Today we’d like to introduce you to Eb George
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?
While I produce stories for a living, it can be hard to see the linear narrative of your own life. For me, it’s been a series of walking through whatever door opened next, even if I had to kick them in a little.
I wanted to be a journalist growing up – I got great feedback as a young writer. In some ways it felt like cheating. If you’re writing fiction, you had to make everything up yourself. That always scared me. As a journalist, you had something to start with: you had the real thing that happened, the real person in front of you. And as it turns out, the real thing is better than anything you could make up, or at least anything I could make up.
So I decided to go to journalism school in DC (I watched way too much West Wing growing up, which will give you unbearably high expectations of what it’s like to live and work in DC.) My first job in journalism was for a correspondent who covered the Supreme Court. That should’ve been my dream job, but I got restless and didn’t love DC so I moved back to LA and got a job working at a niche legal publication. I was also doing VO work to make ends meet. I got referred for a VO job at the production company that made the “Yes We Can” film with Will.I.Am for Obama, which I thought sounded cool…I walked in to do the VO session and out with an offer to interview there for a full time job working with the founder.
Five years and many commercials, campaigns, music videos and failed attempts at convincing them to move into branded content later, I moved on to another company working in TV and film development. Loved every second of working with writers, hated most seconds of schmoozing agents and executives (and I love to talk, so I really should’ve liked that part…)
So I left that world without a clear picture of what would happen next. I took whatever came my way, mostly producing work, with the thought that maybe one day I’d run someone else’s production company. I didn’t think about starting my own until I was working as an Executive Producer for-hire on a job with a company that really didn’t have their act together – financially or otherwise. It was documentary-style branded content, which felt like the perfect fit for my skill set.
I ended up leaving the project before it was completed, which at the time felt like it would reflect poorly on me in the long run, but the company wasn’t financially viable so it made no sense to stay. A couple months later, the client from that project called and said that the whole thing had gone downhill after I left. They realized that what they wanted was everything I brought to the table – experience in journalism, advertising, and entertainment – and wondered if I had my own company they could work directly with? Of course, I said. I hung up the phone and turned to my husband, “We have to start a production company because I just told this big client that wants to hire us we already had one.” That was almost six years ago. I’m very much an accidental entrepreneur.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I felt, and sometimes still do feel, like all the bouncing around I did hurt my career. I didn’t pick a lane and stick to it. After I left journalism, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Even when I took my next job, I had no idea what my eventual goals were.
I felt like I hit ceilings in so many jobs, and I never really felt like I had any mentors. I was constantly learning how I didn’t want to do things, but didn’t find a lot of role models doing work the way I wanted to do it. I was surrounded by a lot of people willing to completely burn themselves out and step on others to get ahead, and that just was not me.
So the road to building a company and a career that is the opposite, for the most part, of what I’ve experienced, and without really any folks to turn to for advice or direction, has been bumpy and sometimes lonely.
But I’ve realized that that diversity of experience is an asset. What we do at Kiln is only possible because I know what it’s like to work in so many different kinds of storytelling fields. My toolbox is big. And so many of the creatives we work with have the same kind of story – their interests are broad, they are fundamentally curious people. We can trade on those experiences to bring a real depth of knowledge and know-how to our clients.
I had a professor in college who told me I was going to invent my own job. At the time I wanted to be a reporter so I was kind of disappointed she thought that – now I understand that she saw so much of what I was capable of doing wasn’t going to fit in any particular career box.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Kiln Pictures?
Kiln Pictures is built on the idea that no one wants to watch an ad. Audiences have more options than ever to avoid them – they can scroll, mute, spend money, all in the name of avoiding ads. Yet brands keep making them, and wondering why audiences aren’t engaging with their content in the same way they do with Planet Earth or Chef’s Table or the latest true crime docuseries.
Brands can advertise without creating an ad. At Kiln, we find stories brands can stand with and behind, that align with their goals and their mission – true stories, backed by research, development, and commitment to human narratives. We develop and produce those stories, creating content audiences would actually choose to watch.
As a creative production company, we’re with our clients from the first idea to final finishing. Our creatives are from all ends of the storytelling spectrum. As journalists and documentarians, our bar for a story is high. As filmmakers and artists, our standards for visual impact are bar none. The alchemy between those two delivers work audiences want to watch.
Brands are looking to set themselves apart in a crowded content space. We think they can do it by finding and producing stories that speak to their brand ethos, but that look and feel like the movies and TV we all love so much, the kind of content that actually sticks with you. Which means the brand’s message will stick with you as well.
So we’re a creative production company that works with brands to make not-ads.
We’re also certifiably women-owned – I’m the founder and Executive Producer. We have a team of directors and photographers, and over the last year alone we’ve worked everywhere from Brazil to Singapore to Malawi, on behalf of some of the world’s biggest companies and prestigious non-profits.
Good stories, well and truly told, move audiences. Brands should be embracing that.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was, and still am, an extrovert’s extrovert. I am the oldest of four and the only girl (eldest daughters, unite!), and I always made sure everyone knew I was in the room. I loved performing – I was involved in theater from ages 3 to 22, I would put on shows with my brothers and make my mom film them on our family camcorder. I think I drove her mildly insane…
I also journaled extensively – I think there’s about 20 notebooks sitting in my mom’s garage chronicling my life from the time I could write.
I really struggled to focus – I once walked out in the middle of a math test in elementary school, I just couldn’t sit still through something I didn’t love. But I did well in school through a combination of smarts and understanding what it took to work through a system.
I’m an LA native, and I consider that one of the greatest strokes of luck in my life. Growing up here, it’s so much easier to imagine a creative life because you’re surrounded by adults who have them. I went to plays, live music, art shows – all of it was in our backyard.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kilnpictures.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kilnpictures
Image Credits
Image 6: Eliza Cherry
All other images: Eb George
