And if you haven't checked out his docu-series "Full Circle", you're missing out: https://vimeo.com/144052631. After college, he spent a year living in Japan and then traveled west -- all the way to Portugal -- without ever using a plane.

Manx Taiki Magyar — a.k.a. Taiki — is a producer, filmmaker, and the founder of Big Tree Productions, operating out of Hyannis. He started creating videos as a hobby in his childhood and for school projects, and went on to major in cinema studies and video production at Northeastern University. Later, while working at Sandwich Community TV, local businesses started to see the value of Taiki’s talent and the cinematic visuals he provided. He began creating promotional content for everything from restaurants to artists, and even music videos. Through his studies, experiences, and travels, Taiki built a foundation of skills and passion that has led to the creation of Big Tree Productions.

“We are a group of creative individuals here on Cape Cod making films, photos, graphics, and good times. We specialize in video production. As digital creators, if you have an idea we have a product,” Taiki says. “I’d love to have a strong community here on the Cape. And also move over the bridge to the South Shore, maybe Boston even. You get high-quality content, but it’s based here on the Cape.”

Taiki’s passion for filmmaking is as tenacious as his plans to expand his business. Big Tree Productions plans to develop, create, and network itself into big-time production company with the small-town community feel that Cape Cod offers. Taiki spoke with Amplify’s Tamora Israel.

Amplify: What does your company offer?

Manx Taiki Magyar: Big Tree Productions offers video production services including marketing, and promotional content for small businesses, non-profit organizations, and schools. We do photography and digital graphics but we specialize in video making and film making for clients.

Amplify: How did you go about starting your business? What steps did you take?

Manx Taiki Magyar: Big Tree officially formed in the mid-2020s, around late spring-early summer. I’ve been doing freelance work and commercialized work since 2016 under my own name, and under the side name of Manxer Media. Then it officially became Big Tree in 2020. I was still working at Sandwich Community TV which has been a great place to work for, it helped foster my video creation abilities. I can’t emphasize enough how working there has fostered my video creation ability. There wouldn’t be a Big Tree without them. Big Tree started with just one client, Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, and it kept growing. The need for businesses to have video content is ever-growing. With us it spread like fire, as one of our videos went public, it spread out, people saw it and some become clients. If clients had a good experience working with me, they would share my information with other people and businesses who would benefit from our services. Big Tree spread organically. I haven’t done a lot of advertising and promotional things. People have found me through my website, and Big Tree’s website, and word of mouth.

Amplify: Did you encounter any obstacles along the way of building your business?

Manx Taiki Magyar: Yea, I’m fortunate that Big Tree Productions isn’t my sole income. It started as a side project and has grown over the years. Juggling this company along with my other main job at Sandwich Community TV has always been a difficult thing to balance out. I think it’s surprising to have any sort of video production company here on the Cape. It’s been tough to get Cape Cod businesses involved in this new age of having to seek out video content to promote themselves even if they're a small business, it’s a necessary thing. That’s been a hurdle were trying to work with but a lot of businesses resonate with us and with the services we provide.

Amplify: Have the country's recent events surrounding Covid-19 and the financial downfall that followed affected your business?

Manx Taiki Magyar: Yea, dramatically. Once the pandemic hit in March of 2020 and everything shut down, businesses froze all their budgeting and the first thing to go is usually marketing. It’s seen as an unnecessary aspect to most businesses. It’s not something that keeps them alive. It’s a super important part of it but it’s not necessary to run a business. So that was a big issue for Big Tree Productions. At first, we had no work for a couple of months but once the summer months rolled around business continued to pick up again. Our clients realized that they still needed to get content out there. Other newer businesses realized that they needed to produce new content too. And then a weirder thing is, instead of the pandemic hurting our business it helped. Businesses needed to have more online content that required them to replace in-person dealings with video content. A lot of the jobs we had after the pandemic was replacing missing content and filling in the blacks. We helped Upper Cape Tech in Bourne make videos replacing each one of their promotion photography shots they used to showcase the classes they offered. It’s been really hard in some ways but it's providing new avenues that work for us

Amplify: Where do you see Big Tree in five years?

Manx Taiki Magyar: We do a lot of commercial work for clients but I see Big Tree being a hub for digital creative people. Growing our network of people that gather together, and do things creatively using photography, digital graphic, animation, film making, can all congregate under this umbrella where we can do paid projects and we can also connect to do passion projects. In the future, I’d love to have full-time employees. I’d love to have a strong community here on the Cape. But also moving over the bridge to the South Shore, maybe Boston even, as an option for businesses to get video production services. You get high-quality content but it’s based here on the Cape, it’s not based in Boston. That’s the hopes of Big Tree growing in the next five years, doing cooler and better projects.

Amplify: What is it about media and production that inspires you to stay in this business?

Manx Taiki Magyar: I think video creation is the greatest thing ever in the world and one part of that is, you have the ability to be connected to anything. You can record videos in a restaurant. You can make a documentary. Not to be crude but, you know you can have pornography and then you have documentaries about Civil Rights. Anything in the world you can think of falls under the spectrum of video, it’s incredible that way. On the other side of it, video creation is involving so many pieces; not just a writer, it’s not just the shooters, it’s not just a musician. Video creation incorporates all these aspects into it. This is why I think films are one of the most wonderful things we have. The collaboration of all these different mediums pulled together to create this one experience, that’s always a driving force for my love of it. — Tamora Israel

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On the Web: https://www.bigtreevideo.com
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigtree.video/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigtree.vid/?hl=en
On Vimeo: https://bit.ly/31ZINNI
On YouTube: https://bit.ly/3uF7mM1