Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Baine.
Hi Jake, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always been a creative person for as long as I can remember. I dabbled in a number of creative outlets but I naturally gravitated more towards cameras and filmmaking.
It was always just a hobby/obsession in the beginning. It wasn’t until I was a senior in high school that I made some money with a camera. I had a buddy who was dating a girl who was a year older than him and had recently joined a sorority. She needed a recruitment video and he recommended she reach out to me. I think I made a total of $300 on that job, but it remains the critical moment where I realized I could monetize my skill. Until this point, cameras were just something I enjoyed nerding out about.
Even after that, I hadn’t decided I wanted to pursue production as a career. I thought I wanted to be a journalist and was attending Arizona State University to study journalism. While at my first semester, I went to a music festival with some of the new college friends I had made. One of them told me I should reach out to the artists on the lineup and offer to film some content of their performance for their socials. All in exchange for artist access. I think I ended up reaching out to around 30 artists. This was back when artists had their manager’s direct line in their Twitter bios. To my surprise, two out of the 30 emails I sent received responses from managers taking me up on my deal. I ended up delivering the two videos to the two specific artists, one of them hated the video. The manager told me it wasn’t usable. The other artist loved it and the manager promptly offered me the gig of traveling on their tours to capture photos and videos. It wasn’t until I returned back to ASU after that first small 4-5 day tour that I caught the “production bug”. I remember calling my dad as soon as I got back and telling him that video production was what I wanted to spend my life doing. I dropped out of ASU after my first semester and moved back home.
After I moved back home in San Antonio, I ended up applying to a travel job that cosmopolitan wrote an article about. You know, one of those “Get paid to travel the world and take videos!” type things. It was a Hail Mary for me when I applied. A friend from high school forwarded me the article and said I should apply. I somehow ended up getting the job and promptly left San Antonio and lived abroad for five months and traveled to about 22 countries, all whilst shooting video and photos for this travel agency to use as marketing and advertising material. I think I grew as a person the most during this trip but it was also where I started to explore where I wanted my niche to be in production. Up until this point, I had been a one-man band, producing social content and photos. I really started to feel burnt out of creating social content that, to me, felt like a “flash in the pan” and didn’t create any real value as art.
Once I returned stateside from working abroad, I began trying to soak up as much as I possibly could on how the production industry really worked. I had absolutely no f*cking clue how a professional set was run or worked. I ended up re-enrolling in college at Texas State University all whilst taking any production gig I could get. From PA gigs to DP work, I tried to take everything I could so I could learn as much as possible, grow my network and work my way up the ranks. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing crews and for some amazing clients all whilst finishing my bachelor’s in college.
I graduated from TXST in May of 2021 and have since moved to Austin. Once I graduated college, I had a long think about what my next steps would be for my career. I’ve always known that I wanted to jump head first into the industry in LA but never had been able to do so while in college, but now that I’m out, I’ve started working towards moving out to LA to progress my career.
I’m currently working in a marketing department at a company local to Austin and am saving up for a move to LA in September of 2023 to jump back into the industry head first. I’m still actively doing production on any chance I get and taking any job that works with my current work schedule.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Hell no. It’s been tough as heck. For any 9-5 corporate job, there is such a clear and defined “road to victory”. In the creative arts, there is absolutely no manual. You’re figuring it out as you go. I could write a 4 volume novel on the struggles of a creative but I think it all boils down to trusting yourself and what you can do. Imposter syndrome and doubts aren’t so prevalent in the early days of your career, but as you start to grow and work on professional projects where the stakes are high, it’s easy to let doubt creep in.
It’s also easy to feel discouraged when you feel like you’re working as hard as you ever have and not see the results you wanted. Meanwhile, social media can flood you with people who seem to be finding success like it’s behind every door. That can get really hard if you let it get to you. Sometimes it can make you feel like you’re chasing a pipe dream.
Realizing that everyone is on a different path and journey is one of the main struggles of being a creative. Just stay true to your path and plan and things will pan out. That’s also what makes being a creative so beautiful; your journey and adventure is so unique from your colleagues. It often feels like you’re in a movie when serendipitous things come along that progress you in your career!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a cinematographer although oftentimes I have to wear all the hats. I’m just now edging into the portion of my career where I am able to specialize in a specific role on set thanks to larger budgets and clients. I will always been a cinematographer at heart.
I try to always make sure my cinematography is rooted in the story/script or idea of the project. It’s easy to decide on a type of shot or camera move because it looks cool rather than if it benefits the story as a whole. The first question I like to ask myself is “would this make sense in the scope of the project?” — if it doesn’t, I don’t waste any time on the shot. That can sometimes be painful if it’s a shot you’re really excited about. I’m by no means a ‘well-known’ DP, but I would like to think that I will become more known for this as I continue in my career.
I am most proud of a recent project I shot for the city of Palm Springs, CA. We’re in the final stages of post-production so I can’t say much about it just yet, but we had a small but mighty team that all worked extremely hard to produce something that looks like cost about 5x the budget we were given. It’s some of my best cinematography work and I can’t wait to share it!
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
My dad says I was a very stubborn and strong-willed child. I never liked authority. Not in a disrespectful or troublesome manner, but rather if I felt an authority figure was doing a bad job or didn’t command respect, I’d definitely push boundaries. I think my parents had some interesting parent-teacher conferences. Being strong-willed, a few bullies would try to pick on me as a kid and I would retaliate. I was never one to take abuse from anybody. That kept me from getting bullied growing up and I’m thankful for that personality trait. I was an active kid too, I enjoyed playing outside and played sports all throughout school.
Aside from that, I stayed out of trouble for the most part and enjoyed tech and creative work. I dabbled in many mediums like I alluded to earlier in this interview. I was always the camera, computer and tech guy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jakebaine.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/jakebaine
