Life & Work with ALFREDOVidal

Kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

My film journey in my mind didn’t start until late in high school in a classroom. My dad always says I was obsessed with cameras as a kid; he says it started when I was about six. I used to run around with a camcorder and record the family gatherings. I eventually got really into photography before starting to take filmmaking seriously.

I remember it was the middle of 2008, and The Dark Knight came out; on top of that, I had just seen 2001: A Space Odyssey. Those two films were what really pushed my mind to say, I want to do this, and I haven’t stopped going ever since.

Eventually, I’d go on to attend ArtCenter College of Design’s film program. It was probably the best thing to ever happen to me. I always say it was like film boot camp.

I got the chance to explore my ideas, the good and the bad. On top of that, it helped me find my voice and in a lot of ways myself.

I graduated in 2018, and since then, I’ve been working as a freelance director in commercials and music videos. I recently directed a short film I wrote based on my own life, and I’m excited to share it with the world.

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?

It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. There’s been plenty of times when I asked myself if this was even for me. All the ups and downs have made me more appreciative of the highs. Whenever I pitch on a commercial or music video job and don’t get it, it can be incredibly disheartening.

I used to get down and beat myself up about what I could have done differently. Now, I instead put all those negative thoughts into creating something of my own, whether it be a short film script or feature script.

It’s become a great way to deal with disappointment.

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 am a freelance director working in commercials and music videos. Hoping to break into the feature world in the very near future. I’d say I’m most known for a Subaru commercial I directed in 2020 and a recent music video I did for the electronic duo Ghost Gun. I’m probably most proud of the Ghost Gun music video, not even because of the accolades the video has gotten including being nominated at the UK Music Video Awards or being shortlisted at the Berlin Commerical Film Festival. What I’m most proud of is I can now call every single person from that set a friend, and that’s a really rare thing in this industry.

The number one thing might be that I always push to shoot on film. Beyond that, I can’t speak for everyone but myself; I like to make every person on set feel like a part of the process. It’s important to me that everyone feels like it’s their film because, at the end of the day, the whole is only as great as the sum of its parts.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?

I think risk-taking is crucial in filmmaking because if you’re not taking risks, you’re just not trying.

I’ve taken a risk in almost every project I’ve done, and while I don’t recommend all of them. I would say if you ever feel afraid to do something, then you should probably do it.

Read the original article on Voyage LA.