Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alex Tello. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alex, appreciate you joining us today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?
In 2015 I was touring with my first feature film, Furthest from the Wild. I was going to different film festivals and doing private screenings to get the film promoted. In my film I had a segment on a wolf sanctuary in New Mexico called Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. They are a non profit organization that goes out and rescues wolves and wolf dogs from bad situations. One day I got a call from the sanctuary director Leyton J. Cougar and he told me that George R.R. Martin the writer and creator of Game of Thrones is a huge fan and donor of the sanctuary and he owns a theater in Santa Fe.
He heard about the film and would like to hold a screening of the film for us.
I was extremely excited. I couldn’t wait to meet the genius behind Game of Thrones. The day came and we finally got to meet him and he sat down in his private booth and watched the entire film with us. After the film was over he hung out after to chat for a bit with his lovely wife Paris. It was an amazing day and extremely successful. Before the day was over we had the opportunity to do a Q&A right after the film had ended. We had many questions that day, but the one that made a huge difference months later was.
What is your next project? And what are your future goals for Furthest from the Wild?
After finishing the film I was already contemplating making it into a series. So I immediately responded, my goal is to take this film and turn it into a recurring series about exotic animal rescues where every episode is a different sanctuary and narrated by a different animal advocate. We would like to turn this into a franchise to help and educate people on animal welfare.
A few weeks later an email comes in from one of our attendees of the Santa Fe screening. They asked a few more questions about the show and I was happy to share. A month or so passes by and we get a phone call from our same couple that attended the Santa Fe screening asking some more questions about the show and how they loved the film. They then ask me how much money do you need to make one episode. I couldn’t believe my ears. It was then that I realized I just found my angel investors. They soon followed through and ended up funding more episodes. I am very grateful that people like this exist and I was able to make my series come true. We now have 5 episodes filmed and we are in the works of selling the series.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I was born and raised in Venice Beach, California. After graduating High school, I attended Santa Monica College majoring in theater. After a year, I decided that I wanted to learn more of the technical side of music and post production. I left SMC and enrolled in a tech school in North Hollywood for sound engineering and video post production. After graduating I was placed at Technicolor and learned so much of post production and filmmaking. About 5 years into my career I decided to create my own films with my brother and co workers. My first short film, The Mustard Stain, went on to travel to many film festivals for 2 years.
This 15 minute short gave me the confidence to continue making films and led me to mesh my two passions together, animals and film. I began to shoot my first feature film, Furthest From the Wild, a documentary about animal sanctuaries all over the US.
After a few years of traveling, editing, and fundraising I finished the film and it was received with great reviews and numerous nominations and awards. In 2014, it was picked up for nationwide distribution by Vision Films. I began the spin off tv series of the film and we were lucky enough to get funding for 3 episodes. The TV Series is currently in the film festival circuit and has received multiple nominations and awards.
While I’m not working on my passion projects I work in post production as well as a camera operator/DP as my full time job. I love working closely with my clients so that I can get them the best outcome possible for their projects. I have realized that not just skills can take you far in this industry, but you need to be flexible and have a great personality. I find that most of my clients call me back because they enjoy working with me. Personality on set plays a big part. You have to be able to play nice and know your place. Sometimes ego gets in the way on shoots and I make sure that this does not happen in my projects.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding for me is when I am on a long creative film shoot and I get to see the project from beginning to end. Having that camera in my hands and being in the mix of the story is something I look forward to everytime I go into a shoot. It doesn’t feel like work for me. There is something rewarding about seeing your work completely done and being able to show others all your hard work and labor. One of the most satisfying things for me is when your picture is locked and you finally get delivered your music and sound mix and you throw it on the timeline and hear it for the first time. There is something magical about making your project come alive. It is rewarding to see a final project after lots of hours or months, if not years to finally see your passion come to life.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
For years I worked with post production companies as a full time employer. On the weekends I would help friends film their projects. After a while I started to enjoy it more and more that I started to invest in professional cameras and would do weekend gigs as a camera operator. As the years went by, I invested more in my gear and learning about becoming a director of photography. I began to book bigger and better gigs to the point that it was now my 2nd full time job. I still continue to work in post production but my passion now is being out on set with my camera and making movie magic. Since then, I’ve had the privilege to film Interviews with very important celebrities and most recently politicians. I recently did a big campaign for Lexus and Razor. That was an amazing opportunity and I look forward to filming larger projects as I grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alextello.net
- Instagram: @tellusfilms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FurthestfromtheWild
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alextelloproductions/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPTCT4VdsIJEzaMXYa267AQ
- Other: www.furthestfromthewild.org
Image Credits
Sam Tello, Cris Jan Lim, Juliet Frew,