Meet Julia Bute

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Bute.

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?
I think it all started on Halloween night when I was 14 years old. I had been out with some friends and was walking home when I was hit by a car going 40mph in my neighborhood in suburban Chicago. Sometimes teenagers have this sense of invincibility (I sure did) but as I was laying in the middle of the street in a pool of my own blood, everything about me changed. After a long road to recovery, I developed this sense of urgency and focus knowing first-hand that shit happens and your life can change in the blink of an eye. I didn’t want to waste any time, which was both a blessing and a curse.

Thanks to my ultra-creative parents (a photographer and a director/editor), and some amazing hands-on television production classes at my high school, by the time I was 16 I knew my calling was to edit videos. The first time I placed music to picture on my mom’s Avid, I got an adrenaline rush like I’d never experienced before. My subsequent trajectory to film school in Boston, then the commercial post-production world of LA was carefully sought-out; I couldn’t leave my career to chance. I had found something I loved doing and I needed to do it as soon as possible.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The path absolutely came with its share of speed bumps. My first job in LA was a wake-up call. Paying dues was SUPER hard for someone with no long-term patience. I did the coffee and lunch runs, the assistant editor work, all the while trying to play with scraps of footage from the shoots when the Editors didn’t need me. I had some really amazing mentors there, but I was also working 80-hour weeks and I was burning out fast. Not to mention it’s most definitely a boys club. I was in a finishing session one weekend evening with a commercial director and some creatives and the director motions to me and says to the room “who is this?” when someone responded that I was the Assistant Editor, he said “oh I thought she was just another Saturday night girl…” I’ve found that kind of disrespect has lessened for me over the past 11 years, but even to this day when I’m sitting in the chair and clients walk in for the first time, they expect a male editor and ask me where he is. Over the years, my skin has hardened a bit, but ultimately I enjoy the opportunity to surprise people with my skills. Maybe in the future, they won’t have preconceived notions about what gender an Editor should be.

Now that I have a family, I find that the guilt of being a working mom is an overwhelming struggle. Post-production is often much more consuming than a regular 9-5 job, yet I have this separate part of my life that needs my full attention morning, noon, and middle of the night.

Being a woman in post, I feel like I’ve had to prove that my personal life won’t get in the way of my work, but it’s truly impossible. So the only way is to normalize, normalize, normalize. Yeah, sometimes I’m gonna pump breastmilk in my bay while I work. Sometimes I have to work from home while my whole family suffers from Hand Foot Mouth disease. Sometimes I need 100 coffees because I’ve been up all night dealing with sleep regression, and I refuse to suffer in silence. We all need to be more accepting of working parents and I think there needs to be an open dialogue about it. I’m very lucky to have a supportive husband who is also in the post-production world. He understands the demands of my career and does overtime on dad duty to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. He’s my cheerleader and biggest supporter.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in branded content! This is a very broad term because I do everything from :30 broadcast commercials to 30-minute television episodes, and more recently the dreaded :06 social cuts have snuck their way into my forte. For the past three years, I’ve been working at an ad agency that mainly focuses on automotive work, so I’ve gotten really good at making cars look super sexy. But I think my heart lies with documentary-style content. I find it to be a delicious challenge to create a story out of unscripted interviews, emphasize tension and conflict to enhance intrigue, and work with beautiful candid b-roll.

Since college, I’ve made international travel a huge priority in my life. I think the new perspectives that travel affords an artist is absolutely priceless. This is something I rely on in my daily work and sets me apart from others.

When it comes to working with clients or creatives, I am a total joy to be in a room with (if I may say so myself). I truly love my job and I worked hard to get here and I think that it comes through in my attitude and work ethic. I also dabble in voiceover work, so if you need a strong, sultry female voice with just a touch of a midwestern accent, I’m your girl.

So far, my favorite brands to create content for have been Airbnb, Gatorade, Subaru, Infiniti, American Express, and Miller Lite.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Being in the right place at the right time is important to an extent, but I think the idea of luck can overshadow the gratitude for certain people who may have stuck their neck out for you, recommended you to one of their contacts, helped throw your name in the hat when you otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance. My luck over the years has come in the form of wonderful people who believed in me and subsequently helped change the course of my whole life. There are only so many “thank you’s” you can say before you have to pay it forward and be that person for someone else.

Contact Info:

• Website: WWW.JULIABUTE.COM
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julia.bute/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliacpan/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliabute/