Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Steingard.
Jon, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I come from a family of “creators” – stretching back way before that term got thrown around as loosely as it is today. My grandfather was a carpenter and photographer up in Ontario, Canada. He pioneered aerial photography in his area with a 40-foot blimp and a 35mm film camera he could trigger with a long cable. He would be stunned by what drone photography can accomplish today.
Two of my uncles and my brother followed in my grandfather’s footsteps and became photographers. I opted to become a musician instead, and from the age of 15, being in a band and making music was my passion. I started touring with a band called Hawk Nelson in 2004, as the guitarist and became the singer in 2012. I traveled to all 50 states and 26 countries and experienced so many amazing things.
As fate would have it, somewhere around 2013, we started to need a LOT more photo and video content for the band. Social media had become a huge force, release schedules were speeding up for everything, and live concert tours were traveling with LED walls much more frequently. A lot of the video content we needed was expensive to make, and I couldn’t help but notice that so many of the filmmakers that were getting hired….. kinda sucked!
I remember thinking… “I know this isn’t my thing, but I feel like storytelling and creativity is more important than having expensive cameras and lots of fancy tricks.” I set about making video content with just my iPhone. To this day, one of my most successful music videos was a stop-motion video shot entirely on my iPhone.
I began to really develop a passion for filmmaking – not the traditional feature-film or even short-film style filmmaking – but guerrilla content making…. which I kind of consider the scrappy quick projects that need to happen fast and often, but can make a HUGE difference for bands, brands and small businesses alike. I was so excited about what new technology was making possible – the democratization of filmmaking.
More than ever – visual tools were in the hands of amateurs, and they were actually quite powerful! I felt like there were a whole generation of “filmmakers” who had gotten lazy and complacent and were no longer serving their clients well in the modern era we had found ourselves in…. so I set out to accomplish $1000-looking videos for $500, $5000-looking videos for $2000, and $25,000-looking videos for $10,000, etc.
Since creating my film and photography business, I’ve gotten to make visual content for some well-known names in Christian music, including Phil Wickham, Mercy Me, Tenth Avenue North, and many more. I’ve also gotten to work with some pretty rad brands based here in San Diego including Qualcomm and AMN Healthcare.
My wife and I are about to welcome our second child into the world, and I am traveling a LOT less with the band these days because of my desire to focus on my family.
Filmmaking and photography allow me to be home a lot more, and still do work I LOVE!
My wife grew up here in San Diego, and we’ve called it home since 2016, and I don’t see us going anywhere else anytime soon. This is a wonderful place to raise a family, and there are so many nearby scenes to capture whenever the need for beautiful visuals arises.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
For the most part, it’s been a fairly smooth road for me. Coming from the music business, I am so accustomed to hearing the word “NO!”. Haha. In comparison, I feel like filmmaking and photography have come a little more easily to me, and my patience and enjoyment of the journey seem to be greater. Maybe it’s in my blood!
Balancing band life and the time spent on my film business has been the greatest challenge. At times it has felt as if I was working two full-time jobs – and trying to be a husband and a father on top of that! But with our daughter arriving in just a few days – I am scaling back my travel with the band, and focusing on my family and my film work.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I do probably 80% film and video production, 20% photography. I specialize in creating visual content for bands and musical artists. Music videos, lyric videos, hybrids of the two (the value of which I believe in strongly). In addition, I love creating visual content for local businesses and brands, and that is something that I would love to dive into more.
I am proud of the travel-related content I have created. In 2017, I flew around the world in a week to create a music video for an artist named Dan Bremnes. We shot in 7 countries in 7 days. I am doing another around the world trip with another artist at the end of this year, and that will be to create visuals for his live show.
As far as what sets me apart, I think I live at the crossroads of creativity and practicality. I know so many creators that can come with wilder and more eccentric artistic ideas than me, but they can’t reel things in and get organized enough to serve clients effectively.
Conversely, I also know very capable video and photo people that are technically knowledgeable, but lack creativity and vision. I enjoy consistently aiming for that sweet spot… not dull – and also not too weird. 🙂
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was actually kind of an introvert. I read books a lot and liked to do things on my own. I think it’s only really in my adult life that I become much more extroverted. I think it coincided with some growth in confidence as well. The more confident and capable I felt, the more extroverted I became.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.steingardcreative.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: jonsteingard
Image Credit:
Ilde Cook
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