Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonardo Gonzalez.
Hi Leonardo, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am a Latin American bilingual filmmaker from Honduras with a passion in film and music. My creative journey begins in Chicago getting ready to shoot my first music video. I bought a brand new camera and as we arrived at the third location for the second day of shooting I reach into my camera bag and to my surprise I felt nothing. My 3 day old camera was stolen probably in a brief moment I was being a tourist and looking up at a huge tall building for the first time in awe. This was my last night in Chicago and their was no I was going to let down my friend Anibal AKA Versé down on our first music video together. I did the only thing possible which was to reach into my pocket and film on my iPhone 7. I flew home and edited immediately and that video was not any good at all, but I watch it again now 8 years later and I still feel the exact same energy from that moment in downtown Chicago. The essence of the vibe and energy was captured and immortalized like watching it takes me back in time to that moment. That video defined my passion and I went to school for film in Full Sail University after that moment. I began to learn the art of film and cinema. Since then, I’ve created over 60 music videos each one was completely different and challenging for their own reasons. The ones I hold in a special place in my heart aren’t the ones with my best filmmaking, lighting, editing, coolest effect, etc. It was the ones that like that first video make me feel exactly the same as I felt when I pressed record in that moment of creating. After graduating I began expanding my skills and started working for businesses like nightclubs, restaurants, marathon events, charity events, concerts, football games, etc. While also maintaining my creative expression by being a part of 3 short films, documentaries, and more music videos.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I can’t complain about any obstacles or challenges in my path because I’m grateful to have found a passion in my craft so I welcomed anything challenging because I could always rely on my craft to lift me up. When I felt like I understood that, I always threw myself challenges because everything I considered a failure at that time just helped me be better for the next project and since the beginning I just wanted to be the best I could be so naturally I gravitated towards challenges. When I felt like I created a good music video I began to write a script for a story based music video with actors, and a team of 5. That seemed impossible at the time and felt like I did it by a miracle. Next was double the amount of actors, a house party full of extras, a team of 12, and on top of that making it all a one shot music video. Which if you don’t know what that means is planning each shot to edit it in such a way that it looks like one cohesive shot without any distracting cuts and again felt like I failed but looking back now it was the most inspiring learning experience I had over film school. After music videos the next challenge was small businesses and learning how to sell myself. Now I want to understand and conquer sports videography and wedding work. So expanding my craft in all these little niches has been a challenge because I’m comfortable doing music videos but my belief has always been to expand and bring my learnings and teaching back into creative work like music videos and short films. With this mentality any situation like getting my camera stolen, or my camera sensor getting fried from lasers at a concert and fixing it costing more than buying a new camera, not having the right equipment to achieve an artists idea, or not having the right lens in order to be able to get an artist performing or a football game, not having the right audio equipment to get crowd work videos for my favorite artist, etc. just were part of the process even if I thought at that time it was the biggest challenge or failure, my passion for my craft helped me push through.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a director, cinematographer, and video editor I specialize in music videos mostly but I’ve expanded my knowledge to be able to tackle projects such as documentaries, sports videography, wedding films, short films, and business social media content promotion. I am known to have an eye for camera movements and story telling within any project I’m involved in. I am most proud of a few music videos like Purge by Flacco Z to name one. It was the most cathartic project I’ve ever done so it has a special place in my heart. Other than specific projects building the brand of my business Ten Cam Productions is something that constantly inspires me and seeing how everything I’ve created and worked on has become one even if at first I thought a specific project was completely random. I think what sets me apart from others is my ability to make sure we are making the absolute best project we can make when collaborating working as a creative can be a lot like a manager of expectations but the challenge is being able to push myself and the expectations of others when necessary as well. I want to create things that I am proud of and I’m okay if that requires me to push more than other creatives are willing to do.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
The people who have helped me grow as a creative is the artist Versé. He was crucial to not putting limits to my creativity. I was in film school during a period of making our music videos together and I was trying to apply what I was learning but without realizing it, it was also limiting what I could create. Looking back now some of my best work was because I just allowed the process of my creativity to flow instead of trying to control the outcome and micromanage the outcome. So it was frustrating at first because I wanted it to be “Cinematic” but it was when I let go of my expectations that my work actually became something I could admire myself and it was a blessing to have someone like Versé help me realize that.
Pricing:
- Beginner Promo Packages – Vertical Videos 0f 30 sec – 60 sec minimum of 3 videos 2 hrs of coverage
- Cinematic Promo Package – 1 cinematic 1 min – 2min commercial plus 3 vertical social media videos
- add ons photography 15 – 20 fully edited images
- Editing levels basic – simple cuts
- Cinematic editing – transitions (post and in camera) light effects, stabilization editing, sound design, light special effects, light animation to captions and titles
Contact Info:
- Website: tencamproductions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tencamproductions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leonardo.gonzalez.31542841
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardofaviogonzalez/
- Twitter: https://x.com/leotencam
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tencamproductions
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/@leotencam
Image Credits
All Photos taken and edited by Leonardo Gonzalez
