We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jerrel “JRELZ” Farries. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jerrel “JRELZ” below.

Jerrel “JRELZ”, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk that I took was when I first started my business. I felt caged in at my corporate job, although while I was working there I had a show that I had directed and produced running on television weekly.  I often wondered what I could accomplish if I had that extra 45-50 hours a week to do something creative.  Mind you, at the time, I was only writing, producing, and directing film and television, I was never actually behind the camera at this point in 2017.  So I decided to quit my job in March of 2018, purchased camera equipment, taught myself how to use it, and started filming for free to sharpen my skills. I eventually started taking clients within my first month, and I have been blessed to support myself and my family solely with my camera and this production business for the last 6 years. That risk of leaving an extremely stable situation to jump into full time entrepreneurship, all while learning to do something I had never done, and using that to support myself was seemingly crazy to most people and even to myself some days. However, I couldn’t imagine what my life would look like if I never took that chance on myself to better my own life.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Prior to becoming a filmmaker, I was a music producer.  I produced a song for an artist, and I wrote a treatment for a music video that was to be filmed and released along with the album. That treatment turned into a dramatization, and that eventually spawned into my first short film.  I had no clue that I would continue in film, but the response to see what happens next from the audience is what urged me to continue. From that point forward, I fell in love with it, and began to learn more about the craft. My mentor was also a self taught filmmaker, but a pure creative at heart, and the lessons that I have learned from him have been invaluable for my growth. I see a lot of laziness in my field, and corner cutting that I am blessed to be able to say that I was not taught those bad habits from the beginning.

My production company provides high level media services that showcases companies and individuals in a light that they can be proud of. What sets my company apart is, my level of creativity in conjunction with my attention to to detail. I take pride in my storytelling ability, and I can use that in any style of visual to effectively relay the feeling that the audience needs to gather from watching.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Going into 2020, I had a major focus on transitioning into complete corporate clients, and transitioning out of private client work. Everything was headed in the right direction to be able to do that, then of course the pandemic happens. At that point, I was booked through the rest of the year, but within the next week I had to refund 85% of all of the deposits that I had received because everyone was cancelling everything as they were so uncertain of what was going to happen moving forward. That was a culture shock, because I was finally at a place to where things were making sense on the business side, as well as the creative side and then this huge blow comes and takes it all away. So during that time period, I had to drive for Amazon Flex just to get extra money. Within the next couple of weeks, my phone started blowing up from churches and businesses who all wanted to have virtual content filmed, and they had no clue where to begin. I used this opportunity to turn a negative situation into a positive.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The biggest thing that has helped build my reputation in this industry is that I have a 100% success rate in keeping my word with my clients.  There is no client that I have ever worked with that has paid me money, and I haven’t showed up or given them what they paid for.  There is a lot of that that happens in this industry, and it happens consistently.  I also don’t try to retire off of anyone with my pricing.  I charge an honest wage for an honest days work, and keep a sense of morals and values that people can respect and appreciate.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jrelzexclusive
• Other: https://vimeo.com/user121105859

Image Credits
Jerrel Farries