The Real Truth About Building a Filmmaking Career Without Big Budget

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Vipul Bindra (00:04):
Hey, Val, thanks for coming.
It's been a long time coming.
I wanted to have this talk withyou and, like we were talking
before I started, and I've saidmany times, the goal of this
podcast was just to have thesehigh level conversations about
filmmaking and, you know,business and anything in general
, and just I want to share thesewith people because I know they

(00:24):
could have helped me and peoplehave shared already so much
valuable information.
So I can't wait to, you know,talk to you and see what all you
know we talk about.
But I'm just looking forward toit.
So thanks for coming.

Valheria Sanchez (00:36):
Thank you.
Thank you For those that havenever seen this face before.
I'm Valerie.
People call me by Valley.
I like to think that's myartistic name, but it's also
like the shortcut of it.
And yeah, I've been in Orlandofor five years now and I'm a
filmmaker especially well, Igraduated in media production

(01:01):
but I'm more of a 2022.

Okay, and I became more of a documentary sale or
ucf, ucf, ucf go knights.

Yeah, uh, ucf media production.
I kind of dip into filmmakingfor a little bit and never kind
of find myself doing narrativeor short films and things like
that, but I love to be involved.
So I'm more into the artdepartment of, like, short films
and things like that, but Ibelieve my genre is more of a

(01:38):
documentary.
But I work as a media producer.
So, from events to branding, toa lot of things, I I do a lot
of things so that you can askany question because, like, I do
dip into many different thingsthat's awesome.

So, um, like I said, it's always great to talk
to you.
So we first met that was, Ithink, my the, the, so david did
these filmmaker meetups and Ithink it was like literally the
third one and I kind of I wouldcall it sponsor it or whatever
and I got us a whole suite or abox.
That's super cool the kiacenter was called the mv center
back then, and I think that'swhere we met right am I mistaken

(02:16):
okay, so awesome so I need thisuh, you know and I don't know
anyone.
It's like so many people.
So do you remember anythingfrom that interaction?
I don't know I do, I.

I remember you having the only person branded
in the room and I coulddefinitely we had a conversation
.
You have a production company,um, and at the time I was
freelancer video editor for c4,um.
So at the time I remember youasking me oh so what do you do?

(02:49):
And I'm like, well, I'm doingthis, blah blah.
But I think that meeting was ablast because it was a really
social.
Everybody was like I don't know, like feeling in the middle of
like that.

Yeah, I don't know how many people were actually
watching the hockey game,because I think that's what it
was.

It was like a hockey game.

I just got the whole box.
They said up to 30 people.
I was like, well, I don't know,30 people in Orlando, but I do
know 30 filmmakers, you know, sothat was perfect.

We were about that number, right?
No, no, we were maxed out?

no, we were maxed out.
I was having to do so lastminute cancellations.
That was the only annoying part.
So you know, because it wasofficial tickets, I had some
people last minute be like oh, Ican't make it, then I have to
get the ticket back for them andthen give it to someone.
It was like a transfer thing, soit was kind of a little bit I
would call um annoying process.
But that's that's not on thepeople, that's just how the the
ticketing system or Ticketmaster, works, okay, but overall it

(03:46):
was really good and to be ableto do that it was so cool.

No, it was a high standard.
After that I'm like well, whichone is the next one?
I'm coming?
I know I've been trying to dothat.

Hey, that event where I got that is coming up,
so maybe they'll have a crazything.
You know, you would think thisis a very creative um, you know,
technical field, so it's opento anyone right as long as
you're creative, technical, but,as you remember, there was like

(04:16):
barely any girls there, it'sall just just men.
So it's very neat every time Imeet people you know who are um,
you know females who are inthis industry because they're
kind of, you know, breakingthrough the gender barrier or
whatever.
However you want to say it.
So have you noticed that?
Do you feel that you know?
You remember that meetup?
Right, you were one of the veryfew, Absolutely.

And the other two girls I met in that day.
I keep in touch with them,which is Sophie and Ruth, and
they happen to be from Venezuelatoo.
So I'm like what?
But yes, it's always you haveto deal with that in every
single setup.
Personally, I never think ofbeing a woman like you know,

(05:02):
like something that it wouldn'tsupport, something you know like
.
I never think of myself like,oh, victim, I'm right here alone
and stuff like that.
I always love to see all thegirls doing their thing.
But yeah, it's like I guess,through the years and kind of
the way I do, like I have a lotof friends, are guys Like I know

(05:25):
how guys mentality works andit's honestly it's a blast, Like
I love to work with guys.

And I just feel like, so here's funny.
I had Nat on the podcast.
Same thing, she said the samething.
I was, like you know, askingher very similar questions, like
you know she's a great cameraoperator was like but what, what
?
Why are you the one of the onlyfew?
And then same thing she's likewell, you know, blah, blah, blah
.

but also I'm like guys girl you know, I like
so maybe that's a common thread,you know it has to be because,
like you know, the guys areplayful, uh, in my opinion, and
girls are not so much, eventhough we can always have fun as
a girl.
But it's like at work, I feellike just the the vibe of guys

(06:06):
is like a little bit more chill,more relaxed.
We get the work done and thenwe're joking the whole time or
like at least make it I don'tknow easier on the things
Because, like normally, when wehave a shoot or anything that we
do, it takes hours.
It's never like one hour gone.
So in that sense I like lesstroublemaking.

(06:27):
I mean it's, I don't want totalk like it like it's a
standard, but like girls likeare like more, like they're
looking for mistakes and thingslike that, and so then people
get all sour because it's like,oh for, for no reason, and it's
like I don't know, I feel likeI'm more of a.

I mean, that's good though that's a good team
person If you're looking formistakes, so we can fix them
before they happen.

Exactly.

I think that's a great team member.
But, that is true, though, nowthat you say the other side of
it, I'd like to hang out withpeople who are fun, so, yes, I
will carrying of their yeah, youknow men or women or whatever.
My main thing is, you're gonnabe fun on set right exactly so
maybe that is why men end upbeing exactly more fun.
I didn't ever think from thatside.

(07:10):
So that's really cool.

Yeah, say that yeah but at the same time, um,
you know, like is it I believein every shoot should be at
least two or three girls.
Uh, just because of the is, theeye is like is is a compliment
uh to to the group.
So I I think, like, if you don'thave any problem like I do to
be with more men or women, uh,then you're set up for this.

(07:35):
Like I think all the girls I'vemet in the field are kind of
the same approach.
Uh, we're like self-sufficient,we don't.
We, we're unapologetic.
If we have something to bringto a table, we will, and I think
that's amazing that I wish allthe girls feel in the world.

I wonder if that's why people girls are producers
more.

That too.

Yeah, because I've noticed that at least a lot of
times when our producer is onset and they're, you know they
tend to be female, so maybethat's why, because they have
attention to detail.
Absolutely.
And things like that.
So that's a pretty neatperspective.
So you got into film right.
You went to.
Ucf and you started mediaproduction.
But why film?

(08:18):
Was there something aboutmovies?

Well, movies always tap into my mind.
When I like a movie, I canobsess about it, I love it, I
know what I love it.
But really I didn't have.
Uh, I think my influences liketv and stuff like that will be
my sister, my dad, my momthey'll bring, always like the
good movies and I'll be justsitting there and watching.
But it was more of a.

(08:43):
I was interested in studyingaudio engineer for some reason.
Like I knew that I couldn't dosomething like that or yes, but
I don't know.
I was like, yeah, I want tostudy this because I was, you
know, like when you hit your 15,16, you're like, well, so what
are you going to do?
What are you going to do?
So I was like I don't know, Idon't know, I, I don't see doing

(09:06):
this, and so I I pulled thatfrom me liking a lot the music
in general.
So I was like, yeah, I think Iwant to do this, maybe become an
engineer, audio engineer orsomething like that.
But that was supposed to be inthe capital of Venezuela.
And yeah, my mom is a professorat the university locally where

(09:30):
I live and she was like, whywould you do that?
Like, you have this university.
It's super good, just findsomething to do here.
And then I was scouting likewhat to do.
My sister knew that she wantedlike design and architecture and
stuff like that, but I alwayssucked drawing.
So I'm like, no, I'm not gonnado something like that just
because it's creative, because Ialways felt like I was creative

(09:53):
but never had like the toolreally.
So I was like, well, um, andthen I discovered media
production and one, one of theirmentions which is like we'll
say the mayor here will be.
It was audio.
So they have I'm trying tothink from Spanish so they have

(10:17):
photography, which will becinematography, then audio and
production.
So that's like kind of thethree things.
But since I didn't knowanything, I was like, oh, audio,
cool, I found it, I'll go forit.
So first day in school is like,hey guys, we're media
production, but we're trying tochange the name soon to

(10:40):
filmmaking and I'm like what doyou mean?
It's like, yeah, we'rerebranding the, the school and
the name of the mayor and all ofthat.
So I'm like, okay.
So first semester I'm so lostbecause everyone knew they
wanted like filmmaking I lovethis.

I love kubrick.
You got into it thinking it wasaudio production and it ended
up being film production filmproduction and they do have like
specialty for audio but it'slike audio for film, not even
for anything else.
Yeah, that's so crazy, and thisis in Venezuela this is in
Venezuela, and is that whyyou're friends with Emmanuel,

(11:19):
because you're Venezuelan.

It's so funny.
Yeah, here most of my friendsare super international, like
far, far land from venezuela.
Then I came to orlando and Istarted meeting, like my two
business partners I'm fromvenezuela and we met what work?
And I'm like where are you from?
Was the last question we askedfor each other.

Well, you know, emmanuel, he's like not super
venezuelan he's like veryamerican emmanuel on the yeah,
obviously, but I think, uh, hewas born and brought up here,
yeah, so yeah, so emmanuel'sbeen on the podcast.
People have listened to him, sowhat?
So?
What brought you exactly toamerica?
Was it just higher studies orsomething, or?

higher studies and the country just getting
completely oh yeah, we've allheard stories of venezuela yeah
uh, so obviously that washappening, and when was it?

when did you get here?

um 2015 so 2015.

I'm in my 10 year mark right now, so you've been
here 10 years, which is a longtime.

I could not like when I remember uh being
here like my first year and hearpeople.
I've been living here for 30years, for 20 years, for 10
years, and I'm like, well,that's a lot of time.
You know, I'm like I can'tbelieve that it just went by so
fast.
Right Time goes crazy.

I just remember yesterday I was just making
friends films with friends andsomehow we're here sitting in
this room you know, talkingabout films exactly it's so
crazy and um.
So obviously, um, you came here.
You know you're studying, um,um and then um, what exactly?
So tell me the story.

(12:59):
Yeah, that's what I want toknow.
I want to know when did youmeet emmanuel, exactly?

okay, um, so yeah, that's what I want to know
.
I want to know, when did youmeet Emmanuel exactly?
Okay, or how did you meet him?
So, yeah, that's a really funpart of it because since, okay,
I moved back, I moved here andstarted from zero, decided to
move from filmmaking again justbecause, if I didn't figure out
the whole world from there likeI was, I needed to adapt here,

(13:29):
learn the language and see andall I heard.
Well, one of my uncles live inLA and he's in the entertainment
industry, he's an actor and hejust had a real talk with me and
he's like, hey, it's hard, youknow, filmmaking is hard, so
just heads up and then you know,like, with all this information

(13:49):
, I was like I should not maybeand then I was like, okay, how
about, um, I just go to ucfs andfind something I like, and I
decided to start advertising inpublic relations.
But what happened there?
I was like it's mainlycopyright and I'm very visual,

(14:12):
like I can write, but I'm notgonna be like, oh, I'm the best
writer in the world, like I'm socreative writing, or things
like that, plus, it's my secondlanguage.
So I just felt, oh my god, II'm back into, I don't know what
to do.
And that's where I switched tomedia production.

(14:32):
But at the same time, being inmedia production, I talked to my
advisors and stuff and I waslike, yeah, but I like to jump
into the commercial world andmore of the advertising and the
commercial side.
I think there's a lot ofpotential, very creative as a,
and there's money for sure.

(14:53):
So I was like, yeah, it seemslike a plan, I want to do that.
And so I did one internship, Ithink integrated here in Orlando
, and I started working withFernando.
So with Fernando, you know, wewould just have work assignments

(15:16):
, you know little things.
I produced like a shortdocumentary for the agency and
you know like, know like, fromdoing like little projects, he
invited me for one that was notfor work and he was like hey, um
, this is my idea.

