Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Suppa.
Drew, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Art has shaped the man I’ve become. The one art form that encapsulates all others is a film, and by proxy, television. I was a child with a love affair for dinosaurs, and the day that Jurassic Park trailer came out, I knew my future. I was going to work in an industry that could bring imagination to life. I was blown away by that film — I still am — and from 1993 on, I absorbed as much content as I could.
My parents were always supportive of my endeavors — going so far as to purchase a new Hi-8 camcorder that I promptly made an extension of my own hand. They bought a Ford Explorer the result of that film and had no idea all the things I would eventually load it up with for the sake of my budding passions. Eventually, my grandmother bought me a light, a stand and a microphone.
As I grew up, my home movies became more complex, and replaced childhood toys with live actors, though I had an increasingly difficult time corralling friends and neighbors. With little to no funding, I inevitably turned my attention to music, drawing and painting until I started getting paid to shoot video projects for my classmates in high school. It wasn’t until college, where I was surrounded by like-minded classmates that I felt truly confident in the direction I was headed. I had no idea what laid ahead.
Has it been a smooth road?
In high school, I got in trouble for tearing down state-protected marshland for one of my films. Had to talk my way out of going to jail for trespassing on federal property for a location scout. Nearly gave my cast and crew frostbite filming a war movie in the Pennsylvania snow. College got a little easier, but neither prepared me for the move to California nor the nature of this industry, especially back in 2007, when so much changed so rapidly.
I landed in Los Angeles a couple of days before the Writer’s Strike began that year. The money I’d saved during college was gone within a couple of months, and I took a PA job in reality television to scrape by. I eventually started working as a Grip and started making contacts in the camera department. But that coincided with a period of homelessness, living out of the back of my Passfinder, showering at the gym, getting mail sent to a PO Box and briefly inhabiting a cave out in the desert.
There have been plenty of days that were smooth sailing, but others that were so far from it, they make for great stories. I get to adventure for a living. Problem solve. Test new techniques and gear. I’ve been in cars going over 140mph, nearly been mauled by a lion, had to fight with baboons over provisions, was once physically on fire and have been stung by a tarantula hawk (which I wish upon no one, it was even worse than the third-degree burns).
I’d have it no other way. I just wish I was further along than I am now, but I’m trusting the process.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I’m a Local 600 Camera Operator and non-Union Cinematographer with greater ambitions. I’ve written and directed a handful of short films and am developing two television series, the inexpensive one a comedy revolving around the cast and crew of a reality show and the other a massive SciFi epic. In my spare time, I’m restoring an old overland vehicle and I compose music. I’ve scored a couple short films and am in the process of mastering a full-length album.
As a freelancer, I’m proud to be a part of the team at DrivingPlates.com, where we film 360-degree environments for background replacements in film and television. You’ve likely seen these environments but didn’t realize it, on films like The Post, The Irishman, Joker, Venom, Creed II, The Commuter and on shows like House of Cards, Stranger Things, SWAT, Grace & Frankie and Homeland.
My interests — design, musical theory, technical artistry in light and texture — all culminate with the capture of moving images. I’m in the business of bringing vision to reality.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles has long been the home of the motion picture industry and despite productions elsewhere across the country and globe, that’s never going to change. People from all over the world move here to try to make it big. But therein lies the issue: all of the markets here are oversaturated. I’ve been here for 13 years now and I still don’t feel like I’ve “made it.” This town really does revolve around who one knows. It’s easy to think some seemingly ‘make it’ overnight, but often overlook the vast number of years of blood, sweat and tears that goes into this.
If I had any advice to give, I’d say the best course of action is to make something of yourself elsewhere and then come out here to level up. LA is a prohibitively expensive place to live, and unfortunately, a lot of dreams die here, regardless of talent level or drive. For others like me, storytelling is in our blood and there is nowhere greater to call home.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.drewsuppa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thmostinterestingmanintheworld
Image Credit:
James LaMarr
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