Today we’d like to introduce you to Connor Anderson.
Hi Connor, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hey, I’m Connor Anderson, also known online as “Mister Creates” (@mistercreates). I am a multi-hyphenate creative and entrepreneur based out of the twin cities. For me, my creative journey started in high school, my sophomore year. I was having trouble getting a job so I picked up a camera, took to google and youtube, and started learning. I quickly started photographing friends’ families, and their older siblings’ senior portraits to explore a career path in photography. Throughout high school, I would continue to explore photography, videography, and business teaching myself with tutorials on YouTube. This laid the foundation to start Driven Dreams Media in 2017, a media production agency which at the time we would be doing a lot more photography work. In 2018 I had my “break” when a friend, Jude Aotik, called me up sharing he has an all-access pass to photograph a concert at Myth Nightclub in Maplewood but I had to get there ASAP. This threw me into the world of live music and I experienced the thrill of capturing the in-between moments of an artist on stage.
Throughout 2018 and 2019 I started building my online community through my handle @mistercreates, making somewhat of a name for myself in the local music/media scene documenting and sharing moments with touring artists who would be at Minnesota venues and festivals. Over this time due to the traffic I received from documenting music, I started receiving requests for music videos. This in turn caused me to pivot the business model to a more well-rounded production agency now offering video services. Over the years 2018-2020, we filmed a multitude of video projects from music videos to commercials.
Throughout the pandemic, I focused on learning as much as I could to better Driven Dreams Media. This led to opportunities to work with organizations such as International Organization for Migration, U.S. Soccer, and Minnesota’s own Ramsey County. We also worked on creative projects with Australian Touring DJ/Artist Hydraulix and Minnesota United’s DJ Taylor. We are continuing to expand and build our community for the company at @drivendreamsmedia and are giving back to the local creative community by offering our production space and equipment to rent @drivendreamsstudios.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has been a bumpy road. I go by the strategy of failing fast to then learn from those mistakes. Being self-taught there were a lot of relationships, connections, and knowledge I had to search for. The biggest struggle I would have to say is figuring out a balance and staying true to what you want to be doing. I had to learn that even though where I was at, at the time isn’t the end goal that I must still learn and enjoy that time.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Driven Dreams Media (DDM) is an intentionally small creative production agency. Based out of Minneapolis, MN, DDM is a full-service agency that provides innovative strategies and marketing initiatives to help brands achieve their goals. Despite its humble beginnings, today Driven Dreams Media has evolved into one of the leading creative production agencies with clients across the globe. In 2020-2021 we had the opportunity to work with an organization that is part of the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration, create a web series with Minnesota United’s DJ Taylor, and film a segment for U.S. Soccer with retired professional soccer player Tony Sanneh.
Service offerings include photography, video production, social & digital marketing, and design.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I think the big shift in the industry will happen at the ground level. A lot of the barriers that were there when I started creating simply are not there anymore. Due to cell phone technology and platforms such as TikTok, having a nice camera won’t allow you to land that gig anymore. You have to take that extra step of understanding your client’s target audience and develop a winning campaign first. There are even times that a multi-thousand dollar campaign will be filmed on an iPhone since the platforms the final product ends up on, pushes the reliability of cell phone camera quality. It will be interesting and exciting to see those looking to enter the industry with the abundance of technology and information that is currently available.
Pricing:
- Video Projects starting at $750
- Photoshoots starting at $150
- Studio Rental $25/hr https://www.peerspace.com/pages/listings/61f6af82f7f2760021777a09
Contact Info:
- Email: connor@drivendreamsmedia.com
- Website: www.drivendreamsmedia.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/drivendreamsmedia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrivenDreamsMedia
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngo6iiXDK_43QumnAU3hvQ
