photographer’s I had seen were either wedding photographers, portrait shooters, or famous National Geographic shooters, so I kept it only as a hobby for many years. I went back to school for welding and fabrication, and actually enjoyed it. However after doing it for a few years I would day dream about doing photo & video as a career. I began to venture into creating video content, and at the same time video started to take over the marketing world, and things seemed to align. I was able to quit my job, and work for a small local production company filming content for an IT company. I gained some skills, learned about cameras, lighting, audio, and post production. Then after a few months of being there I met someone that needed help filming wedding films, and photographing real estate. Him and I got so busy doing that, I was able to leave the production company. I started my own business, continued to freelance for him, other agencies, and creators.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Since I didn’t go to film school things took me a bit longer to learn than most. A big part of why I’m doing this as a career is because I was able to work, and learn from some of the best creatives in the area. I would watch youtube for hours to learn from video, and gear tutorials, assist on gigs getting snacks, and driving the crew just to learn from them. I’ve worked on gigs like Netflix, Travel Channel, Toyo tires, Timberland Pro, Santander bank, WL French Excavation, manufacturing facilities, gyms, hair salons, music artists, body shops, finance start ups, bio tech, weddings, realtors, and athletes a bit of everything. A lot of them I was brought on by video production company to assist, be a camera operator, or drone pilot. because of my wide experience of jobs, and trades, mixed with all this new skill in the film industry it’s allowed me to be ready for any scenario i’m thrown into. What REALLY motivates me is filming extreme sports primarily Mountain Biking. I have a film out now with a local rider Derek Hines for Kona Bikes, and another one planned for this spring.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Growing up in New Hampshire, more specifically the Seacoast it’s kind of hard to think of myself leaving. I kind of feel like it’s a hidden gem. I’ve always seen ski films talk about how in California you can surf, ski, skate, or bike all in one day, but we can do that here as well. The winter’s are long, and brutal but as long as we get snow I don’t mind, as I love to get up to the mountains to snowboard every chance I get, and it’s only about an hour and a half away to some of the best skiing, and riding in New England. I’ve traveled to quite a few states in the US, but I always love coming back home. In the summer, and fall I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I live about 2.5 miles from the beach so starting my day with a bike ride to my favorite local coffee shop KB’s bagels, enjoying a bagel, and coffee sitting on the beach is my absolute favorite. I try to get down there at least once or twice a week to fly my drone for sunrise, and take a dip in the ocean, it’s the absolute best way to wake up. Being near the ocean we don’t have a ton of elevation for mountain biking, or hiking, but we do have some awesome local trails, however I’ll make the drive a couple hours north to head to the white mountains for some of the best mountain biking and hiking in the north east around Conway, NH. We also live about 20 minutes from my favorite New England town, Portsmouth NH. I actually have a tattoo of a Portsmouth scene from a photo I took way back in the day. It’s as picturesque as a New England town gets, and has some amazing restaurant’s, music, shopping, and night life. Being an hour north of Boston, an hour south of Portland, ME, an hour and a half from the mountains, and living right on the ocean it’s truly a blessing getting to grow up here, and is such an amazing place to live.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I was lucky enough to have loving parents support me in my indecisiveness of careers. They knew I had always loved photography & film making but I think they also didn’t know how I could do that as a career unless I started from scratch, and went to school for it. During my journey of transitioning from a full time job to starting my business they allowed me to live at home to save on overhead. At the same time I had met my current girlfriend Meagan (Meagan Explores). We met through our mutual love for photography, and she had just so happened to work for a marketing agency as a Project Manager. before her I knew nothing about marketing, and the way that world worked. With her help on the back end of things, resume’s, company out reach letters, contracts, proposals, I learned more about the customer interaction experience. So for that I am very grateful to have her help educate me in something I was seriously lacking.

Website: www.phittedmedia.com

Instagram: @Phitted_jake, @Phitted_Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/phittedmedia

Youtube: https://youtu.be/fFswXMlg47M

Image Credits
Any photos with me in it are taken by my girlfriend Meagan Bronson, of Meagan Explores. So you can just put images by Phitted Media/Meagan Explores.