The Tight Five: Origin Stories from The Second Row

NOTE: The initial post of this episode was edited for brevity, in the spirit of offering more to those that are interested, this post includes the video and full transcript of my conversation with Dan, ENJOY!

The Tight Five: Origin Stories from The Second Row is a series of conversations with smart, thought-provoking folks who are doing great things in ‘The Front Row’ of work, mental health, marketing, service and technology and how they came to their personal and professional path in life. The series is named after the moniker of the combined Front Row (two props and the hooker in the middle) and the Second Row in the rugby scrum which I explained in this initial post.

Episode 4 of The Tight Five features Dan Gruenpeter, Executive Producer and Co-owner of Bottle Tree Pictures, which specializes in documentary films as well as corporate video production. Dan and I have collaborated on more than a few projects over the years. He’s a top notch partner and a hell of a guy, especially when the check for lunch arrives!

We touch on a range of topics, including his very cosmopolitan background, why he is proud to call himself an immigrant, how to direct a shoot in Tokyo from Boston and how the calm leadership of Nelson Mandela has impacted his world view. It’s a great conversation and I hope you get as much out of it as I did.

Matt Landry:

Okay. So, this is Episode Four of the Tight Five from The Second Row and today we've got Dan Grunepeter from Bottle Tree Pictures. He's a co-owner, business development extraordinaire, and he's been kind enough to answer my five questions.

Thanks for joining us, Dan.

Dan Grunpeter:

Thanks, Matt. Great, great to be here.

Matt:

All right. So, you have a very cosmopolitan history that we've chatted about before. How'd you end up settling here in the United States?

Dan:

In short, my husband got a job in Chicago, but he was actually supposed to be in upstate New York, but he didn't get that role, but we ended up being Chicago, which was an amazing consolation prize.

Matt:

Yeah, that's a win for you.

Dan:

Yes! We ended up firstly in Chicago, which was a great year and a half. I think I still find it was too short of a time because it was such a great place. So that same job took us to Boston where I sort of formulated my career there. It’s where I met my current business partners, when we worked at a local rental house, which was a great steppingstone into the Boston film community, and we eventually decided to set up a production business. We were in in Boston for six years and then we recently ended up in the Bay area, just South of San Francisco in California. So, there's a bit of my background.

Matt:

Could you share a bit about your journey before you got to Chicago in terms of where you were born and where you were brought up.

Dan:

Absolutely. So, I'm a very mixed bag, which is very diverse, but within Jewish culture, it's actually not such an amazing kind of thing because we all from everywhere, my background is very varied.

I was born in South Africa in 1980, where I lived for the first few years of my life, with a South African mother and an Israeli father, of German background, which I'll go into shortly. Both of Jewish descent, we ended up moving at the age of age of five in 1986 to Australia, where I spent most of my life and grew up.

So, I would consider myself, nationally, as an Australian, I grew up there. It's where home is right now, but I still have connections to South Africa. I guess that never really goes away, but I spent most of my life, from my first year of primary school and I finished high school in Australia and ended up going to university there as well, strangely not even touching on the film industry. I studied resource management and international relations or politics, which is my true love. After university, I spent six years in the UK, where I actually got into the film industry, working for ARRI Rental as it is known today, for six years, which is when I fell into that industry. I went back to Australia, spent a few years thee, subsequently when the United States then came up, as an option it, which was never on the cards, and we decided to take, take the big leap into, into the US!

Matt:

Where did you meet your husband?

Dan:

We actually met in London in 2010. So, it was a year and then we went back for a year, and it was the tail end of the recession in 2008, what we call in Australia, the global financial crisis, but there was a big recession as we all thought back then, and big, big crisis. So yeah, it was that year, 2010 was a big year, which we decided, to make the move back to Australia. In hindsight it was a really good move, I think it kick started both of our careers, to go back, and then to move forward again.

Matt:

So, you come to the States, specifically Boston, my hometown and you start to get into video production. Why has video become such a popular way to communicate over the last few years, why do you think that has so much power versus other kinds of content?

Dan:

I think the secret to video is that you can actually see it, as opposed to like blogs or podcasts, I think being visual gives it that extra bit of power. But strangely, while there is obviously the visual side of it, the sound plays a big part in that as well.

So, you can have something really nice visually, but if sound doesn't work, then the whole thing gets distorted, but I think if you have both a visual and a sound piece that is meshed together, I think it gives you a vision of the subject and I think it's easier for learning and to pick things up if that makes sense.

Matt:

And it's probably also been driven by the power of social media too. Correct. As much as I love it. Text can only go so far…

Dan:

Oh, 100% and on that note, I think with social media our attention spans have become, in general, have become a lot shorter. We don't have time anymore, sadly, I think in some respects, to sit and focus on something for more than half an hour these days, probably even less.

So, with the advent of social media, you've really got to get your message out pretty quick, in a concise way before you lose people. So that's been an interesting way to sort of reshape what we do and how to be effective as well.

Matt:

Okay. I know you've been asked this question a number of times. What exactly does a producer do?

