September 30, 2025 • 50 mins
Step behind the camera with Ghitta Larsen, an accomplished cinematographer and Steadicam operator, as she shares her journey through the world of film, movement, and storytelling. In this exclusive interview, Ghitta opens up about her path into cinematography, the craft of Steadicam operation, and what it takes to create visually powerful, emotionally resonant images on screen. 🎥 From on-set challenges to creative breakthroughs, Ghitta discusses:
📍 Keywords:Cinematography, Steadicam Operator, Film Industry, Visual Storytelling, Filmmaking Podcast, Camera Movement, Behind the Scenes, Ghitta Larsen Interview, Women in Film, Cinematographer Tips
Cinematographer and steadicam operator Ghitta Larsen whose credits include The Shop, My Kind of People, 90 Day Fiance, Meek. Ghitta was born in Sonoma, CA in 1994. She has a younger brother Anthony who is a jazz musician. Her mother Sylvia, an architect, constantly encouraged Ghitta to pursue her talents in a variety of sports. A challenge that Ghitta took seriously which resulted in her becoming a competitive swimmer at age nine. From there she discovered water polo and, in her words, became obsessed with the sport, playing for the Central Coast ODP team at Sonoma Valley High School and then Division 1 in Southern California during college at Cal State Northridge, which led to joining the Olympic Development Program. When she moved to New York Ghitta explored weightlifting and became competitive. She says she still has unfinished business in this arena but for now she is into Cross Fit, which also helps her core strength for camera work. During her sports career Ghitta studied film, graduating from the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor’s Degree in Film & TV. in 2016. Her first job combined her love of filming with the sport of cross fit and since then she has widened her aperture to include music videos, shorts and TV. She enjoys thought provoking genres, including horror movies and has ambitions to explore underwater photography too, which would combine her love for swimming. Currently she is spending most of her time as a camera operator and as a DP. Ghitta lives in New York with her partner Rusmaldo Faccio.
Ghitta’s links:
https://www.ghittalarsen.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ghitta.larsen
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12820074/
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
Follow @theaartpodcast on Instagram
AART on Facebook
Email: theaartpodcast@gmail.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.
- Her evolution as a female cinematographer in a fast-paced industry
- How Steadicam techniques bring energy and emotion to every frame
- The collaboration between directors, DPs, and camera crews
- Her insights on visual storytelling, lighting, and camera movement
- Tips for aspiring filmmakers looking to break into the industry
📍 Keywords:Cinematography, Steadicam Operator, Film Industry, Visual Storytelling, Filmmaking Podcast, Camera Movement, Behind the Scenes, Ghitta Larsen Interview, Women in Film, Cinematographer Tips
Cinematographer and steadicam operator Ghitta Larsen whose credits include The Shop, My Kind of People, 90 Day Fiance, Meek. Ghitta was born in Sonoma, CA in 1994. She has a younger brother Anthony who is a jazz musician. Her mother Sylvia, an architect, constantly encouraged Ghitta to pursue her talents in a variety of sports. A challenge that Ghitta took seriously which resulted in her becoming a competitive swimmer at age nine. From there she discovered water polo and, in her words, became obsessed with the sport, playing for the Central Coast ODP team at Sonoma Valley High School and then Division 1 in Southern California during college at Cal State Northridge, which led to joining the Olympic Development Program. When she moved to New York Ghitta explored weightlifting and became competitive. She says she still has unfinished business in this arena but for now she is into Cross Fit, which also helps her core strength for camera work. During her sports career Ghitta studied film, graduating from the New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor’s Degree in Film & TV. in 2016. Her first job combined her love of filming with the sport of cross fit and since then she has widened her aperture to include music videos, shorts and TV. She enjoys thought provoking genres, including horror movies and has ambitions to explore underwater photography too, which would combine her love for swimming. Currently she is spending most of her time as a camera operator and as a DP. Ghitta lives in New York with her partner Rusmaldo Faccio.
Ghitta’s links:
https://www.ghittalarsen.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ghitta.larsen
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12820074/
Host: Chris Stafford
Produced by Hollowell Studios
Follow @theaartpodcast on Instagram
AART on Facebook
Email: theaartpodcast@gmail.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/women-unscripted--4769409/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Gita Larson, and I'm a cinematographer and steadycam operator.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hello, you're listening to Art, the podcast where we get
up close and personal as we get to know women
from around the world of visual arts. I'm Chris Stafford
and this is season three, episode twenty. My guest this
week is the cinematographer and steadicam operator Gita Larson, whose
(00:29):
credits include The Shop, My Kind of People, ninety Day Fiance,
and Meek. Gita was born in Sonoma, California, in nineteen
ninety four. She has a younger brother, Anthony, who is
a jazz musician. Her mother, Sylvia, who is an architect,
constantly encouraged Geta to pursue her talents in a variety
(00:51):
of sports, a challenge that Geita took seriously, which resulted
in her becoming a competitive swimmer at the age of nine.
From there, she discovered water polo and in her words,
became obsessed with the sport, playing for the Central Coast
odp team at Sonoma Valley High School and then Division
(01:12):
one in Southern California during college at cal State Northridge,
which led to joining the Olympic Development Program when she
moved to New York, Guita explored weightlifting and also became
competitive in that sport. She says she still has unfinished
business in this arena, but for now she is into CrossFit,
(01:34):
which also helps her core strength for camera work. During
her sports career, Geta studied film, graduating from the New
York University's Tish School of the Arts with a bachelor's
degree in Film and TV in twenty sixteen. Her first
job combined her love of filming with the sport of CrossFit,
(01:54):
and since then she has widened her aperture to include
music videos, shorts, and she enjoys thought provoking genres, including
horror movies, and has ambitions to explore underwater photography too,
which would combine her love for swimming. Apparrently, she is
spending most of her time as a camera operator and
(02:15):
does a DP. Gita lives in New York with her
partner of Smile d'facho. Gita. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yes, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Is this your first podcast or are you pro?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Now? I would qualify this as the first podcast, but
I actually have done one other for a friend of mine,
but this was almost a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Okay, so you do listen to podcasts though when you're
driving you told.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Me, yeah, a little bit. I am more of a
music person though.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Ah yeah, you send me your playlist and that looks
super interesting. Are you gonna tell me you're a musician
as well?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
No, that's what's actually very funny about me and my
sibling brother. He's the audio and I'm purely visual. We
both can't do either the other thing your very musical family. No,
it's interesting because my brother picked up jazz music at
(03:16):
a very young age when we were in elementary school.
So for as long as I can remember, he was
playing the saxophone in his room almost six eight hours
a day as much as he could. So there was
that element, but outside of him, that was it.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
He's a professional, Miss Anthony. Yes, but you didn't pick
that up. That wasn't the root for you.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
No. My trajectory when I was younger, I was very
into sports. I was like the athlete of the family
and he was the hyper intelligent musician.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
So what sports did you play?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So I grew up being a swimmer. I started competitively
swimming at around the age of eight or nine, and
it was kind of a like I hit the water
and I was very good. And my mother was always
someone who was very uh, very like supportive of anything
(04:14):
we wanted to do. That's why for music, he when
he wanted to play music, she immediately bought him an instrument.
And when I got into swimming, she immediately put me
on a competitive team. She was very supportive of anything
we wanted to try. And once I got intovolved with swimming,
I basically swam through middle school and I was pretty good.
(04:35):
But then I found water polo and that became my
main sport as when I was younger.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Water polo, Yeah, let's close an Olympic sport. So what
was it the pale to you about combining you know,
a team event with swimming, you know, swimming skills. I
mean that's everything right and very fast paced.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, I uh, well, I I'm a rather big person.
I'm five. By the time I was in elementary school,
not elementary school, let's say seventh eighth grade, I was
probably already five to ten and weighing in around two
hundred pounds and swimming. I was very good in the water,
but I was never the fastest. I was always the strongest,
(05:17):
and so when I found water polo, as a sport.
I just found like it felt like my niche, that
I was strong and good in the water, and it
quickly became something I was truly obsessed with for most
of my youth.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Really, and did you think of the Olympics as a goal? Oh?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, actually, I mean I was on the Olympic Development
program when I was younger, so I was playing for
the So the California region is pretty much the home
base of most water polo. It's kind of the hot
spot for any of the Olympians. And I was on
the Central Coast team when I was younger. And I
(05:56):
also played Division one my freshman year college in Los Angeles,
and it was something that I wanted to be the
best at. I was very dedicated. The higher up you go, though,
the more politics that are involved. And I come from
a small town. I didn't come from a town where
larger athletes were usually picked from. And that combined with
(06:22):
realizing that most of the girls in the team needed
and another career in a paying job, I just it
almost didn't seem like I was going to get to
the top and I still needed to have another career path.
And in college is kind of when I made the
decision to go, Okay, I need to focus on a career.
This is not going to be paying my bills.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
But it was a passion though it must have been.
