We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Antonio Paris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Antonio below.
Alright, Antonio thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I’ve been working in the industry for more than 20 years. I started as a news writer, which I hated it, but I made me learn how to be quick and concise to get things done and deliver a message and that has been essential to my professional career. Then I became kind of a showrunner of a monthly 30 minutes special show for a Cable Channel and that helped me become a more detailed focused and creative professional. Then I founded my own company and because of some bad experiences with different professionals I started to learn about cameras and editing so if I got an important project I did it myself, with help from other colleagues in other disciplines. And then I realized that I loved doing those things by myself so I quit producing and became a full time director/editor/videographer.
Looking back and thinking about something what I’ve could have done to speed up my learning process I would say just trusting my guts and start doing what made me excited to do and ASKING everyone I knew doing what I’d have love to do, without feeling embarrassed to ask for how to kind of questions.
And I believe the most essential skills to become successful in this industry is listening, be opened to listen ideas and critics, don’t take personal and listen in order to take the best and start developing your unique craft.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a Latin filmmaker, videographer, and storyteller dedicated to capturing raw human emotion and crafting powerful visual narratives. My passion lies in transforming real-life moments into cinematic experiences that inspire, connect, and leave a lasting impact.
I started working in TV when I was 23 years old, currently I’m 49 almost, and since 2001 I started working on branded content for Cable TV networks such as HBO Latin American Group that grouped Networks such as Sony Entertainment Television, AXN, E! Entertainment, also worked for NBC/Universal for different channels such as Telemundo Internacional, Universal Channel, SyFy and many others. I’ve also worked postproducing content for Netflix, AirBnB, Miami Dade College, Chase Bank to name a some.
I have the honor to be awarded with 13 Emmys Suncoast Chapter for editing and producing and other awards such as Ojo de Iberoamerica, Clio and some documentaries that I’ve worked on have been awarded in different films festivals.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the reaction from people when they get “exposed” to what I do. Lately I’ve been doing this short documentary form series called “I Learn” which I produce with a partner for YouTube without any funding and just to showcase people that we think might help others getting better in a craft or whatever might be the activity they do, but also they might inspire others because of their take on different aspect of life.
So when I see people crying or getting inspired and pumped because of these short documentaries, for me it’s like: I was meant for doing this, this is it! This is what is all about.
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 what non-creatives struggle the most to understand about my journey is that it wasn’t a straight line route. I had to try different things to understand what and why I liked doing it. Experience is such an underestimate value that most of the non-creative people take for granted with working with someone from this industry. They think that with AI and great camera you can achieve everything and most of the time, because of bad experiences, they understand that it weights more the experience than being cool creative young that doesn’t have any experience dealing with so many elements of production and most important getting done what a client wants to communicate, not just showing great images that, by the way, most of the time they are just a trend.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://antonioparislongobardi.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antonio_paris/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonioparis/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ilearnseries
Image Credits
Marcel Boldu
Daniel Gomez Benmergui