Meet Steven Gonzalez: Freelance Filmmaker

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

Hi Steven, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
I find it extremely important to always be myself. Sometimes the bad, but mostly the good. You can’t be afraid to let people see your true personality. I have found that most of the time being myself around others, especially clients, makes them more willing to open up to me creatively, creating a better piece of art, and a stronger relationship. 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have been a filmmaker my entire life, but have been doing it freelance for about two years now. I believe what sets me apart from other filmmakers is that I am a musician as well, so I find that when making music videos I am able to use my knowledge of what a musician expects from a video and apply that accordingly. I also find that because of my background, my editing style is very rhythmic, whether it be for a music video, short film, or commercial. My goal is to become a full time narrative filmmaker, but that takes time to turn into a career so I have mainly been creating music videos. I got to be in the position I am in now because I am constantly reaching out to local musicians from all different types of genres. It can be hard at times landing a gig, but the ones that do come to fruition are always amazing experiences for me. It’s not an easy task, but as long as you stay proactive, the chances of meeting someone who wants to pay you to make them a video is always closer than you think. A lesson I’ve learned over the years is to always stand your ground, and never let others take advantage of you. There are ALOT of people out there who are constantly looking for favors, but it takes discipline and experience to learn when a favor will actually be beneficial for you, and not lead to you giving up your time and hard work for someone who doesn’t care about your success. What I want people to know about me and my brand is that I am always honest, and always myself. I run my own film production company with little to no crew, but I feel that being used to working as a skeleton crew has become an advantage of mine during the ongoing pandemic.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am a Torrance, California native, and I take great pride in that. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Torrance is a suburb in South Los Angeles. Torrance is such a beautiful and welcoming city, and there are so many things to do here. If I ever have friends visiting there are a couple places I always take them. The first one being the beach! Depending on where you are in Torrance, the beach is usually only a 10-15 minute drive away, and not too many tourists know this, but it’s absolutely the best beach spots in all of Los Angeles. The next place I would take them (pre-covid) is our glorious Del Amo Mall. It is an enormous mall, and it pretty much contains every store you could imagine. Trips here usually lead to fun window shopping days. Fun fact, it is also featured in the Tarantino movie “Jackie Brown.” In my opinion the most exciting places to check out in my area are all of the great food spots.

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?
My girlfriend Josie definitely deserves a shoutout. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for her constant motivation and assistance when it comes to making business decisions. Every business person and creative needs a second opinion that they can trust and she always is that for me.

Instagram: stevengfilm
Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UCEQBDnHYritfIs_ErsToORw

Image Credits
All video stills were shot & graded by Steven Gonzalez. BTS photo by Shiba House Studio. Headshot taken by Naseem Eskandari