We recently connected with Brittney Butler and have shared our conversation below.

Brittney, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

My story into going freelance is a pretty random one. I got my equipment stolen during a wedding. While I was looking to purchase used equipment I went on craigslist and found someone selling a canon 85mm and he was a celebrity photographer. I met up with him and discussed how I wanted to help shoot content for him. He became my mentor instantly. Fast forward while shooting Behind the scenes for him, he was introducing me to so many of his clients during that time. One lucky day one of his clients, TV One reached out to have me shoot Behind the Scenes for their NAACP Image awards commercial. That was my first client in the freelance world professionally. They hired me as a contract freelancer for all their future projects that whole year. Sometimes we don’t see how things work out for us until we see the end.

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?

My love for filmmaking started in college. Ive always had a love for capturing people and documenting life’s moments but didnt’ really think of making it a career. I would take photos of my friends and record fun videos. It wasn’t until I started working at our tech store and I got discounts on everything and I bought my first camera through my student finance. Youtube wasn’t really a thing at the time (I’m showing my age) but there was one guy on there, Jakob Owens who had the same camera and was showing how he shot certain things. From there I started googling how to better myself and learn my camera. I started doing photography around my college town. Instantly after I graduated My best-friend and I moved to LA to further our career. I started editing entertainment videos from events until I found my first job which was being a transcriber for Bad Girls Club. From there I transcribed for 3 years. I was still creating content on the side and just growing as a filmmaker. My last job before going freelance was working for Buzzfeed as a video editor. I think what set me a part from others was my editing style. My sense for documenting in such a unique way captured a lot of clients at the time. I’m forever learning and evolving through the advancements of technology.

I think what makes me proud is being able to give back and help those looking to get into filmmaking. I didn’t have someone teaching me. I didn’t see people who looked like me growing up so it’s important to me to give back in any way I can.

I want my work to create a sense of feeling when watching. That’s it’s not just another video but you truly feel the art and the love that was poured into my work. That it inspires you to document or it lights a fire in you to expand your gift in whatever capacity that is.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience on social media early on when social was first starting out. Instagram was a huge source for me. I started just posting more of my personality and my personal work I was shooting and people just adapted to it. The more consistent I was the more people responded. This was also a time when social was way different than it is now. It was no tik tok just early stages of instagram, facebook and twitter. I used instagram as a portfolio to show all my work and to show what I could do filmmaking wise. As my page grew people started reaching out to book me for projects. Just to note, it wasn’t just about work, people also got to see who I was, my personality, my spirit. I think that’s what separated me from others. Yes your work is good but are you a good person? From there I started a YouTube because I didn’t see many black women on there speaking about filmmaking so I wanted to change that and it opened up a whole new world for me. I was helping people and that’s truly how I built my audience. I provided a service. I showed them how to create like me, I allowed them to feel like they could do it too and I showed work that backed up my creativity. That formula is what helped my social media presence.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that you get a chance to help others. It’s great to create and it’s great to get hired but what legacy are you leaving? I personally find joy in someone telling me that something I did or said helped them reach their potential, or helped them realize they can fulfill their purpose. The question asked is always, how do you want to be remembered. For me I don’t just want people to say her work was amazing, I want them to speak on how I made them feel, how my spirit connected with theirs. People will always remember how you made them feel. I want to portray that in my work. I want that to be my legacy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brittneyjanae.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/brittney.janae
• Youtube: www.instagram.com/brittneyjanae