Career Area: Film and Video
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Caletta Harris
“Know your worth and follow your path, and entrust yourself”
Caletta Harris is the founder and owner of Reel2Real Productions, a video production company that has been transforming stories into powerful visual narratives for nearly 20 years. She is based in South Carolina and works nationally, blending creative passion with purpose-driven storytelling by using media to empower, educate, and amplify voices across South Carolina.
The powerhouse behind Reel2Real Productions is a woman with a camera and a mission. For nearly two decades, she has built a full-service video production company that thrives on diversity of stories, clients, and causes. Based in South Carolina, her work stretches far beyond its borders, but the state’s rich history and collaborative spirit have deeply shaped her creative journey.
Interview
Transcript
Lexi Raines 00:01
So, what do you do for work, and where are you currently working from? Well, I
Caletta Harris 00:05
Currently I have my own business called Reel to Reel change to Reel2Real Productions, and we have been there for 19 years, almost 20 years. Next year will be 20 years, and I’m kind of out of everywhere. I’m remote, but I do work all over. So right now, I’ll say South Carolina, awesome.
Lexi Raines 00:26
And so, what is your official job title, being the creator of realtor. I am the owner. And what is one thing that you love about working as a creative in South Carolina?
Caletta Harris 00:37
Well, I love the rich history in South Carolina, and to have that creative freedom being a creative there’s a lot of stories to be told. A lot of rich history here, and just the people connecting with some great, like minded individuals, is always a plus.
Lexi Raines 00:55
I completely agree. So first, just tell us a little bit about Reel2Real.
Caletta Harris 00:59
So, Reel2Real is my baby. My production company is a full service video production company. So we basically do everything from commercial marketing all the way to documentaries. I am the videographer, the editor, all of the above, the marketer, all of that. So we basically do a lot of branding for companies. So we are going on our 20th year, next year.
Lexi Raines 01:25
Awesome. That’s so cool. So what does South Carolina bring to reel to reel, and what is its unique influences on you compared to anywhere else I can
Caletta Harris 01:33
Say, South Carolina has brought me a lot of diverse clients, like my projects totally different. And when I was starting the business, people always would say, you need to get, like, a portfolio that’s vast. You can’t just do one thing, and then expect people to say, Oh, well, you can do it, but they have to see it. I’m like, This has definitely given me an opportunity to have different type of clients, different type of genres. And I just love it. I love just creating people’s vision that
Lexi Raines 02:03
Awesome. I feel like South Carolina is definitely a very diverse community. And saying that, like, how would you describe your local professional community? Local
Caletta Harris 02:11
Professional community? They are wonderful. They’re very interesting. They’re very talented. And, you know, they bring opportunities with them. So it’s not like, this is just mine. They see where people can fit in. And then once I start talking, you know this, the wheels start spinning, and it’s like, oh, well, maybe we can fit you here. And then my wheels start turning. Say, oh, maybe I can connect you with so is a good connecting hub? I like, yes,
Lexi Raines 02:38
That’s actually something I’ve heard a lot throughout, like almost all of my interviews, is that South Carolina really is such a good community where people want to like be able to lean on each other, which I think it achieves pretty well. How do you define professional or personal success in your creative endeavors? Well,
Caletta Harris 02:57
I would define personal professional success is retention rate. I can say my longest client has been 15 years, and then the next one has been 11. So I can say that I have a great rent retention rate with a lot of my clients. And then from there it’s still, you know, multiple years, and then even the new client is like, we don’t want to just stop here. We want to keep that show’s success. To me, that I must be doing something right, and then just personally, it’s kind of the same thing. Sometimes I’d intertwines, but just building relationships personally, because it’s not always professionalism with my clients. So we build that relationship. Yes,
Lexi Raines 03:38
That’s awesome. And sometimes that’s the base you need to work on. So that’s really great. What was your biggest fear when you first decided to pursue the arts professionally? Can
Caletta Harris 03:47
I be self-sustainable? I think that’s a lot of people fear. Can you do this long term? So I was smart with it, because I held on to a job until I said I can do this long term. It kind of worked out. And then when I got my first office space, I just took off from there, because people want to see that to make it real for them, right? So that I just didn’t have to go back doing anything else for anybody else.
Lexi Raines 04:15
And that is awesome. I know a lot of the creatives that I’ve interviewed so far like they are kind of working on their projects, and then they have, like, a day job, and so that seems like difficult to juggle. So it’s awesome that, like, you aren’t having to do that. Okay, so can you describe, for me, like, a defining moment in your creative journey? Like, did you have a particular project that made a significant impact on you
Caletta Harris 04:40
Absolutely! back in 2013 I started a journey while in my office downtown, I read it in the newspaper that city council wanted to do something about their homeless issue, and I was called by what the options were. So I was like, I want to do something about. It. I already have a production company. Let me just start filming and talking to people and seeing what’s going on around me. And it became a full feature documentary. It’s called No Address. It’s a documentary series featuring Columbia, South Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia.
So it talks about, you know, the criminalization of homelessness, what’s going on as well as practical solutions, because we can’t keep talking about the problems without the solutions. And that has had the biggest impact on my life. I the first one came out. Columbia came out in 2020 and Atlanta came out in 2022 so we hit the whole film festival market, and now it’s on Tubi, Amazon. I’m about, I’m thinking, I’m on about 10 streaming platforms now, so it has made a huge impact. I’ve spoken to a lot of colleges, even middle school and high schoolers, and they’re excited about doing something in their own community. So this has been one of my biggest passion projects, and I continue to expand with it, because I want to be a part of the solution now, yes,
Lexi Raines 06:01
That is, like, actually so amazing and so meaningful that is, and being on so many streaming sites like, that’s so cool, that’s actually awesome. So what is the best and worst advice you’ve ever received on your career path? That
Caletta Harris 06:19
Was a struggle, because I can’t really think of the worst advice, because I really block out a lot of that negative energy, right? The best advice, I would say, is when you know someone told me just going through this is to trust yourself, follow your own path, because had a lot of challenges at the beginning, me being a woman owned business, so that was a challenge in itself, and people taking you seriously. So that I that was the best advice was to say, you know you know your worth and follow your path, and you know you know and trust yourself. So but the I could say something generalized, like the worst advice would be something like, it doesn’t matter, everybody’s doing it, so go ahead and do it. And I’m not that type. If you say go right, I’m gonna go left. Open your mind and think creatively, yes, so that I don’t say that. Yeah,
Lexi Raines 07:16
I think that is, like, really good advice to, like, stay true to what you want to do, not what everybody else is doing. So that’s awesome. Can you walk me through like a typical work day for you, what does your process look like and what’s expected of you on a daily basis?
