Today we’d like to introduce you to Misha Parfenoff.
Hi Misha, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been making videos, I started with this little “Flip” camera when I was twelve and would just set it up and make movies starring myself and my beanie babies. One day someone will find those and then my career will be over. I took a film analysis class at Duke University in high school as a part of this program and I loved it. After that I took a little hiatus I guess, I had a rough time in high school and ended up getting sent to rehab.
I spent a couple of years in there in and then one day the program ran out of funding and just shut down. I didn’t really have anything left in South Carolina (where I’m from), so I packed up all my things and drove out to LA. I went to an acting school for a bit and I met some friends that were into making little sketches and videos like I used to be. So I fell back into it but I kept wanting to get better at it. So I bought a camcorder and then a microphone, and then I got a better camera and then I had to learn how to color the film and one thing led to another and… now I run a production house.
What really accelerated my learning was this short film I wanted to make with my friends/former classmates. I had these big ideas with a lot of VFX and difficult shots but I didn’t have much experience, so I ended up having to learn everything to try and meet the scope of the ideas I had. “DAVE” is actually named after a dog that was in the film and then ended up passing away the day after we shot his scene. We like to think that his final act was in service of the film so we decided to name the company after him. DAVE is the dog in our logo, the owner drew the logo for us.
I think it’s hard to be satisfied if you stagnate, so if you love doing something you never really feel like you know everything about it. I just kept learning and devouring information and then one day, I realized that film didn’t have to have this paywall. I could create things that looked professional and I could do it with the tools I already had. I wanted to help my community so I started making acting reels for my friends for super cheap. We would write each scene for them, shoot it wherever we could, edit it, master it and color it and deliver it within weeks. Soon we were booked for months and were working constantly.
I’ve continued to grow along with the company and absolutely would not have made it this far without being so lucky to have met the people I work with. I’ve got this boundless energy but it’s not very focused, my team helps me focus.
Alright, 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?
Yes and no. The company grew much faster than I think it’s normal for the industry, but with that explosive growth came a lot of issues that I wasn’t prepared for.
When I first started as working full time as a server at this member’s club, so I was trying to balance making a living and shooting all these reels. Sometimes I would have to miss a shoot and have to sneak into a closet or the stairwell and facetime in to make sure things were running smoothly. It was difficult to balance and I was exhausted all of the time. I would always get in trouble because I would always go to the back of the house to respond to emails from clients.
DAVE was restructured during the pandemic, I took that time and dissolved the LLC and reformed as a sole proprietor. I had to kind of have a crash course in running a business and everything that goes into it. I spent a lot of time talking to people that knew more about business than I did. Funnily, as DAVE expanded it became less profitable but it was handling much larger clients. We started doing commercials and larger projects and music videos. In order to keep up with the scale of these projects, I had to spend a lot of money to upgrade the equipment, hire more people, and get us our own studio.
Thankfully now we’re mostly back in the black but that start-up investment was a doozy. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
So DAVE has managed to stand out because we’ve always been very true to our ‘voice’. I’ve never been good at “normal” and as a result, our style can be pretty strange and surreal. I thought that would make things difficult but it ended up really being an asset. People come to us because they connect with us artistically. Turns out, a lot of people are weird, and they want to make weird stuff with us.
I love shooting on 16mm film, I’m very proud of every project that involves that. It just seems like magic to me, all you need is light and chemicals and you have this world of creative possibility. My dad used to show me the super eight films he’d make when he was a kid and I thought they were gorgeous. Then I realized I could probably find a camera on eBay and so I did. There was definitely a learning curve but my first piece I did with it, “Alstroemeria”, turned out beautifully and got me an award for best director at a festival and then it when to the Los Angeles Fashion Festival. I was super surprised because I had always thought you needed to have $100,000 of equipment and twenty years of experience to do something like that.
Additionally, we rarely turn away people because of their budget, we really make an effort to make someone’s vision come true.
What matters most to you? Why?
I’ve always really disliked inequity. I don’t like bullies or people having to work twice as hard to have the same opportunities as others. Essentially I don’t like capitalism; I think it only serves those in power and helps them to remain in power.
I want to help people, anything I can do to level the playing field. I was so tired of watching the same systems wring the life out of people and then spit them out and tell them it’s their fault for not “grinding” or whatever. The film industry is like any other, it’s built on the backs of the underpaid that are told if they work hard enough or spend enough money then eventually they will be allowed into the gates of Olympus; that they too can be a god amongst men. Suddenly, everyone will love you and you can show your parents/high school bully/ mean uncle how wrong they were about you.
Casting workshops, agents, headshots, most acting classes, all of it is a part of system designed to keep artists operating under the belief that they just haven’t worked hard enough, and that’s why they can’t get their foot in the door. When, in reality, the game was rigged from the start. They’re not a part of the nepotism or born into money, so they don’t stand a chance. Sure, every once in a while they allow a proletariat into the shining gates so they can say “Look! Average people can make it too!”, but at the end of the day it’s a corporation, a conglomerate of rich white men.
I believe if we take back the means of production, that we don’t have to try to get through those gates, we can build a city outside of the walls. Film should be accessible.
Pricing:
- Reel Package: $1200
- Three Scenes: $900
- Two Scenes: $600
- One Scene: $350
- Music Videos / Shorts / Features: Sliding scale; contact us for a custom quote”
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: daveproductions.org
- Instagram: instagram.com/davetheproductionhouse
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davetheproductionhouse
Image Credits:
DAVE Productions