Dan:

That is a very good question. I'm learning that every day. I think it's a very broad role and what I've learned, while running a production company and running a business is a very varied role. I think the term producer can mean a lot of things. I can definitely speak to within our organization.

In our organization I've got my amazing business partners who are the, who are creatives, who have amazing vision, I wish I had more of a vision myself, but I'm one of those people who walk into a construction site and if somebody shows me where a room is going to be, I can't really visualize it. So, I've got two great business partners who can. One of them, Alex, has got a great creative vision, who can put things together, who has that vision to conceptualize something from a client’s perspective as well.

So, I think in our business, the role of the producer is to ensure that I can support my creatives and my creative business partners and on case by case basis, you know, make sure it's within budget, we have to run a business. So, to make sure it's somewhat profitable and we can live, to be honest get a salary.

That's, that's one thing. I always say a big part of my role is creative, but you sometimes have to sort of make sure they get in line with the business aspects of things as well. So generally, my role consists of business administration, business development and client relationship management. My specialty is more in line production, line producing, production management, as opposed to creative producing, but as the years go on, I'm learning more on the creative side. I think every day in every job is a learning curve, and as long as you stay in that job as long as you're still learning every day.

Matt:

Now, earlier we talked about your varied background in terms of how you travel and the different places you've called home. It's always amazed me, is that you have a contact in almost every part of the world. Whenever we've talked about doing projects together, you like sure, I know somebody in Mumbai. Sure. I know someone in Tokyo. Sure. I know somebody in Mexico City… How have you brought that background to like your work as a producer, are there ways that you've seen that kind of happen?

Dan:

Yeah, I'd love to do more international work. I think it is because of my varied background, from being born in one country and having family living in multiple countries around the world. I've been fortunate enough to be an immigrant, right? And I think, and to be an immigrant in multiple countries gives you the chance to meet a lot of people and people who know people, so your network grows, and my network has been growing since I was quite young.

So, I've been very fortunate because of my background, and having to move, unfortunately in some respects having to move countries wasn't out of choice, but out of necessity. It was to get a better life initially, that's been part of my family's history for generations. I don't think we've lived in a country for more than two generations since the late 1800s, to be honest.

So, we've really been two generations and then moved on and that's sort of been how we've been, and I think but I think I don't think my story is very different to other Jews around the world. We've always moved around, but I actually think it's been a really big benefit. It opens up your mind to different cultures, different ways of life, strangely enough. So yes, I'm South African born. I've got an Israeli father. I grew up in Australia. I'm now in the US, but I'm also German, as my dad is of German descent. So, I took up my German passport, a couple of years ago, it was my COVID project. That's given me a unique ability now. I am in US, but I can also work in Australia and the European Union.

I think with that background, I've been able to network quite a lot in multiple countries. I've always just enjoyed having an international existence to me, the world, the world is large an d we've got to try and do a lot more, especially these days, to go across borders, to do more business to, and not just for financial gain, but for cultural gain, to bring the borders down more than what they should be, especially these days.

I'm sorry, Matt, can you just, can you just ask me that question again? I think I might've gone off a piece there.

Matt:

No, no, I think it, it went fine. I liked where it went. I'm happy to ask it to you again, but I like where it went, it got to what I was talking about in how a producer used almost any type of engagement, whether it be talking one on one with a client, understanding their broad needs, you've had to be adaptable and all these different cultures you've lived in. It’s almost like being dropped into a film project, you have a client wanting one thing, the creatives have another thing and the thing you're shooting has a whole other complicating element, and it's logistically all over the place. So, you kind of got around to it, but that's kind of the fun of the conversation, right?

Dan:

Oh, oh. Yeah, yeah, so don't worry about it.

Matt:

So you were talking about COVID, and this is to the fourth question I sent you, so you spent a little bit of time getting your German passport and getting an EU passport, what are some of the impacts you've seen from a business perspective in some of the communities you work with, such as people liking video more? Do they understand now that they've been talking over Zoom. For instance, we've never met each other. We've met each other in person, but we've had so many zoom conversations. That's how we met. So, do you find your business has been able to grow a little bit more because people understand what video can do.

Dan:

I definitely think there was. I sort of related back to the last question as well. I remember when we first met, when you were in a previous job, and we did a production virtually in Tokyo, Japan. So that that was the power of using connections around the world to try and make something work, because we couldn't physically be in the same room.

Matt:

But yet we could make it happen and shoot a proper looking interview. You had a person in Tokyo, as I said.

Dan:

Yeah, I had a person in Tokyo, ready to go and actually met them for the first time when I was in Japan. Hideo was the camera operator and Richard who we worked with out of out of Tokyo and I met them two weeks ago because the world has reopened again. But it was how I utilized my network to find them. We were tasked with, as you know, to go and shoot a gentleman who was high up in Toyota, at their offices, during COVID, in Japan, where rules were way stricter than the U.S. This shoot was typical of that time and probably the best one we did of that time. I was based in Boston. We're all based in Boston. Second year we did the shoot I was based in San Francisco and our business partners were in Boston. We then had to find a crew in Tokyo, which we did through my network and my contacts, that is how we met the crew and within a day of having the brief, we had a crew ready to go to the Toyota offices in Tokyo and shoot. Meanwhile we would all log on online at different times.