How to step away from it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Oh it was. I will say the year that I
stepped away from playing, it was one of the most
formative and lost feelings I've ever felt. It was like
being plucked out of your universe and like really feeling
(07:06):
like a fish out of water.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah. Well, literally, it isn't now what moment, isn't it.
You often hear this from pro athletes when they do
retire eventually, either through injury or from choice, that it
isn't now what moment because the life has been dedicated
to pro sports. So that must have felt the same
for you, now what?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, No, it really did. I always had an interest
in being an artist in terms of filmmaking and photography.
I was involved in all of those things at the
same time in my academics, and when I decided to stop,
I was like, I'm just gonna go like headfirst into
(07:47):
my career path and filmmaking. But it's not the same
Like when you're an athlete, you practice every day for
hours and it's physical exertion, and so stopping at and
just diving headfirst into film. It almost didn't. It didn't.
It still didn't like scratch that itch. And so I
ended up going into weightlifting, and I became a competitive
(08:12):
weightlifter for many years. And I actually continued weightlifting while
going to film school.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Did you really, Oh, good for you?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah? And so I was competing at the same time. Uh,
and I really stopped competing. The year stop competing was
the twenty nineteen above.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Now, obviously you're fully grown. You talked about being already
five ten when you were in eighth grade. How till
are you now?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I'm around five ten, five eleven that I pretty much
shot up in middle school and that was like my height.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And so, now what do you do because you're, you know,
fully immersed in your profession, where do you get your bus?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I actually go to CrossFit. I really enjoy the environment
there because it is intense and competitive. Everyone's doing the
same workout and you're competing for the fastest time or
the most weightlifted. And even though it's only an hour
and it's with a bunch of people that are not
all all of them professional athletes, it still kind of
(09:14):
gives me that drive and that little ounce of what
I feel like I'm missing from being an athlete.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, that adrenaline Russia.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah. And I think also being physically like capable, Like
I love being working with the study cam because it's
so honestly, because it's so strength and inducing and just
grueling at the same time. It's like it is like
an addiction. It's like you love being like physically active
(09:48):
to the point where when you accomplish it, you just
feel so great afterwards.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah. And of course for study cam, it's your core. No,
it's not just your body in your arms and shoulders,
which you clearly have that up a body strength and core,
and the legs as well in the back. It's a
full body experience, isn't it. That You've got to be
so stable and strong yourself. So I'd imagine everything that
you've done just led you to being a natural SETI
(10:15):
caam operator.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I like to think that. I think it is something
that I actually was truly always interested in. When I
went to film school, they showed me what a steadycam
was and I had just started I had just started
competing in weightlifting, I'd started working in the field and
I was actually competing in strong man as well, and
(10:39):
so both of those things. When I found steady Cam,
I was like, oh, this is something that I would
really love to like fuse my two passions with. But
when I was in school, I mean, steadycam equipment is
extremely expensive, so there was kind of no real route
for me at the time, and I just kind of
had to keep my head down and I kept working
with weightlifting, and it wasn't until a couple of years
(11:03):
ago that I was really able to financially figure out
getting into the field of seticam.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And is it your favorite toy now? That beats everything else? Right,
beats all the weights, beats every only other gear.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, because you get to be an artist at the
same time, which is like magical.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I mean, really is an old body experience, isn't it It? Literally?
I mean in every sense it's an old body experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
The there is a few differences because there's a few
different styles of vests that you can wear that will
allocate the weight across your body a little bit differently.
I actually operate with a back mounted vest which sends
the weight more to my legs versus my lower back,
which I in a kinesiology sense, like a lot more
(11:53):
because you have a lot stronger legs than lower back
muscles exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So that's that's your comfort zone, that's your your happy
place now.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, And I even when we're not shooting, I'm constantly practicing.
I actually have a few people that I practice with
a lot, and that group has really uplifted me into
the community of steadycam operators because I have had so
many hours under the rig without uh before even stepping
(12:24):
on some of the bigger sets that I've been on.
What was the most challenging part of the few, Well,
the barrier to entry into the steadycam world is very expensive,
and I don't like to harp on that a lot,
but at the same time, I think it's really worth
(12:45):
understanding to a lot of people that it is very expensive,
and I think a lot I wish a lot more
people were able to cross that barrier, and I wish
it wasn't so expensive because it is something that I
try and find truly fun and fulfilling, and I just
wish the financial aspect of it wasn't the biggest barrier,
(13:09):
but it really is.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But once you overcome that creatively, what was the most
challenging for you until you found you a proficient at it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well that's interesting because I actually I did a lot
of my own operating, like handheld operating, for years before.
So the most challenging was just being able to physically
operate the machinery. And it wasn't so much even the
physical it's the fine tuning skill of it, because once
(13:39):
you get all that weight on your body, you now
have to delicately dance with this object. So it kind
of combines these two very brute strength to hold it,
but at the same time you're touching it with such
softness and finesse, And I think the softness and finesse
is where that true life. If you're one of the
(14:01):
top Stata com operators, that's where you really shine.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
So this has been obviously your goal. You met your
goals competitively as an athlete and now in the world
of filmmaking. But I want to go back to where
it all began. You were born in nineteen ninety four
in Sonoma, California, so you're a West Coast girl, but
you're now based in New York. I'm wondering what childhood
(14:29):
was like there for you. You mentioned your mom Sylvia who
enabled whatever you and your brother wanted to do. She
was an architect, though well you was all interested in
what she did and what kind of relationship did you
have with her.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
The relationship I have with my mother is absolutely wonderful.
She was always so supportive and she is someone that
has also been through a pretty uh like I don't
want to say hard life, but she's had a lot
of ruggle. She's overcome, and I think that intensity and
(15:03):
how she appropriate intensity and how she approaches life is
kind of how she came to us with all of
her advice. And I think that's what made me so
competitive in sports and even competitive in my own career
path and just ambitious in that sense. But when it
(15:24):
came to and I reference this because the reason I
really had no interest in an architecture was her intensity.
Almost because I would be drawing, maybe like a house
or something for school and she would come over and
be like, this line isn't straight, that you do it
over and I just couldn't. It was like, you know,
(15:46):
it was like the moment I realized it was like
in elementary school that I was like, I think I'm
gonna love what she supports me in as long as
it's not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, it's not interesting how we steer up away from
a parents' profession very often just go take it to
completely different route, which you did. And as a child,
it sounds like you were very sporty even as a
young child.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, that's a funny one too, because my mother put
me in a lot of different sports when I was young,
because I guess I just had a lot of energy,
and so she would. She basically told me later on
in my life that she almost put me in like
a try out of every She put me at soccer,
she put me in basketball, she put me in track.
(16:33):
You put me in like everything, And she was like, yeah,
I was just seeing where your talentslide. So I tried
like all these different sports and swimming is I guess
where I succeeded in that?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Were you interested in anything else at school?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
When I was younger, I was also very interested in
photography and film. This would be the early two thousands,
so film was a lot more harder to come by
in terms of giving a child like a moving picture camera.
So she gave me a thirty five millimeter film still camera.
So for most of my youth, I was really interested
(17:11):
in still photography because that's all I had access to
until I reached high school, where they had like an
avy situation.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Okay, are you a nikon girl? We need to know
which side you full?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Actually, the first camera she gave me was a canon,
and I think from then on I I got a
few other film still cameras, but when I went digital,
the first cameras I had too were canon. I even
still own the five D Mark three the uh okay, yeah,
the old original there.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So you learned to use the dark room. You were
in film where you're starting over, you knew all the basics.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, I was in dark room film photography for years.
I actually when I left college, that was like one
of the first things I missed because I didn't have
access to anything like that.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Do you miss that now? Do you get a chance
to do that just for fun?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I take a lot of film photography just for fun,
but I have it developed just because it is rather
a nuisance to try to do that you're on your own.
I've gone to there's a few labs in Brooklyn that
you can go in by yourself that I've tried once
or twice, But my schedule is just a little too
(18:27):
busy for that. But I definitely still take film photography.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
So when you were child and being in a hold
of these sports, I'm wondering and having a brother which
I'm tinacially older.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Than you, No, he is three years younger.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I'm wondering if you were very competitive, were you competitive
with him where you can always competitive in school and
with your friends.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I yess, yes, I'm a very competitive person. I was
always very competitive. But I will say the difference lies
with my brother because we were so different. He I
grew very big and strong and tall. He grew very tall,
and so his interests he really didn't play sports. He
really sat and played music most of the time. And
(19:10):
so when it came to competitiveness with him, there was
no like physical competitiveness, just because we were in such
different brackets. And I think also we really formed more
of a bond because of like some family trauma that
we came together really well. And like I was always
(19:30):
very bad at math, and he's sort of a savant.
