Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Julia Harris. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Julia , thanks for joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
The biggest risk I’ve taken is taking a chance on myself. Growing up in Kentucky, it felt like making a living out of a creative career was a shot in the dark and I felt irresponsible to pursue that field even though I knew it was what I loved. I felt like I needed to hide it as my primary interest until I could prove to my family that I would succeed, but I actually needed to prove it to myself. I started my video business as a sophomore and by the time I graduated I had enough business to go full-time freelance in Kentucky. Around the same time, I read a psychology book that spoke on the concept of your external environment affecting you far greater than you realize. Pursuing this field in Kentucky I was limiting myself, and then when my dad passed in 2020 I was faced with a stern reminder of how finite life is. I realized if I am lucky enough to have something that fills my heart with fire, I need to put myself in the best place to pursue it, so I took a chance on myself and moved to LA.
Moving to Los Angeles has given me more blessings than I ever could have imagined. I have worked on sets for Netflix, Canon USA, AT&T, one of my first film inspirations Jakob Owens, and many other amazing filmmakers such as Steven Moreno, Sarah Moshmen, Candice Ford, Mac Shoop, Jay Ford, and others. This would have never happened in Kentucky simply due to proximity to the opportunities here.
The most important gift I got from moving was identifying myself as an artist because living in LA I was surrounded by mostly artists who I could relate to from the essence of my being. I had people successfully working in creative fields telling me not only was it ok to lean into this part of my identity, this obsession in my life, but celebrating me for it. I felt like I was loving a part of myself I had been giving so little energy toward. Being an artist is one of the most important parts of me I now realize.
The second greatest gift I got was realizing what I had grown up believing in a Midwestern state wasn’t true; creating art isn’t selfish or unproductive to society. It is because I care for people so deeply that I am able to create things that are impactful for others. My creations help businesses attract new customers such as 3 Trees Yoga and Wellness in North Carolina whom I made a mini-documentary on her phenomenal practice to let others see how she pours her heart into her practice, the community LA Skate Hunnies who I made a calendar for that increased their member morale, the nonprofit We Explore Earth who I create compelling ads that detail their amazing excursions, the fashion designer Kris Madden I made a reel for, the summer camp I made a campaign for, the anti-vape group I made a campaign for…It is never just about business for me.
Being surrounded by earth-shattering artists working around the clock on their dreams made me realize these things and more. I’m not saying LA is the place to do this for everyone, it is not an easy place to live, but I think coming here with solid intentions and ready to continuously learn you will not fail.
Thank goodness I took the chance on myself.
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?
Absolutely! I’ve had an interest in video work my entire life and the first video I made was for a 7th grade field trip. I have a flashbulb memory of this moment – one of my friends and I shot a video and then she showed me Imovie on her dad’s iMac. Seeing the editing software was love at first sight when I realized I was going to be able to piece our clips together. This may sound like a pretty straightforward journey, but it has been quite the ride fighting against my self-limiting beliefs. I was twelve then and it wasn’t until I moved to LA at twenty-three-years-old that I fully let video work into my life and started believing in myself.
There were times in high school and college I would stay up all night editing or planning videos. Since I didn’t believe in myself I decided to study business in college, The University of Kentucky, but I filled all other aspects of my life with video work. It’s funny looking back on my decisions realizing I traveled the long way, but going the long way made me finally admit to myself I am made to do video, so everything happens for a reason.
My first paid video job came from working at my college’s media team. Two of my friends who also loved videography helped me get me the job and introduced me to my first mentor Wayne Cross. Working at that job under Wayne I learned arguably more than what a school’s education would have taught me and also built my confidence to begin shooting my own projects. Wayne encouraged me as I set off doing my first music video in Nashville, getting my first wedding video jobs, and beginning my journey into commercial video work starting with an anti-vape campaign for the state of Kentucky. My next job was being a videographer for Camp Thunderbird in South Carolina. After that, I worked on a court tv show as a social media PA interviewing the plaintiff and defendant and editing together social bits. Working on the show I realized I loved set life, so I started working every position I could from PA to AC, 2nd AC to scripty, and then finally 2nd AC on a movie right before I moved to LA. When I first moved I took a job in advertising, kept my freelance going, and also worked as a DJ light programmer at a nightclub. Finally, in August of this year, my freelance work got to a point that even working every afternoon after my day job wasn’t enough to keep up, so I left my day job to be a full-time filmmaker under the name Julia Harris.
I handle pre-post production creating commercials, branded content, music videos, and mini-documentaries. Pre-production includes the story elements, creating a treatment, shot list, storyboard, production means shooting 4K video, handling the lighting, drone work, and even photography, and post production is the editing process which includes cutting, color correcting, color grading, animation, graphics, and creating different sizes for different social media bits.
