Rising Stars: Meet Andrew Lamping

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Lamping.

Hi Andrew, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began my filmmaking journey at the age of 11 years old when I swiped my mom’s video camcorder and reenacted famous movie scenes with my friends. From there, I taught myself how to edit videos, become a better cinematographer, and direct people (especially non-actors). My fondest memories are making videos with my friends every weekend during middle school. Fast forwarding to high school, I got an apprenticeship with a well-known videographer/photographer in my area and learned a lot of the fundamentals not only in filmmaking but the business as well. Towards the end of high school, I connected with Jeff Stolhand, an LA and Austin, TX-based writer and filmmaker where I furthered my storytelling prowess both on paper and visually. This allowed me to become a better screenplay writer, earning awards from festivals and eventually producing, directing, and writing my own short films that have been debuted at festivals. During all of this, I was enrolled in Full Sail University where I earned my Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Digital Cinematography where I got first place in their 240-hour film festival for my documentary “Bass Drop.” I was also salutatorian of my class.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My journey as been anything but smooth and I have contemplated leaving the filmmaking industry as a whole at times. Firstly, I grew up in a small farm town in Illinois where filmmaking or being “artsy” in general was looked down upon. If you weren’t doing manual labor work, you weren’t a man! I stuck with it however and had dreams of going to film school in LA after high school. Only, I got accepted into none of the film schools out there my Senior year. This resulted in me going to a more “non-prestigious” school out there (that I won’t name of course) that accepts anybody. I just wanted to go out to Hollywood! So I moved out there with all my stuff the summer after my high school graduation. I found an apartment with two other students from that university but soon found out one of the roommates couldn’t afford their rent. With this being a third-party apartment complex, the university held no liability so I was faced with a decision, pay their rent or be homeless 2,000 miles away from home. On a side note, the other roommate was not going to help me financially cover the third roommate. I chose to pay their rent so I wouldn’t be homeless but soon ran out of the money that was supposed to last me my first year. Having only been in LA for a couple of months, I was devastated and forced to move back home without even taking a single class. From there, I contemplated quitting again and just going to work at a factory. That was until I decided to reach out to a family-owned business my friend worked at to see if they would be interested in a video commercial. Luckily they said yes, and from there it snowballed into more businesses wanting them. Soon I had made all my money back that I lost in LA and chose to go to Full Sail University in Florida while continuing my new media business.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I would mostly be known for my YouTube videos that I started making in late middle school and throughout high school. On my channel, I had a few videos go viral getting a million views. What I do now is not that however, I look back at my YouTube careers like a training ground and my own personal film school. I managed to take that experience and transition it into what I do now which is video commercials and music videos for businesses and artists. I specialize in directing, writing, and cinematography but also have an extensive background in video editing which I also do on all my projects.

What sets me apart from others is the stories I choose to tell and my work ethic. I won’t settle on a project until I think it’s the best it can be. This leads me to my greatest accomplishment which is my short film Wildlands which I made with the help of my high school buddies during the fall I came back from LA. None of my friends are film-oriented and had no idea what was going on half the time but we managed to get through the hot and long shoot schedule and come out with a great film that has recently made it into the Marina Del Rey Film Festival. This will be my film debut at a festival! The story is centered a talking bear and a young kid lost in a forest. See I told you my stories are different!

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
While I talked about myself a lot throughout this article, I stand on the shoulders of others who were gracious with their time and sometimes money. The people I would love to thank are my parents, Lori and Bill Lamping, Jeff and Dee Dee Stolhand, Jeff Weber and Amy Morino, all my high school friends who put up with me every weekend bossing them around while making videos, and my aunt Helen who financed my first film Wildlands.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.lampingmedia.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewjlamping
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LampingMedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/AndrewJLamping