Like he would help me with my math homework, and
he's three years younger, and I would help him with
whatever he was struggling with, whether it was pe or
different like physical tasks, so we kind of complimented each
other versus that still sibling like combativeness.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So let's fust forward. Which then you're coming to the
end of high school and you've got to start thinking
about college. Well, you always destined in your mind to
go into this industry. There was a point at the
end of high school.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I had been very interested in film, but sports was
in the front seat, and I had like a few
months where I would continuously speak to my mother about
how the film industry might not be the best place
because I might not be successful. That was a true
(20:27):
fear of mine at the end of high school. And
sports for me was like I've done this at that
point my whole life. So I was like ready to
just be an athlete. And we had so many talks
for a handful of months about how, you know, I
can continue to do film well after my like physical
peak and sports will have an expiration date, and I did.
(20:56):
I wish I'd listened a little more because I went
headfirst into sports, and my freshman year of college, I
was playing Division one water polo and it kind of
exploded and I realized there's no way for me to
be an artist and do high level athletics at the
same time. And I ultimately ended up choosing to leave
(21:17):
the school I got picked to play for, and I
went home for a year and decided that I needed
to just focus on my film career.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So that was kel Stit Noltridge. Yes, but you had
to go east though to get into film school. How
did you feel about leaving your mom and leaving home?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Well, the at the time, so I had left to
Los Angeles for that first year, and that was hard
because at the time too, my family was having some troubles.
And when that year ended, I decided to stay home
for that year and kind of make sure that the
tumultuous waters were settled. And since my brother is three
(22:05):
years apart, he actually he skipped a grade in elementary
school because he's a very smart kid, and so we
were then two years apart in school. So this point
I had gone to Los Angeles for a year and
came home for a year, and I was transferring for
my third year of college while he was applying for
his freshman year of college. And because he was so
(22:25):
good with music, he basically had a full ride to anywhere.
He decided he wanted to go, and he decided he
wanted to go to New York. And this was a
kid that I've helped along the way in a lot
of ways, and New York wasn't even on my radar,
if I'm being honest, it was I was like, la
all the way. I thought that was where the film
industry was. And then when he got into New York,
(22:45):
it made me nervous. So I had applied to New
York surely because he had also, and when he got
in that made me nervous that he would be going
by himself. And then two months later I got an
acceptance letter and I was like, I guess we're going
to New York.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, that was fun. Then at least you would be together.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Right, Yeah, So that was kind of my goal with that,
because again, Sonoma is a small town and I had
now spent a year in Los Angeles, and then realizing
my brother who was leaving our small town at the
age of seventeen to go to college, I was like,
all right, I think we have to kind of do
this as a team. And I think it worked out
(23:25):
for the best because I think having us there together
was the only way we were going to get through
that pretty harsh culture shock moving to Manhattan for a college.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And what kind of student will you? When did you
throw yourself full in like you did with your sports
when you started college?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yes, pretty much anything I was a part of for
most of my youth was I all learned nothing situation
for me, and I think I just got that from
from being in higher level athletics. It's they pretty much
trained you to be extreme in most aspects of your life.
So I was very very competitive even within film school,
(24:14):
which sounds insane because every time I would even feel
myself feeling like am I the crazy one? Why am
I trying so hard to be better than everyone right now?
Like there was no reason everyone's here making an art
form and I'm like, yeah, no, but mine's gonna be.
And I had I had to like truthfully train myself
out of that thought process for a while. So ambitious, Yeah,
(24:36):
ambitious on steroids is probably.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I hear a high energy as well. Keeter, are you
still very ambitious? Very driven?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah? It is actually something even in like my romantic
relationship now. He has to constantly remind me that everything
I'm doing is fine and I'm in a good because
I'll sit there and worry about how I'm not at
the next level, or I need to be somewhere networking
with somebody to hopefully make sure that I'm on this
(25:11):
set or anything in that regard, and I'll put myself
in like a very like low mental health state of
extreme like anxiety that he has to talk me down from.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
To this day. So, when you were in film school, then,
what did that look like When you look back at
that lifestyle of being in college and how it sets
you up for your career. What are your strongest members.
Tell us a little bit about that, because I think
you know that's so formative those years and influences what
(25:47):
direction we take, how we channel our energy. Then going
from college into a career and finding work, talk a
little bit about what that was like for you, and
of course the anticipation and bushiness about getting into the
industry and making your own passway.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Oh yeah, that's probably one of the roughest time periods
in any young artist life, is that transition. And when
I was at SO I graduated from NYU, I was
the transfer. I went there for my junior and senior year,
and in that time frame, I will say I have
(26:26):
the mixed opinions of NYU, but I will say being
in the city was a great thing for me to
make some connections. But the students that I was working
with were typically from families that had a lot higher
of an income versus my single mother at the time
(26:47):
working as an architect, and I was on a lot
of scholarships and a lot of financial aid. And typically
at the end of most filmmakers senior year, they make
a thesis film and NYU pretty much requires that you
get your own equipment, which was really disheartening for me,
(27:07):
and I did not have any of that kind of
money to do that. So my first step was I'm
going to crew on everybody's film, so I have a
lot more time on set and doing a lot more
tech development. Because I had the understanding that getting out
of film school, I was going to be starting at
the bottom. I was not going to be graduating and
immediately becoming a cinematographer, which I will say is a
(27:31):
lot of kids in school think that that's the case.
So I had my rose colored glasses were off. I
understood what like the harsh life that was coming after graduation,
and because I kind of put myself in those shoes.
I think it helped me because I took a lot
(27:53):
of these small jobs that I don't even think people
in school thought were legitimate yet, but I knew I
needed a paycheck. So basically I graduate. I let's see,
I graduated, and then I was still working at my gym,
(28:13):
which is what the work I was doing a lot
of the time during college to just make some extra cash.
And uh, I got involved with weightlifters and CrossFit athletes
that wanted media. So my first jobs out of college
were basically shooting photos and promotional content for high level
(28:37):
CrossFit athletes.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Interesting and you were able to, you know, make a
living out of doing that to.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Start with, Yeah, because at the time, CrossFit was like exploding. Yeah,
it was like this fitness boom, and I was pretty
heavily involved with it as an athlete myself. And I
realized a lot of the top guys media and social
media was becoming so important to them, and I was like,
(29:06):
I'm pretty good at this, And I walked up to
a handful of them and I just started taking photos.
And then the word kind of got out and I
started working for a lot of higher level people. Most
notably I did a lot of media for a man
named Marcus Philly, and he was one of the top
CrossFit athletes in the mid twenty tens. So I started
(29:31):
getting work published in like Men's Health and other stuff
like that, and I realized after a couple of years,
I'd kind of tapped out in terms of the stealing
that I was in because I was like, I felt
like I was doing really well, and I was like,
and I want to get on bigger sets now. And
that was when I kind of started to make the
transition to let me become an ac and local six hundred.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Did you have any mentors at the time, though, Geta
and even you know, while you were in film school,
did you any mentors that particularly women who you know
inspired you and helped you.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Women in the field that I were in at the
time were so limited. I because at that moment I
decided to put together like athletic and film and was
doing this content for athletes. I was probably one of
(30:32):
the only women doing this. Most of the other people
that I met that were creating content were men and
then male athletes. It was a pretty struggling time for me.
I have to say, though, the people that I looked
up to were more so my peers that I graduated
(30:52):
film school with that were also women, because we were
there together in this struggle and I watched all of
us come out of it successfully and each other through it.
Most notably my two friends Caitlin and Mackenzie. I went
to college with them and they they basically they got
jobs at like abel SENNI that's a rental house, and
(31:17):
if I wanted to shoot something, I could go to
Mackenzie and she would help me with camera gear and
we were off and running. And it was kind of
through that support that really helped me. Mentorship at the
time was very limiting because I felt like it was
all men.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
But who were you influences though? In inspiration of the
films that you were watching when you were growing up.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Oh, I was actually a huge Timburton fan growing up.
I'm most notably just because his the style that he
was producing was was always you could know immediately that
it was his own. And it was even so much
that I wanted to replicate his style. I just liked
(32:04):
that you could look at a still frame and be like, oh,
that was his. It's like I wanted something like that,
Like you if I took a photo anyone could look
at it and be like, oh, she did this. I
really liked that aspect of it, and I wanted to
really make sure that whatever I was shooting was distinctly
my own.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And do you feel that you're creating that yourself? Know,
I'd like to think.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So we talked on the phone a little bit about
like my cinematography career and that aspect, and I am
very particular with the jobs that I accept for that reason,
because I really want to be able to make whatever
project I'm shooting my own and for myself, I usually
(32:54):
truly like to use a lot of color and higher
saturations of color. And when I was in film school,
there was a pretty big wave of like muted tones
that was like the style that a lot of people
were shooting with, and I kind of went against that
grain and really tried to make everything that I was
shooting very colorful, very contrasted, and really working on making
(33:20):
sure everything fit esthetically in frame.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
So you really want to put your own mark on it,
obviously in your own career. I'm wondering though, where that
came from. And also if you had any women cinematographers
that you looked up to as a child. I mean,
did you develop that eye when you were a child
watching films and noticed the cinematographers when you went to
(33:43):
the movies. And so I'm hoping you're going to say
some women here because there are so many of them now.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, that's why when you start, when you're talking about
it in the back when I was younger, it was
harder to think of Now, yes, I have a bunch
of them. Back then, I actually distinctfully remember. I want
to say this was when I was graduating high school.
