A lot of my ideas come from the lack of having high-end equipment like a robotic arm. I see a movement on a commercial and think to myself how could I replicate that. For example, if a product is flipping through the air I thought myself well my drill does the same movement why can't I strap my product to that and remove it in the post.
1. Tell us about your background and journey. When did you first decide that you wanted to create content and how did you start?
Since I was young I have been into filmmaking, making at-home movies with friends and family. As I got older I was told it was impossible to succeed in the film industry unless you knew people or had connections. So I went to college thinking that my dream of filmmaking wasn't possible.
After college, I landed a job on a small budget feature film as a PA (Production assistant) From there I learned a lot on set and was bumped up to a production manager. I realized then no matter how well I did on these films I would never be a director or a creative on the current path I was heading.
So after the film finished I sold all of my valuables and bought my first camera. I had no clue on how to use it but started to film everything I could of my Hometown Santa Cruz Ca. For two months I would wake up at sunrise and film to sunset all the beautiful locations of my town.
I published the video on youtube and shared it on Facebook, within a day everyone in the city had shared the video and slowly climbed to 60,000 views on youtube. At that moment I thought I had made it and it would be easy cruising from there.
Different companies and people would reach out to me and offer me jobs but nothing ever came to fruition. It wasn't until a year later that I landed my first paid gig. At that time I realized that a lot of people loved my first video "Welcome to Santa Cruz" That I could use that to leverage really awesome experiences and build my portfolio.
A near-death accident that I experienced when I was in 6th grade made me realize that I wanted to live my life to the fullest and I created a bucket list with all of the dreams and adventures. I started to reach out to companies that offered different adventure experiences and offered to film content for them in trade for the experiences.
This process led me to film and experience amazing adventures all over the world. From Filming eagle hunter in the Kazach mountains, hot air ballooning in Napa, Formula racing in laguna seca, riding motorcycles across Ireland, Rally racing in Washington, Ice climbing in Iceland, flying Gravity Industries Jet Suit in England. While creating these trades opened up the doors to a bunch of paid offers. Which built my career.
Fast forward a year later and in a different country each month of was getting burnt out from traveling on planes all the time. I would see these beautiful airport ads of perfumes and thought to myself why not do something like that? So I started teaching myself how to create product videos. After a few months of training myself, I decided to make a tutorial and teach others how to make videos like myself and posted it on youtube.
Two months later covid happened and everything locked down and my at-home tutorials of how to make product videos started to catch a lot of attention. A bunch of companies started reaching out wanting to work with me and from there I just kept creating and growing.
2. Is vlogging and content creation a financially sustainable career?
Yes, it can be I don't consider myself a typical content creator though I still run my product company full time with 3-4 clients a month creating product videos. But most of my leads come from the tutorials that I create for youtube.
3. Who is your favorite creator and why?
Christopher Nolan, The Batman trilogy is some of my favorite movies but the way he plays with time and tells a story is just pure art. I aspire to be like him one day.
5. How and where do you find inspiration to churn out content?
Just from everyday things. A lot of my ideas come from the lack of having high-end equipment like a robotic arm. I see a movement on a commercial and think to myself how could I replicate that. For example, if a product is flipping through the air I thought myself well my drill does the same movement why can't I strap my product to that and remove it in the post.
6. What does your typical day look like?
Always start with working out and taking that time to take care of myself. Around 10 it's answering hundreds of emails and responding to my followers on social media. From there it's typically editing or shooting until super late in the night. This job is a 7 day a week job. I rarely take days off. There are so many different things to manage each day to keep it going!
7. Which is your favorite book and why?
Sapiens it's an amazing book that just makes you think outside of the box about humankind and how we got to where we are.
8. What piece of advice would you like to give to future and aspiring creators?
Be unique don't create what everyone else is creating and work hard, if you to succeed you have to work harder than everyone else!
Austen Paul - Cinematographer & Video Producer
Interviewed By: Navya Garg
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