Meet Mike Rosen of PRETTYBIRD in Culver City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Rosen.

Mike, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Since I was a teenager, I knew I wanted to be doing something in the film and entertainment industry. Initially, the goal was to direct. I dabbled shooting short films and editing them on an old Mac at home. They were terrible, but it reinforced my desire to work in some sort of creative capacity. I ended up attending UCSB with a major in Film Studies.

As much as I enjoyed the program, it did very little to prepare me for directing, let alone getting any sort of work in the business. But upon graduating, I got a break through a family connection and was hired as an office PA at a commercial production company called HSI. I knew practically nothing about advertising and never really had much desire to pursue a career in it, but it was a job, and I also recognized some of the directors on the roster, like Paul Hunter, so I was excited about the prospect and where it could lead.

I did that for about two years, learning the biz and trying to make myself as useful as possible at the company — even if it was doing very remedial office work. My next break came when there was a sudden job opening as Paul Hunter’s assistant. I jumped at the opportunity and told Paul and his EP, Kerstin Emhoff, that I wanted the position. There was a little reluctance at first, but they ultimately agreed to give me a shot.

It didn’t take long before I was writing Paul’s treatments, building presentations, ideating with him on concepts for commercials and music videos, as well as working closely with him and a screenwriter on a script for a feature film. I traveled with him on every shoot and became an integral part of the team, not to mention, close friends.

In late 2007, Paul and Kerstin decided to leave H.S.I. and form their own company. To be honest, I did not see this coming at all. It was a huge surprise to me. But they asked me to join them in the new venture — the soon to be named PRETTYBIRD — and once again I jumped at the opportunity. In the early days of PRETTYBIRD, it was just a few of us working out of Kerstin’s house.

In fact, I literally worked out of Kerstin’s small home gym. And like today, we all wore lots of different hats. We had to be scrappy, learn on the go and manage every aspect of a production company. So in addition to creating treatments for the three directors on the roster at the time, I was also post supervisor (which I knew very little about), head of development, and tasked with creating the company website.

Since that time, I’ve helped grow and oversee our development/creative division and built a strong team of writers and designers who help put together our signature pitch decks and treatments (which we’re known for). I’ve also worked closely with many of our directors and EPs on developing projects in feature film, TV, and non-traditional advertising projects.

More recently, I’ve been creative director on several direct-to-client projects, working with other filmmakers, writers, and art directors to develop concepts for 360 advertising campaigns for global brands. And in 2018, we formed a new division called Ventureland where I will continue my role as a creative director. The division is dedicated to developing original IP and entertainment properties, as well as creative advertising concepts for brands.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think every career has its struggles and challenges along the way and mine is certainly no exception. Sure, I’ve also had my share of good luck and timing, but since getting that first PA position at HSI, and then the new opportunity at PRETTYBIRD, I’ve dedicated myself to my job and have worked my ass off 24/7.

The earliest challenge at PRETTYBIRD was trying to figure out how to be a post supervisor. None of us, myself included, had much knowledge in that area but when you’re thrown into the fire like I was, you figure it out. I did — but not without my share of sleepless nights.

In more recent years the challenges have included insanely fast turnaround times to deliver treatments, while simultaneously pushing to raise the bar creatively. And as our roster of directors has steadily increased year over year, so has the amount of jobs we bid on. Which means more work on my plate… and that almost always need to deliver ASAP.

And once the bar is set at a certain height, you can’t deliver anything less than that, so the expectations and pressure to deliver on that level, ALL THE TIME, can be incredibly stressful. In hindsight, learning how to grow and manage a team might be the most unexpected personal challenge.

Being an inspiring team leader and creating a friendly work environment, but also knowing how to critique someone’s work without being an asshole, and always making sure that what we deliver is meeting or exceeding our own standards, hasn’t been easy. It is as challenging as it is rewarding, and something I try to improve upon all the time. Of course, a consistent workload like mine takes a huge toll on work/life balance.

Fortunately, my wife has always been incredibly supportive and understanding, partly because her own career has taken similar parallel paths, but you are nevertheless forced to sacrifice a lot of personal time that would have otherwise been spent with friends and family.

Nothing is more important to me than that, especially spending time with my 3-year-old son. PRETTYBIRD has always been respectful of that, but it’s still a constant challenge being able to focus on both my family and my work.

PRETTYBIRD – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our core business is as a commercial and music video production company, but we also develop and produce feature-length documentaries, feature films and episodic content, including interactive and experiential. We’ve also created several new divisions in the past year, including Ventureland, a creative accelerator that develops original IP and client-direct creative, as well as Labor Party, for talent management.

There are of course a lot of other production companies that work in the same space as PRETTYBIRD, but I think what sets us apart is the way that we’ve been able to successfully build and grow young filmmakers before they were even a blip on other peoples’ radars. When the company was first started one of our key goals was to focus on finding the next great filmmakers versus horse trading with other companies for well-established directors who had been around for a long time and associated with several prior companies.

We’ve been very successful in this effort. Some of our younger directors even started out as office PAs! Nowadays, rather than clients only reaching out to us when they have a specific director in mind for a project, they’ll look to us to put up the best filmmaker, knowing that we have such incredible talent on our roster and in our community of creatives that we work with, many of whom aren’t formally repped.

What I’m most proud of re PRETTYBIRD is how quickly we were able to establish ourselves as one of the premier production companies in the world and the diverse work that we’ve produced. We’re never satisfied with where we are, and we’re always striving to find cool, standout projects to work on, regardless of budget. We’ve won a lot of awards, but the highlight was being named Creativity’s 2015 Production Company of the Year. It really felt like a David vs. Goliath moment for us.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
It’s hard to pinpoint one particular moment in my career I’m most proud of, but I guess I would have to say it was the night of our holiday party last year when we were celebrating our ten year anniversary as a company.

As dinner began, Kerstin and Paul gave a speech in front of everyone telling the story of the company and thanking everyone who had been a part of that journey. They also wanted to recognize several employees in particular. I was the first person they called out (since I was employee #1).

It was just a nice gesture on their behalf, and as someone whose work is often done behind the scenes, it was nice to be singled out as one of those who was instrumental in PRETTYBIRD’s growth and success, especially with so many people I care about and admire in attendance.

Contact Info:

• Address: 9905 Jefferson Blvd
  Culver City, CA 90232
• Website: www.prettybird.co
• Phone: 310.315.8700
• Email: [email protected]

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.