Today we’d like to introduce you to Alessandro Rodrigues.
Hi Alessandro, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I would have to say I got extremely lucky to have had a lot of amazing people take the time to show me the way throughout the years. The idea of capturing moments was always very close to me from a young age which had to have stemmed from my obsession of skateboarding. As a youngster, my friends and I were always skating around town, pointing cameras at each other and at anything cool to make little edits here and there, but the real turning point for me was in high school. A friend suggested I check out a short film called Last Minutes With Oden by Eliot Rausch. That film completely changed me. It was the first time that I had felt the possibilities of filmmaking. The skate videos on the shelf became less important and I dove deeper into this new world of storytelling.
So much so I started finding solace in the dark back corner of digital media room at school where I edited as much as I could. One day the photography teacher noticed me constantly back there alone and mentioned I should have a chat with his son who owns a production company out in Solana Beach.
It is crazy for me to look back on that moment now because if that never happened, I have no idea where my life would have taken me. It was shortly after I met my mentor, his son, Iain Harris. He was running a boutique production company called HYPEmedia off of Cedros ave. That is where I was met with the same passion and love for the craft, but he actually knew what his was doing! I got to intern there for the rest of my time in high school and halfway through my college endeavor he offered me a job on the team. I quit the film degree pursuit and began working closely with the team at HYPE.
I am not sure if I nestled my way under his wing or he took me under, but that guy taught me so much about what is takes to be a professional in the industry.
Everyone on that team taught about the ins and outs of pre-production, production, post-production, and was given opportunities to learn, fail, and try again with nothing but support. My life all the sudden was filled with shooting, traveling, editing, & it was a really magical time of growth in my life.
I was just so in awe of the mere fact that making videos as a career was an option for me. I found myself working on projects for North Face, Callaway, Qalo, Evoshield and my love of editing grew throughout that time period. I found myself being another sole editor on the team and learned how to cut anything that came through the door; whether it was a boarded commercial spot, story-driven piece, & everything in between. After about five years of being at HYPE, the crew disbanded, and Iain was going over to start a new venture at Commonthread Collective out of Costa Mesa. I was again met with an opportunity to run and manage the post-production team over there, and so the next chapter began. I got opportunities to meet more awesome humans and work on pieces for Wilson, FC goods, Baden, Ridge wallets, born primitive, and a ton more I can’t even remember.
My time ended at Commonthread at the end of 2019, and I have been navigating the freelance world ever since. I have been working on projects for Google, Puravida, EA, Culture Kings, Marucci, HGTV, and work more closely with directors. It has been a crazy whirlwind of projects since being the weird editor kid in the back room, but what has been the best part is all the people I got to share time with in the trenches. All the projects I have worked on probably have 20 stories attached to each one of them. That has really been the best part of it all. At the end of the day, I get to make videos with my friends still. It is a real blessing.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth?!? What is the fun in that! There have been many struggles. I mean, with every new season I encountered, I was met with a wall of fear that I had to wrestle with. Everything from leaving college to pursue a job at HYPE, to running point for a post-production team & now living in the freelance world. It is all terrifying if I sit too long in thinking about it, but I take the next indicated step, focus on the work, and that tends to simplify it all for me.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I have been primarily editing in the commercial and advertising space. I cut anything from branded story pieces to broadcast commercials, social campaigns & films. My work can be as broad as that, but I am really in service to whatever story or vision comes my way. As I have sharpened by technical abilities throughout the years, I’ve found that being a good editor is really about having the ability to translate thought and emotions through the cut. It can be a tricky dance of marrying the expectation of the client or director and the reality of the footage at hand. It ultimately forces my attention on being the best collaborator I can be throughout the process of forming & shaping, so I tend to make decisions based off of finding the feeling or flow & work from that structure. What has worked for me thus far is trying to keep the conversation in the space of emotions, pace, flow vs. shots, and pretty pictures. It tends to dictate what is clearly working and what is not. It is easy to throw a couple pretty shots together but harder to build the moments around them. I hope that makes sense! To put it simply, I cut from the gut. Haha. It is really about the process of listening & trusting my collaborators to be the best conduit to a finished piece.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What comes to mind is Ryan Booths talk on the importance of empathy in the film world. It constantly rings true for me in my journey. I have to have empathy for clients, collaborators, the material & myself. This life of making videos isn’t easy or sexy work. It is really tough and stressful in moments with constant deadlines & various needs from different departments. I care a lot about the work, but I can never put that result above anyone. You know, there are 1,000 ways to skin a cat, and sometimes my way isn’t always the right way for the project. I have to stay open to that change. I can’t discount anyone or any idea at work because that can eventually bleed into my personal life. Being right or holding onto an arbitrary vision about anything in an edit is never worth the loss of a relationship. It frees me up to be aware and honest in how I communicate with others and keeps that childlike awe of storytelling front of mind for me. When I put that wonder first, I am afforded a presence & freedom in my work/life. It used to be the old sayings of “you’re only as good as your last project,” and I would really strive for the next best thing. It just left me unsatisfied and fearful in where I was at. I think now it is different. The expectations of where I want to be are less important, and the relationships that I am forming as I happily trudge the freelance path mean most to me.
It naturally pushes the work and keeps me open to learning 10 years later.
Contact Info:
- Website: Alessandroedits.com
Image Credits
Manuel Salcido
