FREELANCE videographer Richard Koburn has been able zoom in on growing his business thanks to a SWEF Enterprise Fund grant from Dorset Community Foundation.
The 28-year-old, from Swanage, used an £800 grant from the fund, which helps young people aged 18 to 30 to overcome financial challenges and other disadvantages to run their own business.
The grant has capped a remarkable turnaround for the young businessman who left school at 15 with no qualifications. Richard, who grew up in Poole, wanted to help his family cope with bills so got a job as a labourer on a building site.
“I was just one of those people that slipped through the cracks at school, really,” he said. “I stayed on the building sites for four years but by the time I was 20 I had a job in a pharmacy in London. My girlfriend and her friends were studying at university and I was always thinking ‘what’s my path?’ I thought ‘well, what would I study?’.”
A trip to the cinema suggested the answer. “I was watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and thinking I’d love to be a filmmaker one day,” he recalled. “But how do you actually start some kind of dream like that? I thought ‘well, there’s a camera filming what I’m seeing’ so there must be a skill set gained there.”
He went back to education and studied an Access to University course at Bournemouth and Poole College before gaining a BA (Hons) in Film Production at Bournemouth University, as well as studying a 16mm and 35mm camera course at the National Film and Television School.
Even while studying he was sleeping on sofas and scrimping on food to save enough to buy a camera and equipment to set himself up as a self-employed cameraman. “Around one per cent of people studying film production go into the industry and that led me to realise there was a world away from this largely middle and upper class existence of filmmaking, which is based on nepotism and being able to go six months without being paid,” he said.
“I started filming weddings, doing small brand adverts and music videos. I was 27 when I finished my degree and I didn’t really want to go and sleep on couches in London so videography was a nicer route.”
He began picking up freelance work and shooting corporate videos for independent production companies but found himself limited in the work he could take on through having no budget for hiring expensive equipment to stabilise his camera. When he discovered a relatively low cost but highly effective new gimbal, which allows for steady, free flowing shots, he found the answer but didn’t have the £800 needed to buy it.
It goes to show that if you are determined, there are many other routes to get you to where you want to be and there is no doubt that this SWEF grant has really helped
A chance conversation with another cameraman led him to finding out about the SWEF grants. “I applied I and got an email back almost immediately from Dorset Community Foundation,” he said. “I was absolutely amazed. It really gave me a sense of hope to get a response that quickly.”
After a video interview with SWEF’s funders he was accepted and received an £800 grant. He said: “My prediction was that if I was able to get imagery that was that smooth and fluid I’d be able to scale my business, and it has dramatically.”
He has been hired to film food promotions for Rick Stein’s restaurants and shoot bike racing action at the MotoGP among a host of other work. “I’m now working five days a week, filming two days and editing three,” he said. “I’m a lot more confident in what I’m doing and the grant has opened a lot of doors for me because of the work I’m doing.”
“This whole game is figuring out how to how to get into the right spaces, and with me it was with professional, fluid and stable imagery. Then you do these jobs for people and from there you’re known as the guy that did very well for Rick Stein or MotoGP.”
He aims to continue building his business and portfolio but the directing dream is still very much a part of his plan. “I knew that videography would always be my beginning and it’s starting to roll on,” he said. “So the question is do I stick in this or do I keep pushing it? It’s always worked for me to keep pushing it so I think that once I have some stable ground beneath me in terms of finances and reputation, my goal is to work as a director for advertisement agencies in London, going back to working with teams of teams of filmmakers.
“It goes to show that if you are determined, there are many other routes to get you to where you want to be and there is no doubt that this SWEF grant has really helped.”
See Richard’s work at richardkoburn.com or on Instagram here and find out more about SWEF grants and how to apply here.
