Tim Pierce has that unmistakable quality of someone who knows what he’s doing with his life. He’s making films.

He’s driven, passionate, ambitious, confident and very busy. This is a man going places.

Tim grew up in Wanaka, the son of Tim (senior) and Linda Pierce. From a young age he always seemed to have a camera in his hand. This passion for photography expanded to include moving pictures and it soon became obvious that Tim Pierce was one to watch in the filmmaking world.

He started his own production company at the age of 18, and five years ago teamed up with old school friend Toby Crawford to form a new company called Two Bearded Men. (And yes they do both have beards.)

As Tim is quick to point out, you can’t pigeon hole Two Bearded Men into any one category.

“Our business is incredibly diverse within the film production industry. We create commercials, digital content, web series, music videos, virtual reality films, television series and dramas. Along with photography too.

“Our diversity is the key to our business and that we love the huge array of work we attract and the challenges it presents. Essentially we’re in the business of story telling and problem solving.”

Two Bearded Men (TBM) has an office in Reece Crescent, with three full-time staff and an intern. There’s Tim (general manager/director) and Toby (general manager/executive producer), Claire Dooney (producer/production manager) and intern Oscar Hetherington (another Mt Aspiring College graduate with a passion for filmmaking).

Depending on the size of projects, TBM employs up to 40 contractors for different jobs, including actors, production/film crew, and post production teams around New Zealand.

“We’re incredibly lucky to be able to tap into such a great crew of specialist contractors in our industry, which means we can have a small team in house, and then scale up for large commercial jobs. There’s really no job too big or too small”.

Right now the company’s main business is digital content and commercials. For Tim it’s always about telling stories. Whether he’s making documentaries or commercials it’s about real people.

“We’ve got a reputation for making commercials that don’t feel like commercials. They are authentic and real. I started off making documentaries and it’s storytelling that I love.

“With digital content we are making advertising for any screens [not just television] so there’s a lot of openings for original ideas.” Tim recently made the ‘Meanwhile in New Zealand’ series for Air New Zealand and found the company great to work with. “Their concepts always give us us creative freedom to be weird or quirky or wonderful. It was amazing to have briefs like this for a brand of that size.”

Tim is proud to have built up a film production company which is based in Wanaka. However he is about to move to Auckland, “for a couple of months anyway. We’ve got a lot of clients up there.”

Locally Tim is probably still best known his documentary ‘Winter of Wells’ and for the character portraits he made for Lake Wanaka Tourism some years ago. These were a series of short films starting local identities from fishing guide Harry Urquhart to musician Martine Harding.

Like many filmmakers, Tim has had no formal training. “I was a digital kid and a ‘google’ student and I’ve learnt by doing,” he says.

What kind of films Tim will be making in 10 years time is anyone’s guess. He certainly doesn’t know. But one thing does seem certain - he’ll still be making films.

For more information see twobeardedmen.com.

PHOTO: Supplied