We were lucky to catch up with Paul Giret recently and have shared our conversation below.

Paul, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I have taken thus far is when I gave up a secure career path to pursue my passion. At one point in San Diego circa 2013 I was the Director of two Film Festivals, the President of the San Diego City College Film Society, and one of the two active founding members of the San Diego Film Consortium. My life was filled with constant deadlines. From organizing the judging of hundreds of film submissions to booking venues and hosing live events, my schedule was constantly full yet somehow, I managed to be involved in the production of many independent films as well which was truly where my heart was at. I was finding success in the film exhibition side. My events were growing larger than I could have imagined and it looked like if I was going to stick to that path then I would be secure in that career for quite some time. Meanwhile, very little money was coming in from the film production side. I worked on a few feature films in some key roles and won some awards for my work but pursuing that as a financially secure path just did not seem feasible. After working to build all of my film festivals up for the better part of a decade, I quit all my leadership positions then started my own video production business. Film for Food.

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

I started creating videos with my parents VHS camcorder when I was 12 years old. It stayed with me as a young adult making music videos for all kinds of indie musicians around Southern California. At the time I was working as a barista and slowly started getting paid for my video work where I eventually quit my coffee job and focused on video full time as an independent contractor for about a decade. I had my hands in all sorts of aspects of video until one day I made the decision to branch out on my own. Now, with almost a decade behind me as the founder of Film for Food, I still keep to my original mission statement: “Push the limits of technology in art to advance the quality and quantity of video production in the community around me.” As the owner of my business, I am always trying to find ways to pass my knowledge on to customers for their benefit by consulting them on the latest tech and what the best practices are for achieving their goals. I want potential clients to understand they can have great potential to make amazing content for their institution and what they need is someone like me who can bridge the gap between what they can see in their minds eye and successfully getting it on a screen to share with everyone.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

1) Purchase art directly from artists 2) Take the time to go and support local contemporary art shows
3) Stream / purchase independent and local music / merch
4) Attend / participate in community theater
5) Go to independent film premieres
6) Help fund new projects by aspiring artists
7) Buy art supplies, host art creation gatherings, be an artist yourself
8) Make room in your budget once a year to pay a working professional artist / creative to make something for your Home / Gift / Partner / Business / Church

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

The concept of blockchain is truly amazing; the decentralization of data eliminates an intermediary. Simply put, cutting out the middleman. It makes a fully digital economy possible. NFTs are bought and sold using crypto currency which runs on blockchain. The first year or so of the NFT craze saw some very large sales going to not very well-known artists. Things looked promising but it didn’t take long before the market was saturated. Because of that, a few centralized NFT marketplaces have become the “go to” for buyers which has now equalized the sale of digital art with physical art because of the need for a middleman to host your content at a “gallery” which they curate (gatekeeper) and then they take a percentage of your sale. So, the original purpose and independence of NFTs is basically lost. Furthermore, such galleries have become dominated by mainstream mega corporations and left very little opportunity for the budding artist to be seen let alone make a living from their creations. Finally, NFTs are traded with crypto currency which is still very unstable and most recently has proven to not be a very profitable investment. For those reasons, I personally pass on NFTs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.filmforfood.tv/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulgiret/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-giret-81694710b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PaulGiret

Image Credits
Natalia Giret