Alexandria video producer's passion for clients lands him a Telly Award

About a year and a half ago, Kel Bonton, owner of the Alexandria-based production company Bonton Media, took a leap of faith to go into business for himself.

That leap of faith landed Bonton Media and Kinetix Solutions on a Bronze Telly Award for a TV ad they did for Sam Spurgeon Law Firm. Bonton sas the director of photography and editor. And the idea was a collaboration among Bonton Media, Kinetix Solutions and the law firm.

The Telly Awards recognize outstanding local, regional and cable television commercials on a national level.

“This particular spot, we are telling the story of a father who’s preparing to send his daughter off to college,” said Bonton. The concept behind the commercial is "Protect What Matters Most."

“So he’s kind of going through the motions of checking his daughter’s vehicle, checking her tires, making sure she’s got gas, checking her oil levels — all those things a good dad would do to make sure his daughter can get to her destination safely,” Bonton said.

At the end of the commercial, the father hands the keys to the daughter and sends her off.

The ad came out earlier this year and can be seen on some local television stations.

In 2019, Bonton Media won its first Telly Award for video editing and producing. It was a Gold Telly, the highest honor given in each category.

Bonton Media collaborated with Queen Bee Marketing of Alexandria for “We All Belong Here,” a social video they created for their client, The Trish Leleux Group. Queen Bee Marketing won a Gold Telly for “Best Video Promotion.”

Bonton Media is a full-service production company that works on a wide range of projects, including commercials, wedding videos and documentaries. One of his first notable projects was a recruitment video for the Alexandria Police Department. Other clients include Hunter & Beck, the City of Alexandria and Gilchrist Construction,

Bonton got into video production in 2006 when he was a student at Peabody Magnet High School. As a musician, he used to produce his own music and needed somebody to do video for him.

“But I didn’t have the means to pay somebody to film me, so I kind of picked it up as just a hobby,” he said.

So he picked up a camera and was shooting all of his own content. This was when Instagram was relatively new, he said, and what he was doing wasn’t called "content."

“I was taking the camera out and filming myself and creating pieces that I would share with my fans or whoever that may be,” Bonton said.

In 2008, he enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Monroe to pursue music. But he started to do a lot more video work as well for sororities, fraternities and others who needed video to promote what they were doing.

For three years, he was a graphic design major but as a junior, he began to think about graduation and his career.

“I really didn’t know what I would do with a graphic design major because a lot of the classes that we were taking were fine arts,” he said. “But my interest was really in filming and music.”

He spoke with one of his professors, who suggested he look into switching his major to mass communication.

“As a mass communication student, I was able to have access to different cameras that they had. I had access to the Mac Lab, which I did a lot of editing in, a lot of late nights editing my own stuff and school stuff,” he said.

He learned about newscasting and different aspects of video production.

After he graduated in 2012, he moved back to Alexandria and was hired by KLAX-TV.

“I was hired in their production side, so a lot of the commercials and local stuff that they were doing, I was the person who was filming and editing those,” Bonton said. “That kind of gave me some training on how to work with clients and bring somebody else’s vision to life.”

On the side, he was still doing videos for himself. But then he decided to start his own company to do production for other people since that was his passion.

He left KLAX to work for a manufacturing company. Word got around about his video work, he said, and he began doing videos for the company.

It got to the point where he was at a crossroads.

“I had to ask myself what God really had in store for me because He was making a way for me with my production company,” he said. “But I still wasn’t fully all in because I was still kind of working this other job.”

Bonton started Bonton Media in 2018. Then, a year and a half ago, he decided to go into video production full time.

He said his start in video began with branding himself and showcasing himself to other people. Bonton said he brings that same passion to the work he does for clients, representing them in a way that he would want to be represented.

“I put my all into it," Bonton said. "I do my best to make their vision come to life. Every project is different. It comes out in its own special way.”

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Alexandria video producer's passion for clients lands him Telly Award