We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joshua Cubas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joshua below.

Joshua, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

OPiiA derives from -opia which is a noun combining form relating to a type of vision affect or defect. As a stand alone word, however, it’s coined as a paradoxical feeling of both invasiveness and vulnerability when locking eyes with another. I enjoyed the poetry of that sentiment and named my company OPiiA to reflect the goal of creating works where audiences have an opporunity to peer into these stories and find mirrors that reflect their own vulnerabilities – all with the hope of experiencing a sense of intersectionality between the subject or character and the audience themselves.

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 work covers a wide array of genres – both long and short form narrative, documentary and commercial production. I bring an adaptable visual style and approach to a story with a desired concentration on contributing to narratives that illuminate personal identity and intersectionality across marginalized cultures worldwide. This art form and the films it produces – fabricated or documented – have always been presented to me as way of understanding a world outside of your own. In many ways, I’ve always been a curious personality and this medium helps me to channel that curiosity. I enjoy the each step of the process, am humbled by each opportunity and eager to find new ones moving forward.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Working as a DoP (Director of Photography) was my side hustle to start. The jobs were few and far apart and didn’t pay much to be able to sustain itself at first so I found work on set day-playing as a union local grip – a somewhat more consistent and sustainable source of income. If the need was there – I would fall in with crews who were starting, in the middle of, or ending their long haul show runs. The trial by fire learning method was as taxing as it was rewarding during this crucial junction early on in my career. I learned an immeasurable amount of skills that I still utilize today on set. I was lucky to have worked along side the grip teams I did. I worked for a few years as a union grip before making the decision to pivot into, this time completely, obtaining and securing shooting gigs as a Director of Photography. This involved me establishing my company and realistically being my own unofficial agent during the interview process and my own producer during all production phases of micro budget projects where problem solving quickly becomes the most valuable form of currency. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where things began to scale up – it’s easier to attribute it to the collection of work sustained after time and the working relationships that developed from them. In most cases, one job would lead to another by refferal or as a result of the finished work being seen and inquired upon. Cold calls and direct messages were critical in the interim as well. It was all overwhelming to be honest – and it still can be in the present – but allowing myself the space to find a balance between patience and persistence is a daily practice, both in career and in mental health.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

No. I think I came up in a time where access to information and the willingness to share resources was and is still widely available. The technology and the knowledge of how to use it has been so largely democratized that you can begin to learn anything that you are determined to learn. Whether it is software, hardware or technique – it’s within reach to anyone, regardless of level or circumstance.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.JoshuaCubas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubascetic/