We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joel Flora. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joel below.
Joel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
Navigating a career in the industry of essentially making images and telling stories to sell a product or idea is about as wobbly as it sounds. Exponential shortening of time gaps between major industry shifts is inescapable. It can leave you wondering if everything you’ve learned and perfected the past five years of working really applies to the next five.
That combined with an ever fluctuating economy that feels like a dead surf at times, and an A-class wave set at others can leave the freelancer/gig worker in a state of bipolar reaction to finances and stability.
All the meanwhile in the immediate periphery, a donut hanging on a fishing line that looked kind of stale at first, but becomes more appetizing the hungrier you get…the full time job.
This is relevant to me. I recently accepted a full time job at an apparel company as a filmmaker & photographer, essentially shooting the product lifestyle photos and video marketing content for products and brand partners. It had everything you could expect…Cushy salary, flex remote hours, assisted move to a new state. That donut was looking really good after two quarters of heavy losses in a lulled freelance market.
Little did I know, taking the full time job would be a reminder of some core identity markers within myself. A reminder that those of us who are pursuing the next project, and protecting our creative relationships for the next “wave set”, are really in it for the same reason we swim out to the break in the first place…the thrill, the experience, and the ownership.
A project based career is one that keeps you closer to the pulse of your ideals and values. If you’re anything like me, you can’t thrive in an environment where you aren’t constantly questioning your own motives, successes and failures and ride in the passenger seat of others who are doing the same. These ideals have to dangle closer to your periphery then the stale glazed donut. In an environment where the wins and losses rest on your very shoulders, it’s easy to tell when you’ve entered an environment where those realities dissipate into the gray, and for me, that’s a huge reason why I left the full time position and returned to where the wave breaks.
Joel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Filmmaking all started for me in the backyard filming my neighbors jump over toilet cleaner soda bottle bombs with airsoft guns (I realize how this sounds). We were essentially Spielberg kids. We got a camera, and wanted to tell stories from our favorite genre’s. Action, kung fu, horror…you name it.
Fast forward to the college years, and I got my first real opportunity shooting weddings for a Baltimore based company called “Clickspark”. The owner was pushing to start a commercial side of the company, and needed help shooting a behind the scenes film for the commercial reel. That’s where I came in, and that’s where my full time college schedule took a seat on the back burner.
Leaving the Bachelor of Science in Film to lacky at a startup production company was a scary decision, but I felt this inner confidence that it would slingshot me forward in a way higher education wouldn’t.
After two years of true intensity and growth at this company, I knew I was ready to go out and figure this thing out on my own. I had discovered the role that had really attached itself to my dreams and strengths as a tactile creative, and had people in my life that were succeeding in that role as a freelancer behind me and supporting me.
So I get back from a 3 month backpacking trip with my brother across South East Asia, and the first inquiry for a commercial shoot lands in my inbox at JFK airport. The rest is history. Since that April of 2017, I’ve been contracting for production companies across the country, and traveling the world as a cinematographer for documentary, commercial, and television productions.
If I had to put all my eggs in one basket of what my personal success is rooted in, it would be relationships. Relationships and fostering the ones I valued always lead to the next project and shared success. I can’t mention the amount of times I was the third, fourth, fifth name referred to a producer just trying to find someone to shoot this crummy interview in a corporate building, and I was somehow the only one available. Then, somehow a wildly positive experience and friendship is born. I’d call it a slowly sewn web of working friendships and trust. That has really been the bedrock of my personal success in this business.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Getting hired to direct the photography on commercial shoots at the age of 21 was a humbling experience to say the least… I had a specific way of working, and wanted everyone to be on board. I quickly learned how not to communicate with 20-30 year old seasoned veteran gaffers and lighting technicians looking down a the greenest of the green DP who’s trying to tell them how to point the light to get the quality I wanted on the subject.
Navigating this didn’t take reading a book, or getting a life coach on leadership. I’ve always been a bit of an empath, and I can get the read quick on someone’s personality and what they respond positively to. A healthy culture of leadership and management is rooted in that. Having empathy, knowing your place, and showing that you actually know how to steer the ship (even if your methods resemble that of Jack Sparrow).
Most people get on board if they feel safe, some jump ship. It’s up to you as a leader to inspire a crew to not only remain on the ship when waves get choppy, but to keep hoisting the sails (I’m not a sailor, so don’t read into the metaphor too much).
If you’re having fun and confident in the idea, the people following you will share in it too.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think this is a very interesting question, and I feel inclined to shed some light on it.
This dichotomy is experienced so much in my line of work. Commercials don’t get made without hyper left and right brain Individuals coming together to crew on the same ship. Creatives are needed to paint and inject beauty and meaning into the concept. Non-Creatives are needed to steward the pipeline of inception to selling the product or idea. It’s a dance that I’m all too familiar with, and the value that both sides bring is necessary.
With that, the perspective that I’d espouse as a creative that might help the non-creative understand that working relationship a bit more would be that the creative cannot separate their soul from their work. Whether it’s the dream project shooting an art film for Audi’s new A6 sedan, or a 30 second ad for dog kibble that somehow improves the heart health of your adopted mutt.
The true creative somehow finds a way to connect their soul to both, and will push for magic, beauty and excellence in both scenario’s. That can drive someone mad who’s expecting the macro shot on the kibble to get done in its 10 minute pickup gap, and the director is trying to find out how it’s driving the emotion of the bull dog from the last take.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://joelflora.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joelflora_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-flora-2276b9122/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjailHkc8ZYQwBRWoZwdetw
Image Credits
Joel Flora
Juliette Barrilleaux