We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matthew Pellowski. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matthew below.
Matthew , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
This is a simple yet complicated question to answer. The best way I can answer this is to say, I get it from me, myself and no one or no where else. You have to want to do things in life, you have to have goals and dreams and ambitions and most importantly you have to have the drive and perseverance to go after them. I have always played sports as a kid and did so through college before moving onto a career in the arts, and I remember at some point around High School with regard to my athletics having an internal discussion. There is a saying in sports that when you don’t push yourself to the fullest you only “cheat yourself.” I started to really understand and believe this, and so I started to apply myself fully to what I invested my time in with all things. I remember the last basketball game I played of my freshmen year in college. I had played incredibly well, but more specifically I remember leaving the court feeling that I had truly given everything I had as a player to the sport. It was satisfying to give your blood, sweat, tears and soul to something. I later took many of the lessons I learned in playing sports and applied them to my career as an artist. Things like dedication, teamwork, knowing how to work with others, having incredible focus, and ultimately giving quite literally every ounce of energy you have to a common goal. Another event that happened to me as a young adult was I unfortunately lost my older brother Morgan in a tragic car accident. I was just 16 at the time and he was 22. That moment in time changed my life and gave me great drive, determination and focus. This might not make sense to most people but my reaction to losing a brother at a young age was rage which fueled a want for revenge. People who have not gone through something like this might think “revenge” is the wrong word, but it’s what always resonated with me. It lit a fire in me and I wanted to challenge myself, knowing fully now that a lifetime is not guaranteed or promised and that anyone who doesn’t spend their own pushing their limits disrespects those who were not fortunate to have more time. “The best revenge is success” as they say, and so I believe looking back, I developed a work ethic that was in a way a tribute and a grieving response to losing someone I loved. Tragedy can often create monsters, people often use similar circumstances to become worse people, drunks, drug addicts, or criminals, I intended to use this as fire to attempt great and impossible things. The core building blocks that sports provided and the circumstances and events that surrounded my upbringing as a young person shaped and fueled my work ethic.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am the type of person that always has 10 projects going at once. As one of the founding partners of Red Line Studios, (a film and television production company, sound stage and post suite in New York City) I am always busy. Right now I am helping creatively redirect an outstanding feature length international documentary film in conjunction with Gaiamount Pictures (A Chinese Based Company) and I truly feel this is going to be a film that wins a lot of awards in 2024 / 2025. It’s a dream project creatively for me and focuses on something called Thangka Art, which is a rare Tibetan process surrounding Buddhism, spirituality, history, art and culture. Additionally, Red Line is co-producing and gearing up to for a second season of our original documentary series called “Robb Ortel’s Art Attack.” Art Attack is a travel series akin to the late Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” only instead of food being an inspiration to travel to strange and exotic destinations, we use art as our vehicle. The program is hosted by former American Chopper reality personality Robb Ortel. On top of that I am hosting a comedy podcast called “Listen to Your Art” which is a weird, unfiltered look at high brow culture. It’s like if Beavis and Butthead had a rock n’ roll art history critique show on PBS. Red Line Studios is also celebrating it’s 20th year being a sound stage rental and podcast recording studio in Manhattan and so that is exciting to hit that milestone. When I am not working on films and television shows I am running all over the USA with my young children who have both become elite athletes and artists in their own right. I help coach their softball, baseball and basketball teams and shuttle them back and forth to singing and piano lessons. My true joy is having the opportunity to pass on the knowledge I have learned in both of those arenas to them and watch them already surpass me in ability, accolades and achievements.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Never give up ever. When I get my ass kicked, whether it is in sports or life or career it hurts and it sucks just as much as anything does when you are down, but how you react to that is what makes or breaks you. When I am dangling by my last thread, I often get the most driven. When I am ready to quit, I always take on more, I add more goals, more projects. People ask me how I do all of these things in terms of time and energy, well, I’m exhausted, but I will sleep when I am dead.
Be a master at what you do, not a casual hobbyist. I see this all the time, people making excuses and waiting around for some act of God or luck to knock on their door and give them an opportunity. Opportunities are made by you, not handed to you. Most things are a privilege not a right so act like it. Things are supposed to be hard, they are supposed to be challenging, if you want to achieve greatness in whatever you pursue, you better be willing to give your all to it. Going back to sports one season I had probably the best coach of my life and he taught me many things in one season that lasted a lifetime. One of those things was not being afraid to fail. When you truly give yourself to something, even if you don’t come out on top with a win, you walk away with a win, because you didn’t cheat your effort. Cheating your effort is the only true failure you can have. Master the art of redefining what winning and losing is and truly dedicate and give yourself to whatever your goal or dream is. Stop making excuses, people do it all of the time and it drives me crazy, if you are alive and breathing you have no excuse not to go after your own personal wants and goals.
Take pride in your work. No one has any pride in their work anymore. I have always delivered to my clients the same level of expectations I have for myself and my own work. That is how you build a following and a reputation and a brand. People often say to me that they can recognize my work specifically as an editor, this was not something I set out to do but what I did set out to have was a level of expectation for my work. Your work should be a constant progression of improvement. In my opinion that career path I chose was intentional because of how difficult it was. You can’t “kinda” like baseball and expect to be in the MLB. You can’t work at basketball two days a week and expect to play in the NBA. For film and television if you are not grandfathered in by some personal relationship you have to work your ass off and that starts with setting expectations for your own self and your own work in terms of what you put in to get better and what you put out in terms of finished products.
How would you describe your ideal client?
My ideal client is simple, they have realistic expectations, a budget that matches those expectations, and they understand their role and mine in our relationship. I don’t like being micromanaged especially by someone who has no idea what they are doing or who has no proven history or track record that they know what they are doing. The day and age we live in also makes my industry incredibly difficult when it comes to running a business. People call our studio all of the time having done zero research or having zero understanding of procedures or prices or really anything at all. It’s the equivalent of me walking into a BMW dealership, not knowing how to even turn a car on yet being shocked to find that they don’t have any brand new convertibles for $500. For some reason people seem to think that because this is the film and television industry that people are inclined to give 80% discounts on services or products or work for free. Nine out of the ten calls we field each week are laughable when it comes to the delusions prospective clients have because they can’t differentiate between cost of a union cameraman with 30 years experience and a 23 year old who lives with his parents and has an iphone and an instagram account. We prefer to have quality clients over quantity. One also important take away from this for young people starting out is knowing the difference of putting yourself out there in a multitude of places to gain opportunities and experience and knowing when to tell a prospective client “no,” and walk away. People always complain about bad jobs, shoots and bad clients, well most of the time you knowingly agreed to a bad deal so don’t be upset when it comes to fruition. Not enough people walk away from bad deals out of a fear of having no deal at all. The older you get the more you know your value and worth and what is worth your time and what is not.
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