Bas Berkhout is a Dutch filmmaker and director living and working in New York. In 2012 he started the viral documentary film series Like Knows Like, where he profiles the personal stories of famous Internet artists, creatives and bloggers. Using this style of filmmaking, he works with brands to help tell their story through film and photography. Bas shares how he was originally rejected from film school, how he started in film and how he has been able to blend his artistic practice with paid work.
Tell me a little bit about what you’re working on right now?
There's quite a few projects ongoing at the moment. Besides my ongoing independent work, I'm creating a lot of branded content with Vimeo and also directly with clients. One example is the InFrame video series that I'm working on with the team at Format. In addition, I'm also doing some directing and producing for a corporate organization where I help them create engaging internal video communications. There's a good mix of independent work and branded content that I do with clients around the US.
How did your video series Like Knows Like originally start?
So before I moved to the US, I lived in the Netherlands, I just moved here two and a half years ago. About five years before I moved, I did two 40-minute long documentaries. One of them won a lot of awards, which was great. Instead of creating more documentaries I decided to take on a lot more client work. That ended up growing into a company where I had hired freelance videographers and it got to the point where I was just basically managing them. I was making schedules, making sure videographers were where they need to be, and making sure video was being delivered to clients. At a certain point I found I was no longer being fulfilled creatively. So together with photographer Marije Kuiper, I decided to start Like Knows Like, as a creative outlet and a type of distraction. I had all of the skills to do the entire project myself, camera work, editing etc. I was excited to meet my fellow creatives and hear their "real" stories. I wanted to know and share what their lives looked like past their social media accounts. That project really opened my eyes.