We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ethan Duffy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ethan below.
Ethan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?
In the film industry, I think what it takes to be successful is to be intentional with what you want and say yes to anything when you’re starting. Being around people who are working and observing how their workflow is important as well. I didn’t go to film school so I had to learn everything I know from just adapting to life on set.
When I was starting, I came into my first job as a production assistant for a commercial. A friend of mine who is also a photographer told me that if you want to make more of a career for yourself than just being a lifestyle photographer, this was how you do it. I got to work with a very talented director and naturally spent time in the camera department. I wasn’t very sure what I wanted to be doing on set because I was so green when I was getting my start that I didn’t know what each role really meant to the production. All I knew was that I loved the dynamic work space of being on a set
I think when most people who work in production first meet me they think, “oh a photographer, you must want to work with a camera”, and for a long time I thought I wanted that for myself as well. The director that I worked with on my first set, I’ve had the great opportunity of working with a lot and would consider him a mentor. He came to me and said “Ethan, I’m so tired of hiring you as a production assistant or assistant camera. What do you want to be?” One of my biggest pitfalls is that when I have multiple outlets to work with, I’m afraid to see one of them out because I’m afraid of losing the opportunity to try the others. So when he asked me that, I responded by saying I wasn’t really sure and I was still trying to figure it out. I think he could understand where my answer was coming from and he then said it didn’t matter what I chose, even if I hated it, because he just wanted to put me in the best position to try new things and succeed.
In general, I believe most people are good hearted people and they want to see you succeed and be happy. What my mentor was doing for me was helping me to be more intentional and open with what I want. It’s intimidating sometimes to be that confident, but that’s something I feel is a major part of cultivating your success. You have to put yourself out there and be intentional to be successful.
Ethan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Ethan Duffy and I work in the film industry. My background comes from years working as a photographer which helped translate in to motion picture work. When COVID began, I was in my junior year of college at Cal Poly in San Luis Obsipo. I had always been the kid who took photos and had my camera with me but I was studying Environmental Management and Protection.
Because everything was going online, I ended up taking the quarter off and picking up my camera more. I began reaching out to companies on social media that I loved their branding or their products to see if I could try my hand at shooting for them. I heard crickets from most of them, I reached out to hundreds, but I did hear back from some very cool people. One brand I heard back from was Album, a surf company based in San Clemente, CA. Working with them changed my outlook on photography, filming, and branding in general. I was mentored by an amazing artistic mind there and was challenged a lot in the best ways to push my photography.
When I went back to school, I finished my classes but I didn’t feel as fulfilled in what I was working on. The way problems were being solved were so black and white and I wanted to see things more as grey. I still have a great passion for what I studied but my focus had shifted to wanting to create art and stories. So after I graduated, a friend of mine had reached out to see if I had any interest in working on a production set which snowballed into my love of filmmaking.
I now work as a freelance producer getting to be a part of great projects as well as a creative branding consultant which paired well with my photography background. I love working creatively and being able to help businesses find ways to share their identity. Being in the position I am now, I feel very proud of the connections I’ve made. I am excited to continue exploring the creative process and telling meaningful stories.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Working as a creative is a lifelong pursuit. The mission for me has always been to push the bounds of what I can create and sharing it with others. I am not a painter or a sculptor, so what I use to create is already in existence. When I was first beginning as a photographer I would look at landscape artists work and be blown away by the vastness and scale of our world and thought, I want to do that. Now I find faces, slices of life within a setting are more interesting to me. There are many stages of development you undergo as a creative and you pivot as your perspective changes and you adapt. I don’t think that’s uncommon in any industry.
I started out by selling prints for $20 as a side hustle gig when I was in high school and some of college. Now my focus is more in creative storytelling with a camera and there’s less of an emphasis on selling prints. I love exploring the artistic process as it works itself out. I’ve had the great fortune of being able to travel with my work and that has opened up so many doors creatively. Finding times in my creative career to pivot is what drives me, I would say.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is being able to share my work. I love human interaction and meeting new people. Why I have chosen to be a producer and director and why I love photography so much is because of the meaning and impact a work of art can have on someone. There are certain films and shows that I love watching because they can make me feel like there’s another person who get’s what I’m struggling with or going through. I want to tell meaningful, impactful stories that people can relate to and I want to be able to share them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ethanduffy.com
- Instagram: @duffvisuals
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethancduffy/
Image Credits
Headshot taken by Bella Saville First Image is taken by Tommy Kallgren (Instagram: @tommykallgren)