Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brandon Widener. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Brandon, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Here are 2 drone stories.
Drones were sort of this new thing in 2012 and I dove straight in. I got obsessed with them (like all things camera related) butI could fly these things and nothing else mattered. I just got hired to film this running of the bulls documentary and I wanted it to be the best thing I’ve ever done. I ended up buying a DJI S800 EVO, the Zenmuse gimbal, and a Panasonic GH4 (I believe) with every single last cent I had in savings. The problem was, It was going to arrive the day before we had to film our main character training at the Grand Canyon and the director wanted me to fly over it. The Grand Canyon is 6000ft deep at some points so if you crash your drone there’s no retrieval. No drone insurance either. Back then, you had to program drones like that. Everything was in Chinese. There were no youtube videos on it. It took me a full day of tinkering and trial and error just to build it and figure out how the battery charger worked. Literally the basics. Around midnight, I had a successful 45 second “flight” where I lifted it off the ground, toggled the landing gear up and down, and landed. The next morning, in front of our whole crew I launched my whole life savings ($20k? at the time) and flew it off a 1000ft cliff to get the best footage of my career thus far. Had I crashed, I would have been financially ruined. But I didn’t, and over the years drones opened up all sorts of wild doors for me. It pays to be an early adopter of new tech.
Story #2: My team and I smuggled a drone and cameras into a no journalist/media blackout zone in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to capture footage of a very specific area /situation that the government was trying to nefariously cover up. We were risking a lot. I was halfway through getting the most important shot of the story with my drone, when my producer (acting as my spotter) lost sight of it. At this exact moment, our fixer starts screaming at us saying we’ve been spotted and the cops are on their way to our location. PURE STRESS. Long story short, I’m sharing this story from the comfort of my home and not Ethiopian prison. Drones definitely played a part in the reason why I am now bald. Shout out to Kim Herzog for being the best producer you could ask for and the worst drone spotter at the same time. Hahahaha
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Brandon Widener and I’m a Director/Cinematographer living in El Segundo, CA. I got into my field when I was at my lowest point and completely lost in college. I was a business major racking up student loans and hating everything about the process. Inside I was an artist, but I was unaware of it until I forced myself to look within and ask the important questions. Do I like the path I’m on? What do I actually love to do? Who am I? What’s something I can get paid for to travel and be creative? This led me to job shadowing my cousin Jason and living with him and his wife for a month in Summer of ’08. He was a Producer/ Editor at Disney Channel, and that experience changed my life forever. I realized you can make a living being a creative, and if you take the camera route, you will most certainly travel. I owe Jason a lot. He helped shift my entire perspective and mentality on what’s possible in life. He not only assisted me on my path to become a professional creative, but opened my eyes to the idea that you really can create your own path and be the captain of your own ship. Understanding what you want is important, but formulating a plan and executing on it to support your wants is the real magic. He now owns Squadron.TV and is a complete creative powerhouse with extreme business acumen. He’s also 6’4 and handsome so I hate him for that. Anyways, lets cheers to role models!
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Yes. Great question. Ultimately I want to provide audiences with films and series that are entertaining, enlightening, and inspires togetherness. I’m blown away by all the incredible projects people have managed to get distributed so all of us could enjoy their work. Simply, I want to join the party. I’m finding the distribution side of this industry is a huge question mark for creators and It seems like an almost impossible task to get truly original content created and sold as an independent. So I’m inspired to figure it out. I have a pilot I’m about to finish on Immigrants that I’ve been working on for three years. What inspired me to make it was the fact that there isn’t much content out there that informs, entertains, and inspires togetherness. So here I am.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Over the last 13 years I’ve missed most birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, funerals, holidays, etc. There’s a lot of self doubt, uncertainty, inconsistency and plenty to worry about. When I was 22, I left my entire family and all of my friends in Florida and moved to LA with $3,000 to my name. After paying first and last months rent up front, I was left with $1,400 to start my adult life with. I remember buying a 24hr gym membership with the idea that “no matter what, I’ll be able to shower here and I’ll just sleep in my car if needed, I’m not giving up and moving back home no matter what”. I figured I could just hard-work myself into being able to figure it out. I shared this because the whole thing takes resilience. That, and a very understanding family.
Contact Info:
- Website: brandoncolewidener.com
- Instagram: brandoncolewidener
Image Credits
Tony Salvagio