(15:36):
I'm trying to produce the blueroom, uh, and I want to direct
it.
I would love to so.
So by that time I thinkFernando discovered I had talent
doing gaffer and I was veryenthusiastic because I was
taking the classes.
I was like I love it.

You know you brought into this project.

Yeah.

Fernando's project as a gaffer.
Yes, interesting, all rightyeah.

So he was like , hey, I really like how you
play with the lights and forthis interviews and stuff like
that, do you think would youlike to be part of my short film
?
And I'm like, of course I loveit, yeah, why not?
You know, like that's my mainthing.
It's like I don't think ofmyself a filmmaker because I'm
not here.
I'm like, oh, I have an ideawith like creating this

(16:23):
character and telling this story.
Uh, I, I normally work withreal resources like I know the
person, I know the story and I'mlike, okay, this is a story,
but, um, but I love the artcraft, you know like, wow,
that's, that's the best thingever.
So I was like, yeah, you can dothis, blah, blah, blah.
And we shot in a little tinyapartment.

(16:44):
So the crew was like maybe five, six people, or that's a lot, I
think five.
And of course, cinematographerwas Emmanuel, of course.
And we met for the first timeand we just vibed and we were
like laughing the whole time.
It was super exhausting becausewe start early.
We blocked off all the light tomake it dark, the apartment,

(17:07):
fernando's apartment, and thenwe spent a whole day until like
4 am together.
So, of course, at the beginningit was like a little hey, how
are you?
And then by 3 am we were likelaughing our ass off and we were
really proud of that wholeproject at the end because, like
, it was the first time that Iwas involved with like a

(17:30):
completely different um,creative, um, you know group.
I'll say, and you know that isalso kind of weird to like jump
into.
Like normally when you're acreative or creator, you're
always like oh, that's my ideayou know gonna get people
involved, but when somebodyinvolve you in their idea, it's

(17:51):
kind of really cool, you knowlike it's like, okay, I'm
stepping in a different worldand I'll make my work.
You know, just work around thisand we end up like going to film
festivals and having a blastjust with that little short and
then we became just like closerand closer, and then, of course,

(18:11):
working with the same um agency, we were brought back to set
many times, and now obviously,um, your business partners are
the we'll get to that in asecond.

So I want to know what type of lights were you
using, so you're a gaffer.
Obviously, it sounds like yourfirst gaffing project.

Yes, and what?

type of lights did you have?
Did you go to your school andgrab them?
How did you get access tolights and stuff like that?

Yeah, At the time.
So that was a cool thing aboutUCF, the production workshop, is
that you could have access toapertures.
That was when I first startedusing it, cause, like we, we
will have the, the old schoolfor now, and you know, get
burned in the hot lights andstuff like that and we had to

(18:58):
like set it up and make sure weknow how to utilize those
equipments.
But the professors also thoughtit's like, hey, it's a little
outdated, they just use this,yeah.
And then I invested in buyinglike a couple of them and I and
then we just brought the first,like what 120d or whatever?

(19:20):
Uh, we yeah the 120d the markone, mark three mic two, mark
two, oh so that those are myfirst aperture lights too I
bought a three light kit andused it a lot so yeah, it was.
So yeah, the yeah it was.

We have the same the three.

Yeah, that's exactly what I bought and I
started like digging into likegels and stuff and I love to
think of that one because we didnot have a single RGB on that
set.
Yeah, and the whole set is blueand red and, like all this, you
know, shadows of blue.

Oh, so you were playing with gels.

We were playing with gels and different
shadows of gels like a black,that it was like and they melted
down at some point and it waslike, wow, I don't deal with
that funny enough.

I still have some gels in my van, but we barely
use them I think ever since Iswitched to led, it was like I
think 300ds that did it for me,so I bought 120d mark twos like
a three light kit and I stillhave a had a ton of hot lights
okay, and you know because theydidn't fit everywhere, they
weren't bright enough, whatever.
But when the 300d's came out Iwas like oh, all the hot lights,

(20:31):
because and I don't rememberever since them ever even
wearing gloves on set and youknow you couldn't, you couldn't
touch some of these old withoutgloves or or some kind of hand
protection.
Right, and it's so crazy howtimes has changed?
I don't remember at all, forlike past five, six years no,
you don't see them anywhere.

Yeah, and what we do, which is commercial?

work?
Uh, because even then, I thinkthe last lights that I remember
that weren't um leds was m18sthat I've used on some
commercials, but even those havebeen.
Now the new 1200ds.
1200xs can easily replace themfor for what we're using them
for.
So, yeah, there's no reason tohave exactly anymore that's so
crazy.

(21:12):
Everything's turning rgb, sonow again, you don't need gels,
I have these um exactly I liketo use these location kits I
don't know if you've used themfrom lee or roscoe.
They already come cut out right.
Yes, it's so easy to clip again.
Same thing.

I don't remember last time using them no
, I know it's like some thingsget outdated so fast because,
like, if we're thinking aboutthis is four years ago,
everything that I use on thatset is completely old school,
like super old school.
Isn't that crazy what to thinkabout?

I'm like, I was like I didn't start this company
that long ago exactly and I wasusing gels and I'm like now
it'd be, and not that gelsaren't used, uh, but I'm saying
with these modern day fixturesyou don't need to, because most
lights have green, magenta fixeduh color shift and then most of
them are rgb or if you need rgbeffects, um like, yeah, I mean,

(22:06):
it's so crazy, it's so crazyyeah, so that's awesome.
So you were on your set.
You gaffed and like so you usedgels you know you made it happen
with the script demanded yeah,how was that like?

how did?

you feel doing that?
Did you feel like I felt?

that my work really had.
You know like, so we normallypeople that don't know much
about filmmaking, think of thedirector being the top.
You know, labor you'll do, andthen cinematographer, of course,
and then the rest of it is likejust little pieces going.

(22:43):
The rest of it is like justlittle pieces going.
But then I realized that reallya good gaffer that has a good
communication with the dp canachieve so much and, um, it can
go way beyond whatever story.
The director is proposing.
And then I was like, wow, I lovethat, and.

(23:04):
And then it kind of opened mymind to, you know, maybe at some
point I was like, yeah, I'llinvest and get my own camera and
be like, yeah, dp freelancer,the same route like most people
do.
And then I was like, going backto our first conversation, it's
like, well, I do find myself asa girl leading with like cameras

(23:29):
and stuff like that.
It's like it's a lot and andyou kind of need to have like
like just a physical work, uh atall, and.
And then for me I was like,yeah, but there's a lot of guys
and they're all talented,including manuel, and it's like
I know, I see how they'retalented, how they can carry a

(23:49):
full gimbal and do all this foreight hours, great.
And then I was like, do I wantthat, though, or can I make the
picture look good through, youknow, gaff and art direction and
things like that?
That kind of flows like morenatural for me, and I was like,

(24:09):
okay, now new door open for me,and then I'll start getting like
more tools that will help me toachieve that side of like
gaffing.
But I did not stay just gaffingfrom that experience.

I just no, and I'm so glad you found your lane
because you know, at the end dayit's all about where you fit in
.
But you know, just to say, notthat girls can't do it, uh, but
I rather you be up front.
I had this happen once, so,where I was trying to hire
someone to uh like be a grip orwhatever on set, something like
that.
I don't remember, but Iremember this girl wanting to

(24:46):
work with me and I was like,absolutely, you know, I was like
, oh, this would be great.
And then I was like, okay,awesome, this is the job
requirements.
Right, you're gonna just comein.
You know how we in corporatesets like, technically, you're
gonna do a little bit ofeverything, but most of it is,
you know, moving gear from here.
It's gonna.
It can be heavy, are you okaywith that?
And she was like, well, I don'tknow if I can lift heavy gear,
so well then I guess it's notgonna be the right job for you I

(25:07):
appreciate it.
She was up front, but I waslike I think she could have done
it yeah, confident and and uh,you know being like yeah,
absolutely, it's not like I mean, I get it video equipment's
heavy but it's not that heavy,like that you can and you know
you're not alone.

You always have three, four percent minimum
so anyway, but yeah, I rememberI always think of yeah, it's
true, and things are heavy, um,and I mean, if you think you can
, you, you will do.
I mean I've, I consider myselfvery strong and I can do stuff
that sometimes I'm like thinkingI shouldn't.

(25:42):
I'm like wait, I should not dothis real quick, but I I do it
because I'm that way.
But what I saw is not only forthe equipment side, but it's
like how saturated being a dpwas at the time and I was like,
oh, I just don't want to be.
I mean no offense, but I don'twant to be competing with people

(26:05):
like I just want to be hiredfor who?
What you like about me, youknow what I mean.

So it's like you can easily shoot through,
because here's an advantage.
Here's what I notice.
Most new dps don't rely see.
Here's the difference betweenand tell me if I'm wrong
difference between a dp and acamera operator is lighting
right so most these people Ifind and again I'm not saying at
the higher level, I'm sayingpeople who are starting out, who

(26:30):
are like I'm a dp, they'll goin, they'll learn, like, buy a
camera, learn to operate somecameras, and then they go I'm a
dp and it's like, but they haveno idea how to shape light, work
with shadows or any of it, I'mlike but you're in charge, the
gaffer is your partner to helpyou achieve that.
They somehow think the gaffer isin charge of lighting.
I'm like no gaffer works underthe dp, exactly you know and and

(26:54):
fulfills dp's vision.
So the lighting doesn't lookgood, it's not the gaffer's
fault, it's the dp's fault sohow many dps are coming up, and
that's what I'm saying.
So you would have actually hadan advantage.
So, you didn't choose that pathand that's okay, because you
understood lighting.
And you'd be amazed how many DPsespecially, like I said that
mid to low level have zerounderstanding of lighting.

(27:16):
And it's not like you have toknow every fixture, but you have
to be able to light a set.

You have to be able to shape and play with.
You know motions and, and somany dps can, and that's why I'm
like you're not a dp, you'rejust a camera operator, exactly
that's the thing.

That's the thing.
And then, and then, they showup on real set and it takes me a
few minutes to go okay, youknow, either never bringing you
on or only bringing you on as acamera operator, because if you
can't shape light, you can'tmake anything look good.
You know what I mean Like.
Come on Exactly, you can exposeWell, sure.

You're a good camera operator, since you know
we're talking in my experience,just like seeing how it was
saturated but profitable, like Ialways knew that being a DP was
profitable just because theworkflow is, you can command a
higher rate, right?

Because you know again, supposedly lighting and
both cameras.

However, I thought maybe my input in
production comes from differentother random skills and it's not
like I completely thought I'mnever going to do this job again

(28:27):
Because at the end of the day Iturn on the camera, do the DP
work?
And it works.
And people are like, oh, Ididn't know you're a DP.
And I'm like, excuse me, I'mlike, yeah, I always been, but I
just didn't push that as my uhskill and what I want to be

(28:47):
hired for.
And then once you start workingwith really killer dps and
stuff like that, you, you don'twant to yeah change mindset,
like at this point.
I'm so comfortable knowing thethe dps I work with because I,
just I, I need zero uh effort tolike translate my thoughts.

(29:10):
You know, I have clearcommunication.
This is what I need, this iswhat it is.
Blah, blah, blah.
I concentrate what I should bedoing and I know everything is
taken care of but that took alittle bit.
When you don't have that, youhave to be your own dp and kill
it, because otherwise, like I am, my standards for professional

(29:31):
work are high.
I'm like I, I study television,I, I saw big sets.
I you know like I cannot youknow, and so I I try to scout
the people that could you knowhelp to bring that.

So that's great.
So you know, and that's whatI'm saying, we're all trying to
just, you know, improve ourcraft, do better at the end,
create good images and give ourclients results.
So that's so awesome.
So you already knew, hey, Iwant to do more corporate and
commercial style work because, athere's money in it, b you can
still be creative and you knowit's it's really hard to make

(30:09):
money doing indie movies.
Let's be real.
Yeah, right, um, so at whatpoint did you start doing more
corporate and commercial work?

and well, right about the same time
because, uh, I was an intern forthis ad agency, I started like
looking into what a video um,you know team does inside of an
agency or something like that,and I was editing commercially

(30:40):
too.
So, it was at that time,everything was commercial,
commercial, commercial,commercial right now.
Right now, I'll say, uh, I'mmore not in like just one role,
I'm more like involved in moreroles right now.
But I'm dealing with smallerbrands, uh, brands that come to
me and I'm like I'm helping themfrom scratch.

