Meet Mike Vannelli | Head Video Producer

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

Hi Mike, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I started my video career producing music videos for artists like Three 6 Mafia and Machine Gun Kelly. A friend from high school was working for Three 6 Mafia as an Engineer and reached out when they needed some new and fresh music video produced. I wanted to get more into commercial and film work so I phased out of the Music Videos sector. I started from the ground up, with some of the equipment I had, to start making commercials. At the beginning, I did a lot of different styles of videos and commercials, to see what style I liked and what I knew I could do well. Then, Envy Creative started getting attention. Companies, brands, products, and startups started asking us to make their videos and commercials. From then on, I have been making commercials, ad and explainer videos, mostly for business, products, brands, and tech. Some videos we make are large-scale productions and some are smaller, to fit the budget of bootstrap startups, for example. To date, we have produced over two thousand videos.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Envy Creative is a creative agency and video production company that makes great commercials, ads, and videos for business, products, brands, and startups. We specialize in commercial-style videos, whether that be 30 second TV ad, a 2-minute Kickstarter video, a Facebook ad, or just someone talking to the camera, with a white background, unboxing a product. One of the main reasons clients love us is because of our pricing, timing, and quality. We own all our equipment that’s required for large-scale productions and rarely have to rent equipment. We also try to shoot in-house at our studio, where we have many standing sets that are “film-ready.” Plus, being in Los Angles, with access to all the film resources, we can offer high production value videos at a fraction of what other companies might charge. You’ll probably notice that we reuse actors in our commercials. We have a roster of actors that we have on-call that we think have a good look and style to act in a wide range of videos. This way, when we produce a new video, we usually don’t have to go through a long and drawn-out casting process. We know we have competent actors who can play most of the roles we need them to, and who will give a great performance. We also have an in-house creative team that writes our scripts for new video productions. They have done so many of them, they could do it in their sleep! It still amazes me though, that they can write new and creative content with each video. Mostly all the videos that we do are all-inclusive. So, we can do everything from creating the concept/script, pre-production, filming, and post-production, including editing, visual effects, and music. One other thing that set us apart is that we like to put ourselves in our clients’ shoes when it comes to timelines for delivering a final product. I’ve heard of production companies and creative agencies taking upwards of 6 months to deliver a commercial or video content. If you have to rent all your equipment, work with outsourced writers, book locations to shoot at, and do a casting, all before you even start on production, then yes, I can see it taking that long. But, since we own all our own equipment, have a competent, in-house creative team, have our own studio, and have a pool of vetted actors, our turnaround time is much faster. From start to finish, for a typical video, it usually takes us around 8 weeks max to deliver a completed video.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
While in LA, some of the coolest things to do would be the movie studio tours. Universal has a great one that comes with the ticket of their theme part and Warner Bros has a great standalone tour.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We have a great team here at Envy Creative and would like to give a shoutout to them. Without them, Envy Creative would not be possible.

Website: https://www.thinkenvy.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkenvy/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18573592/admin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/think_envy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thinkenvy/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4oTL5HrPMAj8_88ZfvlbRQ