Meet Andrew Kadikian of Rogue Division in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Kadikian.

Andrew, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always had a love for movies. Back then, it may have just been a love for watching them and I loved all the classics. But when I was in junior high, I started seriously considering it as a possible career and by the time I got to freshman year in high school, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. In high school, a group of friends and I got together in our free time and made amateur short films. At about the same time, YouTube was created. I instantly jumped on the platform and it became my means of distribution and exposure for my work. Through it, I met collaborators and friends who have themselves risen to some of the highest levels of the platform. Myself, I focused on a more broad lens, concentrating my work not just on YouTube but in more traditional places as well. I also became fiercely addicted to the 48 Hour Film Project Competition here in Los Angeles. The LA48HFP challenges filmmakers to write, shoot, edit and complete a short film in the span of one weekend. My first participation was in 2011 and I’ve competed every year since, leading my own team in the venture. Since finishing film school I have cultivated my current YouTube channel for my production company, Rogue Divison which features work that I write and direct among other things while working freelance as an editor during which time I worked on all manner of projects including editing two feature films and being on the post-production team of a third. A little less than a year ago I accepted a full-time editing position with a production company in Los Angeles and have been now trying to balance that in with all the other things going on in my life.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It most certainly has not been a smooth road. As my dad would always tell me, I picked a hell of a tough career to succeed in. At first, my troubles were mainly to do with how difficult it is to generate a large following in internet video. Particularly for me, because I didn’t want to create vlogs or special effects driven videos or tutorials or anything like that on YouTube. My model for my YouTube channel is creating well-constructed storytelling content. Short films. This isn’t the most combustible thing on YouTube as people’s attention spans on the internet often don’t allow for this type of content to flourish. But such has been my dream and I am still slowly chipping away at making it work. Later, when I was out of film school and working freelance, it was not easy finding work. Videography and editing is a very competitive and easily accessible landscape, as any freelance contractor will tell you, so then my struggles became that of most all freelancers, getting enough paychecks to make ends meet. Now, I am employed as a full-time editor for a production company, so making ends meet is a bit easier. I feel like now, after all the hardships I had faced before, I finally have gotten to a point where I can breathe. I’ve crossed the threshold where now my career can take its course and I can focus on the decisions of which direction it goes rather than how I am going to make rent this month. That said, there’s a new struggle, that for time. I have very little free time anymore so now my struggle has become trying to fit in my personal projects for my YouTube channel, time to prep for the 48 Hour Film Project every year, and so on. I guess what I’ve learned from it is, there is always going to be some kind of struggle, you never reach a point where it’s all easy.

Please tell us about Rogue Division.
My production company is called Rogue Division. It’s main mission bringing a new type of content to the forefront of internet video. We do this through the work that inhabits the Rogue Division YouTube channel. The channel is partnered and generated advertising revenue of our projects, thus partially funding future projects. The type of content we make there isn’t the same kind of stuff that normally does really well on the internet. We’re not influencers. We’re storytellers. Since our founding in 2010, our goal has been to change the standard for internet video popularity. The channel boasts an array of content ranging from sketches to short films, documentaries, web-series’ and more. By focusing on storytelling and production quality, we aim to pave the way for independent filmmakers to use websites like YouTube as a distribution platform no less powerful than today’s most popular subscription streaming services. Essentially creating a global, year-round film festival with an audience millions of viewers strong.

Another thing that having Rogue Division allows me to do is continue my freelance work in a more focused way even though I am now working full time. Rogue Division offers full production services to clients who want their projects turning out the very best they can. My position now allows me to be selective with my clients and only work with who I want to in order to further create an environment where indie filmmakers can have the exposure and security they seek without the struggle that is “making it in the film industry.”

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I started over now, I think the only thing I would change is to be a little more careful which steps I take and where. There have been times in my life where I have rushed into things and made life and career choices based on getting somewhere quickly or expediting the process and that may have hurt me more than helped me. But I firmly believe that the choices and even the mistakes I have made through my life have led me to be the person I am today. Since I like who I am and I am happy with my life, my friends, my connections and my career, there’s not much reason for me to want to change much even if it is a mistake that I regret.