Visual Storytellers

East Texas Production Company Works All Over the World

Story by Jen Calhoun

Before David Anzola deployed to the Middle East in 2012, 1 of his commanding officers offered some advice: Get a hobby.

“Whether it was reading or writing or anything of the sort, it didn’t matter,” says David, who served in the Deployable Specialized Forces of the U.S. Coast Guard. “He knew we’d need to keep our minds entertained between missions.”

With that in mind, David bought a new camera. He planned to document the group’s deployment. Before long, he realized it could be more than a hobby. “I started playing with the video settings of the camera and making videos,” he says. “Then I decided that’s what I wanted to pursue once I got back and finished my enlistment.”

Instead of reenlisting for another 4 years, David went to film school and photographed weddings and quinceañeras in his spare time. Today, David co-owns 2 audiovisual companies— Vellora Weddings and Anzola Productions— with his twin brother, Felipe.

Vellora Weddings offers photo and videography services for large-scale weddings, most of which are multiday affairs with up to 1,200 guests. “We specialize in Indian weddings,” David says. “That’s pretty much all we do. We travel all over the world for them. We might do an American wedding once a year, but it’s generally a very high-end 1 in New York or somewhere like that.”

Anzola Productions, based in Houston, focuses on commercial events, which can include creating commercials for businesses, filming, and offering livestreams for charity events and festivals. The company also provides event coverage for national sports teams.

“In addition, we can do everything from preproduction, like screenwriting, storyboarding, conceptualizing, and planning, to finding locations, casting, and hiring actors,” David says. “On set, we’ll have lighting crews, makeup teams, food services, all that. Afterwards, we’ll do all the postproduction work, too.”

Finding a Niche

When David started, he photographed weddings and quinceañeras and snapped baby pictures for families. He also worked on various graphic design projects. “Just whatever came through, I’d take it on,” he says.

As the business grew, he enlisted Felipe’s help. At the time, Felipe was an international business major working for an oil and gas company.

“I had been going to film school full time and then doing weddings on weekends,” David says. “I was doing everything myself—shooting, editing, just everything. I was getting overwhelmed, and I needed help. Eventually, I taught my brother everything I was learning in film school, and he became my business partner.”

David also noticed something interesting when he took a closer look at some of the more successful photographers. “I saw that the competition was really concentrating on niche markets in their portfolios,” he says. “They did 1 thing, and they did it really well.”

He realized companies weren’t hiring him for commercial work, because his portfolio was full of wedding and baby pictures. “So, I split our company and created Anzola Media for commercial projects and Vellora Weddings just for weddings,” David says. “Now, it’s Anzola Productions because we added more to our commercial side.”

Over the last few years, the company has grown while maintaining its small-business edge. “We’ve done things for the Astros,” David says. “We’ve done a lot of charity events, and we’ve produced things for big oil and gas companies. We can do live feeds, too, like at concerts or auctions.”

The 2 brands complement each other. Some of the larger weddings often use the same high-concept production values, including live feeds, lighting, editing, and more. They’re not unlike Hollywood—or Bollywood—movies.

“With these types of weddings, you have to have that commercial experience in order to be able to give them everything they want,” David says. “1 wedding we did had 12 videographers in 2 different parts of the country. The groom was in Florida, and the bride was from California, so we had to fly out 2 teams. Then they all met in California, where they finished out the wedding events.”

Internet Makes it Easy

In addition to finding niches in their field, the Anzola brothers also make it a priority to keep up with the latest technological innovations and trends. They rely heavily on high-speed internet services no matter where they are in the world. By working in the cloud, they’re able to collaborate with colleagues and keep in touch with clients all over the world.

“I use Photoshop and all the other Adobe Creative Cloud applications,” David says. “It’s cloud-based, so I can access all my work anywhere I am in the world. Before they came out with that, you’d have to have everything loaded onto your computer. The internet has just been so helpful for us, and it makes it easy for the client, as well.”