The first like female cinematographer that I was like, this
(34:10):
is something that women can do. I think she shot
the hurt Locker, which was like a huge film at
the time, and that was like the first time I
was like, oh, that's a female cinematographer. It was like
almost like out of the first Like it was like
the first the example I had growing up of a
female cinematographer was and that it's the only reason I
(34:31):
even remember that film, because I don't even remember. I
never was that interested in like war movies, but that
was the first time that I was like, oh, that's
a woman behind the camera. This can be done.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Right, Well, that's famously Catherine big Close did that. So yeah,
she really I think waved the flag for women there
that this was possible and she was a great pioneer
and I think still is.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, And that was the first example for me. And
then I went into call Like when I went to NYU,
I actually had one professor I won't ever forget he
was It was like I watched the hurt locker happen.
I get to n YU and one of these professors
was like, yeah, well, if you're a woman in my class,
(35:15):
you're gonna have to work really hard because women aren't
usually DPS. And I was I remember being like, if
you set that baton down, I'm going to run so hard.
You don't know how competitive I am. I will get there.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
It's like opposition, only it makes me even more determined.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
You said, yeah, it was something. It's a statement I
will never forget. And I see his face even I
actually don't even remember his name. I just see his
face and him saying these words to this day.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Hi, my name is Churisa by Tylli and I'm a
cinematographer who was a guest on the Art podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
But here's what I need you to.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Do now you've got aload and subscribe to the new
call Time podcasts. It's about women in all departments of
film and television and it's available now on all podcast apps.
And don't forget to follow at the call Time podcast
on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I'll see you there. I could see how determined you are?
Are you stubborn? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Most people would probably tell.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, I identified with that, get it. We have some
things in common, uh, determined, biddles, very stubborn.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I think there's a way that that stubbornness can help
and if you can like figure out for yourself in
which ways the stubbornness is a good position to stand
firm and which positions aren't. I think it is not
always a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
It isn't. No, it can be channeled to be very useful. Actually,
let's go back to your taste in film, and I'm
wondering now as you wish shaping your career or are
your preferred genres.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I would say I've always been interested in movies that
are very thought provoking in like a psychological sense. And
then I've also been very heavily interested in the genre
of horror, and recently I feel like horror movies are
making a boom, and I'm actually very excited about it.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
And what do you find you're doing most of the
time now? Is it steady cam? Where do you spend
most of the time? Do you think because you're, as
you say, trying to be selective to carve your own
nation in this industry.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
I would say I predominantly camera operate around sixty percent
of the time. That is, whether it's steady cam or
handheld or or standard on sticks. That is where I'm
going to be making bulk of my money and my
career path. But then probably thirty percent deep p work
(38:05):
just due to this being selective, and by being selective,
you're also turning down a lot of other jobs or
you're just not being put your name in for that.
So I'm aware that my cinematography and that career trajectory
is progressing much slower than a steadycam career, which I'm
(38:27):
become very okay with because when I first started, like
with the sports, I was shooting a lot of my
own stuff. And when you start to shoot a lot
and take every job that comes your way, a lot
of that passion I witnessed it in myself just start
to kind of wither it doing it for a paycheck
(38:48):
versus doing it because you love it is so different.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Yes, very much so. I'm wondering in your career the SPA,
what you would described as career developing moments like that
have really shaped your direction in terms of the people
that you've worked with, the jobs that you've got, the
opportunities that you've had. What have been the most defining
(39:14):
moments for you.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I think there's a couple in a couple of different avenues.
I would say for my cinematography career, I was an
assistant for a number of years, pulling focus and I
think that I was on a handful of sets, mainly
major music video bigger music video sets as an assistant.
(39:36):
That really opened my eyes to how creative that genre
can be and kind of like how the unlike a
narrative where you're focusing on a story structure, music videos
can be purely image base or are artistic in an
(39:58):
experimental way, and or in a narrative, it just has
there's no like all the guardrails are off, you can
choose anything. And watching some of those music videos unfold
in that capacity kind of opened my eyes a lot
to cinematography like to just cinema ideas and shots that
(40:19):
I've I want to create on my in my own way.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Where do you see your career going, what's on your
to do list of maybe some other skills as well
that you want to explore.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
I would say I'm in my steadicam career. I am
like a toddler walking, and I want to continue to
refine that skill. I'm so far from being the number
one call. I want to get to that point. And
then I also want to learn other skills in that way.
(40:53):
Because there's wheels that you can operate with that I
have very little experience with. I want to find that skill.
There's also different like automotive like operating techniques, like if
you're on a high speed chase scene and that kind
of stuff. I find that stuff all fascinating. I'd love
to get more involved with, like stunt and pursuit camera operating,
(41:21):
and potentially even underwater camera operating. I've looked into that
a little bit also just due to the fact that
I can swim well, That's also been something that I'd
like to look into. So a lot of camera movement
and camera ideas and like techniques and skills in just
camera motion. I'd really continue want to continue down those paths.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
You know, I could see stunt pitting very well in
with you physically. Stunt and underwater perfect fits.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, they seem also so much fun. I've done one
underwater camera and it was more so because I was
on set with someone that doesn't water camera and I
told him that I was a swimmer and he let
me try it, which was amazing. And after that I
was like, all right, I gotta figure out how I
can get more involved with this.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
What have you mostly been working on the so far
this year?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Well, the industry is in a weird way. I would
say a lot of the stuff I've been doing this
year has been a lot of commercial work and music videos.
Those have been a pretty big jobs for me this year.
The bigger, the biggest, uh steady cam job that I
(42:37):
was on. I was actually on a Tiffany's commercial and
that was really exciting and we got to work with
Anya Taylor Joy, she's an actress in The Queen's Gambit,
and that was exciting because I think that was my
first time being on like a major scale like set
(43:01):
with steadycam and being that close to a a listener.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Just to have a halfways through the year. Now, what
are you looking forward to?
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Next week, I am shooting a music video, which I'm
actually very excited about. And this connection happened through actually
my brother because he's another jazz musician who is very
Do you know John Baptiste, I do, so he's to me.
I see this young man as a like a another
(43:36):
version of him. He's very very good at what he does,
and he has a very high level vision for what
he wants to attain. And when he came to me
with his his song and his ideas for the video,
I got very excited. And it's something that I'm actually
really happy about because I feel like most of this
year I haven't been super excited about any thing. To
(43:57):
shoot Steady Kim jobs, I've had a number of exciting ones,
but this is like one of the first exciting DP
jobs I'm working on this year.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Do you write at all? Are you interested in writing?
Speaker 1 (44:08):
That one's funny for me because I've never very much
enjoyed writing. But every time I've been in writing classes
or around writers, they like what I write. I've just
never been excited to write.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
So for fun, then geta is it with a still
camera on these days. What do you do for fun
if you're not I suppose CrossFit is a big part
of your spare time too, because that is very time consuming.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Yeah, that's I usually like to tell people. If I'm
not on set, I'm probably in the gym. But if
outside of those things, I usually it's usually still photography.
And that's also something that I'm starting to pick up
a little bit with. I'm trying to find ways to
(45:00):
manufacture I'm working. I'm talking with some carpenters. Actually, I
like I'm trying to do some bigger set work with
photography on my own, and that's something that I'm kind
of keeping a little under wraps, but trying to figure
out if I can find a way to do some
really fun still photography work and a spare time capacity.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
You sound like you're really busy. You're filling all of
the coolness of your life.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I would say people usually tell me I'm someone that's
hard to relax.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Right, I'm getting that impression. Very high energy, but at
the end of the day, a lot of satisfaction with
the work that you're doing.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Though now I feel like I want to say yes.
But there's also part of me that just will never
be satisfied. I guess, so I just.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Keep Are you a perfectionist? Then are you striving for perfection?
Speaker 1 (45:52):
That's also a topic that I've gone back and forth
with where sometimes I feel like, yes, that must be
why I'm pushing so hard, but other times I feel
like that isn't the one hundred percent the correct answer.
I want things to go well and feel fulfilled, but
perfection might not always be the exact word that I'm
trying to reach. It's more so is it perfect for
(46:15):
me and not it doesn't matter that it's perfect for
everybody else.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
I guess what would your mom say about yu Gita?
