Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Hlavac.
Hi Adam, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a video creator, former visual effects artist, and, you could say, an “influencer” from San Diego but currently residing in Los Angeles. I’ve loved movies as far back as I can remember. My itch to become involved in the film industry started with the re-release of Star Wars in 1997. The movies left a huge impression on my 9-year-old brain, and it was then and there that I realized I wanted to make films. I started making short films with friends at a young age and learned to edit and understand how visual effects are created. During my latter high school years, I worked at a movie theater which gave me unlimited access to new movies. It helped me understand storytelling, shot composition, lighting, and the role of a director. In many ways, it became my film school. While attending junior college and trying to plan my next career move, I stumbled across an ad looking for visual effects artists to work on “Hollywood” films. I had my doubts about the legitimacy of the ad, but I inquired anyway. To my surprise, it was legitimate. I was a bit surprised because the idea of working on Hollywood movies anywhere but in LA seemed strange to me. During my time at this company, I worked on films like “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” “Shrek,” a remaster of “Top Gun,” and “ The Green Hornet.” A year later, I wanted to take a chance at something new. I knew that if I wanted to grow and be exposed to new opportunities, I needed to be open-minded and willing to relocate. Shortly after, I was hired at a VFX company in Burbank, where I worked on amazing projects like Marvel’s “The Avengers,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Ant-Man.” A few years later, as the company was looking to relocate to another city, I decided I wanted to take my career in a different direction. At this point, I was consuming a ton of YouTube content, particularly around movie discussions. I realized there weren’t many channels dedicated to the superhero genre despite how quickly it expanded in the film industry. Discussions around those films would get lumped into conversations about every other film genre. I thought there might be an opportunity to carve out a space for myself by bringing my passion, enthusiasm, and expertise to the table and hyper-focusing on those movies. So, I recruited a pair of friends I knew would help balance the conversation with their enthusiasm and knowledge of the various brands and IPs. After years of creating videos about the brands, characters, and movies we love, we’ve built ourselves a global audience of fans and enthusiasts who look forward to hearing our commentary on the latest movies. The biggest and best compliment we get is people telling us they feel like they’re sitting in the room with us passionately discussing stuff they love. We’ve worked hard to make everyone feel like they have a seat at our table.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Getting to where I am today definitely presented itself with several challenges and obstacles. LA can be very cutthroat and unforgiving at times. You have to embrace and roll with the changes and constantly adapt, whether it’s how you make videos, manage your social media, or how you engage with brands and companies. You’ve got to keep your finger on the pulse of the latest trends and distribution platforms and either pivot completely or slightly adjust your strategy. You have to be a videographer, an editor, social media manager, graphic designer, photographer, producer – literally everything. It can take a toll on your mind and body at times, so it’s important to allow yourself to recharge and take a break from time to time. And to be fully transparent, it can also be extremely frustrating to see people who’ve been in the game for much less time than you get more opportunities. But, don’t let it kill your momentum or motivation. Keep going, keep creating and keep working hard. Your time will come.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Currently, I run Heroes Reforged with two colleagues, where we produce videos and a podcast about topics we’re most passionate about. Doing so has helped us build a solid audience base and multiple revenue streams to support ourselves as creators. Additionally, I freelance for several brands and companies as a video editor, graphic & motion designer, and producer. Juggling both allows me to work on passion projects while also building good relationships with new clients. The skillsets from both are thankfully interchangeable. I am also in the very early development process on a couple of passion projects that are more filmmaker-focused.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I think what I learned most during the Covid-19 crisis is that the work that I do can be done from anywhere around the world. I don’t need to be in LA, San Diego, or even the United States. Since implementing the ability to create videos remotely, it opens up limitless possibilities for video production. It also helped me realize how important it is to invest in yourself. Strictly relying on an employer isn’t enough nowadays. You need contingency plans just in case things go belly-up so you can survive. I think that’s a lesson we’re all learning very quickly and, hopefully, acting on.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://adamhlavac.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/adamhlavac
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/adamhlavac
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/adamhlavac
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/heroesreforged
Image Credits
Adam Hlavac