(31:01):
But you know the, the gigs thatI had that were, you know, for
nationals, like very bigcompanies.
Uh, my job was like maybe onerole, one, one thing, very
specific, and that was the timethat I was like mostly editor
and and how were you findingthese gigs?

through that agency or you did?
You?
Did you have an independent wayof finding clients?

um, and so no, through the agency I'll be on
set you know bigger set umprojects and clients, uh, and
learning the thing.
And then after I was done withthat uh agency, like my
internship time, I didn't stayfor a position in the company

(31:47):
but I stayed as a freelancer sothey would call me for whatever
they knew I would fit in.
And that was the same case withFernando and Emmanuel, but
Fernando stayed there.
He was kind of the lead whopicked us for a specific role.
So they do have a lot ofcontent nowadays.

(32:08):
Uh, the time we were like more,like, oh, let's do this big
commercial, uh, let's do.

And so he will need more people he will take
care of, like putting, andthat's so great hey, it's all
about people you know, andthat's the smart, like so smart
what you're saying right now.
Because, look, if you are new,the best thing you can do.
A lot of people areapprehensive about getting a job
.
I'm like no go get a job at anagency.
They're willing to hire peoplewho are somewhat green because

(32:35):
they have a team right.
They can have some people atthe starting out, some people
experience some people at thetop, and then guess what happens
.
When you're like at the top oryou get the skills, you can
leave.
But you can become a freelancerfor them and most agencies need
freelancers, even if they'rein-house teams.
And then when you know thepeople, like Fernando in-house.
Who are they gonna call they'regonna call their own people.

(32:57):
Right, that's a very smart move.
You can basically go in, learn,leave, do your own thing, but
not leave the agency in a in away in a way and plus you're
like number one, number two onthe call list because he's gonna
call a man or he's gonna callyou and you know because, he
knows you, he likes to work withyou guys.

Right, that's, that's a, that's perfectly it's
perfect and it's like in a.
I know how isolated it feelslike to be.
Okay, this is my first day I'ma filmmaker.
Where do I get my clients?
You know, I have a lot ofrespect for people like sean uh,
who was so determined to figureout the whole thing man.

His podcast was so good because he was.
He went from 10 grand somethingto like over six figures.
Yeah, that's a big jump to gofrom year one to year two and
that's what the determination isright.

Yeah, exactly exactly, but it also.
We all go through that.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I hope it's good and sometimesit's not good and you have to do
a lot of changes and thenyou're like all exhausted.
I'm like, oh, should I just goback and do groceries or
whatever.
But yeah, I mean, for me it wasvery strategic but very meant

(34:11):
to be, because I found out likereally good connections and it's
good to connect with people butit's even greater when they see
what you can bring to the table.

(34:31):
You know like I'm always tryingto pitch myself in a sense, so
people know where I fit, exactlybecause I don't want to do like
.
Since I'm like so annoying withlike not getting a job
professionally, then I feelreally bad if I'm not the the
right fit for it.
I'm like oh, oh, no, I'm goingto hate this.
So I prefer these days to thinkI'm going to hate this, but I

(34:52):
know somebody that can kill itand will appreciate this
opportunity.
So I'm more of that personright now, but at the time that
I only didn't have this.
And fun fact, photographyphotography is being in my like
useful tools forever.
I freelance photography since Iwas like first year here that's

(35:16):
so I'm like people are oh, canyou take a picture of it?
and yeah, and then so peoplestart thinking of me as a
photographer.
When I thought I was,photography was more of a hobby,
but I never stopped doing it,so at some point I will be get
hired just for photography.

That's crazy.
And there is a thing, well,first, I want to talk about.
You're absolutely right aboutyou know, people you know and
putting yourself out thereBecause, at the end of the day,
you're finding a solution foryour clients.
Like you said, they have to beable to see what you can bring
to the table because otherwise,like you said, you're just a sea
of dps.
They can hire anyone and andlike or production company or

(35:54):
whatever, right, and it's likeno, I'm not the same, I'm giving
you a custom solution, orwhatever that is but, they have
to see that, so to be able toshow them is incredible.
And then your second point is sogreat about photography,
because you know a lot of peopleget pigeonholed.
I've done that to people whereI've hired them and you know I'm
like oh, so what do you do?

(36:15):
I'm a photographer.
Okay, I need a photographer.
And then I hire them and thencompletely forget they also do
video or some other role, right?
So have you had that happenwhere you know you did
photography and they just thinkthat's all you do and you're
primarily a video?

person.
Yeah, oh my god, that happens alot.
And then I had this like kindof weird relationship with
photography, because peoplewould be like but you're so good
, why don't you do this?
And I'm like because I'm tryingto merge and make it bigger for
myself.
I like the entertainment andthe arts you know like, and I

(36:49):
feel video is a tool andphotography as well, and it
comes from the same kind ofbrain, but it's completely two
different things, like I lovethat you said that so many
people somehow think photographyand video are the same thing,
and they're completely different.
Completely different.
I was like we had a photographyclass at the studio last
weekend and I was, you know, fora very long time just having a

(37:15):
little bit of the concepts andyou know, the same things.
We deal in the same to videoand photography, which is the
ISO, the speed shooter, theaperture and all of that.
And I'm like, okay, guys,here's the basics.
This is a mentality of aphotographer.
You are self-sufficient, 100%at all times.

(37:37):
Here's the brain of a videoperson.
You're not sufficient, you needpeople.
You are visionary and you'renot sufficient.
You need people.
Yeah, you are visionary andyou're good communicating, but
you know, like working with, uh,photographers are completely
different in terms ofcommunication, in terms of like
execution, everything yeah,because let's not okay.

I love photographers.
They make me a lot of money.
But let's be real.
Photography is much easier.
One person can manage it,because all you're trying to do
is freeze the frame and it's somuch easier to light, which is
why I love flashes for them,because, you know, it's a lot
easier for a battery to do onethousandth of a second, a huge
blast of light.
Imagine you can use that forvideo.
You would need ginormousbatteries to even light.

(38:21):
The point is, it's a differentart form.
They're self-sufficient.
They can do it by themselves or, you know, maybe a team of two
can handle most events.
At least that's what I need.
However, with video, it's acompletely different art form.
So there's experts in lighting,there's experts in camera,
there's experts in.
You know, like I said, managingtalent yeah, wardrobe design, I

(38:42):
mean we can go all in all.
These are individual jobs and avideographer job is even harder
because now you have to do allthese people's work by yourself
and you can never be an.
I don't care what anyone says,you cannot be an expert in 30
jobs and yeah, you know what Imean exactly.
So it's like it's a, it's mindblowing when I meet people and

(39:04):
they're like, oh, I'm good ateverything, and I'm like are you
, though, are you, I'm not good?
At everything, nobody is.
You know, like because you knowthe only reason you're good is
because you collaborate right.
You work with people you likeand then you create something
amazing and that's what video isand you could change things

(39:27):
because you can show emotion.

you can, you know, and and you can do that
like you can choose to makepeople happy, sad, whatever
right based on the colors we use, the dialogues we write, the
emotions the actors portray orwhatever, whatever um, it's, but
it's so that you know like it'sa little bit of a lot of people
.
Yeah, uh, the performance is soimportant and they're almost

(39:49):
the, you know the, the center ofeverything.
But yeah, it's like it's thedifference between knowing that
you can get all the work byyourself as a photographer and
then knowing that you cannot getall the work by yourself,
because that's kind of the sameapproach to every single person
that wants to do video.

(40:09):
It's like, well, I'm gonna doeverything yeah and then by the
time they do their first likeshort film, they hate it yeah
because why?
because your sound was terrible.
And then this doesn't look good.
And then you're trying todirect and also film, and it's
crazy.
But only you know that when youstart learning and really

(40:31):
getting in the industry, youknow like then you know, okay,
that person has such a narrowand specific role on set, but
without that person, this is notgoing to be the same.
And then you know you startbuilding your own visual brand,
which is very interesting.
No, if you have the same peopleinvolved every time, you kind

(40:56):
of work the same the thingsaround and make different
results every time.
But it's like, literally, youhave a formula, you know your
players, you know everything andyou know how to get it done.
So it's like it's never like asurprise when you already build
your your own team.
It's like I mean, we're gonnado a variation of what we did

(41:17):
the last time, but with thisvision you know what I mean,
yeah and talk about manual.

So you, you guys, did a documentary together,
right?
So which is?
How was that experience?
I think it was a very importantsubject that you found.
How did you come across thatand how did you guys start with
that?

so, yeah, greatest project we had last, uh
well, I'll say the two things,the and the documentary, but
we're so different in mentalitythat they in my mind didn't
overlap, but it was exhaustingfor sure.
So this comes from.
I don't know if you know, did Itell you before?

(41:59):
But I'm a cultural anthropologyperson.
I studied anthropology beforeand so I am a very research
person in all the oh.

Really, I didn't know that, so now I know who to
call if I need some researchdone.

Okay, yeah, so yeah, cultural anthropology is
like my minor, but it's actuallya tool I use for my first
documentary I did with emmanuel,which was based on.
It was called ink therapy, butI technically compare the tattoo
session to like psychologicalum therapy, and especially that,

(42:44):
uh, one that is calledbehavioral therapy, where the
therapist put the person to tointeract with arts and music and
things like that, and and kindof the point is like yeah make
that person express themselvesfreely.
Yeah, and I thought that wasvery much tattoo session.

(43:06):
You know why?
Because you're picking your,your art and you have this
one-on-one conversation withthat person, sometimes for hours
, because not everyone get likea little tiny so this is before
the one that you just did, oh, Ididn't know about this one so I
know about the latest project

exactly, I don't have talked about it okay, so uh
, so, oh, that's so that is theorigin origin.

So is this research, this 15 minute short
where we dip into the tattoolife of this too?

very young thought about it.
Yeah, I thought it was a painsession.

Well, some people like really talk about
why kind of the pain isenjoyable in some sense and that
was always like something.
But for me, in this specificthing, it's like I was looking
for a pattern in a differentplace.
They said, well, you can go andcheck out coffee shops and see

(44:11):
what the patterns look likethere, and when I mean patterns
is like observing everythingthat goes around the place.
So how people look, how peoplebehave, what they consume, what
they do, and all of that.
People look, how people behave,what they consume, what they do
, and all of that.
And I felt like in tattoo islike more visually there.
You know, you see it, and whenyou see a person that is full of

(44:33):
tattoos, you relate that imageto maybe rock and roll, music
and motorcycles and you havelike a whole niche there that
subconsciously exists becausetattoos were completely out of
the pocket, um on society for solong up to I think 1995, it was

(44:55):
illegal in new york to gettattoos so crazy to think about,
because people have beentattooing themselves for
thousands of years exactly youknow, in various cultures and,
to be real, I was like that too.

Funny enough, I had to hang out.
The way I ended up with mytattoos is because I used to
work, you know, one of my lastjobs at this company and I hung
out with Miles.
I doubt he'll ever listen tothis, he's not a filmmaker, but
he would just talk about tattoos, like you know, like that right
, like it was something he justloved to do and he was just
covered, right, he was trying toget sleeves and everything done

(45:29):
.
And then, you know, after youhang out with somebody for so
long, they kind of influence you.
And I was like you know what.
I have this idea and I reallywant to do it and, like I said,
I went.
And I went to his artistrecommendation because I don't
know, and it was such a surrealexperience to get this tattoo
done.
This is my first tattoo and,funny enough, they say that it's
true.
It didn't.
I didn't feel any pain I didn'tfeel any discomfort, uh, you

(45:53):
know.
So I was like, oh, this isgreat.

I was like doing this for two, three hours
and then I was like this isincredible and the question I um
, we kind of based the researchon was do you remember the first
time you had a tattoo, thefirst time you got a tattoo?
And it's like everybody knowsvividly everything that happened
that day.
You know what I was wearing,what we talked, and there's like

(46:18):
a lot of things that arememorable about the experience
that I thought this isinteresting.
So from that documentary we didpretty good.
We got four awards Look at thatTwo in LA here.
We were selected in OrlandoFilm Festival and then we start
having a lot of fun again withthe little productions.