Caletta Harris 07:32
So normally, I wake up, I stretch, I meditate, then I go drink some coffee or tea, and then I either edit or film, depending on the day. So every day is different. I usually work until like seven, unless it’s a long shoot or something, but I kind of cut it off at seven, and then I have me time. I relax and do whatever, and then I try to go to bed by 10 o’clock, because rest is so important to me, because I use my brain so much, and sometimes I’m juggling two or three projects simultaneously. So it’s like shifting gears here and there all the time, somebody else talking about something totally different. So it’s like your mind is always going so I’m like, shut it down at 10 o’clock and then, and then I just start the day, just to rejuvenate and start the day. So that’s kind of my routine. And then I don’t I try not to talk business after seven.
Lexi Raines 08:28
I think that is super smart, like, and a good practice to have, because I think so many times people don’t know where the line, like, the line kind of blurs between, like, work life and personal life. So I think that’s really, really good advice. Actually,
Caletta Harris 08:44
Being entrepreneurs, we people don’t know how to cut it off. It emailed at 2am from people in that one time, and then I said, You know what? This isn’t healthy, because you’re going to burn out at some point. So it’s like, every day is a new day, and I’m ready to conquer it. You know, along
Lexi Raines 09:01
Kind of with that, I know you’ve explained some of them trying to get to bed early. What are some habits that you think would be beneficial for others wanting to do what you do? I
Caletta Harris 09:10
Would say, you know, just find your peace. Whatever it is at times, just take breaks and find your peace. I’m a nature person, so I go out in nature and, you know, just soak it in vitamin D, go out to the farm, you know, things like that, just to digress, and then you can kind of recharge yourself and get back into because you don’t realize, once you do that, how much information can come in and Creativity can come in when always thinking about everything else. So take that time, even if it’s five minutes, whatever it takes, just go out, walk, do something, stretch or just be silent, you know. And a lot of times that really can make a huge difference, subtle, but it can make a big difference.
Lexi Raines 09:57
Yes, I completely agree, just for. My personal experience, I feel like just those few moments that you take to like, ground yourself, super, super important.
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Brooks Leibee
“You can score a Hollywood movie out of a bedroom now.”
Brooks Leibee is a media composer for TV, film, and interactive media, currently working out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He describes his role as “virtually building assets that go into another digital process” and is excited by the growing creative community in the region. Originally a filmmaker, he discovered his love for composition during college and now collaborates with local musicians and studios. Leibee defines success as “being happy doing what you’re doing” and believes strongly in the value of creative work in the digital age.
Interview
Transcript
Emma Plutnicki 00:02
Okay, so to start, what do you do for work and where are you currently working from?
Brooks Leibee 00:07
I’m a Media Composer for TV, film and interactive media, like games. This is my first year venturing into that. I’m currently working out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Emma Plutnicki 00:21
Amazing, so what is one thing that you love about working as a creative in South Carolina, specifically?
Brooks Leibee 00:27
Just from the perspective of via composition, there’s not a lot of us here. It’s a very niche job in industry. It’s one of the- it’s like a big three sort of situation where you find them in, like LA, Nashville, New York, or even overseas. So it’s a rare occasion when I, you know, get to meet other people in my field. So it’s, it’s fun talking to, like, local filmmakers and things like that, because they’re like, “oh, wow, I’ve never met someone who does this sort of thing”. So it’s, it’s, it’s fun to be like, the hidden gem or whatever.
Emma Plutnicki 01:10
Yeah, amazing. So how does having kind of a smaller knit community in South Carolina influence your work as as compared to working in New York or LA if you were to work there?
Brooks Leibee 01:22
It’s far less competitive. Obviously, you make friends. Here it is a small knit community, so there’s that little bit of competition there, but I find it more community based. I mean, there’s only a few studios in the area that can fit ensembles or things like that- that you’d find in soundtracks for things like movies, shows and video games and not a lot of for example, like orchestras that are aware of like forming those relationships with media composers and building a work out of that, cities like Nashville, LA, they they have that just naturally because of the culture there. And also working with people like I said, it’s a lot of fun, because when you’re one of a handful of someone that does a certain thing, the excitement is a fun part of it. I mean, it always feels like, you know, working on something with your friends, because it’s, it’s an exciting thing to have original music for your project. It’s, it’s tailor made. It’s, it’s a bit more emotional, far more than what, like library music or something you pull off of YouTube, for example, can do.
Emma Plutnicki 02:47
Yeah, and how would you describe the local professional working community in Myrtle Beach and in South Carolina overall?
Brooks Leibee 02:58
In South Carolina, most of the people that I work with is it’s a lot more commercial in Myrtle Beach. A lot of people seem to, I know right now they’re working on getting more film projects and narrative projects here, but so far, it’s, it’s heavily commercial in the literal sense. It’s, it’s a lot of commercials, promo, that sort of thing. And the people that are making narrative things in Myrtle Beach, they’re super independent. A lot of the time they’re making everything on their own. So you find a lot of well rounded people in film. Before I started getting into music, when I was at Coastal I was making short films, and a lot of the time I was doing it on doing everything myself, filming, writing, and then getting into music. And that’s how I discovered, wow, this is my favorite part of the process. Let me focus on on this thing and run with it. But most of the people that I work with for narrative appear to be from Midlands, the upstate of South Carolina. A lot of narrative work out of the those cities, and same with like festivals and things like that. So I think, like the film culture more inland out of Myrtle Beach you get the more used to they seem to be and familiar with it, yeah, but I’m excited for the future of film in Myrtle Beach.
Emma Plutnicki 04:29
Yeah that’s exciting. And I mean, within a creative career, it can sometimes be hard to define success. So in your opinion, how do you define either professional success or personal success in your career?
Brooks Leibee 04:48
Yeah, I guess it’s like, professional success, it’s like, it’s a comfortability. And I guess that comes in fine with personal success. If you’re happy doing what you’re doing, people always say, if your- if your job- if you have fun with your job, it won’t feel like a job, and when there’s bills to pay and things like that can be tough. It’s not a rare thing for someone to have a day job, and that’s fine. You just you have to live. So if you’re struggling with your creative you know, job, your career in that field, work for it. Never, don’t give up on it. But if you have to get a part time, or even full time job, I know plenty of people that have full time jobs on top of their full time jobs. So it’s, it’s, it’s- it’s overall, it’s okay. And it’s not a failure. It’s not a failure. It’s not a you know, time waster. You have to live. And whenever you have that creative job, it that’s like, what keeps you going. So I think, yes, the personal success is just being happy doing what you’re doing, and professional success, you know, you’re living comfortably if you’re if you’re struggling, that tends to make the creative job harder, because sometimes the creative jobs are more expensive than living so.
Emma Plutnicki 06:11
Yeah, and so when you decided to go into this career, did you have any fears, or did you have, like- What was your biggest fear going into this career?
