Today we’d like to introduce you to Jorge Martinez
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Jorge Martinez I always had creative interest growing up. Started with watching movies, cartoons and I would draw my favorite characters. I didn’t have real sense of direction early on but I would just draw because I enjoyed it. I remember seeing these late night commercials for The Art Instruction School and always wanted to try and apply. I applied at 10 and got denied because I need to be at least high school but they liked my work and encourage me to keep it up. I submitted some drawing to a Men In Black contest from Kids WB and actually got a VHS and letter that they liked my design for an alien. Also submit to Marvel Comics and also received a letter that I need to be older to work for them. But the Letter from Marvel came in an envelope with Spiderman on it, and the letter itself had the marvel comics logo from that era.
I always that I would have a career in art using my drawing skill after those experiences and eventually getting into The Art Instruction School and completing the courses while also being in high school.
Around that time I started to develop a deeper interest in film. I started to consume comics more and more superhero films got made, as I got older I started to get into the classics and develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of the craft of filmmaking. It was like it combined all my interest into one visual form. The English teacher I had Mr. Baker in High School also played a part in developing my interest even if he didn’t realize nor did I ever talk to him about my interest in film. But at some point in the school year he has us start analyzing screenplays in class and he would talk about great movie and quite a lot from The Godfather. It was my Junior year and last year in high school where I delved completely into filmmaking and consumed every book I could.
I started college going for graphic design because I was told not to do film. Unsure I could even finish school I just decided to take film classes anyways but stuck to the technical courses because the creative or theory part of it seemed like something I can learn on my own. Luckily I was able to finish the RTVBF degree at Tarrant County College.
That was also where I met friend who would go on to help me to this day in creative projects from short films, working on features, the Upization 1Up Podcast and online content for the Upization YouTube channel.
The core group is made up of Milos Bukarica, Manuel Gaona and the 2 member who help when they can Tresphord Chintankwa and Adrean Flores.
Also the latest member added was my brother Cesar Martinez who has joined to fill in when we needed help on the podcast or he suggested we do press coverage for local events. In doing press coverage he would help interview attendees and staffers at the events.
While maintaining full-time jobs we developed Upization into a freelance production company and online content production on YouTube.
We been expanding the podcast from exclusively filmmaking to talking about how you apply a creative process to the profession of the guest on the podcast. We have had on beyond filmmakers, musicians, photographers, artist, entrepreneurs, podcasters and even lawyers.
We have continued to try new things and we expand the content.
On the first sponsored video series on the Upization channel was the 6 week fitness challenge which was sponsored by Zozofit. It was a great experience and came at a perfect time where my focus really was on getting healthy. The goal was to create a permanent lifestyle change to maintain those healthy habits and use the Zozofit to track and share the physical changes throughout the “6 Week Fitness Challenge Vlogs”
Zozofit was a great experience overall and the team was great to work with.
The current goal for Upization is to just keep growing online, locally through more freelance production and assist businesses with their marketing.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It took some convincing to get everyone to want to do a podcast originally just me and my friend Kevin talked about doing one after we would talk about all the podcast we listened. We had all the gear and could produce one ourselves. When we started we borrowed mics from Milos and eventually got him to be part of it. Kevin couldn’t attend as much but still helped us get started at the beginning. We kept improving the recording space we had and eventually improving the gear too.
Now the podcast has a much better sound and look to it.
Freelance production would take a backseat with everyone taking full-time jobs. We would how ever produce short films and participated in the Rode Reel competition 3 years in a row. The short film Dark Horse performed pretty well for a bit but we didn’t win any awards since you need to place top 3 globally to win. We finished around the top 20 of over 2000 submissions from the USA.
The biggest challenge has been growing the podcast and YouTube channel overall or getting it close to generating money to even allow us to not have a day job.
What also hinder us from making films is also lack of a budget most productions have been micro budget shorts produced and funded by us.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a founder of Upization and managed all the social media accounts.
When it comes to Upization productions I will take on any role I need sometimes a one man crew or if it’s something everyone who’s part of Upization creative group we will delegate the different roles.
I have been proud of having been able to produce the Upization 1Up Podcast and the shorts for the Rode Reel competitions.
What sets Upization apart is that when it comes to freelance work we have been able to handle an entire production from pre production to post with all our gear without having to pass on the cost for rentals. With the different skills everyone has from graphic design, marketing, film production to photography there isn’t much we can’t do when it comes creative media.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Probably the days after a long shoot where everyone goes out for food together.
It usually a fun time after a long shoot or a recording session for the podcast.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Upization.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upization
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Upization?mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Twitter: https://x.com/upization?t=Pz5VFhzbI-ZqQR5t93tfZw&s=09
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@upization?si=QumqtNs4w5OnUZfG
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jorgehmartinezv?_t=8qKzt9HyDF8&_r=1
Image Credits
Upization
Jorge Martinez