(46:42):
But I was in my second day ofscreen at Orlando filmmaking, um
, I mean Orlando film festival,and I I had my.
You know, the second screen isnever as special as the first
one.
First one people, your friends,everyone goes.
And then the second one is like, well, whatever is left, I'll
be here at 2 PM.

(47:03):
You know so.
Um is left.
Yeah, I'll be here at 2 pm.
You know so.
Um, I had like almost full room.
I remember I was sharing roomwith david.
Uh, he had his um documentaryshowing and well, we were there,
the, the room was almost full.
So I got to do doing and a's,and you know people, oh, love it

(47:26):
, blah, blah, blah, like this orthat blah blah.
And so a girl chased me afterwe were done, after the qa.
She didn't ask any questionpersonally but she just came to
tell me hey, I really liked it,I really appreciate your uh
research.
Because I talked a little bitabout what was behind the, the

(47:47):
documentary, and she was like Iknow somebody that is doing a
research that I think willappreciate if you share this
with her uh, and here's her likecontact.
And she showed me just abusiness card and I am in the
middle of like you know, like,this is so weird, because people
are talking yeah and I'm likeso I I grab the, the card, and

(48:13):
I'm trying to pull and she pullsback and I'm like wow, this is
weird.
And I'm like what?
And she's like no, this is myonly card take a picture of it
and I'm like, oh my god.
So I took my phone, took apicture, told her, yeah, I'll
reach out to this person, andliterally that was october,
maybe in january.
I'm like, oh my god, I nevertext this person.

(48:37):
What is?
Wrong with me, so this happenedto all of us.
Yeah, I'm like I never reach out.
So I just sent an email in thetone of sharing my work and
knowing what was her work allabout, but mostly introducing
myself.
Hey, somebody told me that youwould like this and, yes, I

(48:59):
would like to know what are youworking on technically.
And she was so amazing in likeher feedback.
It was insane, and I read allthe emails.
She's like will you beinterested in meeting me in a
coffee shop?
And I'm like, of course.
So we went out, had a coffee,spoke about it.

(49:20):
She said, like I love it, I'mworking on this.
My project is the the positiveoutcome of tattoos in the area
of breast cancer.
Um, and I'm like, what do youmean?
It's like, yeah, we're talkingabout medical tattooing.
And I'm start hearing all thesethings that first time I heard

(49:43):
in my life.
And we're like, wow, I have noidea until like right now that,
if you ask me, I have.
So much knowledge in it.
Um, but yeah, from that day, uh, we also had like such a good
conversation that you know, twohours passed by and we're like,
oh my god, okay, amazing, niceto meet you and all of that.

(50:04):
And I'm about to leave thecoffee place and I'm like but,
by the way, whenever you'reready and if you want to do a
documentary, I'll be reallyinterested.
I think what you're doing isinsane.
And she was like really, andI'm like no, for real, like this
is insane.

(50:25):
And she's like OK, and I'm like, no, for real, like this is
insane.
And she's like okay, yeah, forme, say yes.
So that day, literally, we justset up, we're going to start a
documentary together.

That's so cool.
Without thinking everythingthat has to be done to get a
documentary, but we kind of sayit in words like yeah, let's do
this and that's such anincredible thing that you know
we don't think about, to behonest, on a daily basis.
Because this is more for theirown empowerment, right, if I
understand?
Because at the end of the day,it's a medical tattoo.

(50:54):
It's not necessary becausethese people have gone through
surgery and this is for theirown.
How would you put it like likethis is empowering, right?

they're making them feel normal uh after
having gone through this, thishorrible experience, I can this
disclose a little bit of whatthe project is is a project mtfm
and is a um.
Two girls behind it a medicaltattoo artist, tacey Baker, and

(51:29):
a clinical psychologist which isMiranda.
So Miranda started all of thisby researching about, you know,
how women is affected mentallyon this and she's trying to
figure out how to, you know,help them to stabilize their

(51:50):
mental health and kind ofembrace the new part of them and
all this.
And so she started doing thisresearch where she will get
people that got tattoos and kindof share how they feel about
themselves and all of that andcompared to people that didn't

(52:10):
have, it was crazy how differentthey have.
They suffer from this term thatis called body dysmorphia.
So, and it's distressed- reallybecause, like the body
dysmorphia is like where, whenwe don't feel good with our, our

(52:31):
bodies, but the distress isafter something impactful
happened in their life and stufflike that.
So, um, so it happens to bereal that a lot of women, after
they go through mastectomy, uh,they, they don't like their
bodies anymore, they stop dating, they, they feel like this

(52:54):
broken relationship with theirbody, uh, just because feeling
completely, uh out of normality.
So that's where the distress,the body distress, uh, come from
.
It's like I had this, I don'thave it anymore, I don't feel
good, uh, more than thedysmorphia that is like, oh, I
used to look like this and now Ilook like that, you know, so

(53:15):
all these traumas compel and allthat.
And then the medical tattooingis where it gets very
interesting.
Is, you know, differenttechnique?
No, so far from what the tattoois, but it really taps into the
psychology of the clientbecause it's not like a walk-in,

(53:35):
whatever you go vape and andget a tattoo, um, it's really in
a medical setting.
Um, you were coming from amedical procedure.
Uh, the person need to know howto troubleshoot with that kind
of skin and all that, and soit's a, it's a way, it's a top
layer to what tattoo really is,and it really is more about like

(53:58):
, how psychologically we treatthese people to get them back to
feel normal with themselves.
So, specifically, this is womenafter gone through breast
cancer.
So whether they had mastectomyand they lost everything and
they just have hard scars orjust having, uh, you know,

(54:19):
losing the nipple and gettingthe 3d uh nipple tattoo.
So, yeah, that that was kind oflike my my first intake of what
the project was and I just satdown and start you know, kind of
researching for myself, since Ihad some research to support my

(54:42):
documentary.
I was like, well, cool, becausefacts are going to be provided,
but also, and how do I digestall of this for an audience,
right?
So I had a lot of time, justlike in pre-production, was also
school and learning, all thisblah, blah, blah.
And then I was like, well, howdo I convey their research?

(55:06):
As they managed to do it and wejust opened cast for people to
just launch themselves.
I really said to them it's likeyou guys reach out to women
that you have contact to,because a filmmaker coming to a
breast cancer community andbeing like hey, who wants to

(55:27):
tell my story, it's kind ofweird because it's so sensitive.
Uh, they're not fully healed,uh, some of them, and you cannot
push somebody to like thatextreme, you know so I really
relied on them bringing on thegirls.
I, of course, introduced myselfand be like whoever feels brave

(55:47):
enough to have this conversation, uh, for the benefit of my for
all.
You know, it's like you arejust gonna enlighten someone
else, like dark road, so youjust might as well just share
something.

Documentaries like this.
Where you're, you know you havea positive subject.
You're highlighting a storythat's not highlighted normally.
That's so incredible.
So is it done?
Yet it's done yet.
It's done, so you've edited it.
Put it out, yes.

How's the response been?
One main screening at UCFduring the art night, which is
one weekend a year that they do.
All the art majors have an expoand things like that.
And I had a room.
It was not my favorite room I'mtrying to push the documentary

(56:45):
through the film festivalcircuit first but I thought it
was very special to have a firstever screen at UCF.
These other two women, theresearch one they both are UCF
students, so I felt like betweenthree of us, why not?

(57:06):
And it was pretty special.
You know, when we were talkingabout like how to achieve
feelings and things like that.
So two things about this is oneI edit, produce and direct, and
that sounds easy to say, butit's really hard.

(57:27):
And that sounds easy to say,but it's really hard.
And you know, like I was likewell, at some point I was like
this needs to get done or I amgoing to get done to myself.
I'm like I'm going to die.
But once I was done and all ofthat, I was like so nervous to
see the result.

Yeah, because you have this, you know story of
somebody else that they haven'tseen.
How long did it end up being?
What's the?

runtime An hour and four minutes.

Hour and four minutes, so it's my first
feature and the first time theclient's seeing it.
It's their impactful story.
How did that feel?

It went super good.

Did they have good feedback.

Yeah, I have two or three comments to do
about it.
I was like, well, you know,first thing, I was like a little
bumped because there wasn'tlike a good sound system and it
was in a school room technically.
So we have a projector.
The projector was good enough,um I get it's not the highest

(58:26):
quality, yeah, so I was like, oh, but even though we have that
technical side of it and theresponses, like we had like two
of the talent that was thereinterviewing brought family and
then some friends.
Emmanuel wasn't there, thoughhe hasn't seen the whole thing.
I haven't shown him TV orsomething like that, because I

(58:52):
really want him to see it big.
So I'm like, well, since hecouldn't get there on time, I
was like, well, next time it'sgoing to be a film festival,
sorry.

Hopefully he sees through it, because he talks
through the screenings, whichwas that we were watching
fernanda's screening recentlyand people were shushing the
scenes.

It's like that's how this one we did and
that was funny, yeah so, uh, forthat uh screening, what I loved
it was I was in you know wherethe teachers, so you have like
your desk here and then all theseats over here.
So I sat there and I sat on thefloor and look up and here's the

(59:35):
screen.
So I kind of had like a hidingplace to watch it, but I also
had visibility to the audiencefaces.
So I'll be sneaking in seeinghow how they feeling as we
progress, cause like I knowevery single that, like
everything that is there, like Iknow every single word of

(59:57):
everyone.
So I'm like I, you know, I likeI was like I don't want to see
it, cause it feels so I feel shyto see it, but then I'm like
super proud of how the outcome.
So I was like let me just seehow they feel.
And my first comment will beone of the husbands, one of the

(01:00:20):
talent, was there and when shestarted her line that is like I
was diagnosed or something likethat the guy just slammed the
top of the well, like thisschool table.
Yeah, yeah, yeah and he justleft because it's so strong.

(01:00:45):
She's the only one who cries inthat part.
And he couldn't take it hecouldn't take it seeing her
saying it, you know, becauseshe's like she started and her
voice started cracking and yousee how vulnerable that person
is.
But she did so well you know itwas just a moment where she kind

(01:01:08):
of broke and he was I can'ttake this, but he left.
10 minutes happened.
He came back and then he sawthe end of the, the story and
how I portrayed it and he cameto me and said, wow, okay, you
really touched my feelings andlike I love this and I'm like
wow, even though I mean itsounds negative, but it's

(01:01:30):
actually a good experiencebecause they had such a.

Vipul Bindra (01:01:31):
Yeah, I plan for that exactly.

Valheria Sanchez (01:01:34):
I plan for building up to that.
Uh, diagnosed to be like whatthis is another person, you know
.
Like that that was my intentionis to, because that was what I
learned.
I was like, wait a minute,every single one that is

(01:01:55):
involved in this project has adifferent age, different, like,
I'll say, every single story,and for whatever side you you
compare it, it's a completelydifferent dinos or case or age

(01:02:15):
group or ethnicity.
So I was so shocked it's likecomes from everywhere and I was
like, oh my god, no, I hate thisat the same time.
That's what I wanted theaudience to feel like.
So when I saw reactions likebeing in shock, mad and leaving
for me was positive, I'm likewhat I'm making feel people,

(01:02:38):
things, and then, in theprogression of that, you know,
there's people who cried, peoplewho laughed and all of that,
and I'm like, well, I guess thisis what it is.

This is why we like work.

Because I don't feel like this is my best
work forever.
This is top, top.
I feel like already can see howwe could do things better.

But that's how a filmmaker is.
I haven't never had and I don'tthink anyone has where you do a
project and go oh, this is thebest ever you know because
you're always like trying toimprove.
You're always trying to gobetter, but then it's funny, I
don't know if you've done this,I do this.
You look at your work from 10years ago.
I was so bad.
From 6 years ago, you go, I wasso bad.

(01:03:22):
You look at it from 1 year ago.
You're so bad because you'reconstantly improving.
You know, I think yeah that's,that's what filmmaking is.
You and you were you're tryingto chase perfection yeah, that
doesn't exist, so you alwaysimprove and improve, and you get
better and uh, so no, I'm sohappy for you yeah, seems like
you picked, uh, you found,rather, because it was you

(01:03:43):
didn't go out looking forsomebody came, somebody came to
you Exactly, but you found anincredible story with a
meaningful impact and you didyour first feature documentary
and you took people through anemotional roller coaster while
educating them about thismedical tattooing thing, which
is so important for thesewomen's health.