Brooks Leibee 06:25
Starting out, yeah, the fear of just industry, like in Myrtle Beach, it’s it’s growing, for sure, the last few years, especially, it’s just been rapid shifting, especially in community, with just meeting people, but starting out, yeah, there, you know, just no one here in this industry, even in just like the more, even more niche parts of it, like recording engineers, orchestrators, things, you know, things that go into it, that more behind the scenes, that a lot of people don’t get to see or or know about but we’re thinking about it all the time, and be the prospect of moving to another city. So LA was always on the mind, uh, Nashville, New York, things where, or even overseas, where these industries are flourishing, and that’s where the people are, and there’s an abundance of of culture and facility resources, especially so I’m sure in the future it’ll be it’ll become more localized, and there are more resources than there were just a few years ago. So yeah, starting out, it was just the fear of location, industry, resources, things like that. But career wise, those go hand in hand. But yeah, there weren’t, there aren’t many fears in terms of like choice or like repercussions of career choice, if that makes sense.
Emma Plutnicki 08:03
Yeah and so when you have those fears, were there any people around you giving you advice? What was the best and worst advice that you have received throughout your career?
Brooks Leibee 08:18
Worst advice is going to be is going to take a minute.
Emma Plutnicki 08:20
Yeah?
Brooks Leibee 08:20
Best advice that I hear all the time, and it’s true. I mean, it’s it’s proven true, just in my experience. But with some jobs, you can do it wherever. With this job, especially like in the digital age and post COVID, we’re like working from home became part of our daily lives with this, I’m, you know, I’m virtually building assets that go into another digital process. You know, in editing, people just drop the music in, it lines up, and that’s it. You know, there’s some mixing that other people have to do, but my job can literally be done anywhere, and especially now post COVID, a lot of the things, like the things I was talking about with recording engineers and recording spaces that can fit large ensembles, there are brand new services overseas or even in the states that can record large Hollywood scale orchestras that are used in Hollywood films and TV shows and video games remotely, and these are in major European countries and cities with AAA musicians, some of the best in the world. And that’s a post COVID thing that wasn’t possible pre-2020, so that just yeah, that adds to it. So you can, really, you can write. Like, I’m working out of my bedroom right now. Yeah, you can write anywhere, prepare, do all of your mechanical technical work. And then, I mean, yeah, you can, you can, you can score a Hollywood movie out of out of a bedroom now. And I think that’s crazy. That’s probably the best advice that I’ve heard everywhere. And it’s proven true that you can work from anywhere in this field. And, yeah, worst advice is hard.
Emma Plutnicki 10:29
That’s good, good that you haven’t had anybody tell you-
Brooks Leibee 10:34
I- if I hear or see things, something where, that’s where something you know, rubs me the wrong way. I tend to deflect it, because there’s just no point, you know, in focusing on- on- on our you know, of course, there’s the doubters and people that that are always going to say creative fields aren’t successful. You know, it’s a rare thing. It’s one, one in a million, which I’m sure, I’m sure there’s some statistic truth to that. But if you know, if you work hard, work hard, and you love what you’re doing, and you’re good at what you what you’re doing, that comes with working hard, and over time, yeah, you fly. So it’s, yeah.
Emma Plutnicki 11:17
Yeah, no, I love that. And so throughout your career, have you had any specific project that has made a big impact on on you, or something that you’ve produced that has really showcased your creativity?
Brooks Leibee 11:35
Last year yeah, I worked- I got to work with another Coastal alum on a short film. Name is Jay Bennett, and they made this Gothic Horror short that, yeah, she produced a short film while she was at Howard, and it was the most creative and I think culturally and emotionally rich project that I’ve gotten to write music for, and when things like that have that amount of support creatively, that makes music writing so much easier. So I really enjoyed scoring that one, and also that was a very fun project to produce because worked with a studio in Calabash, North Carolina called Sunset Beach recording. Ironically, it’s not in Sunset Beach, but yeah, and local musicians, five cellists and the bass player. So there’s this cello choir that we called it, but like a low string ensemble, and recorded there for for a few hours, and just got to jam with some cellists and that was a lot of fun. Some were from Wilmington, some were from Myrtle Beach. And, yeah, just the, like, just the Carolina musicianship showed itself there, and that was a lot of fun. So I definitely think that’s where, like, oh, local resources are here. And it was a lot of fun, especially, and I feel more prepared for future projects when that sort of opportunity comes again. That was the second time I got to record with musicians. So you know, if you learn as you go, and that was definitely the more successful session.
Emma Plutnicki 13:36
Yeah amazing. It must be so cool to see the music come to life like that. Very cool-
Brooks Leibee 13:43
Yeah, it’s unreal every time.
Emma Plutnicki 13:44
Yeah, so nowadays, what- What does a typical work day look like? What’s expected of you on a daily basis? What does your work process look like?
Brooks Leibee 13:54
It’s very different. Every day. I don’t have, like, a set process, but I like to set deadlines, so usually days like today is when I’m having calls, having meetings and setting my calendar for deadlines through the week or in the following weekend. So and I live in my calendar and my it’s just the Apple calendar. I live out of that thing. So a lot of the scheduling happen happens through there. So from say, I have a call today for a project coming up in the next couple of weeks, if it’s a film, generally, after the first call, I like to set up what’s called a spotting session, where either the filmmaker or I can screen share. We watch the project. Usually it’s edited. It’s mostly done by the time I’m but I’m brought on board and we set ins and outs for things called cues, where music starts in. Ends, and that’s for every scene. So we just watch the movie and talk about what music could go there, what it’s supposed to do, what it could sound like. And from there, I start sketching, and that’s usually like a week to two weeks most time I’m working on short films. So there they come together pretty quickly, and from then, it’s just a an approval process. So I’m sending drafts, either they- they have notes, or they sign off. And if I’m given the opportunity to record musicians, that’s probably another two weeks of taking the virtual music from my software and transferring it onto paper as legible music for musicians, and then contracting a space the musicians, setting a date, making sure everyone is ready to go on that- sending the musicians the music, and then recording, and after that’s just mixing, mastering the music and then sending it off to the editor. And it’s very similar for for interactive music, a lot more music than your than a short film whenever it’s a game, but that’s generally it’s generally a similar process, only when you’re writing, you’re focusing on interactivity, loops, stingers and the different possible endings for where a player chooses to go in a game. That’s, that’s a whole other, whole other thing. But yeah, generally that’s, that’s the process, and it’s different with each project. But usually it’s a about a month, month and a half for a project.
Emma Plutnicki 16:57
Okay, yeah, so it sounds like pretty busy schedule. So how were you able to kind of manage the work life balance with keeping personal creativity, but then also getting your professional work done?