Matt:

I think we did it two in the morning.

Dan:

That was really powerful in and of itself that we were able, and we were able to direct from halfway around the world. We didn't have to go to Tokyo to shoot it. It was great at that time. I think from a business perspective and from the client’s perspective it was great because they didn't have to pay for flights, for us to go over to shoot. So, it was cost effective, and we did it well, but I still have to look back on that and say that the world nearly lost the power of getting together and because we're all in different parts of the world and we couldn't do anything. So, while it worked and it was great for that COVID time and it was powerful on how we shot it and we still shot a decent looking piece, but we still weren't able to get together and cross those cultural boundaries like in normal times.

I think video shoots like that just show the impact of video and how powerful it is and how through the use of technology you can still get things done in really adverse situations. You can still shoot a video, which is powerful itself in a time when you can't actually get anywhere.

In that COVID time we did a lot of jobs that were taking place of live shoots, video presentations, video sales kickoffs. It was great at those times and sort of great for business at those times, but on the flip side, while it was powerful back then, is that still powerful these days?

Matt:

I think people now are just yearning to, to get together. In some ways COVID helped you realize what you really miss. You were just talking about Tokyo, and we did this kind of logistical high wire act from all these different places. But just a couple of weeks ago, you were in Tokyo because you wanted to get together with those people and you had the opportunity to, and it brought you closer together.

Dan:

Exactly. And ironically, we actually stayed like across the road to where we shot. Right. So, what I'd seen on screen, I saw when I was there in person, we were right there, staying on top of Tokyo station and we shot right there. So, the power of actually getting together and meeting people whom we hadn't seen in the flesh was amazing and that crosses boundaries.

Again, that is the power of travel as well as video. You learn a lot about people on screen, but when you see them in person, it's like, wow, we all the same, you know?

Matt:

Yeah, no, we've gotten together for lunch a couple of times just because it brought us closer together.

Dan:

Exactly those bonds, you know?

Matt:

Although I think I have to pay the next tab, I think if I remember correctly.

So, finishing things up and thanks for taking the time. What book or author has been a touchstone for you throughout your career as you've been traveling around? I know you mentioned you had two or three, pick one or two that, that really kind of touch your heart and have kind of been a guiding light for you.

Dan:

Yeah, I'm probably going to go for three just because it's a bit difficult. I'm a definite, definite, definite history buff.

So. You know, I think from a personal interest side, Simon Sebag Montefiore. Who has written a number of books on the Russian Revolution, Stalin, and Russian history, he would be one. I just love, love documentary making, and I'd like to think our business is going more into the documentary space, as 2023 has been a year that we've jumped into documentary. We did one in South Africa, in Soweto, which was really a life changing experience personally. We've got a few others on the docket that are in production.

I love Simon Sebag Montefiore because documentary I think is a way to give back and I like the idea of using video to educate people through video. Video, which relates to what we were talking about before and documentary does that for me. So, Simon Sebag, Montefiore, even when I see him on screen and his books, I just get lost in his world of history and documentary.

Matt:

OK, we've got one.

Dan:

Number two. As a business leader, I'm going to have to say Steve Jobs. I've literally settled down the road to where he was born in Mountain View, California. So, his childhood home is literally around the corner here. I've always been a big fan.

Being an immigrant myself and a real student of immigrant history and success stories. While he himself was not an immigrant, his parents were. I think to be able to enter into a world, being an immigrant is that you leave something behind and you’re immediately at a disadvantage, but it's something that works within immigrant souls that pushes them, that gives them a drive to succeed. And I think that's definitely with Steve Jobs. To build what he built, from his background and he was just a great thinker. Obviously, my opinion, differs from some of the tech people around today, but he built Apple. So, there's nothing more I can really say about that.

And then politically, I'd have to say Nelson Mandela. I mean as somebody that has suffered anxiety issues in the past, having to deal with them, people like Nelson Mandela put life into perspective. So, just in terms of leadership, somebody that dealt with the worst of the worst of humanity, can be so forgiving and actually just lead and lead from the top and create a group of followers, I think, you know, there's something that be that should be looked at.

He would definitely be my political thinker of our time. I just look at him and I say, what am I suffering anxiety for!? I've really got no worries compared to what other people have gone through.

Matt:

Perspective and sacrifice are definitely a lesson he's taught many people.

Dan:

Yeah. And calm leadership, just to be calm and slow and steady and that wins the race.

Matt:

Well, Dan, thanks for spending some time answering my questions. It was a fun conversation.

Dan:

Thanks, Matt. Yeah, that was great. All right.

Matt:

Cheers. Lunch is on me next time.

Dan:

Oh, I look forward to it.

Matt:

All right. Cheers. Bye.