Meet Gille Klabin | Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gille Klabin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gille, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I started my film career in England while attending university. I was taking any film related job I could get so that I could learn from those around me. While doing that I was also constantly shooting anything I could, be it a short for me and my friends or a music video for an unsigned band. I knew no one would hire me for actual human money so I just worked for free as much as I could making stuff I hoped would be cool in an environment where failing had low stakes.

Initially my dream was to get represented by a production company and get into their deal flow with cool artists and commercial brands. I set my sights on that and worked tirelessly to learn about all facets of film-making and to make the coolest things I possibly could. I got rejected for years, sometimes politely and often times not. At first I was bitter about it which drove my first desires to just going solo but I eventually realise it was unfair of me to expect people to just blindly believe in my potential by looking at the half-good videos I was capable of making at the time.

By the time I moved to the states I had settled into this simple idea that no one was going to simply take a chance on me and I accepted that they weren’t ass holes for not believing in my dreams. With that ethos in mind I just hunted for work by myself and always made time to work on free/micro budget projects where I would get to flex some serious creative muscle without having a restrictive client (or any boss) to answer to. After damn near a decade of doing this I was able to sustain myself off regular/more commercial work and I was attracting new clients because I never lost sight of making videos that I felt were more creative.

It was scary always, and still regularly is but that thought process has led me to here and I’m happy I pursued it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a filmmaker from the background of low budget music videos, anyone in the field knows that means you have to know how to write ideas, direct, operate camera, edit, do your own VFX, and learn about delivery specs.

I started back in the era of miniDV and the first ever version of final cut. It was incredibly hard getting anything like an opportunity to shine so if you didn’t figure out how to stand out on a tiny budget and do everything yourself, you just wouldn’t manage. I realized early on that I could emulate a bunch of things I’d seen on TV but there was always a direction I seemed to lean philosophically; I loved stories that had messages, that delved into surrealism, and I loved bold psychedelic visuals.

I felt I could adhere to my desires while still being commercially viable, I also knew I would only develop a style, per se, by creating as much as possible. I’m incredibly lucky in that I’m a huge geek who thoroughly enjoys what they do, I love learning new things and playing with footage for hours on end.

I spent years trying to find me while also paying the bills, it taught me humility and the importance of being creatively courageous. Also I learned through many tears that comparison truly is a fool’s errand, you dont have to be Michel Gondry or Chris Nolan, you can be your own weird thing and the more you are true to that bullhorn of a sound that is “you” the better you art will get.

My big take away is to balance those seemingly opposing concepts of pleasing the client and expressing yourself artistically. I learned that my thoughts and passions are worthless if they’re not accessible to audiences so it made me less precious and to treat my audience with more love and compassion. Your audience is lending you some of their precious time and it’s important t value that and bring them into your world rather than begrudge them for not indulging your every creative whim.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would go to the grave of my favorite restaurant, it was called “Mas Malo”, it’s now called “Bar Restaurant”. We would stand there for the whole weekend and I would cry and talk about how good the salsa was there before they shut down.

After that, if there’s time, I’d take them to Elysian Park because it is the most perfect piece of LA.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The people that helped me most are the people I wanted to impress. These were often my peers who were also taking the fear-soaked steps into expressing themselves artistically and scrambling to survive as freelancers in an ever more over populated world. Chief amongst them are Patrick Lawler, Aaron Grasso, and Tom Cole (all very easy to find if you add “music video” to your search for them.

I was also very fortunate to have parents who loved me and encouraged me and all my friends too for that matter. Being an artist is a wild gamble and these people believed in me and supported me even when there really wasn’t any good reason to.

Website: www.gilleklabin.com

Instagram: @gilleklabin

Twitter: @gilleklabin

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWcHwYvyDSV9JVpkemBO8g

Image Credits
pictures by David Solorzano, Tyler Cushing, Sela Shiloni