Speaker 1 (46:24):
She usually tells people that I'm an extremely high achiever
and a very dedicated, hardworking person, and she's she often
tells everyone that she's very proud of me, and uh,
I appreciate that, but I also think that a lot
of that just comes from herself being proud of who
(46:49):
she's raised and who she's watched me become because she's
made me so hard working and dedicated.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Well, she clearly was a very good influence on you.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Thank you. Yeah, no, she's she's wonderful and she actually
wrote a book recently that describes her her hardships in
her life. And I think that her writing a book
in her free time is kind of what inspired me
to continuously push for creating consistently as well.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Well, what would you say to her if she's listening.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Well, firstly, hello, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
And.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I guess you know, thank you for always standing by
my side even if I'm stubbornly wrong.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
That's lovely message to mom. Yeah, that's a great note
to finish on. Gita, thank you so much for taking
time to come on the podcast and share your journey
with us.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me this. It
felt like it went by so quickly already.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Well, we're going to jump over to YouTube now and
continue our conversation this so anybody who's listening to the
podcast do find out moment to go over to YouTube
so you actually can see Gita Larson on video there
on YouTube and where we will continue our conversation. But
for now for the podcast, to Gita, thank you so
much indeed for being my guest this week. Yes, thank
(48:13):
you so much again, And before you go, don't forget
to slide down the show notes below, where you'll find
a link to Gita's social media and also to our
Instagram as well, where you can post your comments, questions,
suggestions for guests. We would always love to hear from you,
and of course you can reach us via email too
if you prefer, at the Art Podcast at gmail dot
(48:36):
com that's Art with two a's. And also while you're
on your app, if you do have a moment, please
do leave us a five star rating and review because
that raises our profile amongst thousands and thousands of podcasts,
which then helps others to find the show. And as
I said earlier, don't forget to hop over to our
(48:56):
YouTube channel where you'll find an extended conversation with Gita.
Just look for the Art Podcast on YouTube. We have
interviews there from all our guests from season three, extended
conversation in the show that we like to call the
after show. That's all on our YouTube channel. My thanks
again to my guest this week, Gita Larsen, and to
(49:18):
you as always for listening. I know you have so
many choices when it comes to podcasts, so I do
appreciate your support here on the Art Podcast. Don't forget
to check out the Call Time podcast for those of
you interested in women in film and television from all departments.
That's the Call Time Podcast, and that of course is
on any podcast app. I'll be back in two weeks time,
(49:42):
when my guest will be the American surrealist artist Sophie Kipna.
So I do hope you'll join me then
I'm Gita Larson, and I'm a cinematographer and steadycam operator.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hello, you're listening to Art, the podcast where we get
up close and personal as we get to know women
from around the world of visual arts. I'm Chris Stafford
and this is season three, episode twenty. My guest this
week is the cinematographer and steadicam operator Gita Larson, whose
(00:29):
credits include The Shop, My Kind of People, ninety Day Fiance,
and Meek. Gita was born in Sonoma, California, in nineteen
ninety four. She has a younger brother, Anthony, who is
a jazz musician. Her mother, Sylvia, who is an architect,
constantly encouraged Geta to pursue her talents in a variety
(00:51):
of sports, a challenge that Geita took seriously, which resulted
in her becoming a competitive swimmer at the age of nine.
From there, she discovered water polo and in her words,
became obsessed with the sport, playing for the Central Coast
odp team at Sonoma Valley High School and then Division
(01:12):
one in Southern California during college at cal State Northridge,
which led to joining the Olympic Development Program when she
moved to New York, Guita explored weightlifting and also became
competitive in that sport. She says she still has unfinished
business in this arena, but for now she is into CrossFit,
(01:34):
which also helps her core strength for camera work. During
her sports career, Geta studied film, graduating from the New
York University's Tish School of the Arts with a bachelor's
degree in Film and TV in twenty sixteen. Her first
job combined her love of filming with the sport of CrossFit,
(01:54):
and since then she has widened her aperture to include
music videos, shorts, and she enjoys thought provoking genres, including
horror movies, and has ambitions to explore underwater photography too,
which would combine her love for swimming. Apparrently, she is
spending most of her time as a camera operator and
(02:15):
does a DP. Gita lives in New York with her
partner of Smile d'facho. Gita. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yes, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Is this your first podcast or are you pro?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Now? I would qualify this as the first podcast, but
I actually have done one other for a friend of mine,
but this was almost a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Okay, so you do listen to podcasts though when you're
driving you told.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Me, yeah, a little bit. I am more of a
music person though.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Ah yeah, you send me your playlist and that looks
super interesting. Are you gonna tell me you're a musician
as well?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
No, that's what's actually very funny about me and my
sibling brother. He's the audio and I'm purely visual. We
both can't do either the other thing your very musical family. No,
it's interesting because my brother picked up jazz music at
(03:16):
a very young age when we were in elementary school.
So for as long as I can remember, he was
playing the saxophone in his room almost six eight hours
a day as much as he could. So there was
that element, but outside of him, that was it.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
He's a professional, Miss Anthony. Yes, but you didn't pick
that up. That wasn't the root for you.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
No. My trajectory when I was younger, I was very
into sports. I was like the athlete of the family
and he was the hyper intelligent musician.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
So what sports did you play?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So I grew up being a swimmer. I started competitively
swimming at around the age of eight or nine, and
it was kind of a like I hit the water
and I was very good. And my mother was always
someone who was very uh, very like supportive of anything
(04:14):
we wanted to do. That's why for music, he when
he wanted to play music, she immediately bought him an instrument.
And when I got into swimming, she immediately put me
on a competitive team. She was very supportive of anything
we wanted to try. And once I got intovolved with swimming,
I basically swam through middle school and I was pretty good.
(04:35):
But then I found water polo and that became my
main sport as when I was younger.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Water polo, Yeah, let's close an Olympic sport. So what
was it the pale to you about combining you know,
a team event with swimming, you know, swimming skills. I
mean that's everything right and very fast paced.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, I uh, well, I I'm a rather big person.
I'm five. By the time I was in elementary school,
not elementary school, let's say seventh eighth grade, I was
probably already five to ten and weighing in around two
hundred pounds and swimming. I was very good in the water,
but I was never the fastest. I was always the strongest,
(05:17):
and so when I found water polo, as a sport.
I just found like it felt like my niche, that
I was strong and good in the water, and it
quickly became something I was truly obsessed with for most
of my youth.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Really, and did you think of the Olympics as a goal? Oh?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, actually, I mean I was on the Olympic Development
program when I was younger, so I was playing for
the So the California region is pretty much the home
base of most water polo. It's kind of the hot
spot for any of the Olympians. And I was on
the Central Coast team when I was younger. And I
(05:56):
also played Division one my freshman year college in Los Angeles,
and it was something that I wanted to be the
best at. I was very dedicated. The higher up you go, though,
the more politics that are involved. And I come from
a small town. I didn't come from a town where
larger athletes were usually picked from. And that combined with
(06:22):
realizing that most of the girls in the team needed
and another career in a paying job, I just it
almost didn't seem like I was going to get to
the top and I still needed to have another career path.
And in college is kind of when I made the
decision to go, Okay, I need to focus on a career.
This is not going to be paying my bills.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
But it was a passion though it must have been.
How to step away from it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Oh it was. I will say the year that I
stepped away from playing, it was one of the most
formative and lost feelings I've ever felt. It was like
being plucked out of your universe and like really feeling
(07:06):
like a fish out of water.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah. Well, literally, it isn't now what moment, isn't it.
You often hear this from pro athletes when they do
retire eventually, either through injury or from choice, that it
isn't now what moment because the life has been dedicated
to pro sports. So that must have felt the same
for you, now what?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, No, it really did. I always had an interest
in being an artist in terms of filmmaking and photography.
I was involved in all of those things at the
same time in my academics, and when I decided to stop,
I was like, I'm just gonna go like headfirst into
(07:47):
my career path and filmmaking. But it's not the same
Like when you're an athlete, you practice every day for
hours and it's physical exertion, and so stopping at and
just diving headfirst into film. It almost didn't. It didn't.
It still didn't like scratch that itch. And so I
ended up going into weightlifting, and I became a competitive
(08:12):
weightlifter for many years. And I actually continued weightlifting while
going to film school.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Did you really, Oh, good for you?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah? And so I was competing at the same time. Uh,
and I really stopped competing. The year stop competing was
the twenty nineteen above.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Now, obviously you're fully grown. You talked about being already
five ten when you were in eighth grade. How till
are you now?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I'm around five ten, five eleven that I pretty much
shot up in middle school and that was like my height.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And so, now what do you do because you're, you know,
fully immersed in your profession, where do you get your bus?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I actually go to CrossFit. I really enjoy the environment
there because it is intense and competitive. Everyone's doing the
same workout and you're competing for the fastest time or
the most weightlifted. And even though it's only an hour
and it's with a bunch of people that are not
all all of them professional athletes, it still kind of
(09:14):
gives me that drive and that little ounce of what
I feel like I'm missing from being an athlete.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, that adrenaline Russia.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah. And I think also being physically like capable, Like
I love being working with the study cam because it's
so honestly, because it's so strength and inducing and just
grueling at the same time. It's like it is like
an addiction. It's like you love being like physically active
(09:48):
to the point where when you accomplish it, you just
feel so great afterwards.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah. And of course for study cam, it's your core. No,
it's not just your body in your arms and shoulders,
which you clearly have that up a body strength and core,
and the legs as well in the back. It's a
full body experience, isn't it. That You've got to be
so stable and strong yourself. So I'd imagine everything that
you've done just led you to being a natural SETI
(10:15):
caam operator.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I like to think that. I think it is something
that I actually was truly always interested in. When I
went to film school, they showed me what a steadycam
was and I had just started I had just started
competing in weightlifting, I'd started working in the field and
I was actually competing in strong man as well, and
(10:39):
so both of those things. When I found steady Cam,
I was like, oh, this is something that I would
really love to like fuse my two passions with. But
when I was in school, I mean, steadycam equipment is
extremely expensive, so there was kind of no real route
for me at the time, and I just kind of
had to keep my head down and I kept working
with weightlifting, and it wasn't until a couple of years
(11:03):
ago that I was really able to financially figure out
getting into the field of seticam.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And is it your favorite toy now? That beats everything else? Right,
beats all the weights, beats every only other gear.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah, because you get to be an artist at the
same time, which is like magical.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I mean, really is an old body experience, isn't it It? Literally?