So that's so cool right.

I mean, this is what we do, right yeah?

and that's why I love to tell creators and
filmmakers and documentaries.
It's like you don't know whereyour next adventure is gonna
start, and I do believe in likeattracting things that your mind
are like alike, and so then Ifeel like my best advice or

(01:04:30):
piece of advice will beconcentrate of what your mind is
actually trying to search or,you know, wonder, because for me
was like I was shocked to learnmyself that tattoo could be
compared to psychologicaltherapy.
But then from there to wherethe journey took me, I'm like

(01:04:54):
I'm just a medium.

You know what?

I mean I'm like, at that point I felt like,
okay, yeah, this totally choseme, me, but who else could do
the job I did when I'm a womenwhen I can't see how tattoo goes
beyond than just like coveringskin exactly, and I had the

(01:05:18):
sensitivity to you know, makeeveryone that was part of this
like comfortable about talkingabout this because, like even
myself, like who wakes upthinking in cancer if they're
not affected?
but by some reason, everyonewants to avoid that as much as

(01:05:38):
they can yeah, because they'vealready gone through the trauma,
they've gotten the surgeryright.

they're already not doing well, mental health
wise.
So, and now you're like, hey,here's a camera Talk to me.
I see it and then at the end,but again, that's where you
separate a good filmmaker Causethat's the idea we want to
capture the raw emotion whilemaking them feel comfortable,
which is hard, it's hard, itsounds easy, right, but it's not

(01:06:02):
, you know it's it's very hard.
And then the uh, obviously,like I said, I'm so glad you
were able to do that and is youhave put it out there?
Not yet.

You said you just screened it there yeah,
just screen it there, I am notanywhere.
People could go watch thisright now, not now um, just
because I'm trying to um get itlike so for premiere official, I
won um the florida film umfestival which is the one that a
asian, uh, and then from soyou're gonna do the whole

(01:06:32):
festival circuit, right?

that's the yeah that's my plan, and then
afterwards I've, I'll you know,just think of the platform that
will be more useful for it, andI think, uh, to be real, we
don't peddle anything on thispodcast because the idea is
education, but I think, yeah,it's, it's important for people
to go watch it, or at least justsee the the work.
So whenever it comes out, I cango put it in the description of

(01:06:54):
this podcast.
Yeah, I would love to so.
Whenever you do have a publiclink, please share it with me I
will do I will put it down hereit may be in the future, but you
know, whenever, whenever thathappens yeah, no it's.

I'm kind of like I'm biting my nails not to
share it because, like I feelreally excited about it.
You gotta run through thecircuit and all that, but yeah
like, uh, we do have uh aninstagram where I'm gonna keep
uh updated everything and evenfrom the, the experience of uh,
the short you were involved forManuel, the guys.

(01:07:27):
I'm like maybe sometimes inthis first quarter of the year
I'll probably do a private kindof like crowdfunding more
screening at the same theaterand see if I can push, because
of course, guys, everyone,filmmakers out there, the film

(01:07:50):
festival circuit is not for free.
If you don't know it, if you'retrying to get it, it's not for
free.

It costs a lot of money.
You know it's a business forthem, but it is what it is.

But I mean that's the first assumption.
Oh, film festival is fun.
No, it's.
Every entry has a price.
So I'm considering, you know,doing that for you know, having
like a bigger and better setupto watch it and also be like,
hey, there's QRs if you want toship in something you know, like

(01:08:24):
kind of that.
We're trying to promote thisstill.

And that's my thing, because you know, know,
I'm working on my movie, right?
Now my first feature lengthmovie, which is so crazy to
think about.
Uh, but uh, same thing.
You know we're gonna have to dothe whole and I was like the
whole idea is to make the bestlooking, not indie movie ever
right at zero dollars.
But so I'm like but technicallythe budget won't be zero
because we can't go through anyfilm festival for free.

(01:08:48):
So we're going to have tosomehow get funding, because we
have to, obviously, if we'regoing to make such a good
impactful, but mine's more Ishouldn't say impactful, mine's
more entertainment, it's like amass market thing that we're
trying to do.
But either way it's going to bevery expensive to take it
through all these film circuitsand, yeah, that's going to be
very expensive to take itthrough all these uh you know

(01:09:09):
film circuits and, um, yeah,that's going to be interesting
oh, like well, if I think of howa great well I never thought
this documentary will hit thefeature length, I was like maybe
we can tell the story in 15, 20minutes.

And then, when I was dipping, I was like
there's no way I can tell all ofthis information in this um
amount of time, just becauseit's going to be rude for
everyone, um, and probably themessage won't get there as much
as uh an hour and four minutesdid for me, so but tell me you
about.

Like your feature, oh, yeah, I'm trying to do 100
minutes.
So it's like a full featurelength movie and I'm trying to
do it for no budget, but I'malso trying to.
The task is at hand.
We've talked about it a littlebit.
The task for my movie is simpleI want to do the most visually

(01:10:04):
nice looking indie movie ever.
Usually, you know, when youlook at low budget stuff you
could tell, hey, good story orwhatever, but it's low budget,
it is what it is right, and Idon't want people to go, oh,
it's low budget.
I want people to look at and belike whether they like it
ideally, hopefully they like itbut even if they don't like it,
I don't want them to think, oh,you know, they did it for no

(01:10:26):
budget.
I want to be like, oh, theywasted millions of dollars
making this right.
That's the, that's the mindsetand the, the technique that I
came up with, um, to do that.
Obviously it can't just be done.
That's why it doesn't get doneso we are we strategically?
I came up with this story.
It's kind of like a crimedocu-fiction.
I would say it's like adocumentary, but it's a

(01:10:47):
fictional documentary wherepeople are talking on camera.
But, as you know, cost-wiseit's a lot easier to do people
talking on camera and we dointerviews all day, every day.
So that's why the idea is thatI'm going to get Arielexa Mini
LFs is what we're going to shootit on.
We're going to most likely useI'm still testing looks I'm
going to most likely use I'mstill testing looks I'm going to

(01:11:09):
probably use Atlas anamorphics.
So it's going to be anamorphic,going to be on Alexa's.
It's going to be very beautiful, but at the end of the day,
it's just interviews, it'speople talking to camera and
that's where we are, becauseit's an hour and a half more
than that right Of people justtalking to camera.
You got to keep it interesting.
Yes, so our story, which I hadMario on the podcast, you've got

(01:11:31):
to listen to it.
We've been like literallytrying to make beats at every
like, let's say, 10 minutes,because the audience will get
bored right.
Of course, it cannot just be.
Let me tell you about this.
This happened, or this happened.
I mean like okay, or thishappened.
Like okay, we have to keepaudience attention for hour and
a half, yeah, so the only way wecan do that it's like oh, this

(01:11:52):
happened, then you go oh shocker.
Then, 10 minutes later, oh,this happened right.
And then we're bringing twistsand turns and new characters
into it okay so so you keepattention, because at the end of
the day from the filmmakingside of it is just people
talking to camera there'snothing happening, right maybe?
and the only other footage youever see is either photos or
potato home footage, because youknow it's crime fiction from a

(01:12:15):
long time ago.
You write like a realdocumentary would be.
It's based on realdocumentaries oh, so the idea is
what I'm saying is at the coreof what the film is this bunch
of characters talking on camerathat's all it is, and that's all
we could do at our level ofbudget and make it cinematic,
correct and and well, I thinkyou hit something really

(01:12:41):
important.

For, for those that you know don't have the
full scope of doing a feature iswhat you talked about how to
make it efficiently for thebudget that you already have
it's crazy because, like youmight think, oh, a director will
be like this and that and thisand I want that and I want this

(01:13:02):
and I like that's, of course,top of the dream, top of the
ladder, I top of the ladder.
I don't know once in a lifetime.
But most of us are just tryingto figure out, with the things
that we do normally, how to putstory together.
And yeah, I mean corporate doesour life with like all the you
know, you can achieve somethinginteresting.

(01:13:22):
You can achieve somethinginteresting and then from there
just develop a whole story thatyou're going to put together
creatively, because being lowbudget makes you more creative,
exactly.

You're basically reaching to figure this out, and
then the truth is like you saidwe know the limitations, I'm
like, okay, I do have aninherent advantage.
I will say that because, yeah,the light went out.

Welcome to live podcast.

It is what it, is All right.
So you know the well.
We just deal with it.
There's no editing this live,so anyway, we look amazing.
Yeah, anyway.
So what was the thing?
Oh yes.
So basically, you know, Ialready know the limitations.
Now I have an inherentadvantage because I have all the

(01:14:15):
gear right so we don't have atleast gear expenses, and I get
it.
Most indie filmmakers don'thave gear or whatever.
They're working on thoselimitations.
I know the people, so we willhave a very talented team.
I know I have the gear havewe'll have a very talented team.
I know I have the gears.
We'll have very good gear.
So I don't want to takeanything away like oh you know,
there is zero dollars.
There's no budget, everyone isputting their time in.

(01:14:36):
I'm putting all my equipment andtime exactly, but at the end of
the day it's still an indiemovie and I'm going to take
advantage of all the resourceswe have here to tell the best
visual story I can, and thenalso, uh, I won't.
I don't want to take credit.
I did come up with the story,but mario and will are doing the
, the script, so it's on them,you know okay so I'm saying

(01:14:58):
they're gonna do a great job onthat and at the end, you know,
hopefully we can cast it.
Well, yeah, and you know, get,get, get it made.
And then, I'm so excitedbecause the here's the crazy
thing about my movie.
Like I said, it's just peopletalking on camera.
We're telling a story everyfive to ten minutes.
There's going to be somethingcrazy happening.
Obviously, to keep people'sattention span right and

(01:15:20):
remember, we're trying to makeit mass market.
This is no indie art flick youknow like create a critical
thing.
This is a entertainment flick,yeah, but at the end we want to
do with this amazing twist thatI can't wait for so we just want
to get people to that 190, no,100, sorry, 180 minute mark, 190

(01:15:40):
minute mark, because you knowso.
Like I said so, but um, uh, 200pages roughly is where I'm
aiming for.
Oh, no, sorry, 100 pages.
So at like 90 pages.
We're going to do this twist,but if people don't watch the
first 90 minutes, sure, let'ssay my last 10 minutes is
incredible, right?
It's this crazy twist.
People talk about it, but ifthey never get there then they

(01:16:03):
never see the twist, they nevertalk about it.
So our entire goal is somehowget people to be entertained, be
intrigued, watch the movie sowe can do this twist that we
want to do at the end, so I'mlooking forward to it.

I love it, I love it.
I think, well, I would love tobe involved in some mockery.
I would love for you to beinvolved, because I think that's
the idea I want to involve allthe people that have been on
this podcast are my favoritepeople, so you know I'm going to
ask.

Obviously, I get it.
Everyone's schedule may notwork, but I'm obviously going to
ask all the people that I knowto be part of it Because, at the
end of the day, I think it'slike I said I couldn't do it
myself.
Same thing I came up with astory, but I couldn't have even
written it.
I I called Mario.
I was like look this is thestory.
Please put it on paper.
And then Mario put it on paper,incredible.
And then it's so good to seesomething that's in your head on

(01:16:52):
a piece of paper right.
And now we were like, okay, wegot it there, but like you know,
he's Peruvian, the dialogues,it's okay, you know, english
isn't his first language.

So now we're Brad, now and that's what I'm
saying.

It's a collaborative thing.
You bring new people in andthen, once that's ready, it'd be
incredible to, like I said,bring other people locally, be
like, okay, let's make the bestlooking indie movie.

I think it'd be so cool and two things about
what we just talked about herethat might other people feel
like oh, so what, what?
How different the process is.
And it's like, for your case,you already have, well, will
have.
Whenever the story is alreadyset, you have something to give

(01:17:45):
to your editor and then youreditor will work things around,
maybe switch things around, butyou can have the structure.
For me, the structure was here,but all shuffle, all really
shuffle, and then you know andin I say techniques of telling
stories, I start trying to putthings together and then I'll be

(01:18:08):
like, well, I'm going to startwith this, then I'm going to
jump on this and I had like,let's imagine I have my brain
was at one terabyte or twoterabyte of, like different
folders and footage and photosand things like that.
That if you open an S, yeah,and you're going to be like what

(01:18:29):
the fuck is this?

you know right, exactly, it's in your head and
you do not translate that toexactly.

