04 Jul Filmmaking is not just something i do, it’s part of who I am

For as long as I can remember, I have been telling stories in some capacity. I remember sitting in our garage in Mililani as far back as kindergarten, with a tape recorder in hand, making up stories of what the bugs on the ground were doing as if I was a news anchor. When I was old enough, mom bought me a blue, Kodak 35mm camera with those disposable flash attachments which was my gateway to photography. During the summer, I took art classes and learned about pin hole cameras and before I realized it, I was enthralled by aesthetics. Whether it was the graphic design of the skateboard decks I rode or the clothes I wore in intermediate school, art was a part of my story.

Freshman year of high school was really when everything changed for me. A friend showed me a “lifestyle” music video he’d made to Dakota Motor Company for their video class, and before the video was done, I was hooked. Before I ever took a class or read a manual, I commandeered my mom’s Panasonic VHS-C camcorder and began filming skateboarding outings and surf sessions with friends. What quickly became apparent was that editing would play a huge roll in the watchability of these “home movies” I was making. I was inspired by the films 411, Surfer and Girl were putting out and knew that this was what I wanted to do forever.

Any time not spent skateboarding or body boarding was spent in my bedroom with two VCRs editing from tape to tape. Eventually my desire to skateboard was overshadowed by love of making videos. I bought fisheye lenses and lights so we could film like the big boys did, and when I applied for the film program at LMU, my skate and surf videos became my “demo reel.”

Sophomore year, I detoured out of the film program to pursue a graphic design major and animation minor at LMU and during my senior year, landed an internship at Motion Theory which would become my home for the six years after graduation. We made Super Bowl spots for the brands like Budweiser and Hewlett Packard and built some of the first advertising for iTunes and the iPod shuffle. My time at Motion Theory was an invaluable part of my growth as a filmmaker and a creative. Even though I wasn’t a part of the production team, I was a large part of the post production work flow from the time we ingested all our footage to the final delivery of all our work. I learned the disciplines of mastering meticulous details and the pain of performing at a level I never dreamed of. But being a part of a small business in a big industry, I also had to do things that weren’t always glamorous. Things like buying flowers from Ralphs and arranging them for the office, hand cutting labels with an X-acto knife and spray mounting them to our VHS and 3/4″ tapes, driving through Los Angeles rush hour traffic to receive or deliver materials to a client and one of my most memorable… hopping on a 5am flight to San Francisco, to hand deliver a pitch to Goodby Silverstein and Partners for their “HP Hands” brand campaign because we missed the FedEx cutoff point. They were difficult days of little sleep and high output, but a time in my life that shaped the way I’ve built my own business.

It has been six years since I left the comfort of my full time job as a Mac IT Specialist at Anthology Marketing Group and I couldn’t be happier with the decision I made to venture out and start Berad Studio. If you asked me when I moved back to Hawaii in December of 2006 what I would be doing almost 13 years later, I would’ve never guessed that I would be running my own video production business with an amazing team and client roster… but that is the path that I am currently on and I love every minute of it. From the all night edit sessions with clients to the trips around the world create amazing video content… it is all amazing and I am truly blessed to be on this journey.