SCHWAA

You learn so many things while filming skateboarding. You learn about people, how to tell a story, push boundaries, put yourself into uncomfortable situations and become better from it, and of course have a unique perspective on filmmaking. During this time, I traveled all over with friends and professionals creating epic content, while having some of the best times of my life. Growing up and being able to do this pushed my career path towards filmmaking. Skateboarding is an absolute art.

Diving into the world of automotive filmmaking started out through friends who had cool cars that I thought would be awesome to film, which led to introductions to performance shops, that led to car meets, that led to even more networking throughout the industry, I was hooked.

After creating content for so many years, I knew this is exactly what I wanted to do as a full-time career. I left working construction and made the leap to starting my own business and brand.

I had the amazing opportunity to fly out to Taiwan to not only direct an international commercial, but to create tons of different content for an advertising campaign. Being able to travel to such a new place opened my eyes to what really is possible in filmmaking.

I started to expand my horizons a bit within the automotive filmmaking space, and started to create more commercials that necessarily did not have a focus on a specific vehicle, but it was apart of it. This allowed me to push the boundaries of what I could accomplish.

I can’t even begin to describe the feeling I got when surpassing 100k YouTube subscribers and getting a plaque. It may seem like not a big deal to some, but to me, this plaque was years and years of hard work, learning, and creating content that people across the globe watch.

During my career I came across a slight hurdle. Many people would approach me in the mindset that all I created was automotive content and nothing else. Meanwhile I still loved to capture many other genres of filmmaking. With this in mind, I formed Blacksail Productions, a full-service video production company that focuses on larger productions. Check out Blacksail Productions online.

Covering the IMSA series for Lexus Racing was one of the most rewarding experiences. The entire team, from the drivers to the mechanics, to the owners and directors, everyone was so pleasant to be around, and the level of love they have for our work was incredible. We have seen them go through tough times and seen them go through major wins, the rollercoaster of emotions throughout the years has been immense, and being able to capture it alongside them was nothing short of epic.

I thoroughly enjoy camera operating, it has been what I’ve been doing my entire life, but being a director has always been my end goal. Every day I strive to become better and better in this role.

This shoot was one of my absolute favorites. We had a racing event to cover at a track, and I wanted to make the video as dynamic as possible. I contacted my good friend Moe over at Petrolwerks to see if we custom fabricate a tow hitch to his MK5 Supra (which is insanely fast). I wanted to turn it into a camera car to keep up with all the other super cars and fast cars on the track. We ended up rigging out his entire Supra, and took the camera car up to 144MPH, and everything held up PERFECTLY. The footage is absolutely incredible.

I had the pleasure of being the main camera operator for a real estate mansion show on Fox Business. This show travels across the United States showing off gorgeous mansions. Being the A camera operator on this show required myself to work with the host and main talent and coordinate the flow throughout each mansion.

My film Portal 3 Fantasy was awarded Best Cinematography at the Hudson Film Festival in New York City. It was an honor to be awarded this, as myself and the whole team worked insanely hard to make this happen.