So I will go oh, I want to tell this story
this part first, and this otherpart first, and this blah blah,
blah.
And that took so much of mebecause I was already in love
with the story and for me it wasoh my God, I think this is
amazing, no matter what partcomes first.

(01:18:56):
But then I start showing forfeedback and then my mentor
Emmanuel, my sister, mybrother-in-law, random-ass
people like, hey, can you watch?
This Seems a little slow inthis part, and I'm like, oh, and

(01:19:19):
then I'm like, okay, go back.
Tweak things Come back.
Why do you feel about this?
Oh, that's cool, that goes.
I'm like, yes, so I will testout.
Uh, just scenes, uh, maybe fiveminutes, ten minutes, uh, here
and there, and then, after I hadenough useful feedback, I

(01:19:43):
closed my windows to morefeedback and I was like zero
from zero, start the timeline,like I copy some of the things I
cut down and then I start well,this part, copy paste, this
part, copy paste and then figureout a whole different timeline,
and that's so great, though,but you, you did it so

(01:20:04):
incredibly right.

You essentially had your own focus group right,
and and that's so.
I think that's so smart of youas a filmmaker, because
sometimes I also think we get inour head and we think, oh, we
know everything but the truth is, we're so involved in the
process, we see every mistake,we see every pacing thing and
sometimes we have to stop andlet other people see it and see

(01:20:28):
if they even notice somethingwe're worrying about for two
hours that wasn't even important, and then something we missed
completely that may be relevantto them.
Like you said, pacing to youwould be like oh, this is
perfect pacing, but the audiencemay not get it.
And I think it's so importantas a filmmaker to sometimes just
take a step back and justaccept that look.

(01:20:50):
I need to show it to otherpeople.
Let me get feedback, you knowand see what other people are
seeing.

And have that different perspective, because I
have my mentor which is reallytalented and DP and commercial,
really talented and DP andcommercial.
He is kind of the one whobrought me into like the
commercial narrative and allthat.
So he knows.
Yeah.
So he made his point like reallyclear about communication.

(01:21:21):
Then I had Emmanuel comingthrough and feeling, just
reading his body language, hewas getting bored and I'm like,
yeah, part, I mean could befaster and they're both know
about what we doing.
Then I had to jump to adifferent mindset, which is my
audience, and then I go to showmy sister, which is highly

(01:21:44):
educated in watching things, youknow.
So getting her feedback wasuseful because she sees, as any
other people who watch TV,unlike us, that is like we don't
watch, that, we just processimage really.
But for people, that isauthentic audience.

(01:22:04):
you need to ask them how theyfeel about things you know,
because they're not hyperanalyzing the image exactly,
they're just into the storythey're into the story and so
it's like did that resonate toyou really or not?
or, or you can just watch theirgenuine reaction to things, and
then that's how my focus groupwas really it's like a little

(01:22:25):
bit of people don't know, a lotof people that is involved, a
lot of people that is involvedand a lot of people that does
what I do and that's it, and Iwish I had like more time to
discuss and probably will bringme to a different outcome, but
at some point I felt like I'mthe responsible of this.
This needs to get done now, andI was like it doesn't matter.

(01:22:47):
I feel like this story is oneof those stories that will be
more useful if it's out soonerthan later, because they're
trying to change things in themedical side of finances and
they do have some changes to getdone in order to make this

(01:23:11):
thing available for every woman,you know.
So knowing that there was kindof the deadline behind the story
kind of made me feel, as longas I have everyone

(01:23:34):
professionally well-said andclear, what they, what I want to
accomplish with this, educate alittle bit, raise awareness and
I did have like a like a visionboard type of thing and where I
put like the values I wanted to, you know, reinforce, which is
let's be positive about thistopic, let's bring awareness,
let's propose a about this topic, let's bring awareness, let's
propose a solution and not aproblem.
And since I had that in my mind, so like that was what really

(01:23:57):
put the structure.
It's like it's a whole set ofvalues and then I'm like I just
want them to.
Of course, the owners of theresearch I always share my brain
and I'll be like, hey, do youthink this should be the end of
it?
Because, like, I feel like,yeah, we can go through this and
this, that, and then this is.

(01:24:18):
And they were like, yeah,that's incredible, and they come
from different science and alsothey have background in art and
that was also like super coolto think it's like how different
in art we're involved and howmuch in psychology we have in
common, because their work istechnically based on things that

(01:24:38):
for me matters a lot.
Like if I somebody asked mewhat's my goal and stuff, I will
always love to tell storiesthat convey to a day of like
awareness, self-healing, mentalhealth and things.
That really is an outtake forhumans.
Is it?
The only thing we really cantake from others is like how to

(01:25:00):
process our own life?
And I think with them we justsat in the same page and it's
like that's crazy.
We just wanted the best forothers.
So, since that was thestructure, then the little
things which were the toughestthing was like putting the
narrative to convey those thingsthat we talked and that's so

(01:25:21):
amazing and, like you said, it'sa mental math where you, as the
filmmaker, are like okay nowthis terabyte footage.

There's this folder structure and only you
get it.
So I'm so glad, like I said,you put it together.
You told an impactful story.
I haven't seen it but I wouldlove to see it, but I know the
kind of work you and a man willput out, so I know it'll be good
.
Uh, because, like I say, me anda man have done tons of
projects together yeah, youmentioned a documentary I want
to watch.

Which one one, I don't know.
The one you most recently didtogether.
Oh, that's a really good.
That's going to save lives.

No, that one is going to save lives.
I just came, by the way, from aconference in San Diego where
we shared Basically, the teamwas there like they were sharing
it, and the response is amazing.
I think they're going to get-onsponsors to get it done because
that one's like, genuinely like.
You know, we say live lives thatone's gonna save lives and I'm

(01:26:14):
excited about that one.
So so it's so cool.
But talk about documentary.
So I did.
Obviously I'm mostly in thecorporate side of things.
I did this corporatedocumentary and, you know and
emmanuel was part of some of thefilming sessions of it is so
crazy because, like you said,it's in my director's head but
sometimes I can't edit becauseI'm shooting.
So I had this happen earlierthis year.

(01:26:36):
So, like I said, emmanuel waspart of it.
We were telling this, thiscompany, um, they're, they're,
they're, um, you know, uh, itwas like a 35 minute, you could
say corporate documentary, butit was so crazy for me because,
you know, we filmed, filmed,filmed and we didn't get the
last filming done until you knowit's like oh, we need another
day, another day until, like,let's say, tuesday.

(01:26:56):
So here I am the event.
By the way, this event is onsaturday, so I'm like, at
tuesday going all right, julie,here's three, four terabytes of
footage from five days of workwith 50 people, and guess what?
You have to use every singleone of them because you know
it's a corporate thing they haverequirements.
So it's like, okay, the onlyrules are you have to take them

(01:27:18):
through a roller coaster journeyit needs to be about 30, 35
minutes and um, you have to useat least one sound bite from
every person.
Go, and I can't imagine thenightmare you know, I'm going
through because I have a story,but to tell an editor like, and
then I was like oh, by the waythis needs to be done by friday

(01:27:38):
so the client can see it,because it needs to be played
live at the event on saturday.
That was an experience, shedidn't sleep for three days and
I was like, and you know, as adirector and producer.
I'm like I want to see cuts, butwe don't have time you know,
right, it's three days.
I'm like what if on friday thisis completely different?

(01:27:59):
than the story that I made butanyway, it was a nightmare so I
can't imagine.
That process and I would love tohave her on podcast one day,
but like talk about it becauseshe went straight.
Imagine that process and Iwould love to have her on
podcast one day, but like talkabout it because she went
straight on three days and I'mgoing through this nightmare in
my brain.

I'm like you have to have like a different
sensitivity to footage yeah, andbecause footage is footage and
it could get very boring andthen if you're like those kind
of like action um orientededitor, you might not find
anything that you that pick yourattention, but you rather like

(01:28:35):
for me, one hour, 10 minutes ofinterview.
That was like we sat a time forit, like I was like the main
people max 120.
And the other 45, 50.
Yeah, like the one who like getemotional and need a break, an

(01:28:56):
hour mark Each hour for me toprocess, to make.
So I had an AD.
So the AD will keep all thenotes, all the time codes and I
love that so much.

it was the first time I was like yes, yeah,
because, like you said, that's alot of footage to go through
and find bites, and so much soevery hour will take eight hours
of

digestion, really, because, of course, the
hour you can listen to it like apodcast, uh.
But then for me it's like Ilike to mark my timeline and do
all question answer hint, and soI'll have every single one of
them completely marked bydifferent colors, which is

(01:29:49):
different topics, emotions andthings like that.
So not only like totally likeanalyzing what they said, but
also OK, now this player isgoing to be main character or
not, be main character or not.

(01:30:10):
And something that really isfunny about, um, that
documentary is that we didn'thave like a main character until
the very end.
Uh, we didn't have a narrativedriver and I that was driving me
crazy because you're likefilming all this and you don't
know exactly.
So I was like how, because itcould be the kind that is
informative.
This happened, you know, likewhen it's like event sharing,

(01:30:31):
and I was like, yeah, cool, butI would love to have somebody
that takes us through thejourney.
And that person didn't show uptill like the last thing and it
was one of the last actualinterviews that I directed um,
actual interviews that Idirected and when she, when we

(01:30:51):
were done with her, I was likewhoa, now I know how to put the
story together because throughher, we saw, from the first
consultancy of like how, likewhen she want to get the tattoo,
all the way to the footage ofgetting the tattoo done.

Oh my goodness, that is the story.
Right there, right there.

And, like the rest of the girls that you know,
volunteered.
This wasn't an official cast.
It's like whoever wants toshare the story were tattooed
already, so we only have thisone that was about to get a
tattoo and that's I think veryimportant to show exactly so it
was very important because wecan hear oh yeah, this is good,

(01:31:35):
this is good, this is good, welove it, we love it.
But when you see somebody goingthrough it, like yeah and how
and she had like very subtleemotions.
I feel like there was moreemotional other stories, but
that also was good, because Iwanted um less of it linger in

(01:31:59):
suffering and more of uh can dothis.
And she is literally like sostrong.
She's like, yeah, I'll do this,yeah, yeah.
Well, I, I really want to flythis week, but I still have some
other like treatment to getdone and I'm like, wow, like she
did all this so brave, so likethere's nothing that I learned a

(01:32:24):
lot from her and also it wasperfect to fit her as our
narrative driver, which is funnybecause, like it wasn't planned
from first day wow, that is socool and I want to switch gears.

Talk about what we started in the beginning the,
the studio yes, oh my goodness,that's the other big thing you
did, yeah, so I've talked tomanuel about it.
What you know, I, like all ofus filmmakers, I've been going
for years.
It would be nice to have astudio, but then I ran the um.
You know, at least for me, theeconomics of it.
It just never seemed to work.
But you guys went out there outof nowhere, just built it yeah

(01:33:01):
so it's you, emmanuel, and youhave another business partner
all venezuelan so I guess thatwas the key to getting it done
you know uh, which was why I wasnot invited too bad.
Um so anyway, but no, no, it'sgood.
I'm so happy for you guys.
I went there I literally stolefor my space was.
I was building it like I wastalking to you.
I I you weren't there, butemmanuel was I was like, okay,

(01:33:24):
so my space is mostly done I'm.
I want to come see your spacefinally.
And I went there and I was like, oh, that'd be nice oh, I need
a makeup mirror oh, I need acouch.

I literally kind of that was kind of like
the point of doing the um andbuilding the studio content
because of that you know, like,how useful is to like.
Okay, I'm almost done with mine.
It will just spark something inyou.
Exactly right, we're all justagain copying of each other.

