We're about to get very real with you.
Our Story.
We are the definition of a comeback story. A story of grit, passion, drive, love, and change. Call it our road to recovery.
I’m Alex Belville, the founder of Mirrorless Productions, and I fell in love with films at the age of six. I grew up wanting to be an actor. I dreamed of moving to LA to make it big in the movie industry. As I got older, I made a lot of bad choices, and struggled with substance abuse… I never made it to Los Angeles. By 22, I was a college drop-out with a 3 year old son, and needed to change my life around. I got clean & sober, started making videos, and went back to school for Radio-TV-Film at UW Oshkosh. I started telling my story through my art, creating weekly videos, and speaking to schools across the state about chasing your passions. Creating videos allowed me to express myself, and do something positive. In the beginning, I really needed that. And I got a lot of great feedback that showed me I was on to something.
I kept plugging away, day in and day out — studying film, shooting & editing videos, and working freelance. In two year’s time, I created music videos for artists all over Wisconsin, and my work was getting noticed by film festivals & blogs online. I was also filming a lot of weddings, too, and knew I wanted to start a video production company. With the push from my professor, I took the unknown leap into entrepreneurship and started Mirrorless Productions in January of 2015. Later that year, I was on a paid flight to LA to film a music video. Talk about dreams coming true, huh?! It was one of the first moments I felt like I made it, but it was only the beginning. Around the same time, I met Chelsea and we fell in love. She believed in my art, assisted in shoots, and helped me with business development. With her guidance, I started creating videos for recovery-related nonprofit organizations in 2016. I knew how to tell their story because of what I had been through.
I kept plugging away, day in and day out — studying film, shooting & editing videos, and working freelance. In two year’s time, I created music videos for artists all over Wisconsin, and my work was getting noticed by film festivals & blogs online. I was also filming a lot of weddings, too, and knew I wanted to start a video production company. With the push from my professor, I took the unknown leap into entrepreneurship and started Mirrorless Productions in January of 2015. Later that year, I was on a paid flight to LA to film a music video. Talk about dreams coming true, huh?! It was one of the first moments I felt like I made it, but it was only the beginning. Around the same time, I met Chelsea and we fell in love. She believed in my art, assisted in shoots, and helped me with business development. With her guidance, I started creating videos for recovery-related nonprofit organizations in 2016. I knew how to tell their story because of what I had been through.
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In 2017, we were seeing a trend in our community and online. There were way too many businesses & brands not telling their story through video! We knew so many awesome individuals and business owners who had such unique stories. They just didn't know how to tell them, or maybe they were afraid to. We decided to reach out to one's we wanted to work with. We quickly got booked to create promo videos and commercials for all different kinds of companies — big and small. And as our workload grew from 2017-2020, our team grew. We went on to hire and train many individuals who I met while in school at UWO. Mirrorless partnered with UW Oshkosh to offer an internship program. We've now worked with 3 interns (who've been more like friends) and they've gone on to freelance for us for larger film projects upon graduation.
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Despite the challenges faced in 2020 with Covid, Mirrorless still had a successful year. We assembled many large production teams to spearhead long-form Virtual Event videos (on top of creating our fast-paced promo videos) to help local organizations tell their story and raise money during the Pandemic. We worked with a talented set of freelancers and went on to create 8 Virtual Videos—helping nonprofits in Northeast Wisconsin raise 1 Million Dollars.
2021 is on track to be our best year yet! We landed so many new clients in late winter/early spring that we hired Gary Dodge as our first full-time salary employee to help meet client deadlines. Gary and I met way back in 2013 when I had just gone back to school for Film. Gary and I worked on several music video related projects in the early years, and I'm so grateful we re-connected. Gary now serves as Lead Gaffer and Assistant Director when we are on set with clients. He's also our secondary video editor. Gary brings a ton of passion and skill to the table. We're currently building out a video studio that's 5 times the size of our current workspace. We can't wait to bring you in when the renovation is complete.
It’s been one heck of a journey to get here, and we’re grateful for our talent in video production and photography. We plan to help grow as many businesses, brands, musicians, and athletes as we can in 2021 and beyond.
"We're able to tell your story because we have our own story."
-Alex Belville
-Alex Belville