Hey there! I'm Matt, sole owner and operator of Points North Productions, llc. Thanks for stopping by to get to know me.
They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in any discipline. I am confident I've exceeded that having been a visual creator for over a decade, taken millions of photos, and had some amazing opportunities to film alongside some truly incredible cinematographers. Now, I am channeling that expertise and chasing a lifelong dream of being a full time visual creator through this new and extremely terrifying endeavor: starting a company.
In starting Points North Productions I aim to be honest and genuine with all of my clients. To do so I want to start off by sharing some of my background , but, to not bore you with a verbose life story I will stick to the high points.
I grew up on the front range in Colorado, spending countless summer days exploring the great outdoors. I discovered my knack for photography around 13 (ya know, right in the middle of that formative youthful rebellion stage). On my 14th birthday I unwrapped my first "real" camera - a humble Nikon D90 DSLR. Quickly I became addicted to the cathartic click of the shutter and it became hard to keep my hands off of it. On more than one occasion my parents were known to have grounded me from cameras – I was that attached.
Freshman year of high school I took a photography class from a really cool guy who turned out to be a lifelong influence, mentor, coach and friend (his name is Matt too, us Matts have to stick together). His inspiration drove me to pursue an actual career in image making. I spent the rest of high school as a yearbook photographer, senior portrait photographer, wedding photographer, hell I even did a few shoots as a dog photographer. During the summers I was a manager at Colorado's largest independent school portrait studio - DR Photo - where I got my first taste of running a business.
Bozeman Drone Hyperlapse
©Points North Productions 2022
Sometime around 2012 I received a recruiting postcard from Montana State University with an aerial photograph of Bozeman, MT with the Bridgers in the background. With views like that and a stellar photography program at MSU, I knew right then that I wanted to move to Bozeman. The above hyper-lapse is my own take of that very shot.
Once in Bozeman my love of the outdoors and affinity of sharing the beauty of the world around me grew immensely. I found a home in the community of Gallatin Valley, and very soon after moving here I got involved with several organizations around Bozeman. Since 2015 I have volunteered as a licensed EMT Ski Patroller at Big Sky, which has expanded my skills and comfort level in backcountry environments. I spent a year during school interning with Step1Films, a small production studio mostly making outdoor commercial content for clients like SIMMS fishing and working on a feature length documentary project: Rewind, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2019.
I graduated with a Bachelor's of Art, majoring in Photography with a minor in philosophy in December of 2017. I spent several months traveling after school before starting at F-11 Photo in Bozeman as a sales manager and workshop instructor. In January of 2019 I began working at Best Practice Medicine creating photo and video content for marketing and education purposes where I also taught EMT courses part time - this is when my passion for teaching really started to become refined and practiced. A year later I found myself the Vice President of Marketing at Best Practice Medicine, a fast growing multimillion dollar startup. In this position I accumulated vast experience in management, information technology, social media and search engine optimization, and marketing for small businesses.
In a stroke of pure coincidence during the Fall semester of 2021 while I was working full time at BPM I found myself teaching part time at the Montana State School of Film and Photography, my alma mater, where I continue to instruct upper division photography classes. It is truly an honor to share immense passion for photography through teaching such engaged and talented students.
Late 2021 and early 2022 brought about a lot of change in my life. At the ripe age of 25 I had an insuppressible urge to actualize my dream of becoming a full time photographer and I had finally discovered a means to do so. During my tenure as VP of Marketing at BPM I recognized a basically ubiquitous struggle of small businesses and start-up organizations: generating quality, genuine, and expedient visual content.
Enter: Points North Productions
Founded in early 2022 Points North Productions is a commercial photography and video production company providing Bozeman businesses and organizations advertising through visual storytelling. With a prime objective of delivering professional quality photo and video content that communicates and earnestly portrays your brand, I use my years of experience composing compelling images to tell your story in an elegant and beautiful light.
Commercial Photography
Taking many forms in today's online virtual interfaces, commercial photography is still the number one way to advertise a product or service. Professional product photography is vital to online sales, and many small companies and artisans around Bozeman have rapidly growing online stores with national presence. With affordable and convenient product photography packages you can send products in or have an on-location shoot with a mobile studio.
Advertising campaigns require diligent planning and execution, something I learned as a VP of Marketing. Working with you one-on-one, or with your whole marketing team, Points North Productions strives to capture the essence of your brand through clear communication and planning.
Editorial or environmental photo essays are great ways to tell your story. Perfectly formatted for mediums like Instagram carousels, blog posts, and even print media, a series of captivating images coupled with explanatory text are shown to improve search engine optimization (SEO) ratings and increase domain authority on Google. Convey your story with on location, professionally lit, environmental portraiture that highlights your passion for your craft or to your customers into your space.
If you're trying to market yourself it is paramount to have a top-notch professional headshot. Headshots are an elegant classic to add to a LinkedIn page, website, or social media channel that put a face to a name and help your customers relate to you. Points North Productions offers modern, clean headshots for any type of professional, with comfortable on-location photoshoots which minimize impact to your schedule.
Real Estate Photography
Certainly one of the fastest growing industries in the region, real estate across Southwest Montana is like a gold rush. Just like in any economic boom the most valuable resource is time. It is important in such a competitive market to capture the characteristics of a property in a comprehensive yet efficient manner.
We provide vacation rental property photography for owners to showcase their house, cabin, or tiny-home for AirBnB and VRBO. Photographed fully furnished with HDR images to show the panoramic views you will reach more renters with gorgeous shots portraying their dream Montana vacation in vibrant color and clarity.
Quick 1-day turn-arounds on most real estate photography shoots and affordable prices with online booking make Points North Productions a great option for realtors and rental property owners around Bozeman.
Video Production
The fastest growing and most consumed media type online, video is a must to adequately promote your business or organization. Video brings a brand new dimensionality to visual stories through sound, motion, and time – elements which photographs can't portray.
Belgrade Community Coalition - Festival of Lights 2021
©2022 Points North Productions.
Consistently across almost all major online media sources there is a trend towards short, pithy, and informative video. Contemporary online algorithms give unequal weight to video content, rewarding those who invest in them with better SEO rankings and markedly higher audience engagement.
Many small companies and non-profit organizations want to produce more video content but recognize that it quickly becomes cost prohibitive. From a small business owner and former marketing executive I get how frustrating it can be for such a valuable resource to be financially out of reach. With that in mind, I like to work with my clients to establish mutually agreeable terms project to project, based on the impact each project will have on their organization.
Drone and Aerial Imaging
In 2020 I cleared the FAA Part 107 UAS exam, granting me a license to pilot drones commercially. While seen by many as a noisy nuisance (myself included oftentimes) drone photographs and video bring an aerial perspective to projects not previously possible.
Take your story to new heights with cinematic shots of your place of business, property, or program. Crystal clear aerial views with 4K 60FPS footage and sweeping panoramic flights captivate your viewers and draw them in to learn more.
Offering custom aerial imaging solutions for any advertising project, Points North Productions also provides licensable footage to complement outside video productions.
Thanks Bozeman!
I wouldn't be half the photographer or person I am today without you. I'm extremely proud to be a part of the community around Gallatin Valley and I'm so excited to support my neighbors and friends around Bozeman. Let's show your story to the world.
-Matt