I mean, uh, I was blazing enough to literally ask
for links I was like just sendme the links anyway, but tell me
, talk me through, because youknow obviously, like I know what
you guys did, but like what wasgoing through or what was that
conversation like initially,before you've done it right
where you guys did, but likewhat was going through or what
was that conversation likeinitially, before you've done it
right where you guys it was thecoolest thing because, well, I
mean, I talk to emmanuel dailybasis, um, and you know, at some

(01:34:18):
point we will gather in somecoffee shop we love create, uh,
and then we will just sit thereand talk about this imaginary
studio we will have in thefuture and all the different
ideas that we will do, insteadof getting the done job and then
they were done, but I'll speakin english or spanish, english,

(01:34:38):
english, yeah, yeah um, so,anyway, we're talking about this
idea, blah, blah, blah, but itwas always something that we
will just fantasize about andit's like, okay, yeah, we'll
talk about this, and then howare we gonna do business this
month?

I have this technique, I have that and
whatever, and.
But um, we had this gigtogether, we were hired
separately, but we were like hey, you're going to that gig
tomorrow, yeah, me too.
I'm like oh snap cool and welove it.
And so we were, I think, inGaylord Palm Just for a
corporate thing, and it was theslowest shift that we've ever

(01:35:16):
done together.
I don't know why.
It was something about thewhole convention not having a
good drive of people doing theinterviews that we were supposed
to be doing, and it was justeight hours so what was his role
?

was he the dp?
And what were you hired for?

I think for that one I might have been
gaffing okay and um justassisting a production assistant
and for him assistantproduction assistant and for him
uh, camera up camera.

Yeah, so he's camera up you're gaffing in pa
and you guys were hiredseparately even though you're
friends, yeah show up and it's aboring day it's a boring day,
we're just.

It's cold as hell and I'm like okay in
orlando we don't get cold daysthat often no, but it's super
cold because of the inside ofthe hotel and when you, when
you're like in a corporate gig,yeah, as long as you're walking,
it's all good, but if you'resitting it's so cold, if you're
like camera up in a bigconvention, you're like you need

(01:36:23):
sweaters literally.
So we were just there talkingand he's like hey, val, I found
this place, but they're like allmysterious and we were like
just with a whole like crew, so.
But we just sat there andstarted talking about how he
found out about Alexa Mill 50.
And he showed me the floor plan, he showed me the workspace.

(01:36:44):
We started talking about theliving workspaces and he's like
I don't know you, but I'mobsessed about this and I'm like
, by the time we're four hoursin, we're like we were already
thinking where we're gonna putstuff and where, and this is the
price, how do we manage?
blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, but the end ofthe the day I'm like, okay, okay

(01:37:07):
, this is a yes from me, I'mgonna partner with you and we're
gonna go see the apartmentsthis week.
And it was such a fast phasehow we took all the decisions
and at some point then I waslike, well, there's going to be
the headquarters of emma filmsand, um, hazelnut production.

(01:37:30):
And since I do have a partner,uh, which is mariana, I'm like,
well, if it's going to behazelnut, can we have mariana?
Mariana, it's hybrid.
She, she's not ever like thereall the time, but she totally
will have a good use of thisspace.
And then it was kind of more ofa you know executive.

(01:37:54):
Yeah, it was like you know what?
Yeah, that that works foreverything.
Three ways the rent, yeah,which?

say which would help, because that's why I was
like when I was looking at it Iwas like the economics never
work, but if you can split itthree ways it makes way more
sense to have a creative spacePlus you guys work together a
lot of times anyway.

Might as well, just hang out together Exactly.

Save the coffee shop money.

Literally like the coffee.
Oh, my God, we went to and thatwas also like a bigger thing.
I like to think that lifeprepares you to the next step
without you thinking about it.
Because of the documentary andthe projects I was doing, I was,
like, so eager to use studiosand tell my clients, let's use

(01:38:39):
studios, studios, studios,studios.
And because it looks better,it's going to you know anyway.
And so by the time we had theopportunity to open studio,
we've been in so many studios,we've been using studios, we
know the the positive and thenegative of other studios we've
been and we're like, yeah, Ithink can do this, and it was

(01:39:00):
just being determined to likethen having an empty space and
building something out of it.

So I think you guys did great for, for
obviously it's not like a hugestudio but, for the size.
That you have you guys veryefficiently laid out.
You know there's a psych wall,multiple backgrounds, makeup
station, right, it's a place forclients to hang out.
So I think overall you guysvery efficiently built it in a
very usable way.
Plus there's three desks there.

You can all work exactly I was very
surprised and happy for you guys, because I'm like this is such
a cool space and you've beenusing it.

You've been doing photo shoots there.
You put it up on peer space youknow, so I actually finished.

I finished the documentary editing the
documentary in the empty studiobecause, like I was so happy to
finally like what we talkedearlier to separate work and
life.
Yeah, uh, I've been like frommy freelancer years before, and
emmanuel as well.
We, we were working from ourrooms yeah meaning we face the

(01:40:03):
computer from the bed, andthat's crazy because like
sometime is cool, like workingfrom home, like just going out
for shoots.
It was good and the the stagewas nice for me.
But then I'm like I cannot havea break and like I'm not
feeling well.
so first thing when I got theplace, I'm like boom took

(01:40:27):
everything that it has to dowith my office in the space and
then I start re-adapting tohaving a workspace and having
like a kind of like a schedule,like hours.
I'm back to having like anoffice hour type of thing and
I'm happy.
Do you like that?

Yeah, Because, see , that was my thing.
Now, to be real, I don't know Iwill be that good if I'll have
office hours, but my whole thingwas genuinely like having done
like you.
You know, your personal spaceis your personal space.
But when?
your personal space becomes yourworkspace, I feel like you can
never enjoy your personal spaceanymore.
Yeah, it's like you're all,because you know at least for me

(01:41:09):
, and and I want to know yourperspective in this you know
what we're doing is creative andtechnical and business thinking
.
So this is the space where I'msitting and doing that.
I can't now go lay down andchill and watch a movie, I don't
know, I, I just can't neitherand I had to do that for years.
So when I finally did this, youknow, like I said, my entire

(01:41:29):
rule was just this as long as Ican separate it, I want no video
production equipment on thisside.
Right, if I cross this barrier,I'm working and if I'm this
barrier, I am hanging out,chilling whatever you know, or
maybe emails I'm not, I'm nottaking.
If I'm this barrier, I amhanging out, chilling whatever
you know, or maybe emails I'mnot.
I'm not taking emails, but youwhat I mean?
Like there's no actual editingor or production or anything, or

(01:41:50):
equipment prep or camera prephappening on that side and I've
only had this space for a littlebit, but it's been game changer
so so has this like you, yeah,and especially with the biggest
project, to get it done, I wasstruggling.

Waking up in my room opening Premiere start,
you know, like shifting thingsaround and then having a client
calling me and then a meeting,and then I'll be like, well,
then I'll keep editing after,and then I was not getting
things done.
Have a food meal yeah, becauseat the end of the day you time

(01:42:32):
gets like a little prioritizedwith like the things that you
gotta get done, and then you'reat home and then it's like, okay
, let's make some food and thenlet's do this, and and then I
was like, okay, I'm not gettingstuff done.
And then as soon as I changethat, I know that I'm leaving my
house by by 9, 10, and then Iprobably won't be back until 7,

(01:42:54):
and but in the meantime my hoursworking are gonna be super, um,
like proactive, because at theend I get back and I don't have
my main computer there.
So if I'm, I don't have that,because that's the practical
part of it.
It's like, well, I didn't getthis done, but my computer's in
the in house and and I'll get itdone as soon as I get there.

(01:43:17):
But then it's night and youdon't want to do that um.
So yeah, it kind of separatedfor me in my mind and then now I
have priorities like gettinghome and maybe working out or
just like relaxing, no openingit, like like literally shutting
down my brain, and I thinkthat's super healthy, that's so
good, I'm so happy for you, Ithink, if anyone can learn

(01:43:38):
anything from today's podcast isthat and the and the, and I
love the part that you guys didbecause to me, obviously you
build a great studio, you.

You have an hour work-life balance, both you and
emmanuel, and, I'm guessing,your third partner that's the
person I don't know yet, so yeah, I don't want to speak for them
, um, but here's, like I said,the coolest thing anyone can do.
This, because here's what youguys did, like let's break it
down and I love it.
Three friends get together, geta space, you guys split rent
and then it makes it financiallyviable Because now you can do

(01:44:11):
your individual things.

Exactly.

You're doing your thing, mano's doing his thing,
your third partner is doingtheir own thing.
You're running your eachindividual production company,
but then now you're running youreach individual production
company, but then now you'rerunning companies together right
so now you can not onlycollaborate with each other,
pass on work or bring each other, but then you can keep doing
your own thing and it only costsyou one third the space would

(01:44:34):
have, which may not havefinancially worked for either
one of you, but together itworks so I'm like why can't
three people listening to?
this or friends go together andlook at the space, build a
studio, have a, have a space tojust you know, be productive and
then keep having that because,like you said, that was been my
biggest nightmare.
It's like not having any eversince I started this company.

(01:44:56):
I had no work-life balance upuntil a few months ago, when I
get the space done and and itwas a game changer but took me
six years.
If somebody could skip that byyou, because you know I didn't
have, I didn't think of thatright, I didn't go.
Oh, let me call two otherfilmmakers and do it together
three, uh, genuinely so.

You guys, I think, are an inspiration for
other people because, like theycan do that now, they can be
productive from day one exactly,and hopefully you'll get more
business yeah, and and andthinking of yourself, of like,
let me grow in my niche or myskill, and all that is something
you plan in the future.

(01:45:35):
And then you have to rely onthe people that is around you,
and I feel like we have in ourhands such a good material to
grow in so many different ways,and I love to think that, even
from media production I stick tomedia production it's just
because everything that wementioned today is media

(01:45:57):
production.
And so people are like, oh, butthat is a very big concept.
And then no, because you havemore and more options and I feel
like having a place does thesame role, which is well.
We are now thinking well, let'stry a little bit of events and

(01:46:19):
let's try a little bit ofeducation.
A little bit of events andlet's try a little bit of
education.
We start hazing an academywhere we're gonna bring an
instructor to talk about a topicthey're proficient.

You're already like expanding your portfolio
things that you can exactly andthings that you know.

Education is not a skill set.
Uh, gaffer has right, but then,through the medium and through
the other plans you've beendoing, I think having a Gaffer
class will be very useful forother people.
I would love to have youtalking about business and
business side of the thingthat's exactly what I love to do

(01:46:55):
.

Funny enough, you say that I'm like we need more
episodes with you because webarely even started, have?
We haven't even started talkingbusiness and it's already like
almost two hours.
That's crazy, right, wow sobefore we, uh, you know, because
unfortunately, well, notfortunately I wanted to talk to
you about.
We'll be back yeah, but likebefore we go, I do want to talk
business with you yes so,because we both love business,

(01:47:19):
and I think that's the key of it.
How are you finding so?
Now, right, obviously, you havethis experience, you have this
studio, you have everything.
How are clients finding you?
Or how are you finding clients,which is the way, more common
way, and what's your process?

Well.
So at the moment we've beenvery base, local.
That both is people referenceprior work we've done, but it's
been like two years since Ipartnered up with Mariana.
We decided to bring our skillsall together in a package and

(01:48:06):
start naming it like brandingaudiovisual branding.
So, from small business tosmall business, we've been
getting other people that juststarted or they want just to
refresh their company name ortheir logo and things like that,
and so we work in partnershipto do all the branding.

So what does she do?
Again, she?

is a graphic designer and a brand specialist.
Oh, I see, so you're that audiovideo, yeah?

And she's doing branding.

And oh, this is so cool.

I got to talk to her too.

Yeah.

At some point, maybe season two, it'd be so
cool.
So this talk to her too.
Yeah, at some point, maybeseason two, it'd be so cool.
So this is incredible, yeah,and and that's what I'm saying.
It's about partnering withpeople who have different skill
set, right, so you two use yourunique skill set.
Brought it together and nowyour audio visual branding
exactly that's pretty cool.
What type of businesses are youtargeting?

any specific industries I love products just
because it can get so nice andcreative.
But we're dealing with services.
You know we try to tap in alittle bit of like all the
branding of real estates and youknow, from their logos to their
headshots and maybe their pieceof content in that side.

(01:49:19):
But I think last year was whenwe start making sense, because
the year before was me first ofall trying to get mariana to
partner with me and then, second, explain this from from my
perspective.
Uh, a lot of people don't getreally what uh audio, uh visual
branding is, uh, and then youreally need it for, like,

(01:49:42):
consistency in your outlet, soit's very important to have all
the branding throughout match.