Brooks Leibee 17:09
Yeah, also days like today, I feel like Sundays generally are like the “life day”. I hang out with my roommates a lot more because most of the scheduling and calls happen in the morning to afternoon. So after that, yeah, anything’s possible. So but, and then also just throughout, throughout weeks. Some, you know, some days are off, or even in off seasons, sometimes there isn’t a project. So it’s a lot of, excuse me, so it’s a lot of like, housekeeping or, yeah, it’s sparse, but like, Yeah, but it’s there. The work, the work life balance is there. And actually had a kind of conversation with a friend online not long ago about the work life balance and how it’s just life. You know, it’s all it’s all life. So if because I can get caught up in the whole work life balance thing like, Oh, am I spending my putting enough time into A or B? But if you, if you are mindful about it, and you don’t spiral over one thing or another, and just making sure that you’re spending time taking care of yourself, touching grass, you know, getting out of getting out of your space, and I’m working out of my bedroom. So, you know, it’s always a work life, a mix. You know, my beds are behind me. My there’s a closet of clothes right there. You know, it’s, but on the opposite side, I have all, all of my instruments and tools and my desk right here. So it and living with a house of roommates, you know, we’re young, we’re saving money. It’s, it’s the intersection of work, like work life balance and Brooks’s life right there. That makes it really interesting, but it but it’s working, and as long as it works for you, won’t work for everyone, but as long as it works for you, and you’ll find that then.
Emma Plutnicki 19:34
Yeah, that’s a great way of looking at it. And just as we wrap up our Is there anything else that you would like to add, or any questions you wish that I might have asked that I didn’t?
Brooks Leibee 19:49
No, I think you asked really good questions. Anything else to add? I- Yeah, the- this, it’s funny with things like social media and like online presence. Since, since you are where, at least from my perspective, I am working out of my bedroom. I amsometimes going overseas for programs or, you know, traveling the country to meet to meet friends. It’s it, but all of these are connected online. So I think having a strong, a strong social media presence is important, but especially today, where social media is in a very strange spot. Yeah, you have to be careful, I suppose, maintain your professionalism. I think more so because in these creative fields where, and especially living in somewhere like Myrtle Beach, where there isn’t an industry for this specific job. It’s all online. You’re going to be talking to people from around the world, around the country, and you never know who’s going to come across you. I was went to a concert in New York last year, very end of last year, and the composer, I’m a huge fan of or, his music, excuse me, and we had a moment to chat after his concert, and he recognized me just from online. He’s like, “Oh yeah, I see you everywhere”. I was like, “Oh, is that a good thing? “Didn’t clarify, so I don’t know, but, but yet, but we had a great talk, and talked about music and things like that. But that made it very clear that you know your presence online is very important now, and if you’re in a creative field, it’s, it’s a weird moment in time where you kind of have to be very active and putting things out there, which is something that I’m personally struggling with, is just writing music that I can just, you know, throw online. Because sometimes with projects, you have this like respectability thing, where you don’t want to throw all your music out there, because the filmmaker is, you know, still processing, and it’s a creative process, and you don’t want to show all of it. It’s a thing also NDAs with larger projects, but, yeah, social media presence is big, and the work life balance thing is also there with- with, like your personal accounts and professional accounts. That’s the one that comes to mind right now. Yeah, not sure of anything else.
Emma Plutnicki 23:06
No, that’s great. Thanks for sharing all that. And so last thing, if there is any other creative that you think we could benefit from talking to, would love to hear of anybody. I could send you a link to that to nominate people. So I’ll give you time to think on it, if you can think of anybody. But other than that, thanks for talking with me today.
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Akai Shelise Jones
“Success is building meaningful relationships with our youth… making sure that the youth get positive exposure and not just be limited to what their sentence is.”
Akai Shelise Jones is the Visual Digital Media Director for the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, where she blends creativity with purpose to tell powerful stories of change.
Interview
Transcript
Emma Plutnicki 00:02
So to start, what do you do for work and where are you currently working from?
Akai Shelise Jones 00:06
All right. So, hi guys. My name is Akai Jones. I currently work for the Department of Juvenile Justice, and what I do here is, the state title is Public Information Manager. So, I urge anyone, if they were going to look, it’s in the communications umbrella, but my in-house title is Visual Digital Media Director. So, it runs the gamut from anything like, if we have an incident here, I may have to communicate that internally. If it’s really bad, we may have to communicate that externally, and that would happen by way of media notification, some type of writing. Sometimes it’s drafting a letter or a memo to state the facts, so the funner sides of it, or the more love and light sides of it, I get to carry a camera and I go out and sometimes I just try to capture things that are around retention efforts for current employees. Sometimes it’s trying to gain the interest of potential employees. So, I may post some employee morale things. I run the social media page so you can check out the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice Facebook page. Sometimes it’s website updates. So, it really is a lot under the communications umbrella.
Emma Plutnicki 01:38
Yeah, and how long have you been working there for?
Akai Shelise Jones 01:41
So, this August will make three years.
Emma Plutnicki 01:44
Okay.
Akai Shelise Jones 01:45
Yeah, it’s coming up fast. But prior to that, I was a foster care social worker, so this has always been my population of people. We have youth here depending on the age, but most of the youth are anywhere between, and this is facility wide, between 13 and 18.
Emma Plutnicki 02:06
Okay, makes sense. And so what does the typical day to day look like for you? What are your responsibilities and what do you get into on a daily basis?
Akai Shelise Jones 02:13
So it depends. So, I try to be very organized, because I’m the only one that does this job for the entire state of South Carolina. So depending on, I usually try to keep like a content calendar. And like, for instance, this month is Social Worker Month Appreciation Month. So instead of just doing a flyer, I was like, let’s do something a little different this year, as long as everyone is on board. So, we had, like the leadership, our deputy directors, submit a few names, and I literally went out and grabbed a few interviews for a few social workers. So now that would mean capturing it, editing, putting some graphic design around some of the more poignant parts of the interview. So that’s just like one small piece. Some like day, the day after tomorrow, we have a community graduation. So that’s anybody that’s in a community role. So, you could be Intensive Supervision, you know, a Probation Officer. You could be an administrative person in the community, because we have over 43—it’s either 43 or 46, excuse me, counties, and those people do varied work. So, I may go out, I’ll take the graduation so that everybody has that personal moment. I’ll just do still photographs, but then I’ll come back to Facebook and post, we had another graduation. We had X amount of people. So, the duties do change. The other hot topic right now is we’re migrating from an old, kind of antiquated website to a new one. So I had to, like, kind of go through my external drive and find some cool pictures and upload that. Then there was a lot of text. I had to go back, and I had to vet information with leadership and say, “Is this still valid? Do we still need this? Is this any good?” So, it—that’s been laborious in that way, because it’s just like, I gotta make sure that everything is current and, you know, still even relevant. Yeah, so it really depends day to day.
Emma Plutnicki 04:30
Yeah, and with so many tasks on a daily basis, how do you personally define success in your role? Is it accomplishing all your tasks? Is it financial based? Is it, you know, ideological? How do you define success in your career?
