Meet Caitlin Wilbert | Filmmaker

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

Hi Caitlin, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’ve always been very independent. In 18 years as a professional filmmaker, I’ve only been a full time employee for 3 of those years. I like to wear a lot of hats. I like to learn new skills. It’s hard to do that when you are with one agency or company. I’ve worked on so many different types of projects and for so many different clients. After 7 or 8 years I started to notice patterns and predict client needs. It made sense to eventually work directly with my own clients.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
– As a kid, I wrote a lot of stories. Eventually, I started turning them into scripts….. – 2001-04: Santa Barbara/Ventura – I went to college in a film department at a photography school. I enjoyed it, but I got bored after two years. I missed “three dimensions” and working with my hands. So I started building everyone’s sets. That’s how fellow art dept enthusiast Zoë and I met. As well as Sofia Garza Barba who I built sets for. I also shot and directed. I won a screenwriting competition and was able to shoot my thesis on 35mm. I directed a cast and crew of over 100 people. As a photography school, you weren’t allowed to graduate without taking a photoshop class. I spent a couple years petitioning to take an After Effects class instead. Turned out to be worth the struggle 😉
– 2005-06: LA – After graduating, I still planned to work in the art dept. Working my way up wasn’t supporting my basic necessities. So I shot, edited and did motion graphics for corporate videos to survive.
– 2006-08: Portland/Seattle – I broke my body in the art department and left LA. I began working for one of my closest college professors who had re-located to Seattle. He wanted me to work for him producing massive live events for Microsoft. When I told him producing wasn’t my jam, he passed me off on the creative director. We made videos (mostly mograph) that wrapped around huge stages with Cirq de Soleil performers and live musicians. It was just a small group of 4 of us making these videos. I got to do creative stuff, but I also got really good at the tech side of things which was new for me. I worked and consulted for them for years after.
– 2008-10: Portland – I eventually took my first full-time job at a 3D animation studio in Portland. I was their editor/compositor/mograph person. I spent (you guessed it) two years there before deciding I had enough hands on experience in the 3D world. This was the time-period I also did a lot set design gigs in Mexico. Travel, design and construction helped off-set my sedentary editing/mograph job.
– 2010-16: Immediately after quitting I fell into the mostly Nike world of Portland agency life. I did a lot of motion graphics work during this time. Less shooting. I didn’t like to tell people I was an editor if they hired me for mograph. And vice versa. But eventually I became a sort of two-for deal for a lot of agencies. I also worked a lot for a telecommunication trade show shooting and editing coverage all over the US and Europe. Again, travel and shooting to offset the tedious editing/mograph lifestyle. This is when my business Cabin 22 Media was born. I was a one woman-band.
– 2017-20: During this time I started shooting and directing a lot more. Probably an even split between shooting, editing and animating. I also became more interested in making comedic content. Before, all of the marketing content I worked on was often dramatic in nature. I also started doing more personal projects. When I was pregnant with my eldest, I was lugging camera gear to remote villages in the Himalayan mountaintops of Nepal shooting a personal documentary. Again, travel and shooting to mix up the editing/animating. And then in the same year pitching (and winning) goofy marketing campaigns to very stuffy government agencies. And then off to shoot a documentary in rural Mississippi about a mom with a terminally ill son. A big gamut of sedentary/action and drama/comedy. I just need variety!
– 2020-22: Pandemic (and pregnant with kid #2). As soon as the pandemic hit I started working for a Portland start-up that turned children’s books into animated stories. I directed the voice over talent, animators and musicians. I went full time. It was a super fun and rewarding job. They had to dissolve the production department for financial reasons. I brought on my friend Zoe from college to be my producer.
– TODAY: And after getting laid off Zoe and I started our own media company Good Coz. We are a cause marketing company. We bring our values in trust, compassion, and storytelling to organizations and companies creating positive change in the world. With combined decades of experience in marketing, video production, fundraising tools, grant writing and nonprofit management, we created a powerful space for elevating causes and promoting social good.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m in Portland (not LA). I recently visited LA again and we went to some of our old haunts around Hollywood and Ventura.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Yes! There have been many supportive characters along the way. From professors who turned into my first employers, to friends from college who I still work with today, to clients who support me and my talent and push me to learn new things. – Thomas Schabarum (Professor turned first employer and longtime friend/supporter)
– Sofia Garza Barba (film school buddy who I still work with)
– Zoë Anderson (film school buddy who I still work with)
– Annie Tonsiengsom (supportive client)
– Dennis Rockney (supportive client)

Website: www.cabin22.com and www.agoodcoz.com

Image Credits
Sam Slater (portrait) and Mark Soasey (nepal photos with me and drone shot) Caitlin (nepal photos without me)