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There are some young guns on the prowl – the “hawt”, “bright” and “fly” team known appropriately as FireFly Productions. Armed with a ton of creativity and stocked up on wit and talent, FireFly is all about fun and entertaining films and videos that can help your business or persona stand out from the crowd. Whether you run a business and are looking to create a brand or just a solo musician seeking to make a name for yourself, FireFly is aiming to kill the competition with end projects that sizzle. Here’s more on this noteworthy start-up:

Please tell us about your start-up FireFly Productions. What makes it unique? And how does it fit into the marketplace?

The core team at Firefly has known each other for a quite a few years. The three of us have a strong passion for films, and we were doing our own little videos and sketches way before the idea of making a company out of it. Our unique point is just that, we don’t make videos or shorts that we don’t find entertaining. We learned this a few years ago when trying to do a more art-house project and it just didn’t work. So we quickly went back to what we knew would work. We’re all in our mid-twenties, which places us on the same level as projects that target the same demographic. For example, the last project was for the National Union of Students in the UK (NUS). Making a video that we liked would be more engaging to the target as it’s a similar bracket.

How do you promote a business such as this?

At the moment it’s all about networking. Apart from short sketches and corporate videos we’ve got a few film projects on the go. Using sites like LinkedIn allows us to connect with people in the states we would otherwise have had a very tough time getting in contact with. Social networking suits us well - Twitter/Facebook and having people spread our links around shows that we’re doing something right!

On your About Us page, you note that “FireFly began with zombies.” What “zombies” are involved? What’s the story here?

Well the first thing we ever filmed was a homage to “Shaun of the Dead” (called “From Dusk Till Shaun“) for an “Unnecessary Sequel” contest. It now has over 650,000 views and growing. We look back on that now and see how could improve. The other guys met through a BBC show called “Bryony Makes a Zombie” film, it just seems to be our style: comedy and blood and guts (preferably both!)

Did you write a business plan? How did you fund the launch of your business? Are you currently seeking investment?

We’re still launching, so much of our focus has been on recent productions. It’s been tough trying to make time to focus on the less entertaining side of the business. We’re completely self-funded which puts us in a very good position in terms of production but investment is something we’ve started to consider. We’d love to get a central London-based studio that we can work out of and have a fixed abode for our Green Screen which would allow us to film some videos with ease.

Is this your first start-up venture? What other businesses have you been involved with?

This is our first venture. It’s been quite nerve racking as it’s all new so besides trying to grow the business and work on existing projects, I have had to also learn about the day-to-day operations as well. Apart from the creative side I’ve always been involved in client-facing roles so luckily that helps a lot with networking.

What resources have you utilized for start-up assistance and advice (both on and offline)?

Business Link run by the UK government has been great for advice, finding out about the day-to-day operations. Unfortunately they don’t have great info on the creative side so we’ve been speaking with a lot of people we know in the industry and getting as much advice as we can. Again LinkedIn has been great for other possibilities I hadn’t considered before.

If you had to start all over, what are some things you would do differently?

If we could start over I’d like to get some funding so we have a studio from day 1; possibly to go further afield for networking events; plus we wouldn’t say no to some new camera equipment. Otherwise I think our networking approach has worked well. We prefer the less formal route. It’s not like we are forcing a product on anyone so, to us, recommendations are worth their weight in gold.

What customer(s)/demographic(s) do you serve?

Well there are three sides - corporate work for which we’ll undertake pretty much anything for a business looking to get a video done. We’re keen on helping musicians get noticed; same with actors so we offer help on making promo vids. Then there is our film side which we have a few exciting scripts in progress which will be for pretty much anyone who loves movies.

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