Akai Shelise Jones 04:45
For me, I think it’s getting the right stories out, and what I mean by the right stories. A lot of employees here have been here for 17, 20 years. And for me, I think there’s some intrinsic value to getting those stories out where people don’t, you know, they don’t even know what the role is. I mean, some roles are so unique, like, I have a colleague of mine. He’s a Hearings Officer. Well, he’s the only one that does that role over the entire state. So, getting his story out and like, how the worlds collide with how we help our youth. To me, that’s the most important is just making sure that these kids are exposed as well. Like, because I have the clinical background with social work, it allows me to open up that conversation when I just have the camera out. So, they’re like, “Ms. Akai, you know you’re gonna, can you take my picture?” or “Do you do, you know, you do videos, you do music videos?” You know? And it allows me to put the camera in their hand, and then I have a conversation, and I might say, what are you in here for? And somebody may say, “Well, I did armed robbery.” I mean, some of these charges are heavy. And I’m like, “How much do you think the camera is?” And you know, they usually don’t guess. And I’m like, “Just the body of the camera, without a lens, is $3,600” and they’re like, “What?” And then I start to tell them. I said, “Well, if you were to book me as a client for two hours, what could you charge me to come out and shoot your event?” So, I think for me, defining success is have—making building meaningful relationships with our youth, giving them the opportunity to understand what I do and how it can translate to their life, and getting their stories out. So like, I guess the long answer is, you know, making sure that the youth get positive exposure and not just be limited to what their sentence is.
Emma Plutnicki 06:48
Yeah, no, it makes sense. And did you have any fears when you were coming into this career?
Akai Shelise Jones 06:53
I won’t really say fears, but like, there was some apprehension, because I’m what we call, we have some jargon, but we call it “behind the fence.” So like, for you, I wanted to take your call, but if there’s an incident and I’m on the other side of the fence where I’m just locked out, you know, so I think, like, more family and like friends were like, “Don’t do it,” you know, they have these stories and in their mind it made up that this is jail, this is corrections. But for me, it was a dream come true, because, like, I’ve always loved media, but, and I’ve always liked working with children, and really on the prevention side and the intervention side, but here, just because they’ve made a mistake doesn’t mean that it’s over. So, this was a dream job to be able to have both parts for me. So, I really didn’t listen to anyone, but I would say apprehension, like, would I be safe? You know, would I be able to tell the stories in the way that I want, have the autonomy to work? But I don’t know. I’m from the Bronx too, so I don’t, I don’t know about being scared.
Emma Plutnicki 08:04
Yeah, no, it makes sense. You mentioned your family members talking about it. Have you received any advice from family or friends or mentors or other colleagues along the way in your career, either positive or negative? And what kind of things do people say, what’s like, the worst and the best thing that people have given you advice about?
Akai Shelise Jones 08:27
The best advice is keep creating like, no matter what. I probably would say the worst advice is people saying, “Oh, they don’t want to see that,” you know, or “Oh, don’t, don’t do the pictures. Just do a newsletter, a stoic newsletter with no pictures or no don’t attach video to it.” I think that’s probably the worst advice, because in this ever changing world where we’re literally being, our attention spans are like really being governed by social media and things like that, like we have an opportunity to leverage that in the communications field and, like, do things in a new and fresh way. And so, I think that’s probably been the worst advise. Like, don’t do it, just somebody trying to put a limit on the seat. You know, when I look at it, like it’s a glass ceiling, I’m like, I can keep going. So, I don’t know. I’m just, I motivate myself, I try new things, and I think I really have leadership. You know, I have a nice relationship with the director here, Eden Hendrick, and the Chief of Staff, Christine Wallace, and they give me the autonomy to work, and that is probably the biggest blessing, so I can try new things. If it doesn’t work. They you know, I don’t know if there’s anything they’ve ever been displeased with, but they may tell me, I have an area of opportunity, and I work on them go from there.
Emma Plutnicki 09:48
No, that’s great to have, great to have. And throughout your career, has there been one moment that stood out as an especially significant moment in your career? Whether that’s a project you worked on, maybe an individual who impacted you, anything like that?
Akai Shelise Jones 10:05
I think one of the things that I have, I have two, but I’ll give you one. When I see youth, if they’ve been incarcerated and they’re out, they’re released into the community, and they’re able to actually come back and say, “Ms. Akai, I’m working. I’m here, I’m, you know, I’m helping my family.” So I started a segment called, where are they now? And I think the most memorable time was I had a young man and he said, “Ms. Akai, I want to play for South Carolina State.” And I was like, “What?” And he, big guy, and when you go, go scroll our Facebook page and look, look for in the video section. But so the team, we have a Career Readiness Team here that worked with him to help him with admissions and getting into the school and that kind of thing. Well, for me, what was so gratifying was, he was like, “Well, let’s just ride up there and you can see, you know, be a part of the process.” So it was like, I was like an extended family member, and it was myself, a few of the counselors here that worked with him, and I literally just followed him around with the camera through SC State, and then the school superintendent here, Floyd Lyles, was like, we’re gonna try to find the football team, since that’s what he wants to do. So we, like, went to that building, and ironically, the football team happened to be in a meeting, and they—we just kind of knocked on the door and they let us in. So he, to see the kid light up and say, this is at arm’s reach. It is attainable. And like to capture all of those moments. And it was just a short video. I mean, I think in it was toward the end of 2024 but like in a short amount of time, I had over 20,000 views, and that that felt good, because he got exposure, and it just showed that these kids are more than their, the first mistake that they made. So that was pretty memorable.
Emma Plutnicki 12:10
That’s a great story, and I’m sure it’s so rewarding to be able to see those stories come to light. Amazing. Yeah. And just like as we’re wrapping up, is there anything else you’d like to share about your career? Any advice for young professionals, young professionals who might want to get into this career?
Akai Shelise Jones 12:29
I would, I would tell them the first thing is, go beyond the actual search, because I think looking for a job like sometimes the descriptions are not really what we think it is, and like for me, seeing public information, having no exposure to what that meant, may have deterred me from applying. So I would say, do a cross search, ask questions, and look at some of the sub points within a posting, and then ask questions about those sub bullets because a lot of times something that you want to do is really embedded in that job description. I think the second thing would be, is still try the job shadowing. It feels like it may be an archaic thought, but some people are willing, whether it be internships, career shadowing and going for a day. I would tell those young folks, go online and be bold, because they’re so brazen and bold now. Use that boldness to like command and build what career you want, because you can do it. And not saying like you can do it, but like you, literally, it’s within arm’s reach to have someone write a position description and really make a job for you that you may not necessarily see on Indeed, on Monster or whatever, and that the third thing would be, use the creativity that they have in their personal life. You know, if you’re, if you’re a social media person, if you’re a Tiktok person, use that to get some structure around what you do, because it will help you professionally. So, I’ll give an example. If you, if you are, if you podcast, I’m just saying, and you think it’s just fun and you’re doing it with your friends, well, really set up the structure of a show. Really, storyboard, really, you know, do a treatment, really do a shot list for it. So, I would urge them to do what they do in their—use what they do in their personal time, and make it as structured and professional as they can, because it will translate to a career that’s awesome like this.