I mean in every sense it's an old body experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
The there is a few differences because there's a few
different styles of vests that you can wear that will
allocate the weight across your body a little bit differently.
I actually operate with a back mounted vest which sends
the weight more to my legs versus my lower back,
which I in a kinesiology sense, like a lot more
(11:53):
because you have a lot stronger legs than lower back
muscles exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So that's that's your comfort zone, that's your your happy
place now.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Yeah, And I even when we're not shooting, I'm constantly practicing.
I actually have a few people that I practice with
a lot, and that group has really uplifted me into
the community of steadycam operators because I have had so
many hours under the rig without uh before even stepping
(12:24):
on some of the bigger sets that I've been on.
What was the most challenging part of the few, Well,
the barrier to entry into the steadycam world is very expensive,
and I don't like to harp on that a lot,
but at the same time, I think it's really worth
(12:45):
understanding to a lot of people that it is very expensive,
and I think a lot I wish a lot more
people were able to cross that barrier, and I wish
it wasn't so expensive because it is something that I
try and find truly fun and fulfilling, and I just
wish the financial aspect of it wasn't the biggest barrier,
(13:09):
but it really is.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But once you overcome that creatively, what was the most
challenging for you until you found you a proficient at it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Well that's interesting because I actually I did a lot
of my own operating, like handheld operating, for years before.
So the most challenging was just being able to physically
operate the machinery. And it wasn't so much even the
physical it's the fine tuning skill of it, because once
(13:39):
you get all that weight on your body, you now
have to delicately dance with this object. So it kind
of combines these two very brute strength to hold it,
but at the same time you're touching it with such
softness and finesse, And I think the softness and finesse
is where that true life. If you're one of the
(14:01):
top Stata com operators, that's where you really shine.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
So this has been obviously your goal. You met your
goals competitively as an athlete and now in the world
of filmmaking. But I want to go back to where
it all began. You were born in nineteen ninety four
in Sonoma, California, so you're a West Coast girl, but
you're now based in New York. I'm wondering what childhood
(14:29):
was like there for you. You mentioned your mom Sylvia who
enabled whatever you and your brother wanted to do. She
was an architect, though well you was all interested in
what she did and what kind of relationship did you
have with her.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
The relationship I have with my mother is absolutely wonderful.
She was always so supportive and she is someone that
has also been through a pretty uh like I don't
want to say hard life, but she's had a lot
of ruggle. She's overcome, and I think that intensity and
(15:03):
how she appropriate intensity and how she approaches life is
kind of how she came to us with all of
her advice. And I think that's what made me so
competitive in sports and even competitive in my own career
path and just ambitious in that sense. But when it
(15:24):
came to and I reference this because the reason I
really had no interest in an architecture was her intensity.
Almost because I would be drawing, maybe like a house
or something for school and she would come over and
be like, this line isn't straight, that you do it
over and I just couldn't. It was like, you know,
(15:46):
it was like the moment I realized it was like
in elementary school that I was like, I think I'm
gonna love what she supports me in as long as
it's not the same thing.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, it's not interesting how we steer up away from
a parents' profession very often just go take it to
completely different route, which you did. And as a child,
it sounds like you were very sporty even as a
young child.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, that's a funny one too, because my mother put
me in a lot of different sports when I was young,
because I guess I just had a lot of energy,
and so she would. She basically told me later on
in my life that she almost put me in like
a try out of every She put me at soccer,
she put me in basketball, she put me in track.
(16:33):
You put me in like everything, And she was like, yeah,
I was just seeing where your talentslide. So I tried
like all these different sports and swimming is I guess
where I succeeded in that?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Were you interested in anything else at school?
Speaker 1 (16:49):
When I was younger, I was also very interested in
photography and film. This would be the early two thousands,
so film was a lot more harder to come by
in terms of giving a child like a moving picture camera.
So she gave me a thirty five millimeter film still camera.
So for most of my youth, I was really interested
(17:11):
in still photography because that's all I had access to
until I reached high school, where they had like an
avy situation.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Okay, are you a nikon girl? We need to know
which side you full?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Actually, the first camera she gave me was a canon,
and I think from then on I I got a
few other film still cameras, but when I went digital,
the first cameras I had too were canon. I even
still own the five D Mark three the uh okay, yeah,
the old original there.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
So you learned to use the dark room. You were
in film where you're starting over, you knew all the basics.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, I was in dark room film photography for years.
I actually when I left college, that was like one
of the first things I missed because I didn't have
access to anything like that.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Do you miss that now? Do you get a chance
to do that just for fun?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I take a lot of film photography just for fun,
but I have it developed just because it is rather
a nuisance to try to do that you're on your own.
I've gone to there's a few labs in Brooklyn that
you can go in by yourself that I've tried once
or twice, But my schedule is just a little too
(18:27):
busy for that. But I definitely still take film photography.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
So when you were child and being in a hold
of these sports, I'm wondering and having a brother which
I'm tinacially older.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Than you, No, he is three years younger.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I'm wondering if you were very competitive, were you competitive
with him where you can always competitive in school and
with your friends.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I yess, yes, I'm a very competitive person. I was
always very competitive. But I will say the difference lies
with my brother because we were so different. He I
grew very big and strong and tall. He grew very tall,
and so his interests he really didn't play sports. He
really sat and played music most of the time. And
(19:10):
so when it came to competitiveness with him, there was
no like physical competitiveness, just because we were in such
different brackets. And I think also we really formed more
of a bond because of like some family trauma that
we came together really well. And like I was always
(19:30):
very bad at math, and he's sort of a savant.
Like he would help me with my math homework, and
he's three years younger, and I would help him with
whatever he was struggling with, whether it was pe or
different like physical tasks, so we kind of complimented each
other versus that still sibling like combativeness.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So let's fust forward. Which then you're coming to the
end of high school and you've got to start thinking
about college. Well, you always destined in your mind to
go into this industry. There was a point at the
end of high school.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I had been very interested in film, but sports was
in the front seat, and I had like a few
months where I would continuously speak to my mother about
how the film industry might not be the best place
because I might not be successful. That was a true
(20:27):
fear of mine at the end of high school. And
sports for me was like I've done this at that
point my whole life. So I was like ready to
just be an athlete. And we had so many talks
for a handful of months about how, you know, I
can continue to do film well after my like physical
peak and sports will have an expiration date, and I did.
(20:56):
I wish I'd listened a little more because I went
headfirst into sports, and my freshman year of college, I
was playing Division one water polo and it kind of
exploded and I realized there's no way for me to
be an artist and do high level athletics at the
same time. And I ultimately ended up choosing to leave
(21:17):
the school I got picked to play for, and I
went home for a year and decided that I needed
to just focus on my film career.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So that was kel Stit Noltridge. Yes, but you had
to go east though to get into film school. How
did you feel about leaving your mom and leaving home?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Well, the at the time, so I had left to
Los Angeles for that first year, and that was hard
because at the time too, my family was having some troubles.
And when that year ended, I decided to stay home
for that year and kind of make sure that the
tumultuous waters were settled. And since my brother is three
(22:05):
years apart, he actually he skipped a grade in elementary
school because he's a very smart kid, and so we
were then two years apart in school. So this point
I had gone to Los Angeles for a year and
came home for a year, and I was transferring for
my third year of college while he was applying for
his freshman year of college. And because he was so
(22:25):
good with music, he basically had a full ride to anywhere.
