Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eric Addison. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Eric thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I’ve always loved the movies…always. Spent most of my childhood in a movie theater. But the process of filmmaking always seemed like a mystery. One day while in college, I was invited to the set of a low-budget horror film my friends cousin was directing. As I watched him work, I asked a lot of questions, and he was nice enough to answer them for me. As he explained the process to me, it all made perfect sense. It was that day that I realized this was something I could do….and wanted to do very badly. When I told my mom what I wanted to pursue, she looked at me for a moment, then said with a smile, “That makes sense.” I changed my major to film production as soon as I could.

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 love a good story – always have. I love to hear one, and I love to tell one, and that is what lead me into my chosen profession. At San Diego State University, I studied film to learn the craft and process of filmmaking so that I could create images that had emotion, and literature to learn how some of the finest writers of all time crafted a story. I bring this knowledge and background to every project I work on, Helping clients sort through what their message (their story) is and working with them to find the most creative way to tell that story is something I’m passionate about. There is no greater joy than sitting down with a client to show their video, watching the emotion on their face as it connects with them just as we had hoped and planned for.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Two things I always advise people just starting out: 1) you don’t know it all so plan on spending your career continuing to adapt and learn, and 2) you’re not working on an island so be part of the community of fellow creatives – you’ll be better off at what you do for it.

I think it’s easy to come out of college or entering into an industry thinking you have it all figured out, but there will come a point when you realize that you don’t and it could be a costly lesson. There is great value in experience, and unfortunately there are no short cuts in gaining it. I know when I was younger and just starting out, I made many mistakes, and most, if not all, were purely because I thought I knew more then I did. There is often a fear of saying “I don’t know”, but once you allow yourself to accept that the creative process is exactly that – a process, it’s freeing to just acknowledge you don’t have it all figured out but you know you have the tools and/or collaborators to find a solution.

And having those good collaborators to lean on is another valuable lesson. It’s easy to view other people in your industry outside your team as competitors, and that’s not entirely wrong. But they can also be friends and assets, a resource when you’re working on something that may be bigger then what you can handle. They can be there to send work your way when they are too busy, or someone you can send work to when you’re too busy, trusting that the client will be in good hands. An industry community that is strongly connected will survive better overall then one divided up and working in silos.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding thing about my job and being creative is seeing my work connect with people, reaching them on some emotional level. There have been projects where after that first screening of a video I’ve turned around to see clients with either big smiles from the joy it brought them, or tears when the story moved them, There is no greater joy then knowing your work has touched someone like that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.100acrefilms.com
• Instagram: @100acrefilms
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericjaddison/
• Twitter: @ericaddison
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/100ACREFILMS