Emma Plutnicki 14:41
Yeah, well, thank you so much for your advice.
Akai Shelise Jones 14:44
You’re welcome.
Emma Plutnicki 14:45
I really appreciate it.
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David Estrada
“You want your creatives to be the enigmas. You want them to be undefinable… I try to be chaotic as possible.”
David Estrada is the Director of Content Production at Cargo, a marketing firm based in Greenville, South Carolina. With degrees in both film and advertising from the University of Texas, Estrada blends creative direction with strategic thinking. He founded his own production company in Austin before transitioning into agency work, where he now leads cross-disciplinary teams. Passionate about film, media, and collaboration, Estrada emphasizes the importance of creative chaos and community in South Carolina’s upstate marketing scene.
Interview
Transcript
Lexi Raines 00:00
David. Okay, so first, just give a little introduction of yourself, like, what’s your name? Who do you work for? And where are you currently working from?
David Estrada 00:11
Yeah. So my name is David Estrada. I am the director of content production at Cargo in Greenville, South Carolina, and it’s a marketing firm that’s been around since 2006
Lexi Raines 00:25
Okay, so have you been working there since 2006 or how long have you been- How long have you worked there?
David Estrada 00:33
I’ve been working at Cargo since April of 2016 so about 10 years after it started, I came on board. It was a company of about 15,12 to 15 people and since has, you know, I’ve been there about nine years, and it’s grown at one point. At its largest it was like 75 people, and now we’re back to under 50. I was pre-COVID. Now we’re back to just under 50.
Lexi Raines 01:06
Yeah, that’s still like a lot of growth, though and COVID impacted so many different things so for sure. So what’s one thing that you love working you- that you love about working as a creative in South Carolina?
David Estrada 01:21
Yeah, one thing that I love about working as a creative in South Carolina, wow. You know, there’s so many things that come to mind. I studied film, radio, television, film, studied advertising. Got two different degrees at the University of Texas, you know, way back when, and never really thought that things would pan out to where I was doing both of those things at one location. You know, at one job, it’s one of those things where you- you hear stories about how people study a certain thing and they get into a totally different field. And so I just feel very lucky, very, you know, blessed, I guess, to be able to be working in in the creative field like I hoped and intended to but as far as like, yeah, the creative field in South Carolina specifically, I like that there is a base, a very good baseline, of creative professionals and strategic professionals in upstate South Carolina, and I can’t really speak from any real experience in the coastal or midlands area, haven’t worked in those regions, but in the upstate, it’s- it’s nice to be surrounded by folks with so much experience to be able to learn from and I don’t know that you necessarily get that in every region, every market, yeah.
Lexi Raines 03:10
So would you say that’s like, it’s unique influence on you compared to being anywhere else?
David Estrada 03:18
Yeah, you know, this area, I guess, has the- the benefit of, at one point in history, there was a very large amount of advertising being done on a national scale from one particular agency called Henderson advertising, and there was just a lot of money coming through the area for that, and that agency, I think, collapsed back, I don’t want to misspeak on what year that happened, but it shut its doors, and from that, a lot of other like smaller agencies and professionals that learned from being at that shop kind of fragmented off and started their own shops. So now there’s just a very robust community of advertisers you know, marketing and advertising agencies.
Lexi Raines 04:22
Yeah, that’s awesome. So, could you go into like, a little bit more detail about the profession, the community there?
David Estrada 04:31
Definitely, yeah, you know, it’s, it’s a, it’s a small, I mean, you know, it’s a small place. So it feels like everybody has kind of worked everywhere, at all the different shops. Everybody kind of knows each other, or has at least heard of each other the like I said, there’s a mix of video production strategy, design, copywriting, developers, photographers, and, you know, it’s, it’s nice in in a smaller region or market like this, to have the opportunity to work in smaller organizations where you get to learn about all those different fields. So I think especially as a young professional, I- I came in as a project manager, and that allowed me to interact across every single creative discipline to kind of learn, like, okay, what are the challenges that copywriters face, as far as, like, you know, the direction they get from their- their creative directors versus, you know, what they hear from the clients, versus like, how they’re briefed in on projects. You know, what are the challenges that designers face that are different than, like, what an animator would- would face, and then how all those kind of cogs work together in efficiencies from like, how they transfer files back and forth, how they work from the Cloud, versus what types of things need to be local, like, you know, local hard drives and or local servers. And, you know, how do they collaborate? Not just like, like, technically, but also how they collaborate in the brain space, you know, and in hybrid environments. Or, you know, in the same room and kind of like what the hierarchy is, you know, being a being a project manager, allowed me to just integrate myself across all those things. You know, I came from a background of, like I said, having studied film, you know, in college, I came from that more writing background and editing background directing and I actually owned a production company for four years in Austin after college, in Austin, Texas, after college. And so I also got the benefit of kind of learning the hard way about the aspects of like being an entrepreneur, being a business owner, you know, paying vendor invoices, accounts receivable, accounts payable. You know, paying, filing your taxes, managing a team, both internal and external, payroll, payroll taxes, and- and so there’s, there was kind of all these things that that fuse together from my background, so that when the opportunity arrived for me to kind of take more even as a project manager, take more creative control and provide more creative direction that the agency that I was at recognized that, and then, you know, allowed me to kind of make the shift over to being a full time creative
Lexi Raines 08:13
Yeah, that’s awesome. So having that background in film and then being a project manager, that’s like combining so many different aspects, like you were explaining, how have you come to, like, define your professional or personal successes and your creative endeavors?
David Estrada 08:32
How to define, gosh, you know, I think that’s what everybody’s always trying to do is to define creatives and that’s it’s just that’s not what you want to do. You want- you want your creatives to be the enigmas. You want them to be undefinable, like if, if your creatives are operating inside of your systems, then they’re not able to be creative. You know, I think that’s why you hire that’s why you hire a quote, unquote creative is because you want them to be thinking of different not just to provide you with a set of materials that you think you want but to provide you with processes, ways of thinking, ways of getting work done that are outside of your- your the blinders that you might have on as- as a business owner or as a strategist. So as far as how I would define my creative success. I think it’s, it’s that I, I try to be chaotic as possible. Yeah.
Lexi Raines 09:54
Yeah. I think, I think those are really good points to keep in mind. Success to everybody and creativity to anybody is just so different, depending on like whoever you ask. So it really, really is person to person. So you said that you started a film production company out once you got out of college. What was your biggest fear like when you decided to pursue that.