He decided he wanted to go, and he decided he
wanted to go to New York. And this was a
kid that I've helped along the way in a lot
of ways, and New York wasn't even on my radar,
if I'm being honest, it was I was like, la
all the way. I thought that was where the film
industry was. And then when he got into New York,
(22:45):
it made me nervous. So I had applied to New
York surely because he had also, and when he got
in that made me nervous that he would be going
by himself. And then two months later I got an
acceptance letter and I was like, I guess we're going
to New York.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, that was fun. Then at least you would be together.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Right, Yeah, So that was kind of my goal with that,
because again, Sonoma is a small town and I had
now spent a year in Los Angeles, and then realizing
my brother who was leaving our small town at the
age of seventeen to go to college, I was like,
all right, I think we have to kind of do
this as a team. And I think it worked out
(23:25):
for the best because I think having us there together
was the only way we were going to get through
that pretty harsh culture shock moving to Manhattan for a college.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And what kind of student will you? When did you
throw yourself full in like you did with your sports
when you started college?
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yes, pretty much anything I was a part of for
most of my youth was I all learned nothing situation
for me, and I think I just got that from
from being in higher level athletics. It's they pretty much
trained you to be extreme in most aspects of your life.
So I was very very competitive even within film school,
(24:14):
which sounds insane because every time I would even feel
myself feeling like am I the crazy one? Why am
I trying so hard to be better than everyone right now?
Like there was no reason everyone's here making an art
form and I'm like, yeah, no, but mine's gonna be.
And I had I had to like truthfully train myself
out of that thought process for a while. So ambitious, Yeah,
(24:36):
ambitious on steroids is probably.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I hear a high energy as well. Keeter, are you
still very ambitious? Very driven?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah? It is actually something even in like my romantic
relationship now. He has to constantly remind me that everything
I'm doing is fine and I'm in a good because
I'll sit there and worry about how I'm not at
the next level, or I need to be somewhere networking
with somebody to hopefully make sure that I'm on this
(25:11):
set or anything in that regard, and I'll put myself
in like a very like low mental health state of
extreme like anxiety that he has to talk me down from.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
To this day. So, when you were in film school, then,
what did that look like When you look back at
that lifestyle of being in college and how it sets
you up for your career. What are your strongest members.
Tell us a little bit about that, because I think
you know that's so formative those years and influences what
(25:47):
direction we take, how we channel our energy. Then going
from college into a career and finding work, talk a
little bit about what that was like for you, and
of course the anticipation and bushiness about getting into the
industry and making your own passway.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Oh yeah, that's probably one of the roughest time periods
in any young artist life, is that transition. And when
I was at SO I graduated from NYU, I was
the transfer. I went there for my junior and senior year,
and in that time frame, I will say I have
(26:26):
the mixed opinions of NYU, but I will say being
in the city was a great thing for me to
make some connections. But the students that I was working
with were typically from families that had a lot higher
of an income versus my single mother at the time
(26:47):
working as an architect, and I was on a lot
of scholarships and a lot of financial aid. And typically
at the end of most filmmakers senior year, they make
a thesis film and NYU pretty much requires that you
get your own equipment, which was really disheartening for me,
(27:07):
and I did not have any of that kind of
money to do that. So my first step was I'm
going to crew on everybody's film, so I have a
lot more time on set and doing a lot more
tech development. Because I had the understanding that getting out
of film school, I was going to be starting at
the bottom. I was not going to be graduating and
immediately becoming a cinematographer, which I will say is a
(27:31):
lot of kids in school think that that's the case.
So I had my rose colored glasses were off. I
understood what like the harsh life that was coming after graduation,
and because I kind of put myself in those shoes.
I think it helped me because I took a lot
(27:53):
of these small jobs that I don't even think people
in school thought were legitimate yet, but I knew I
needed a paycheck. So basically I graduate. I let's see,
I graduated, and then I was still working at my gym,
(28:13):
which is what the work I was doing a lot
of the time during college to just make some extra cash.
And uh, I got involved with weightlifters and CrossFit athletes
that wanted media. So my first jobs out of college
were basically shooting photos and promotional content for high level
(28:37):
CrossFit athletes.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Interesting and you were able to, you know, make a
living out of doing that to.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Start with, Yeah, because at the time, CrossFit was like exploding. Yeah,
it was like this fitness boom, and I was pretty
heavily involved with it as an athlete myself. And I
realized a lot of the top guys media and social
media was becoming so important to them, and I was like,
(29:06):
I'm pretty good at this, And I walked up to
a handful of them and I just started taking photos.
And then the word kind of got out and I
started working for a lot of higher level people. Most
notably I did a lot of media for a man
named Marcus Philly, and he was one of the top
CrossFit athletes in the mid twenty tens. So I started
(29:31):
getting work published in like Men's Health and other stuff
like that, and I realized after a couple of years,
I'd kind of tapped out in terms of the stealing
that I was in because I was like, I felt
like I was doing really well, and I was like,
and I want to get on bigger sets now. And
that was when I kind of started to make the
transition to let me become an ac and local six hundred.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Did you have any mentors at the time, though, Geta
and even you know, while you were in film school,
did you any mentors that particularly women who you know
inspired you and helped you.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Women in the field that I were in at the
time were so limited. I because at that moment I
decided to put together like athletic and film and was
doing this content for athletes. I was probably one of
(30:32):
the only women doing this. Most of the other people
that I met that were creating content were men and
then male athletes. It was a pretty struggling time for me.
I have to say, though, the people that I looked
up to were more so my peers that I graduated
(30:52):
film school with that were also women, because we were
there together in this struggle and I watched all of
us come out of it successfully and each other through it.
Most notably my two friends Caitlin and Mackenzie. I went
to college with them and they they basically they got
jobs at like abel SENNI that's a rental house, and
(31:17):
if I wanted to shoot something, I could go to
Mackenzie and she would help me with camera gear and
we were off and running. And it was kind of
through that support that really helped me. Mentorship at the
time was very limiting because I felt like it was
all men.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
But who were you influences though? In inspiration of the
films that you were watching when you were growing up.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Oh, I was actually a huge Timburton fan growing up.
I'm most notably just because his the style that he
was producing was was always you could know immediately that
it was his own. And it was even so much
that I wanted to replicate his style. I just liked
(32:04):
that you could look at a still frame and be like, oh,
that was his. It's like I wanted something like that,
Like you if I took a photo anyone could look
at it and be like, oh, she did this. I
really liked that aspect of it, and I wanted to
really make sure that whatever I was shooting was distinctly
my own.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And do you feel that you're creating that yourself? Know,
I'd like to think.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
So we talked on the phone a little bit about
like my cinematography career and that aspect, and I am
very particular with the jobs that I accept for that reason,
because I really want to be able to make whatever
project I'm shooting my own and for myself, I usually
(32:54):
truly like to use a lot of color and higher
saturations of color. And when I was in film school,
there was a pretty big wave of like muted tones
that was like the style that a lot of people
were shooting with, and I kind of went against that
grain and really tried to make everything that I was
shooting very colorful, very contrasted, and really working on making
(33:20):
sure everything fit esthetically in frame.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
So you really want to put your own mark on it,
obviously in your own career. I'm wondering though, where that
came from. And also if you had any women cinematographers
that you looked up to as a child. I mean,
did you develop that eye when you were a child
watching films and noticed the cinematographers when you went to
(33:43):
the movies. And so I'm hoping you're going to say
some women here because there are so many of them now.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, that's why when you start, when you're talking about
it in the back when I was younger, it was
harder to think of Now, yes, I have a bunch
of them. Back then, I actually distinctfully remember. I want
to say this was when I was graduating high school.
The first like female cinematographer that I was like, this
(34:10):
is something that women can do. I think she shot
the hurt Locker, which was like a huge film at
the time, and that was like the first time I
was like, oh, that's a female cinematographer. It was like
almost like out of the first Like it was like
the first the example I had growing up of a
female cinematographer was and that it's the only reason I
(34:31):
even remember that film, because I don't even remember. I
never was that interested in like war movies, but that
was the first time that I was like, oh, that's
a woman behind the camera. This can be done.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Right, Well, that's famously Catherine big Close did that. So yeah,
she really I think waved the flag for women there
that this was possible and she was a great pioneer
and I think still is.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, And that was the first example for me. And
then I went into call Like when I went to NYU,
I actually had one professor I won't ever forget he
was It was like I watched the hurt locker happen.
I get to n YU and one of these professors
was like, yeah, well, if you're a woman in my class,
(35:15):
you're gonna have to work really hard because women aren't
usually DPS. And I was I remember being like, if
you set that baton down, I'm going to run so hard.
You don't know how competitive I am. I will get there.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
It's like opposition, only it makes me even more determined.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
You said, yeah, it was something. It's a statement I
will never forget. And I see his face even I
actually don't even remember his name. I just see his
face and him saying these words to this day.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Hi, my name is Churisa by Tylli and I'm a
cinematographer who was a guest on the Art podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
But here's what I need you to.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Do now you've got aload and subscribe to the new
call Time podcasts. It's about women in all departments of
film and television and it's available now on all podcast apps.
And don't forget to follow at the call Time podcast
on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I'll see you there. I could see how determined you are?