I see my videos as a way to serve people and my talents as a gift I must share. I’m not religious, but I feel so blessed by the talents I have in video work that it only makes sense for me to be a servant leader to my clients. I am so fulfilled by working compassionately with my clients to deliver a high-end product that will go above and beyond to help level them up. I take a lot of pride in blowing people away with my work. I am obsessed with my craft and my obsession means I am abreast of new video trends as they are rolling out because I am constantly looping myself in to see what the greatest filmmakers are putting out right now.
I’m most proud of the speed in which I’m growing. I make it an intention to stay on top of the latest technology and trends and carve out time to learn these tools. This takes a lot of time and energy and I am not making money immediately. For example, each project I have been dabbling into After Effects, an animation program, to learn one new thing at a time. This isn’t per client request, this is for my personal equity. Looking back on projects I can barely watch something from a month ago much less a year ago. The speed I’m going at I am proud when I deliver a project and have a fleeting moment of satisfaction, but then I immediately see the areas in which I can improve for the next project. It’s the best and most satisfying competition in the world to me; competing against myself day in and day out.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
This may be a hot take, but something I had to unlearn was the notion that I should not take on free work. If you are at the beginning of your career chances are you are totally unqualified for the jobs that pay you what you think your “worth” is. Your value due to lack of experience is pretty low no matter how good of a student you are or how many glowing letters of recommendation you have. Real-world situations will shake everything you’ve learned in school.
For someone like me that was jumping into a field with zero qualifications, it closed a lot of doors telling people I wasn’t going to work for free. Despite the protests of my peers and the woe of my mom, I started taking on a lot of free work. Obviously doing free work isn’t sustainable, but trust me it pays off if you do it during days you don’t work to make a living.
Picture doing unpaid work you are passionate about as an investment in your future. The first wedding I ever shot was for free. Simply showing up and blasting that unpaid job out of the water with a glowing product landed me job after job through recommendations, and the following wedding gigs were all paid. In fact, my first wedding client loved her video so much that she gave me a gift basket, so not totally unpaid after all! I have now done 50+ weddings, none of which I have needed to advertise myself to land. Also, if you are doing something for free and they know you are new to the field that takes significant pressure off of you to allow yourself to learn without getting in trouble with not being able to deliver. Do not make promises you cannot keep. Finally, even now in Los Angeles working as a full-time filmmaker, I still take on free projects every month and I know I am not the only one that does this. The reasons I do this are 1) networking 2) doing something for free and over-delivering can get you a paid job 3) new experiences 4) sharing my talents with my friends and helping their businesses grow 5) to continue exploring new areas of film 6) good karma 7) the hustle baby.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I accidentally started my side hustle in college with wedding videography. My best friend’s sister was getting married and I was out of my mind excited to attend my first wedding until she informed me her plus one was going to be her boyfriend. Shocked by this news, I suggested shooting her sister’s wedding so that I could still attend. Although the only video experience I had before this was making youtube videos with my friends, my friend’s sister agreed to let me shoot her video (unpaid) and attend the wedding. I was ecstatic. I showed up with two batteries, one lens, and my canon 77D DSLR camera. The night before I stayed up watching wedding videos on Youtube and writing down things I liked about them. The wedding went by in a blink and I edited the video overnight completely losing myself in the work. I was hooked and it showed. The next thing I knew I was getting hired by my friend’s sister’s friends and it organically spread from there. I have shot 51 weddings to this date. Weddings are no longer my main focus, but they were a gift in my life. They gave me the opportunity to hone my shooting abilities, client management skills, developing my pricing, and the discipline to edit a full day’s worth of footage into a 4-8min video. From weddings, I went to music videos to commercial work to narrative work to working on bigger sets to creating my own projects. I currently handle commercials, music videos, and mini-documentaries. If you’re wondering, I still take on a few weddings each year – check out my website and maybe you can be one of those few.
Some key milestones for me were 1) my first wedding video and realizing how obsessed I was with the production process 2) my part-time job working for The University of Kentucky’s media team and meeting my first video mentor Wayne Cross 3) getting hired as a PA for a court tv show and realizing my love for working on sets 4) my family getting together to get me my first nice camera when I graduated; a sony A7sIII, and starting to create my own projects 5) moving to LA to surround myself with other creatives to learn from 6) quitting my day job in LA when my freelance caught on enough to do that full-time 7) having 3 months of almost no income from filmmaking and realizing I had to make it work or get another job. This pushed me to hustle like never before. 8) realizing I am not only learning from other filmmakers in Los Angeles, I am now competing alongside them.
If something excites you then pursue it and it will lead you to your next thing. Don’t stop moving even if you are unsure of your direction. Momentum will take you somewhere, freezing will lead you nowhere.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.harrisvideography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/__juliaharris__/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-harris-ab2224198/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDwOvpRY5ZvOoSYgmqaQkPw
Image Credits
Erik Pelyukhno