David Estrada 10:22
Oh, money for sure, you know, like, I think everybody is seeking a sense of security, you know, a sense of that, that feeling of being safe and a life of filmmaking is the furthest thing from that is It’s the scariest thing I think you can set out to do, not only because of how vulnerable your work is can be, but also because of that financial security aspect. So, you know, I mean, I was definitely afraid of putting my work out there and- and people not understanding it, or people, you know, ragging on it or- or critiquing it, and but then there’s always people that interpret it in new ways that I didn’t even think about. But I think that was always why- That was also why I studied advertising in addition to film, was because I wanted to understand the science behind, like, how businesses use the craft that that I love, and I would, I would definitely, like, recommend to everybody, like, even if you’re really interested in in film or- or any of the arts really, you know, take the time to go to finance classes, go to accounting classes, go to management and marketing classes, because even in today’s, I mean, especially in today’s age, like you are always marketing yourself. You know, your smile is your handshake, your, sorry, your- what is the saying? It’s something like your smile is your business card, your handshake is your website kind of, you know, but like we were always, regardless of how good we are at something, just being really good is not necessarily enough to get paid. You have to be able to sell your abilities. Does that kind of answer the question?
Lexi Raines 12:40
Yes, it does, and that’s honestly, that’s something I’ve heard across the board in some of the interviews I’ve done. I think that’s something that a lot of emerging creatives do need to understand, is that there’s so much more to it. Rather than just being creative, you have to know, like you said, how to market yourself, networking all the business aspects of it. So, I feel like that’s that’s really something good to think about.
David Estrada 13:08
Yeah, I would say the other well, can you go back to what the top? Know, what the question was at the top?
Lexi Raines 13:13
The question I asked? Yeah, your biggest fear when you first decided to pursue the arts?
David Estrada 13:19
Okay? Yeah, okay, yeah. I was just, I was thinking I wanted to add something else to that, but I think we summed it up.
Lexi Raines 13:29
Yeah, okay, awesome and so you’ve come a long way since graduating, obviously. Do you have, like, a defining moment in your creative journey, like was, did you have a particular project that you think made a significant impact on you?
David Estrada 13:48
There is one defining moment that does come to mind. It’s not actually a creative project, which I mean, I could, I could give a creative project as well as it was defining. But I think probably something like one of the things that made the biggest difference in my career was actually, I took two years off of college after freshman year. f\Freshman year, I went in wholeheartedly, like, I’m going to study film and and I was my, my only major. And then I took two years off, I came back, and I think that that that fear, like you talked about, that fear of security, had started to creep in. And so I thought, “you know what? It’s- films just not a- a viable career choice”. It’s an, you know, as an art like I’m always gonna be struggling. And so I went to my career advisor at- at UT and told him, “hey, you know, I want to, I want to change my, my major over to advertising”. And he said, “okay, cool. You know, schedule you to class- Classes, we’ll get you set and, you know, apply to the advertising school. We’ll see if you get in”. I should find out in a couple of weeks. This is like at the start of the semester, and I’m walking out, and I hit the button to go down the elevator, and this woman comes running, walking quickly towards me, and she’s like, “Hey, I’m so sorry,- I I am the Career Advisor with the office next door to yours, and I’m just, I couldn’t I couldn’t help the doors were open. I couldn’t help I was eavesdropping”. I was like, “oh, okay, nope, whatever. I don’t care”. And she’s like, “well, I just, I felt like, you know, you sounded like, you really love making films, making movies, and, you know, you can, like, double major or whatever, right?” And I was like, “no, like, I didn’t even realize that was a concept”. She’s like, “well, you know, with maybe, like, an extra semester looking at the” because, I guess while we had been meeting, she was like, “looking at the comparisons and like, how they how the courses would- would interactions like, I think with like, one extra semester, you could get a degree in both”. And I was like, “No way. Okay”. So then I walked right back into her office and sat down, and she got me totally rearranged and set up. I ended up getting an email from the moody College of Communication at UT that I wasn’t accepted into the advertising program, and then like, the next day, or it might even been, like, two hours later, they’re like, “oh, sorry, we made a clerical error. You’re in”. I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is like, such a roller coaster”, yeah. So that was definitely a defining moment, because now I get to have a full time job out of this. I’ve worked professionally, full time in publishing, on the publishing side, making videos and original content. And I’ve worked, you know, obviously I had my business doing commercial work and short film, and then I’ve had an agency job for nine years, and every time, it’s always been with an angle of marketing, plus video or video production or photography production. So definitely extremely grateful for that.
Lexi Raines 17:19
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that sounds, that sounds awesome. Like I- I feel like you don’t really ever wish someone was eavesdropping on you, but in that moment, I feel like that made a big difference for sure. And I feel like- I feel like everybody really, especially in college, needs somebody that’s going to guide them towards their passions, but also something that is, I don’t want to say, more realistic, but will help stabilize you. So I feel like that’s really awesome.
David Estrada 17:52
It’s good to have something to be to be grounded to. And, you know, I don’t want this in any way, shape or form, to deter somebody from fully pursuing the arts, because, you know, this is just my path, and it’s probably my path, because maybe I never fully took the leap, you know, like there, I think that there. I mean, I have colleagues from- from college who have struggled, but then I also have colleagues who did take that leap. And now are, you know, VPs at, I don’t know, like one of my buddies is VP at Black Bear pictures, you know, which has produced award winning films, and we graduated the same year, you know. So it’s, I think it’s that move of like being in the place where the work is going on, like a New York or in LA, can be very difficult financially and but if you love it enough and you’re willing to put up with the difficulty and be patient. I mean, I think that that is still the move. I don’t know how much longer you know that will be the move. Maybe things are fractaling out, you know, to different regions a little bit more. But, yeah.
Lexi Raines 19:17
Yeah, I feel like, definitely- I feel like New York and LA used to be, like a big hub for all of that, but I feel, especially with the internet and social media and everything, I feel like it’s definitely way more possible to be creative outside of those areas now, like easier than it was then. So this kind of goes along the lines of what you were talking about. But what’s the best and worst advice that you’ve ever received?
David Estrada 19:50
Okay, start with sort of the worst advice, which was. Is,” don’t be so idealistic”, which, I mean, I’ll explain because, you know, I think that there’s, there’s definitely some, I mean, there’s some drawbacks to being an idealist, but that, if you don’t have something that keeps you going, you don’t have some kind of hope, you don’t have some kind of, like, vision for what the best possible outcome could be, then what are you doing? You know what I mean, like, in order to be a visionary, like, well, in order to be a person who can affect positive change in your own life or in the life of your coworkers or your family, like, my opinion, you have got to be an idealist with a healthy dose of pragmatism. You have to know what it’s going to take. You can’t be, you know, pure idealist. You have to understand what the barriers are going to be. But there’s always going to be that final gap between what seems possible and what is impossible, that like, there’s only like, there’s only so much like delusion that you can have about a goal, right? Because if you have too many delusions, then people are going to write you off. I think you get one delusion per goal, and that delusion is usually the idea that you can do it, that you can be the one to do it, unless you’re like, you know Ryan Reynolds, or you know Trump, or whoever, like people who don’t have to the delusion doesn’t have to be them, because people already know that they can do it, right. So then they can have delusions about other, like, other things in the project, and that gap can be made up. But yeah, I would say the worst advice would be like, don’t be so idealistic. Gotta have some- gotta be an idealist to become a visionary. The best advice I’ve ever received was listen. Listen a lot more than you speak. Because, in my opinion, telling stories is not about talking in order to find the best story and ultimately tell the best story, you have to listen to the world around you, the people around you. That’s where you’re going to find the inspiration. And if you’re too busy worrying about, like, what am I going to say, what am I going to write, you’re always going to be in your own head. You know, draw from the experiences of other people. And I do think it’s an issue that maybe, maybe it’s rooted in academia. In early K through 12, academia, of like, okay, we got a speech class, we got an oration class. We don’t have, like, we don’t teach listening skills, and there’s the public speaking aspect, but I think listen more than you than you speak. In order to tell a great story, you got to listen first.
