We were lucky to catch up with Justin Knodel recently and have shared our conversation below.
Justin, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
A lot of wandering through the desert. haha. I always wanted to be a part of filmmaking for as long as I can remember, but the arts is a professional pursuit that most would consider to be a high risk not worth taking so I did anything I could to avoid it. After graduating high school I spent four years at a liberal university, tried different majors and eventually settled on a BA in history to have myself all set up to be a future gym teacher I suppose. I honestly didn’t put too much though into it and I assume the people around me at that time would probably concur. After graduating I still wanted to do something with filmmaking, but I didn’t know how. This was 20 years ago so before the huge social media boom where all information is instantaneously made available to anyone. Realizing I needed to do something to motivate myself I did the exact opposite and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. I spent four years serving out of a small boat station in Long Beach but even then I spent the entire time in the back of my head always thinking and dreaming about doing something in filmmaking. After my time in the military I knew it was unavoidable and I didn’t care how risky of a life choice I was making. I didn’t need to be a filmmaker, I had to be a filmmaker. Everything in my gut told me this is what I have to do so there is no point in going against it anymore. Since then I haven’t looked back. I went to film school, picked up on the fact I had a good eye for the camera and have spent the past 10 years working professionally as a cinematographer and recently finished both shooting and directing my first feature film. Best decision of my life. I’m paraphrasing from a speech Jim Carrey made a long time ago but it goes “If you can spend your whole life doing something you hate and fail at it, then why not fail at doing something that you love.”
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a cinematographer so to any readers who don’t know filmmaking well, I’m the person who frames the shots and sets up all the lighting schemes with the director. Its a great profession because the part of filmmaking I do is so connected to the tone and feeling of the story you are trying to tell. Some of the best perks about what I do is that I am always meeting and working with new people, have traveled the world and have had so many off the map experiences that never would have happened if the productions I work on weren’t taking me there. I primarily shoot feature films but I also shoot music videos and documentaries as well.. I have a feature film I shot in Saudi Arabia being released later this year that I am very proud of. Al Ittihad, its a historical biopic about the creation of a football club with a story that spans over 100 years. I also have a family Christmas comedy, Saint Nick, that I both shot and directed that will be coming out around the holidays this year as well.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three areas I can think of are natural talent, perseverance and self discipline. The arts are kind of like sports. Either you have it or you don’t so you have to have some kind of natural talent to be successful in my industry. It doesn’t mean you have to be the best. Tom Brady wasn’t considered the best but his work ethic and dedication to getting better is how he became the greatest. However, he was still a damn good ball player in the beginning and that helped put him in a position where he could go on to become the best.
Perseverance, because this is a highly competitive industry and you will have to overcome adversity on every production you will ever work on. It never magically becomes perfect. Its a grind, but you have to love the grind and probably be a little crazy to do this. If a new person asks me career advice I always tell them if you find you don’t love this, there is no shame in moving off this because you have to love this in order to be successful at it, otherwise you will spend so many years of your life being miserable.
Self discipline so you are constantly keeping yourself in a mindset for improvement and maximizing the time you have on set to try to make something great. Short term sacrifice will lead to long term rewards. Also, always asking yourself at the end of every day “Did I do the very best I could today with the time and resources we had to make the best of this ?” If the answer is yes, you will always sleep easy.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
Yes. Needing more investors to keep making more films. But I think that is a challenge that will never go away.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.justinknodel.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justin_knodeldop/
