Today we’d like to introduce you to Boris Labourguigne.
Boris, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born and raised in a small village called Beaulieu (means beautiful place in French) in the south of France, close to Montpellier.
My father gave me a camera at the age of 8 during a family holiday. Since then, I have never left my camera, and I’ve filmed everything I can: my family, my friends, short films, fake TV news, fake commercials, etc., etc.
I remember the first short film I directed. Because I didn’t have any editing software (it was in 1998), or an editing table, the video was shot and edited at the same time, which means, I needed to shoot every shot one after the other in the order of the story, and obviously you have only one take for each shot. To do the credits, I have filmed my printer printing a paper with all the names of the crew (basically my sister, her best-friend, my dog and my grandfather) to have the credits moving like in the movies.
At 18, I have left my family and moved to Paris alone because it’s where you need to be in France when you want to be a filmmaker and work in the industry. After two successful internships during my first two years in the BTS Audiovisuel at Jacques Prevert School, I was accepted to the University of Paris 1 Panthéon La Sorbonne … and it was one of the most boring years in my life. So I decided with a friend, Bastien Raynaud, to direct a new short film: an adaptation of “The Horla” a short horror story written in the style of a journal by the French writer Guy de Maupassant. The same year I created my first production company: drag & drop and launched a YouTube Channel: 3èmeGauche. It was in 2009 I was 20.
The creation of 3èmeGauche was fun. I created the channel with Bastien in my own bedroom in Paris located on the third floor, at the left (3èmeGauche means third at the left in french). We wanted to create a TV channel, but we didn’t have any connections, any money, or experience. We were fortunate that YouTube (and its french competitor Dailymotion) were quite new at the time. We decided to create an online channel in the middle of all the poor content available on YouTube at the time and do only quality content because that’s what we learned in school.
We shot our first video on the Champs Elysées (I know, it’s super cliché), and while we were interviewing people, we ran into the famous french DJ “David Guetta”. He was there for the release of DJ Hero at the Virgin megastore. We decided to erase all our memory cards and make space to follow and shoot him in the store. We released the video the day after. YouTube showcased our video on its Home Page for no reason, and it was a success!
After this video, we decided to reach some of the artists we like in France: Joachim Garraud, Wax Tailor and Pony Pony Run Run. I still have no idea why, but all accepted to be interviewed by us. I had obviously zero skills in journalism, but I did my first interview with Joachim Garraud, and it was not too bad. We were doing everything on our own, and thanks to the magical support of YouTube, and a really cool half-page article in the famous newspaper 20 minutes, the channel began to be successful. Not long after, Bastien left 3èmeGauche, and I was running the channel alone with the support of friends, tons of people found through the internet and from my film school. I have now directed more than 600 videos with 500 artists in 7 years. Pretty quickly into the run of the channel, we changed the concept to focus it on acoustic live with international and local artists. I wanted to showcase real talents in a raw performance (one or two shots, no sound mixing, fast turnover).
I had never managed to sell any of my productions before meeting Augustin de Belloy in 2012. Augustin has a really different background than me. He attended prestigious schools like HEC Paris and UCLA, and because we were really complementary while sharing the same vision and the same passion, we created Left Productions. The new production company launched in October 2012.
Because of 3èmeGauche, the DNA of Left Productions became the music. We did some digital ads really fast (because we knew how to do organic views on YouTube), music videos, and documentaries. A few years after that, we began to do TVCs and brand content. In 2016 we opened an office in London, and thanks to our presence in the UK, some opportunities in California popped up.
In 2017, we opened our office in Los Angeles and incorporated the company in California. Over the last two years, I have done a lot of back and forth between Los Angeles and Paris to manage all our productions, and because the company was growing really fast in the US, and because it was one of my childhood dreams, we decided that I needed to come to Los Angeles full-time to oversee the company here! I moved with my dog five weeks ago and landed in Echo Park, and I already love my new life here.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Because I came from a very small village in the south of France with absolutely zero connection in the film and entertainment industry, it was a real challenge when I look back. Also, when you are young, it’s really hard to get noticed, especially in the video production industry.
Augustin & I realized that creativity is hindered and that you have to wait at least five years before actually doing something interesting. We were frustrated, so we created Left Productions to use our talents more efficiently and hopefully give that chance to anyone who would join us.
Our goal is to Liberate creativity, and more specifically, create a system where talents can fully express themselves with autonomy and support.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Left Productions story. Tell us more about the business.
Left Productions is a full-service creative production company based in Los Angeles, Paris and London. We produce music videos, TVC, digital ads & brand content.
We work with big brands (Adidas, Cartier, LVMH, Universal, Warner Music, eBay, yleft, etc.), scale-ups (Front, Revolut, The Zebra) and many artists (Gary Clark Jr, T-Pain, Ofenbach, Tobi Lou, Aloe Blacc, Romeo Elvis, etc.).
We are looking to build an innovative model: we manage everything from creation to post-production, we leverage tech to optimize and process everything we can to spend less time on time-consuming tasks and focus on creativity, strategy and building meaningful relationships.
We are also developing https://www.right.video/, a tool designed for brands, agencies and creators to help them find the right video references and creators faster. Our ultimate goal with this tool is to better organize data in the video industry to help more people express their creativity.
We are a team of about twenty full-time people in France plus many freelancers and our goal is to expand rapidly in the US. Our Los Angeles office is in Silverlake.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think the luck comes eventually when you are passionate and persistent. It can be long, but there is no secret… if you are discouraged, it’s dead.
The real luck I had was to discover my passion for video at a very young age. I have reached every step one by one, It wasn’t easy and super smooth, and today I’m still feeling like I’m at the first step of the journey.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2410b Hyperion Avenue – 90027 Los Angeles
- Website: www.leftproductions.com
- Phone: 888 223 9942
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/leftproductions
- Facebook: facebook.com/leftproductions
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/left-productions/
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