Yeah, now here's the the question people want to
know.
Partnering with people is veryhard.
Yeah, business partner, a lotof businesses fail just because
the partnership fails so how didyou a have that conversation
and what is the split?
Is it like 50 50?

yeah, 50, 50.
Uh, we work, uh, based onproject, project base, so, um,
and also we are happy to getother people involved, depending
of the budget.
We are not gonna, you know,beat so big and get like all
messed up for that um.
But yeah, if it's somethingthat is only branding, yeah, um,

(01:50:24):
she'll take care.
That's her share, and then wemight have, uh, just a 30 20
percent.
That goes to hasten it forother things in general, like
okay you know like things.

That is the wrench in the thing.
Let's, uh, let's get.
The other thing I know is ingraphic design.
All you need is a computer,maybe a color calibrated screen,
but in video you need lightscameras so it's more expensive.
So, does that affect the splitin any way?
Because what you're doing, yourpart of it, is more expensive
and costs are higher than whatshe's doing.

(01:50:59):
So, with the 50-50 split, howdo you make that work.

Well, because the 50-50 always comes from our
like the percentage we set forjust hasten it.
But if she's designingsomething and we quote it.
So that's another thing that wedo a little bit differently.
We work as a consultancy.
So somebody comes and needs ohI need a logo, I need a headshot

(01:51:24):
, I need this and I need awebsite, and then we figure out
budget quotes and everythingelse.
So quotes, that has to do onlywith branding, depending on the
special needs.
She will take care of that andthen we have our percentage.

That goes for both of us, but it's not 50-50 then
no, that's not it, because itmakes sense she's doing it.

Then for me, like if I'm filming, she can
help maybe.

How do you split that then, with the graphic
design?
The first one Does she takelike 80%, you said, and then the
hazelnut gets 20% and is it thesame for video If you're
primarily just doing video then,80 and then 20 goes to hazelnut
.
Is that how it is?

Yeah, so not really, because, hear me out,
for example, we have a biggerproject and we have a part that
is graphic design, a part thatis video production, a part that
is photography, and I'm notgoing to take care of the video,
but I'm going to hire somebody,I'm going to pay whatever the
person tells me that it is andI'm going to include it in my

(01:52:28):
thing, and we all have a littlebit for our percentage, which is
a hasten of percentage.
But at the beginning, likestarting off, it was like we
want to have the clientregardless.
So, um, probably she will dosome work that have nothing to
do with and have no money to getfrom it, but, uh, it's the

(01:52:50):
client that we we're sharingreally.
So if I'm bringing somebodyelse, depending on what the
client already talked to me, ifI'm bringing a dp that covers up
everything they ask for, that'swhat you get like, especially
like, especially when I ask youwhich one is production?
yeah, exactly so, just like atypical agency exactly so in in

(01:53:11):
that case, I feel like, uh, I Ilove to reward the people that I
bring on, like honoring theirvalue, uh, more than me putting
a value on it, uh unless, yeah,I mean, it's like I'm hiring you
you.
How much is your rate?
Is this?
okay, that's what you get paidand we are both happy, right

(01:53:32):
exactly uh, but on my side Iwill have to make sure if we
even bring in mariana for justdesigning assets, her part will
be there too, Meaning in yourquote how much it is to design
all the lower thirds and howmuch is to do the little quick
opening or the logo for theproduction, and then her money

(01:53:55):
will be involved in the budget.

So far it's like that because we're we don't have
other employees under us uh,and we don't have to, yeah, and
then you bring in outsidecontractors as needed yeah,
that's probably the treatment.
I'm glad you figured it outbecause, uh, like I said, tell
people partnerships are greatyeah two people can do things
yeah, better than one, but then,at the same time, you need to
define all these things nowdon't do handshake agreements,

(01:54:24):
because that's what I've seen somany friends or partnerships
fail because they didn't havethis communication, like you did
, yeah, and figure out exactlyhow you're gonna do the splits
when things you know because Iwas like, if you partner with a
graphic designer, video costsare higher.
You gotta have all those thingsuh, you know calculated in there
, but that's pretty cool.
What type of rates are youtrying to aim for, like?

(01:54:46):
Is there like an averageproject price that you guys aim
for?
Yeah, you know, smallbusinesses go we can't afford
exactly, so what's?

the price range we, we always try to push
there well, especially if youare like super new, just maybe
register your company and that'sall you got.
We will like offer like a fullbranding um package which is
what logo, all the brandguidelines, all the brand, brand

(01:55:19):
guidelines, the, the use of thebrand, all the values and all
the copyright, the verbalidentity and things like that,
and, of course, the first personthat we literally make them
understand and pay.
It was a price that we willnever touch again.

So what is the price you charge now?

so, uh, for the full branding 1200s is like,
um, the best we can do.
But since we consult andthey're like oh no, but we have
our verbal identity because we,we plan for this copyright, then
we'll move around things likethat and how do you charge for
consultancy?

do you charge by the hour or?
What's their minimum hours.
So what's the minimum ratepeople can pay to consult with
you guys?

I think, uh, first thing, with when you let
us know that we are going to behired, for sure, the consultancy
part is included, okay, but ifyou're just asking me questions
and not knowing if you're gonnareally gonna do that, I said
like a meeting hour, of course,I'm not like hour done, done, uh

(01:56:34):
, because so you're charging forthe meeting, that's the
consultation, and what is therate?
obviously I get it, you're notgonna be like 16 minutes done
yeah it's by the hour mostlikely right yeah, I'll like,
I'll just try not to overkillmyself and be like, okay, let's,
let's talk for as much as wecan for a hundred dollars, and
that's pretty fair, and then forsomebody to have that

(01:56:55):
conversation.
That's where you're trying tohelp them figure out their
identity exactly all that, andthen you can obviously do logo
and yeah, and it's so funnybecause, like, it's really
pretty much like uh, uh, I don'tknow psychologist or I don't
know, not a psychologist, but itreally like a consultant in any
kind of your life is like sowhat is your idea, what is your

(01:57:17):
goals, what is your life lookinglike, what is your mentality?
So it's like a conversationthat gets really, really dense
and long.
So I like to at least have thatto like hey let's let's stop
this here.
But sometimes I've done that forfree and I'm then I'm like, oh,
I gave out all these ideas forfree, but that's what happens,
right, with creative people.

They were going to do it anyway, so, but we have
to learn that it's a businessand do it right, and then on the
video side.
So you're still doing videowhat's the primary way you
directly work with clients?
Are you like a videographer?
What do you?

present yourself as a videographer what
people expect you to callyourself exactly, and then what?

rates are you?
Are you trying to charge by theday rate?
Are you trying to charge for awhole project?

Yeah, project based.

So what's the average rate that you do
projects?
And let's say 2024 last year,last year, what were you trying
to say?

Let's say a package of X amount of reels, x
amount of photos, content readyto go, no posting and doing the
marketing which we're gonnastart doing it from this year on
, but just a package like that.
It could be maybe one day offilming, like five hour filming,

(01:58:34):
and then post production andeverything that involves it,
between 600, 700 pushing it,because they would be like, oh
that's a little expensive, yeah,but then you know, that's low,
that's low because I have to bea full-on DP videographer
everything else yeah, and edittoo.

So basically you're doing 600 to 700 day and
that's just half a day, let'ssay shooting and then maybe
editing the rest of the day yeah, and then you're giving them
reels and photos or whateverright and and that's uh, that's
pretty great right for a smallbusiness who's starting out and
trying to, you know, get thecontent that they need and this
is more social content.

Did you do anything that was different than
social content, or that's whereyou think most, I think that's
where my clients really sat inand also photography, headshots
and things that showcase theirbusiness and some portion.
I like to have like thatvariation of things, cause we

(01:59:36):
looked at them social, you know,look from the beginning and be
like like, yeah, you might needthis kind of thing and stuff
like that.
So what I do is like, since Iknow the budget already, I just
come with all the ideas freshand I just utilize the five

(01:59:57):
hours to get done all thedifferent ideas so it's not like
reels on average.

Are you trying to get done in that five hours?

um, between like, so it would be monthly,
say three week type of thing.
So we're looking at 10, 12.
That yeah, yeah, okay, yeah no,that's pretty good.

I mean, I think the smart move that's a very
good rate.
You can definitely get a lot ofthe small businesses.
Are you trying to do retainers?

because then you can do for so many months
right yeah, retainer, or you'vedone it one time each I'm.
I have only one retainer.
Okay, yeah, and do they?

pay that like every month yeah, there'll be
how many months do you do theretainer for?

uh, we do like four month is like kind of like
the first line where you cancontinue yourself or keep doing
this or change strategy, maybe.
Uh, I think like four minute.
Uh, four month mark is kind ofyou already know what you deal

(02:00:59):
with, you know.
But we also have like thingsthat are less formal, but we
just want to keep their socialmedia active.
So we just do small little andyou know clips and things like
that and I just curate a lot ofthe what those pages will have.

Oh my goodness we could so talk.
What's crazy is our time is up,even though, and it's time to
wrap things up, and it's socrazy we just got into so, so I
know we could talk two morehours about this, so I can't
wait to bring you back in seasontwo.
I would love to continue andtalk more in this business.
I I really want to talk aboutyour documentary, so that's why
we spent so much time on itbecause I think it's so great,

(02:01:42):
um.
But on the other side, I'm sohappy that you have your
production company, you haveyour studio.
You guys are killing.
It sounds like you've got yourbusiness strategy figured out
with the target, any audiencethat you are targeting.
I would like to say I'd love togo more deep into it maybe next
time, but before we go, anyother stories you want to tell
anything else you know you cantell quickly.

(02:02:03):
I don't know, you know uh Imean, it's been uh well.

First, I'm super glad to be here, always
talking to you.
It's like amazing.
And you know, knowing that whatyou really want to do with the
community is generally share ourbrains, I felt very comfortable
to share mine.

No, that's the entire plan of this is to share
and help, because I want youknow, you to go watch all the
episodes and maybe be able toimply you know, put some things
in your brain and the same goeswith everyone.
It doesn't matter the skilllevel you are.
You can always learn somethingfrom someone now I didn't
promise two hours of fulleducation for everyone.
We're just chatting.

(02:02:45):
I've noticed that in the otherepisodes, like nuggets thrown at
10 minutes somebody saidsomething gold and then you know
10 minutes of bs we're justhaving fun we're just filmmakers
having a conversation and, likeI said, we would have done this
anyway might as well record it,so I'm so happy that you came
and took a time because I knowyou're busy, you're editing,
you're filming, you're running aproduction company in a studio

(02:03:07):
and, um, like I said, we got tocontinue having more of these
conversations.
Lastly, before we go, do youwant to tell people your
instagram or where?

can they follow?
You well, I highly encourageyou to follow my personal page,
which is just delightfulcreativity and nothing really
personal, which isV-A-L-H-E-L-C-C-S-P.
That's my user and Instagram.

(02:03:37):
And then please go and followHazenet Production.
It's Hazenut Production.
That's Hazel, as in H-A-Z-E-Lright, hazel, because we're nuts
, you know that's why Do youhave a hazel eye or something.

How'd you pick hazel?

Hazel, it just comes from a whole different
that could be an episode thatwas my sister and I.

You know I haveelnut eyes so I didn't know.
It's like that.

Yeah, no my eyes are no hazel, but hazelnut
is the best ingredient in everysingle thing ever.

Oh, I love.
Uh, what is it?
Ferrero roches?
Oh my god, I think they have umhazelnut in the middle right
and that's even one of our likeverbal identity it was like
where are the ingredients you'remissing?

we're like oh, that's, that's the little thing
, so nutella whatever shehazelnut, that production,
that's our um instagram.
And then I will say don't missthe opportunity of checking the
studio 124.
Um, that is the three, thethree of uh my accounts that I I

(02:04:44):
spent a lot of time.

Plug everything, plug everything.
Um no, but, thank you, like Isaid, again coming, can't wait
to continue this conversationand I'm so excited about this
year.
I think we're gonna actuallycollaborate.
Like I told you, I think, uh,let's do productions together,
let's raise the bar and let'skill it.

Yes, hell yeah , awesome, thank you.
Let's do productions together.

Let's raise the bar and let's kill it.
Yes, hell, yeah, awesome.
Thank you, val.

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