Lexi Raines 23:37
Yeah, I think that. I think that’s a great thing to live by. That’s really something that we focus on here at the Athenaeum Press- is just lifting up people’s voices from all over South Carolina, because at the end of the day, their stories matter, and they deserve to be heard, and who knows they can, if they can help anybody. It was something that was worth putting out there. Yeah, so kind of shifting gears. Do you have, like, a typical work day? Like, what does your process look like, and what’s expected of you on a daily basis?
David Estrada 24:08
For sure. Yeah. So I think that those things change a lot, because as much when you’ve been somewhere for a very long time, like 10 years, the business around you changes, and what that business needs from you can- can change pretty drastically. So like I said, I started off as a project manager, and then I became a producer, and then became a, I guess, like, for lack of a better term, like an executive producer, or like a, like a, like a production lead. So I had as a manager. I had a full team of shooters, filmmakers, editors, animators, and so, you know, my role shifted more towards being a sort of like a creative director over video and helping to make sure that all of those folks had the resources that they need and had the information that they needed in order to do their jobs, but so now my day to day is much more in the trenches of executing the work rather than the managerial side. So my day to day is oftentimes show up to a set and take a bunch of photos, commercial photography, and then spend some time in post-production, retouching those, color grading those. Or, you know, my- my day might be, because now I have a producer who does, like most of the communication stuff for me, and, you know, she might come to me and say,” Hey, we have a new bid. Can you help me kind of scope out what the lift will be, what the level of effort will be?” And so I could, I could provide some input on the budget side, or, you know, it might be, hey, we, we’ve got this new video project that we need you to direct. And so I might then be on set, you know, doing the actual commercial direction of the spot. You know, help with crewing up projects. So, you know, maybe, maybe I need to reach out and contact some directors of photography, you know, video shooters that I would want to bring on board a project. You know, other producers that could help gaffers or hair and makeup artists and just using my network to kind of crew up shoots, or honestly, a large part of my day, each day could be spent editing video, doing sound mix and color grade and searching for music tracks.
Lexi Raines 27:30
So that sounds like definitely a lot to kind of schedule and work around. How have you created a work life balance, where you think you’re able to maintain both your professional and your personal creativity.
David Estrada 27:48
I think in advertising business, there is because what you’re selling is the brain power of your people. You know, there, there’s not a physical production line with a product that is the output, where you can physically measure the quality versus the competitions output in a quantifiable way. I think, you know, media and data try to do that. But as a- as a creative shop like us that doesn’t have an internal we have media partners that we work with, but not an internal media arm. You know, it’s very difficult to come up with, like, an idea of how we measure up against the competition in a non-qualitative way. So, because of that, it is an extremely competitive industry, and everyone is always vying for that next AOR contract. And oftentimes you’re in competition against a bunch of other local shops, or sometimes national shops. And there tends to be a because of that sort of cutthroat mentality, there tends to be a do whatever it takes mentality when it comes to work life balance. So, you know, I think when you love it, it, it doesn’t affect you in a negative way, as far as, like, your- your mental health, or whatever. But, and I do love it, and so, you know, there’s, there’s definitely, like, I would say less of a work life balance in advertising than maybe other, even creative other creative industries. But yeah, as far as like me personally, what I do, I try to set boundaries more for myself than anyone I- or with myself, of like, hey, you know, like, no matter what it is you’re working on, trying to go home at seven at the latest, and, you know, pick back up where you left off. But if you have a deadline, you know, it can be tough to to sign off. And so then it becomes a question of just managing your time effectively saying no when you know, even if you want to help out on a project, knowing when your bandwidth is too strapped at smaller you know, especially specifically at cargo, you know, when it, when it was a smaller company, there weren’t really, like resource managers. So it wasn’t like, wasn’t like there was anybody managing my bandwidth. So, you know, I just, whatever came through the door, came to my plate and had to get done. Yeah, you know, Now, thankfully, we’ve, we’ve matured, and we have resource managers that are able to look at what’s on the plate of a specific creative and say, You know what, I’m not even going to bring this project to their attention. I’ve got to, I’ve got to go to an outside resource because I know that their- their plate’s already full. So yeah, I think as a as a company matures. Hopefully you’re not having to, as a creative really, like worry too much about your work life balance. Hopefully there’s, there’s a resource manager that’s that’s helping with that.
Lexi Raines 31:31
Yeah. Okay, so my final question, well, second to final question, do you have any questions that you wish you were asked during this interview.
David Estrada 31:43
Oh, that’s a great question. Let’s see. Yeah. I mean, just what’s the coolest project I’ve ever worked on? You know?
Lexi Raines 31:50
So tell me what’s the coolest project you’ve worked on?
David Estrada 31:55
Well, I guess in most in most recent years, the my favorite one is a music video that I shot with Fred Armisen from Portlandia. So, you know, working with- with celebrities is always fun and challenging. But in this specific case, you know, it was an opportunity to work with somebody who really respect and find to be, you know, extremely funny, and also to implement some new technology that I hadn’t worked with before, in the case of virtual production, so working on a volume soundstage and building environments in Unreal Engine in order to deploy those onto, you know, onto the LED screen, and just seeing how we can do in camera visual effects with, you know, the way that those volume stages can detect camera movements and and props and scale or move The background in, in parallax in a way that that computes and makes sense with the real world.
Lexi Raines 33:06
Yeah, that sounds awesome. That sounds so cool. I feel- I that was sounds like such a like an amazing experience.
David Estrada:
Yeah, it was great.
Lexi Raines
So my last question for you today is, do you have a creative based in South Carolina that you’d like to nominate to be interviewed?
Speaker 1 33:22
Oh, yeah, Rocky French.
Lexi Raines 33:26
Rocky French. Okay, awesome. And what? What the What do they do?
David Estrada 33:32
He’s a creative director.
Lexi Raines 33:35
Oh Awesome. Okay, so thank you so much for your time. Today. Sounds good, awesome. Have a good rest of your week.
David Estrada
You too. Thank you. Bye.
