We were lucky to catch up with Mikyla Jonck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mikyla , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Sassy Sea Monster sort of sprung out of a place when I was just starting out in my film career and I was doing a lot of videography jobs – which if you know, often you’re working alone on a video/project and wearing a multitude of creative hats from pre-production all the way through to final product.

I liked the idea of myself being a giant octopus juggling all these tasks and somehow always having an extra free hand, or tentacle if you will; to take on creative endeavors.

My style of cinematography is rather edgy and grungy at times, and in a way I feel as though the collaborations I’ve had in the past all have this fun, spunky and sassy energy around them.

Hence Sassy Sea Monster came to be – plus its always a fun conversation starter.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into the industry at a very young age. I pretty much right off the bat knew I wanted to tell stories.

I grew up in South Africa and dreamt a lot about Hollywood – so by the time I was 20 I worked incredibly hard to make that dream come true. I didn’t grow up in a very big city so moving to Los Angeles really provided this chaotic energy that I wasn’t used to and I think you can see that portrayed in a lot of my earlier works.

About 6 years ago I started working with analog film as a loader and camera assistant and that really made me have a real appreciation for all that goes into making images – there is an immense attention to detail and everyone who works on an analog set you can tell they all care as much as you do, and that’s quite special. I started shooting a lot more 8mm and 16mm film out of my own pocket to get skeptics onboard and now many of my clients love film and want to shoot on it.

I am hoping to continue to shoot more analog projects but also just creating more as a whole – I am trying to find the space to continue doing passion projects and creating my own opportunities with new collaborators.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I always say that my worst days on set are my best days! Truly! I have such a love for this industry – it’s easy to get soured by the nature of it, but at the end of the trails and tribulations when you get to see a final product and share that with people it really is special. I joke around often that we get paid to be ourselves – this can be the most fun industry if you let it!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I learned very quickly that ego does nothing for you in this industry. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a lot of talented creatives and the ones that are in elevated positions often are the most calm people on set. You would never know there was any problem – I really admire these people, I’ve been on a few jobs where folks have lost their cool and it really does drag the whole team morale down into the trenches and unfortunately it severely impacts the quality of work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://miekyj.wixsite.com/sassyseamonster
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sassyseamonster/

Image Credits

Sasha Forest
Local Natives
Lil Lotus