Are you stubborn? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Most people would probably tell.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, I identified with that, get it. We have some
things in common, uh, determined, biddles, very stubborn.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
I think there's a way that that stubbornness can help
and if you can like figure out for yourself in
which ways the stubbornness is a good position to stand
firm and which positions aren't. I think it is not
always a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
It isn't. No, it can be channeled to be very useful. Actually,
let's go back to your taste in film, and I'm
wondering now as you wish shaping your career or are
your preferred genres.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I would say I've always been interested in movies that
are very thought provoking in like a psychological sense. And
then I've also been very heavily interested in the genre
of horror, and recently I feel like horror movies are
making a boom, and I'm actually very excited about it.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
And what do you find you're doing most of the
time now? Is it steady cam? Where do you spend
most of the time? Do you think because you're, as
you say, trying to be selective to carve your own
nation in this industry.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
I would say I predominantly camera operate around sixty percent
of the time. That is, whether it's steady cam or
handheld or or standard on sticks. That is where I'm
going to be making bulk of my money and my
career path. But then probably thirty percent deep p work
(38:05):
just due to this being selective, and by being selective,
you're also turning down a lot of other jobs or
you're just not being put your name in for that.
So I'm aware that my cinematography and that career trajectory
is progressing much slower than a steadycam career, which I'm
(38:27):
become very okay with because when I first started, like
with the sports, I was shooting a lot of my
own stuff. And when you start to shoot a lot
and take every job that comes your way, a lot
of that passion I witnessed it in myself just start
to kind of wither it doing it for a paycheck
(38:48):
versus doing it because you love it is so different.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Yes, very much so. I'm wondering in your career the SPA,
what you would described as career developing moments like that
have really shaped your direction in terms of the people
that you've worked with, the jobs that you've got, the
opportunities that you've had. What have been the most defining
(39:14):
moments for you.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I think there's a couple in a couple of different avenues.
I would say for my cinematography career, I was an
assistant for a number of years, pulling focus and I
think that I was on a handful of sets, mainly
major music video bigger music video sets as an assistant.
(39:36):
That really opened my eyes to how creative that genre
can be and kind of like how the unlike a
narrative where you're focusing on a story structure, music videos
can be purely image base or are artistic in an
(39:58):
experimental way, and or in a narrative, it just has
there's no like all the guardrails are off, you can
choose anything. And watching some of those music videos unfold
in that capacity kind of opened my eyes a lot
to cinematography like to just cinema ideas and shots that
(40:19):
I've I want to create on my in my own way.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Where do you see your career going, what's on your
to do list of maybe some other skills as well
that you want to explore.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
I would say I'm in my steadicam career. I am
like a toddler walking, and I want to continue to
refine that skill. I'm so far from being the number
one call. I want to get to that point. And
then I also want to learn other skills in that way.
(40:53):
Because there's wheels that you can operate with that I
have very little experience with. I want to find that skill.
There's also different like automotive like operating techniques, like if
you're on a high speed chase scene and that kind
of stuff. I find that stuff all fascinating. I'd love
to get more involved with, like stunt and pursuit camera operating,
(41:21):
and potentially even underwater camera operating. I've looked into that
a little bit also just due to the fact that
I can swim well, That's also been something that I'd
like to look into. So a lot of camera movement
and camera ideas and like techniques and skills in just
camera motion. I'd really continue want to continue down those paths.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
You know, I could see stunt pitting very well in
with you physically. Stunt and underwater perfect fits.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, they seem also so much fun. I've done one
underwater camera and it was more so because I was
on set with someone that doesn't water camera and I
told him that I was a swimmer and he let
me try it, which was amazing. And after that I
was like, all right, I gotta figure out how I
can get more involved with this.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
What have you mostly been working on the so far
this year?
Speaker 1 (42:15):
Well, the industry is in a weird way. I would
say a lot of the stuff I've been doing this
year has been a lot of commercial work and music videos.
Those have been a pretty big jobs for me this year.
The bigger, the biggest, uh steady cam job that I
(42:37):
was on. I was actually on a Tiffany's commercial and
that was really exciting and we got to work with
Anya Taylor Joy, she's an actress in The Queen's Gambit,
and that was exciting because I think that was my
first time being on like a major scale like set
(43:01):
with steadycam and being that close to a a listener.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Just to have a halfways through the year. Now, what
are you looking forward to?
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Next week, I am shooting a music video, which I'm
actually very excited about. And this connection happened through actually
my brother because he's another jazz musician who is very
Do you know John Baptiste, I do, so he's to me.
I see this young man as a like a another
(43:36):
version of him. He's very very good at what he does,
and he has a very high level vision for what
he wants to attain. And when he came to me
with his his song and his ideas for the video,
I got very excited. And it's something that I'm actually
really happy about because I feel like most of this
year I haven't been super excited about any thing. To
(43:57):
shoot Steady Kim jobs, I've had a number of exciting ones,
but this is like one of the first exciting DP
jobs I'm working on this year.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Do you write at all? Are you interested in writing?
Speaker 1 (44:08):
That one's funny for me because I've never very much
enjoyed writing. But every time I've been in writing classes
or around writers, they like what I write. I've just
never been excited to write.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
So for fun, then geta is it with a still
camera on these days. What do you do for fun
if you're not I suppose CrossFit is a big part
of your spare time too, because that is very time consuming.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Yeah, that's I usually like to tell people. If I'm
not on set, I'm probably in the gym. But if
outside of those things, I usually it's usually still photography.
And that's also something that I'm starting to pick up
a little bit with. I'm trying to find ways to
(45:00):
manufacture I'm working. I'm talking with some carpenters. Actually, I
like I'm trying to do some bigger set work with
photography on my own, and that's something that I'm kind
of keeping a little under wraps, but trying to figure
out if I can find a way to do some
really fun still photography work and a spare time capacity.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
You sound like you're really busy. You're filling all of
the coolness of your life.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I would say people usually tell me I'm someone that's
hard to relax.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Right, I'm getting that impression. Very high energy, but at
the end of the day, a lot of satisfaction with
the work that you're doing.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Though now I feel like I want to say yes.
But there's also part of me that just will never
be satisfied. I guess, so I just.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Keep Are you a perfectionist? Then are you striving for perfection?
Speaker 1 (45:52):
That's also a topic that I've gone back and forth
with where sometimes I feel like, yes, that must be
why I'm pushing so hard, but other times I feel
like that isn't the one hundred percent the correct answer.
I want things to go well and feel fulfilled, but
perfection might not always be the exact word that I'm
trying to reach. It's more so is it perfect for
(46:15):
me and not it doesn't matter that it's perfect for
everybody else.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
I guess what would your mom say about yu Gita?
Speaker 1 (46:24):
She usually tells people that I'm an extremely high achiever
and a very dedicated, hardworking person, and she's she often
tells everyone that she's very proud of me, and uh,
I appreciate that, but I also think that a lot
of that just comes from herself being proud of who
(46:49):
she's raised and who she's watched me become because she's
made me so hard working and dedicated.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Well, she clearly was a very good influence on you.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
Thank you. Yeah, no, she's she's wonderful and she actually
wrote a book recently that describes her her hardships in
her life. And I think that her writing a book
in her free time is kind of what inspired me
to continuously push for creating consistently as well.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Well, what would you say to her if she's listening.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Well, firstly, hello, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (47:27):
And.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I guess you know, thank you for always standing by
my side even if I'm stubbornly wrong.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
That's lovely message to mom. Yeah, that's a great note
to finish on. Gita, thank you so much for taking
time to come on the podcast and share your journey
with us.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me this. It
felt like it went by so quickly already.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Well, we're going to jump over to YouTube now and
continue our conversation this so anybody who's listening to the
podcast do find out moment to go over to YouTube
so you actually can see Gita Larson on video there
on YouTube and where we will continue our conversation. But
for now for the podcast, to Gita, thank you so
much indeed for being my guest this week. Yes, thank
(48:13):
you so much again, And before you go, don't forget
to slide down the show notes below, where you'll find
a link to Gita's social media and also to our
Instagram as well, where you can post your comments, questions,
suggestions for guests. We would always love to hear from you,
and of course you can reach us via email too
if you prefer, at the Art Podcast at gmail dot
(48:36):
com that's Art with two a's. And also while you're
on your app, if you do have a moment, please
do leave us a five star rating and review because
that raises our profile amongst thousands and thousands of podcasts,
which then helps others to find the show. And as
I said earlier, don't forget to hop over to our
(48:56):
YouTube channel where you'll find an extended conversation with Gita.
Just look for the Art Podcast on YouTube. We have
interviews there from all our guests from season three, extended
conversation in the show that we like to call the
after show. That's all on our YouTube channel. My thanks
again to my guest this week, Gita Larsen, and to
(49:18):
you as always for listening. I know you have so
many choices when it comes to podcasts, so I do
appreciate your support here on the Art Podcast. Don't forget
to check out the Call Time podcast for those of
you interested in women in film and television from all departments.
That's the Call Time Podcast, and that of course is
on any podcast app. I'll be back in two weeks time,
(49:42):
when my guest will be the American surrealist artist Sophie Kipna.
So I do hope you'll join me then
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