Today we’d like to introduce you to Fer Hilerio.
Fer, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Light and music have always fascinated me. Even from the beginning I knew that I wanted to know their secrets… there is something peculiar in the way music feels when you are looking at things, and even more so how things seem when you’re listening to music. It’s like suddenly and somehow, everyday life turns into a movie… This mesmerized me. And even though the secrets of music remained for me a mystery, the art of seeing presented itself to me in the form of cinema, and light was my way of understanding it.
I was born and raised in Mexico City and inside that surreal city, I fell in love with creating images. I think that’s where it all started. As I grew up, I took an interest in photography by taking pictures of interesting places and moments with my friends, watching movies, and obsessing over music videos I liked. Never did I imagine that this curiosity would evolve into a deep passion for cinematography that took me to study at one of the best film schools in the country, the “ENAC” (Escuela Nacional de Artes Cinematográficas), which stands for “National School of Cinema Arts”.
But besides that, I loved growing up in the city as an aspiring director of photography, taking quick snapshots here and there or exploring weird or forbidden places with my camera… I even enjoyed creating short films from the videos and pictures I shot. However, what really got me started were my friends, since many of them were making music and I was that one friend who wanted to make movies. So naturally, I started shooting and editing their music videos for free; curiously enough, that took me on an ongoing journey that has lead to me being part of amazing narrative and musical projects, including my first full feature film.
Currently, since I finished my studies 3 years ago with a major in cinematography, I am a DOP whose work goes all the way from documentaries, to fiction, music videos, or whatever gets me creating and experimenting with light in hopes of always giving birth to stunning images.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think that for most artists, growing up and finding a place in the world is never a smooth road. Particularly because this system isn’t built for creating, but for sustaining what already exists. You never grow up thinking art will be the easy way (because nothing is)… but let’s say we all know art is specially not. However, most of us artists know this path isn’t really a choice; creating isn’t a decision you make but rather a need that refuses to say quiet.
Growing up as an artist and beginning a career as one (especially as a cinematographer, I dare say) feels like taking the same uphill road everyone else takes, but with far fewer clues or visible paths ahead. Where do I start? What should I do? Where do I go? How should I feel? Am I going fast enough? The only things that seem clear are the artists you look up to, the things that move you, and the work you aspire to create. It seems to me that the biggest lesson you learn along the way is that there is no set path, no one to follow. You carve your own road, at your own pace, by your own rules. Only then you realize that as long as you never stop creating, as little as it may seem, you’ll never stop moving forward.
Cinematography is an art that requires a lot of technical knowledge in particular. It’s beautiful but it’s tough, too. It’s also expensive, painfully expensive. Suddenly you realize that more than ever your passion requires money: cameras, lenses, lights; everything seems out of reach. In my case, my family had little to no money to support a career like that, and living in Mexico made every tool or gadget I needed feel even farther away. Nonetheless, once I started making things with whatever I had access to (however small) everything slowly began to fall into place, and the tools I needed started to come my way.
I remember being eighteen when I bought my first bicolor LED panel on Amazon with my own money. It left me broke, but I felt so proud because it meant I was starting something. Now I’m 25 and I own two sets of cine lenses, lights, monitors, and a lot of equipment I use for my work everyday. And if I could go back and tell that eighteen-year-old kid that one day not so far away he’d be shooting with ALEXA cameras and professional lenses… he’d probably hold that little LED panel even tighter and start crying.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My name is Fer Hilerio, and I am a Director of Photography. My work as a cinematographer consists of designing images from the very beginning, by shaping a feeling through light, framing, movement, color, texture, distortion, and perception. All with a single purpose: to tell a story in a single frame, without you even realizing it. I always thought creating images and transforming light speaks directly to the subconscious. Light is a quiet force that gives meaning to everything it touches.
I love making any kind of photography or visual art from narrative projects, to music videos, documentaries, commercials, even performances. Any world that can come to life through my work is a world I’m willing to explore and fall in love with, especially when it means creating alongside other artists, discovering their vision and imagination, and shaping something new from their stories and their way of seeing life… Letting their vision reshape mine. To me, that’s the most valuable part of being a cinematographer: it connects you to universes you never expected to explore and never imagined you’d encounter.
I think this love for constantly exploring something new is what sets me apart. I never liked saying I had a particular style, neither in the way I frame nor in how I sculpt light. I’ve always admired cinematographers who could make films that are complete opposites, works that feel unique to themselves. This is why my style is born from the worlds that open up before me, from the people that I work and collaborate with. Every new project reshapes me, my style shifts depending on what the story asks for. And to me, it’s deeply satisfying when those shifts echo my previous work but even more so when it contradicts it in the wildest and most beautiful, unexpected ways.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
My work can be supported from anywhere in the world: simply by watching the films I make, the videos I create with friends, or the visual experiments I share. Spreading my work online or showing it to someone else already means the world to me.
If any creative person who resonates with what I do has a story to tell, a vision to share, an idea, or even a product they want to bring to life, I’d be thrilled to be part of it; whether here in the US or back in Mexico. I’m always open to building new worlds, meeting new people, and taking my art and ideas as far as they can possibly go. It doesn’t matter what kind of artist or professional you are. I’m always happy to collaborate, explore, and create something meaningful together.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ferhilerio?igsh=MWo2Z3k2ZGNzNGF1Mg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXuIxo2l4l1rjJBkp_8nxwG47UtYm2ND6&si=Nyd2q93HbzGnl9-2
