Jacob Crawford - Give Yourself Enough Time Before Your Shoot To Ensure Everything Is Ready And All Risks Are Mitigated To The Best Of Your Ability (Film Director, Canada)

I think one of the biggest skills you can have is getting along with all kinds of people, you don’t always get to work with who you want to but you need to learn how to communicate to the people your provided to work with and if you can communicate the vision you have strongly to the team around you, you’ll be able to achieve the beautiful shots you want and need.

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

I grew up playing a ton of sports all through my childhood, before really pursuing hockey full time, I went on to play competitively for 13 years. One season shortly after high school my team was eliminated from playoffs leaving me with very little to do with my ample amounts of spare time.

I found myself going down the internet rabbit hole before coming across a drone video. It was like nothing I had seen before, I was in awe of what I watched. I began researching more into what this technology was, I found this company that is most known as the industry drone leaders,” DJI".

They had released their Phantom 2 at the time. I was 18 and had only a little bit of money saved up, just enough to buy the drone. I remember I went to my dad and showed him, I’ll never forget what he said, “find a way to make the drone pay for itself” It was that moment that kicked started where we are today.

I began looking into ways I could get a return out of my purchase. This led to shooting Real Estate, Wedding, Car, Golf Course, videos for family friends and business that I had a close relationship with. My passion began to grow large each day for filmmaking and content creation.

I ended up getting hired by a company called Heli Video Pros, who were the leading Vancouver aerial cinematography company at the time (now known as Candrone). I went on to becoming a Film and Television Drone Pilot for numerous shows like, X Files, Man In The High Castle, The 100, Etc.

Working in the large film industry, elevated my passion further towards directing and producing. While all this was happening I was creating small videos for local music artists in and around Vancouver, before catching the eye of Vancouver electronic artist Vanic.

I was offered to take part in a Western Canada tour where I produced video content of the live concerts he performed. Vanic’s team was thrilled with the content I was producing and they offered to take me all over the USA. I traveled with Vanic for a little over a year before another Vancouver Artist who was on the rise reached out, named Ekali.

I ended up traveling all over the world for 4 years with various different electronic music artists like Ekali, Louis the Child, Illenium, Felix Cartal, and many more. Performing on some of the biggest stages like Coachella in California to EDC in China.

Traveling from large festival to festival, lets you begin to meet various incredible people all over the world that are striving to be at the best they can be in their respective careers. I began connecting with some of the most talented content creators in the world.

While the music touring was incredibly fun my main passion was filmmaking and storytelling. My long term goal has always been to create films that resonate and connect with people. I find myself now being more selective on the music tours I take part in to allow time to grow my Production Company, based out of Vancouver, and continue to push myself in the Directing and Producing roles.


2. How and when did you realize your passion for creating films?

Probably around 18 but it continued to grow and now I'm obsessed with it.

3. What are the important skills one should have to be a successful Cinematographer?

Honestly, I think one of the biggest skills you can have is getting along with all kinds of people, you don’t always get to work with who you want to but you need to learn how to communicate to the people your provided to work with and if you can communicate the vision you have strongly to the team around you, you’ll be able to achieve the beautiful shots you want and need.


4. Which film(s) do you appreciate the most for their cinematography?

This is a good question. Recently one that sticks out is 1917. The way Sam Mendes & Roger Deakins were able to collaborate to pull off one of the most incredible “one take movies” was mind boggling. Another film that I truly love is cinematography & Story telling, is Peanut Butter Falcon.

It was lower budget and they had to use natural light for the majority of the film but the way they shaped the light and really let the characters drive the narrative left you fully invested in Shia LaBeouf & Zack Gottsagens performance and character dynamic. A must watch.


5. What do you do to stay calm when a project is not going as planned?

This is a fantastic question! In film there’s always something. It never goes perfectly as planned. My main suggestion that I tell everyone is relax, stay calm, gather all the information on what is not going as planned and discuss with the right people and come to a decision on the best way to move forward.

We can’t control everything but if you take the time to really think of everything that can happen during your Pre Production the least you can do is mitigate as much as you can before stepping onto set.

It’s crucial if you're a leader on set or not, that you remain calm under pressure and trust that everything will work itself out if you just talk it out and get to the root of what’s causing something to not go as planned.

6. What has been your biggest learning from your job?

Honestly fix it in pre production. Give yourself enough time before your shoot to ensure everything is ready and all risks are mitigated to the best of your ability. Also, the story is KEY! You can have a bunch of amazing visuals but what really resonates with people is connection and telling compelling stories.

Focus on the motivation and dig deep into the meaning and reasoning on why you're filming what you are and what will make it stick with the viewer.


7. Throw some light on your production company 'Crawford Filmworks'?

I started Crawford Filmworks Inc. 3 years ago with hopes to push for creating films and striving to provide the level of infrastructure that you see at the really high level but achieve it in the Indy market. There are so many horror stories of low budget projects going south and being complete nightmares. 

Myself and one of my colleagues Bailey Wood have experienced that and that's what motivates us to really take pride in creating the right atmosphere on set to allow everyone to be creative. We’ve been working with a large streaming platform that I’d love to share but unfortunately we’re on strict NDA.

But we’ve got some really exciting work on the way and are working towards our first feature film with goals to get to the highest level of production and filmmaking while creating movies and TV shows that really connect with the audience.

8. What advice would you give to someone who wants to have a life creating film?

Go do it. It’s not about the gear, it’s about you, your actors, and putting the best performance on screen. The Internet is your friend, become obsessed with learning every aspect about what it is you're passionate about. We all want the glamorous roles on set but go learn and understand every role. It doesn’t happen overnight but if you are truly passionate you’ll find a way to succeed.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to your peers, connect with the industry and people doing it in your city wherever you're from, or reach out online if they're in a different city it never hurts to send a message. Not everyone will reply but someone will and you never know who that may be.

9. Which is your favorite book and why?

War of Art hands down. I’m honestly not a big reader, when I was young I wasn’t good at reading at all. In fact my parents had me receive extra help after school because my reading was so bad. But recently in the last few years I’ve begun reading more. The War of Art is incredible for anyone out there.

A good friend and music artist Felix Cartal got it for me when I was finding myself in a creative rut. it's not just for artists or creatives, It talks about our mind and how to get past the negativity and procrastination that all our minds put on us. I strongly recommend it, it’s an easy read and not too long.


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Instagram: jacobcrawfordfilm, crawfordfilmworks

Facebook: jacobcrawfordfilm
Website: crawfordfilmworks.com

Interviewed by Pearline Marie Rein K