Exploring Life & Business with Zoya Shybkouskaya

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoya Shybkouskaya.

Hi Zoya, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We started the business with my husband before the birth of our first kid Leo. We met in Los Angeles and we both were from Belarus, won green cards lottery, were from the same field and wanted to work in film. Dima has 2 degrees, one in sound design and another one in marketing. I graduated with motion picture and TV degree and studied in San Francisco. I moved to the States from Belarus in 2007 and Dima moved in 2013 and we met in LA, he was filming my musician friend’s tour and they happened to be in LA on my birthday. In 2017 we registered a company, the name idea came to Dima, he was playing with the words and said let’s call the business LOOK AD ME, meaning AD for advertising.

We both continued working in film, Dima was a sound engineer and I was working as a line producer on independent films. I got pregnant and the game changed. It was hard to take long projects anymore, especially during the pregnancy. I started getting into editorials and commercials. I got an offer to help set up a commercial shoot job in Joshua Tree, and I was eight months pregnant. Dima said he won’t let me go by myself to the desert for a week when I can have a baby anytime. So we went together. That’s how our teamwork started and we decided to work on commercials together. It was an easy transition from the movie industry as we both had experience. When Leo was born, I took one movie to work as a line producer and after that I figured out I need to choose my family over film career especially at the moment when the baby was so small. So we started to look for more clients and work on the development of the company.

Slowly the portfolio was growing and we were working with international and local clients. Then Covid happened and the business freezed for a bit but then boosted again when everyone got used to new conditions, tests, masks and covid protocols on sets.

We lived in LA and then we decided to move to Orange County, as it was easier during Covid with the child. We started to think how to develop a business and which way we are going, so we were brainstorming about it. The idea to buy motion control cinema robot came suddenly as it was a new technology and something not spread out as much as other equipment in our field. We did a lot of research and it was not so easy as we thought in the beginning. We placed an order for it and started to develop infracture which came together with purchase. We needed a space to keep and operate it, robot can’t be stored in our garage. So it pushed us to open a studio in Irvine, where we live. Now it was more complicated project as we needed to build a studio in a way that we can use it for our own shoots as well not only to keep a robot. The business was growing, I was pregnant with a second boy and we were building a studio from scratch. We opened a studio in 2022, it is located in Technology Park Disctrict, 5 minutes away from Irvine Spectrum Center, close to 405 and 5 freeways.

The name for the studio is connected to our business. The studio is part of our business but we not only use it for our projects, it is available for all types of clients.

We build it in a way that you can do video and photo shoots, and we have the equipment.

It is a creative flexible space where you can build sets, set up photo or video shoots, record podcasts, rent equipment, or set up a shoot with a motion control cinema robot.

We are still developing the company as we have a lot of plans and ideas to implement.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Since we are both immigrants and have to build everything from zero, we didn’t have connections and knowledge in some fields and didn’t know a lot of people at the start. We were researching and building the business by ourselves, sometimes we had mistakes, which cost us money and time. Also having 2 small kids and building a business is pretty challenging and takes a lot of effort to manage it. During projects, we have to figure out daycare, and nanny situations as set hours are not standard 9-5 Monday through Friday work. So we took our children with us to shoots in Chigaco, Miami, and New York. The challenge of managing large groups of people and people we don’t know sometimes can be tricky, bringing responsibility to us for the people we manage and for the final result which our clients get.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about LOOK AD ME and LOOK AD ME studio?
LOOK AD ME is a creative content agency and video production. We have a diverse client base which includes brands, agencies, magazines, startups, and foreign productions seeking assistance in the United States. We have experience working with celebrities, and influencers and have teams and resources in different locations in the US, such as LA, NY, Chicago, Miami, and other places. Depending on the commercial video or photo content you wish to create we can help you create a concept that will work within the budget or adjust your idea to fit your brand requirements and needs.

LOOK AD ME Studio is a high-quality photo and video production studio with a cyclorama wall and daylight studio with a green screen and colorful seamless backgrounds. We have many years of experience in commercial photography and videography, which we used in the design of our studio. Our studio space is available for rent on an hourly or daily basis. The studio is equipped with everything necessary for professional photo and video filming and comfortable accommodation for the film crew with equipment, scenery, and props. The studio is located in Irvine Technology Center, five minutes from Irvine Spectrum Center.

The studio is the base for motion control robot and since this service is new we offer great deals and are interested in collaborations with brands, productions, and agencies to create unique and memorable content.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
We work really hard to get where we are now, sleepless nights and long set hours, waking up early at 4-5 am, and sometimes a few days with no sleep. But we are lucky to have amazing clients and crew along this journey. We are lucky to get where we are and to work with top people in the industry. We both won green card lotteries and moved to another country to try something new. We are both adventurous and go for risk and that is what pushes us forward to do everything. With children it became a bit different, now we became more pragmatic and careful with choices, even saying no to some clients.

Pricing:

• Depends on the content needed

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lookadme.com https://lookadme.com/cyclorama-studio/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lookadmeusa/ and https://www.instagram.com/lookadmestudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LOOKADMEUSA; https://www.facebook.com/lookadmestudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/look-ad-me

Image Credits
Photo with Arnold Schwarzenegger- photographer Michael Schwartz Photo with DrDisrespect -photographer Dmitry Bocharov IMG_9238 (Zoya and Dima) – photographer Oleg Shevchyshyn Awareness with musician Ricardo Curto – photographer Andrei Charniauski