We were lucky to catch up with Lee Coleman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Lee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
I hope that my legacy will help inspire not only my kids but upcoming creators to take a leap of faith in filmmaking. I would love to see more people like myself behind and in front of the lens making a whole new world. If we take this seriously we can take the film industry to another level of filmmaking that people never experience before. We just have to believe in ourselves when no one else does.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Lee R. Coleman Jr. Director, Assistant Director, Cinematographer, Editor and Drone operator and one of the Founder’s of KaeCole Media. I’m based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
I started off as Production Assistant for Urban Media Makers film festival, which gave me the motivation to understand all areas of filmmaking so I can potentially work in the film industry one day. After 2yrs I decided to go to Art Institute of Dunwoody to pursue a degree in Digital Filmmaking . My mentors at the time Sylvia Jackson, Tommy Burns and Larry Steele push me hard to get more knowledge if I truly wanted to do the filmmaking thing. While in college I met a classmate by the name of Candace Rose, she and I decided to create a small production company by the name of GoldenRoseEnt to provide digital media content for small businesses. We was able to do some commercial and small shoots while in college.
From there years later I got married to my wife Karice Coleman a photographer in Atlanta and we created Kaecolemedia LLC in 2017. We started off as a small wedding production company that provided our clients with beautiful photos and movie like visual to highlight their wedding day. We grew from there to events, music videos, commercials, movies and social media content. What sets us apart from the rest was that we challenge each other to become better at our craft and have fun with our clients while providing high quality work.
The coolest part about what I do is that I get to run my own business to create for my clients but I also get the chance to chase a dream in filmmaking. Which I did after starting my business and got to meet a lot of cool individuals. One of the coolest people I have the opportunity of learning from is a Director of Photography by the name of Richard Vialet. He has an eye for lighting that I’ve never experienced before. His skills and cool way of lighting has set a tone for DPs for me. He is the next level of film making like you will not believe. I’m proud to call this guy my brother and friend.
Overall by taking the chance of pursuing filmmaking and my own business I’ve been able to meet some really great creators. With that also learning and growing as a filmmaker cinematographer myself.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I will say what drives me as a creator is to provide not only great content as a filmmaker but to also inspire new young black creators filmmakers out here. Because there’s a lot of people like myself that don’t know that they can make it here. We were always brought up to think inside of the box where my world were able to think outside of the box and create multiple different worlds while doing it.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I will say that in my journey as a creator/filmmaker I wish I wouldn’t know more about using social media platforms in order to put out more of my work. Because now that is grown I feel like I’m catching up with a lot of people that knew exactly what to do with it. So now that I have a better understanding on how to use my social media it has provided me with clients that I never knew that was out there and connection with several other filmmakers through it as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://leekaecoleman.myportfolio.com/work
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leecoleman_kaecole/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/lee.coleman.1293
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-coleman-68165149
Image Credits
Professional photos provided by Karice Coleman