Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanner Castro.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was finishing my last year in college up at Utah State University getting my degree in Journalism with my emphasis in Public Relations. I loved connecting with people and telling stories, but as I was taking those final classes I kept thinking the thought that I’m sure a lot of soon-to-be college graduates think. “What am I going to do when I’m done?”
Well at the time I saw a post from someone I went to middle school with about being a full-time photographer and how she couldn’t have imagined that she could be doing something so amazing and meeting so many incredible people in her life. So I thought I could give it a go and see if I’d like to get into that creative world, I found a friend who was recently engaged and asked if I could take engagement pics of her and her fiance for free.
At the end of the session, I knew I wanted to photograph a wedding and asked if they had a photographer, which they already did. But they informed me that they didn’t have a wedding videographer. I hadn’t thought much of doing wedding videos and didn’t know much so I let them know I would get back to them.
I’m the kind of person that when I do something I want to do it well, I want to give 100% to everything that I do to the best of my current abilities. Well, I happened upon an ad to learn how to be a full-time filmmaker and after watching the 1-hour video they had to show you the value I actually walked away learning 1o NEW THINGS!
I know, no one ever learns anything from those videos but this one was different. So at 11:30 at night I made the decision after talking to some family members about it and purchased the course. I then went and picked up a camera a few days later and told the couple that if they still didn’t have a videographer I would love to be there to capture their day.
The wedding day was so much fun and I rarely had time to think about the bitter cold that was the middle of December in Utah. I left that day so excited and just felt like I had gotten my calling in life, I wanted to do this as a career. I then found close relatives and friends who were recently engaged and offered to film their weddings for them! I loved being there on their days and as much fun as that was enjoyed putting together a wedding video that would bring back the feelings that they had and a legacy of such a beautiful day.
Now currently I am doing wedding and commercial videography full-time, I have since filmed countless weddings, connected with incredible couples, vendors, and seen some pretty cool places. I love what I do and can’t imagine myself doing anything else in this life but to capture people’s wedding day’s and create something that makes them not only remember the day and the feelings but something that represents the beginning of their legacy as they step into the world of marriage.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely not been a smooth road! I have and still have struggled to this day. I am always learning and adapting which I think is what being an entrepreneur is. By the end of the first year, I had enough saved up from my part-time job and some of the little cash I had gotten in tips from the work I was doing.
I decided that I would go full-time and quit the part-time job that I disliked so much. Then 6 months later, I was not bringing in the income that I needed to pay for rent, bills, groceries, etc. I had to pick up another part-time job and learn from some incredible filmmakers and fellow creatives about how to get more work and things I could do to get my name out there.
There will always be struggles along the way and I’m sure that I will have many more in the future, but I hope that as I continue that I’ll be able to take those head-on and find a way to the other side.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Hello! My name is Tanner Castro and I am a filmmaker based out of Southern Utah. I specialize primarily in wedding films and I am known for my timeless, creative, true-to-life films that bring all the feels. People also love my laid-back personality which I think helps on a wedding day, there is nothing worse than having something go wrong and having other people add to the stress.
I do my best to create a stress-free environment for my couples because I want the day to go smoothly, I want to work with the other vendors, but most importantly I want my couples to just enjoy their wedding day! This is probably the thing that I am most proud of, being an energetic, fun, laid-back guy on my couples wedding day and helping reassure them that everything will be okay and go as smoothly as possible and that I am capturing everything that they would want to be captured on their big day.
I think it’s common for people in my industry to use the verbiage that they care about. I obviously care a lot about my couples and I choose to show that through the whole process of working with me. Making sure that I know their story and what about their day they are most excited for, what they want to remember, how they met and how this whole process started, being so excited when I show up on their day to be there, making sure that in the background I am working well with the other vendors to make the whole day enjoyable for everyone.
I think at the end of the day I could say a lot of things about what sets me apart, but I hope that I get to show my couples what sets me apart through my work and working with me.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love St. George! It is so warm and the red rock here is truly unique! I especially enjoy that I can play tennis all day and even late at night and then go into the mountains to hike and ski with just a short hours drive.
If I could have anything it would be a camera store in the city with all the gear and somewhere for creatives to meet and hang in the city. I think that’s the hardest part as creatives, we love being around people but too often we are by ourselves and not around people so to have something like that would be INCREDIBLE!
Pricing:
- Wedding Packages currently Start at $3000
- All Packages are completely customizable $$$
Contact Info:
- Email: tannercastrofilms@gmail.com
- Website: https://tannercastrofilms.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tannercastrofilms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tanner-Castro-Films-103494434541546
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCbqwCZJvesz2hON-UaHxfw
Image Credits
Tanner Castro from Tanner Castro Films
