My First Blog
Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jesse and I am the Office Manager at Advanced Media LLC.
A lot of people ask me how I got started in this business. My journey began in my Junior year of high school. I took a film class and I ended up learning on old school linear editing equipment and shooting silly videos around Poway High School in San Diego. I was fortunate enough that they had a pretty cool program because many schools do not offer anything in the way of film classes. When I transferred to Palomar College I worked on general education credits and was hard pressed to figure out my major. It all kept coming back to this direction that I’ve been gently pushed into. I took a class in Screenwriting.
I transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz after completing Junior College and I began to really immerse myself in film school. The program at UCSC offered 16mm film camera as well as digital camera training. Students were able to rent lighting equipment, microphones, cameras and other necessary items. The program also gave me an opportunity to experience hands on editing and a top notch Film History department. Initially I worked in the AV department and part of my job was to set up equipment for teachers to use in presentations and I ran projectors for screenings. Later I ran the equipment rentals for students in my class as part of a work study program. I had the opportunity to join the Production concentration shortly after arriving at UCSC and I made a few art films there as well as a couple of short, Observational Documentaries.
Upon graduation I moved to the Bay area where I worked for Filmcore for about 6 months as the assistant to the Vault Manager. I had a blast there but I gave it all up to travel the country with some college buddies. It was an amazing time in my life but I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to work in film after that. I ended up moving around quite a bit and settled in New York for 4 years.
When I returned to Los Angeles I applied for an internship with Advanced Media which I found posted on craigslist.org. I was starting over again. After 3 months on the job, my immediate supervisor left the company and I took over running the day to day operations at Advanced Media. Since then I’ve learned all about analog formats, video to DVD transfers, 8mm film transfers and video marketing. One of the editors here gave me a few lessons in demo reel editing and I began to take on clients. Now I have a couple years under my belt cutting everything from demo reels for actors and directors to music videos and trailers for feature films. So inevitably my path has been a road through the past but my eyes were always on the future of the industry. To find out more, please contact me here. (323) 469-0707
