Two University of Tampa students have joined forces to create a business all their own. Miles Cable, a junior and film major, and Kush Patel, a junior and entrepreneurship major, have been longtime friends and have worked together to launch production company, Fresh View Films.
Fresh View Films originally began as Cable’s side project creating fun videos in high school but launched into a film production business in his freshman year at UT. After creating the visuals for local artist Alex Granata’s song “Childish Musician,” Cable was inspired but unsure of the future of Fresh View and how to build his dream company.
“We were hanging out, and somehow it came into the conversation, ‘I have this company and I want to take it places,’” said Patel, recalling the conversation last summer that began the partnership. “Somehow, it got into the works that I should join, and that was the starting point of the company.”
With no money to start with, Cable and Patel worked with basic film equipment acquired from years of work and savings until they could obtain their first investor. All profit they make goes to business expenses and paying off their investor, leaving little to the owners. However, the experience has been more than worth it to both business partners.
Cable recently passed up an opportunity to work with one of Chicago’s top film production offices, The Chicago Film Office. It is a department that every production has to work with to film in the city of Chicago. They help with everything from organizing city closures for sets and getting permits to casting extras–everything but what the actual studio does. Cable decided against this move in order to focus on finding clients and spending full days shooting and editing videos.
“I had an opportunity to work with the Chicago Film Office,” Cable said. “It would have been a great connect, but I was like, I’d much rather have a month of bumming around, and then spend two weeks of so much work for Fresh View. And it turns out there was a lot of progress.”
At the time, Granata was the sole Fresh View client, but after the video spread among the music community, Fresh View Films developed a brand based on social media and word of mouth. In the past year, the company built a clientele around the country from Pennsylvania to Texas, forcing Cable and Patel to travel the duration of their summer in order to collaborate with artists.
“We are just starting to manage it in the sense that we are keeping our clients organized,” Cable said.
Fresh View now has an official website, a growing client list, an apparel line and more collaborative and creative efforts in the works. Not only do they work with musicians on music videos, but they also began to offer to help their social media and marketing campaigns alongside it. Once the video is prepared and ready to release, the company offers to help the artists promote it through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. To them, Fresh View Films is the future.
“This is officially how I see Fresh View going in the future. I see it going any direction that we want to go,” Patel said. “We want to get different things under our belts so we can be an all around agency. We want to take in artists and rep them from all sides.”
Students around the University of Tampa have started to hear more and more about the growing company, and even students who are not familiar have voiced support for the up and coming business. Stevie Handwerk, a junior film major, thinks the startup company is an innovative idea.
“I think doing this is getting them maybe known [in this industry] and getting experience on their own through doing it,” Handwerk said. “Getting ahead of everyone and starting something they are passionate about is smart.
To Fresh View Films, this time in college is ideal to seek out passions and try new ventures. While their friends are working in offices at their internships, Patel and Kush love every moment of their collaborative career. They encourage their fellow students to pursue every avenue while they still have a university setting to offer opportunities.
“Right now is the time. You should be exploring your interests, try to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life,” Patel said. “Don’t just say, ‘I’ll think about it when I graduate.’”