Vincent Escudero spends most of his waking hours hunched over a laptop in a small room in his girlfriend’s cluttered basement trying to make a name for himself. A degree in film alone is not enough to start his business, and he knows it.
The room is a dark yellow color and is decorated with piles of papers stacked on shelves and two small tables. Two laptops sit side by side on an old table on one side of the room, with a third computer on the other. When the two white doors of the room are shut, it seems stagnant and box-like. Escudero doesn’t seem to mind though. He says he likes what he does, it’s like playing.
He and his girlfriend, Kristin “Bella” Reeves, are trying to start a video production business together. They both graduated from Full Sail University with a degree in film, and have been striving ever since to give their business some legs.
Escudero was born in New York and lived there until he was five. His father, Vicente (Escudero would have been the fourth Vicente in his family line, but his parents opted to use the English version of the name instead), had started a camera shop in 1980. That’s where Escudero believes he fell in love with film.
“I’ve always been interested in cameras, video cameras, photography, because my father…was a camera salesman in New York City,” he said. “As a kid I’d help out, clean the store, clean the cameras, all this stuff.”
He remembers all the cameras that his dad had, and how he use to bring them home and mess around with them – playing, recording special events, and just figuring out how they work.
Meanwhile Escudero’s mother, Ingrid Elues, made a living by running her own cleaning service. He remembers her working hard all of her life.
After New York, Escudero lived in New Orleans for about five years before heading down to South America to return to his family’s roots. For about the next ten years, from the age of ten until about twenty, he lived in Chile.
In Chile Escudero finished middle school and moved on to St. Peter High School. While he sums up his academic career with a shrug and the line, “You win some, you lose some,” Escudero fondly remembers dabbling around in a few different sports – specifically rugby.
“I played soccer until I was ten. But you know after ten years I could barely kick the ball,” he said with a grin. “But rugby was definitely my favorite sport…it was great, a lot of fun, a rough sport, just a lot of fun. I played basically from seventh grade through high school.”
At a little less than six feet tall with an average build, Escudero doesn’t seem like the rugby type. In speech he’s polite and friendly, always smiling and laughing. His Spanish accent leaks through slightly into his otherwise perfect English. His dark brown eyes and short black hair allude to his Chilean heritage, while the light freckles on his round cheeks quickly dismiss the image of the rugged rugby player and make it a little hard to guess his age at 25.
Escudero finished high school in 2002 and began attending a Chilean college called Duoc UC. On August 28, 2005, Escudero was still in Chile, but his family was living in New Orleans when the devastating hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States. In addition to the over 1,800 people who lost their lives and the $81 billion of damage, 90 percent of Louisiana residents were evacuated from their homes, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services website.
Escudero regrouped with his family in Florida after Katrina, where they lived for about a year. Escudero had a school called Full Sail University in the back of his mind as a possible college choice while in Chile. After the events of the hurricane and his family’s displacement, he thought it was an opportune time to take a closer look at the Orlando school.
“When Katrina hit, they moved to Florida and I met them there. That’s when I went to Full Sail,” he said. “I had Full Sail in mind a couple years back but at that particular moment it wasn’t the right time. But one thing led to another and I ended up going to school there.”
Full Sail is a year-round school that pumps out a four year Bachelor’s degree in two years instead. The work load at the school is often heavy, giving little room to students for down time. It’s a growing school that is gradually becoming known for its various media arts programs.
It was at this school that Escudero met his 4 foot 11 inch partner in crime, Kristin Reeves. Escudero had failed a semester of math, but he jokingly offers that, “everything happens for a reason,” because it landed him in Reeves’ math class in the next semester.
What Reeves, slightly younger than Escudero at 22, lacks in height, she makes up for in personality and energy. She always seems to be multi-tasking or busy with something while talking about something else. Reeves has brown eyes that match Escudero’s, though her hair his a lighter brown and sits slightly above her shoulders.
“It was the first day of class and I had lost all my classmates…I didn’t expect it to be so packed so I got there a couple of minutes late,” Escudero began.
“There were no more desks and we had to sit at a table in the front of the room,” Reeves takes over. “I didn’t like to sit next to anyone because I was the only girl and all of my classes were all boys.”
“And I just sat right next to her,” Escudero finishes with a chuckle.
The two then shared a laugh about how Reeves was bald at the time, the result of an impulsive head-shaving. But she figured if he could love her then, he could love her always.
After Full Sail, Escudero returned to his family in New Orleans briefly before going to live with Reeves in New Jersey. Since then the duo have been working endlessly to build up their business through various projects, taking on any work they get their hands on, and networking.
Escudero traveled to Connecticut to work as a production photographer on independent film. He’s also done some talent work as a background person in some movies, one being the film “Final Destination 4.” Escudero admits that he only really does this work in order to network.
“It’s a good way to just get in,” he said.
“Just to get in there, to get on the set,” added Reeves.
Escudero explained how once on the set, he could hand out cards and information to promote their business and productions.
The two also attended the Winter Music Conference, which Reeves describes as “a five day party,” where they did various types of photography work for different parties.
“Imagine being awake for like 36 hours straight,” said Reeves. “…because it’s literally nonstop parties that we were trying to cover. We had to follow the parties and they just don’t stop.”
More recently, Escudero traveled back to New Orleans for a three day cover of the Voodoo Music Festival. The massive lineup at the festival ranged from acts such as the Stone Temple Pilots, to Lil Wayne, and Panic at the Disco. Escudero took video footage and created a demo reel of the event in order to show off his skills to potential clients and demonstrate a little of what his business could do.
“There’s always something coming up,” said Escudero. “Either a gig, or freelancing here and there, or if there’s something else we can work on just to promote ourselves. If there’s nothing to work on, then we’re out looking for jobs.”
The couple admits to being zombie-like in their constant focus on creating the business. They estimate that they spend at least one hundred hours a week working on projects to establish themselves as an efficient and reliable production business.
Much of this work currently focuses on creating photo albums and video for weddings, leading them to toy around with the idea of calling part of the business, “Honey Productions.”
“You can always find us here,” Reeves said with a laugh as she looked around the yellow basement room. “And if not, we’re here by the end of the night.”
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