Today we’d like to introduce you to Garv Ha.
Hi Garv, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Former music video director turned commercial photographer and video producer based in San Diego.
The Story
Origins 1984-2002
Born and raised in San Diego, my exposure to art and video probably came about when I spent most of my time in Mira Mesa making my own “bootleg” VHS tapes of movies from Hong Kong. Back then, there wasn’t the internet, so if my friends wanted to watch the newest Jackie Chan or Jet Li martial arts flicks, they went through me; unfortunately, I didn’t rent them out to get a head start with lunch money. But in making these backup tapes for fun, I learned to hand draw the labels, so they didn’t just look like some home duplicate. Later on, most of my friends ended up skateboarding or surfing; being the kid who wanted to join the crowd, I tried to skate too and wasn’t the best at it. But I found out about skate videos and was hooked on how much action there was like a kung fu flick. These skate videos didn’t have to have a conventional story; what mattered was that they looked “sick” (cool).
The interest 2002 – 2008
Enter post high school where my interest went to making martial arts or artsy videos, I didn’t have a camcorder yet, so I had to rely on the friend who did. When I saved up some part-time job money, I was able to purchase a miniDV camcorder and make my own stuff with my own vision. The quality and story were workable, cliche storylines like a person gets pickpocketed and the main character gets to unleash his skills on the thief. Or enter 2 hitmen trying to assassinate an auto mechanic but little did they know he could repair weapons besides cars. As terrible as some of these stories may sound, I thought anybody that liked Jackie Chan, or John Woo flicks could give my mini-movies a shot.
The taste
The good news in making bad movies was that people got a kick out it, it led me to connecting with my friend and his breakdance crew, “Squids of Fury,” where I decided to take a stab at making a full-length documentary. I had no concrete storyline, it was a director and some breakdancers who really enjoyed kung fu flicks. The doc made it to 20 minutes total but had some awesome sequences. There was a situation where the breakdance crew had to perform at an expo, but it was an event that had a large audience. The team/crew had some struggles in preparing for this but later overcame the challenge before the performance. For the first time, I was able to express emotion through motion picture; I had put this out before YouTube was a thing, so when some friends of friends saw it, it was huge. Afterward, I spent some time in CSU San Marcos to get a degree, mainly to utilize their vast resources in helping student film/video makers. Before graduating, I entered the film festival with a comedy action film, “Codename: Powerglove,” and we got audience choice and best sound design. And that led me to my next step of the journey; making music videos. Through making music videos, I met some club owners through some of the artists that had to perform at some nightclubs. These club owners needed some type of promotion, and somehow my music video style made sense to them, so I jumped into the opportunity to start my video business accidentally.
The challenge 2012-2019
Being a visual creative, your talents are wide and vast in making things look great. However, understanding value was another thing. This presented a challenge; I had to be able to level up in understanding business not just being artistic. I spent some time to revise my life and jumped into DJing for a bit. During this time, I started to really read and found an interest in dictionaries and business books. Unusual combination, but when I took some time to learn about businesses, I found myself at a position to help others with my craft.
The Change 2020-2022
I’ve had the pleasure to work with creative brands like Knockaround, Munitio (Former Audio Company), and The Longhairs. Even had the pleasure to work with talented music artists like The Justice League (Grammy-nominated producers from Atlanta), Tony Royster Jr. (Jay-Z’s former tour drummer), Freddie Joachim, Eric Lau, and more. Ultimately, I’ve worked with a lot of talented people and will still continue that journey. But what I’ve learned over the years is that despite technology always changing, good old storytelling still lives on.
I currently own 2 businesses, Vizual Rhythm, and The Rhythm. Vizual Rhythm is video production shop that helps businesses and brands through video and live streaming services. The Rhythm a wedding visuals shop specializing in wedding films and photography.
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?
Not at all; I’ve learned that being a specialist or just focusing on one thing in your field really limits you. I’ve had to dig back deep into books of all subjects to get where I’m at,
I mentioned some of the challenges in the former page with the story.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Vizual Rhythm
The concept of my business here stemmed from my studies in Jamaica when I stayed at a rastafari camp. I learned from them; all rhythm comes from the heartbeat, and that is the original rhythm. Steady moving, steady flow. Vizual Rhythm is a video strategy shop that finds out what a company or business rhythm is and uses that “rhythm” to grow and connect with their customers through strategic video creation.
The question is, what combination of factors need to be experienced to create compulsive action in others? We believe that specific combination leads to a consistent rhythm that can be built and delivered. We specialize in the identifying and bringing the ‘formation’ in information to our client’s audience.
The Rhythm
Wedding visuals with soul and meaning. Whether it’s photography or video, it is a chance for us to preserve a moment in time to reference to in their long beautiful journey. We strongly believe in our client’s experience through collaboration, experience, and service.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vizualrhythm.com
- Instagram: @vizualrhythm
- Other: www.therhythm.us
Image Credits
Peilin Hsu
Garvinski
