Today we’d like to introduce you to Sage Griffin.
Sage, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m Orange County born and have lived in SoCal my entire life. I’ve always been in close proximity to the entertainment industry. I suppose it was the only avenue I ever had any interest in although the route was never concrete. I come from a family of artists. My father is a musician, my mother is a painter, sculptor, graphic artist — a pickup anything and be good at it type of person.
My siblings both seemed to follow suit from a young age, my brother also a musician; and my sister has always been artistically inclined and excelled at everything she did. I on the other hand was a bit slower to come into my own. My life path for the majority of the time was more so on the side of, “I have no clue what I’m doing but whatever I do I’m going to do it right.” So I did exactly that, and I aimlessly wandered as correctly as I could, and as the saying goes: Not all who wander are lost. I enrolled in the film program at my community college, and that is where I started to find my way. Production Design opened my eyes up to the infinite amount of possibilities this world has to offer. I consider myself a very cerebral person, 90% of my life takes place between my ears. I’ve always been a chronic daydreamer, reader, ponderer, and movie watcher. Sort of an escape artist. I found it difficult to pull myself out of that. The amazing thing about the industry I work in – is that a lot of it is sink or swim. I get thrown into so many different situations.
Learning to adapt and finding solutions became second nature to me. Spatial skills were never my forte. It wasn’t a muscle I used often, and now they’ve become an intrinsic part of my tool kit. I have to see so big picture while fine-tuning the details simultaneously. I’ve learned to see the world brighter and wider, and because of that I am privileged to be a part of bringing concepts to life. Making what would otherwise remain daydreams into bright realities — whether it be a narrative, a commercial, or a music video. World building is a good way of putting it. My career path has given me the gift of mindfulness in the real world while still allowing me to indulge my love for fantasies.
Has it been a smooth road?
Nothing worthwhile is easy, and nothing easy is worthwhile. My struggles are my true teachers. Although, the more experience I gain the smoother it becomes. I suspect there will always be struggles. My ability to handle them is ever-changing, and once I go through something once, or twice, or maybe three times, eventually the solution sticks. To dive into more specifics, creating and controlling my own boundaries is something I’ve struggled with, but have seen true growth in when it comes to my job. The biggest lesson I’ve learned thus far is that I am the sole guardian of my well-being, and I have to advocate on my own behalf.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a freelance Production Designer for all different forms of digital media. For those who aren’t well versed in Production Design, to sum it up as simple as possible – it’s the creation of any and all environments that a story takes place in. A room, many rooms, a restaurant, a store, etc. sometimes it’s as abstract as a color, or a feeling you can visualize. A lot of my project demands usually fall somewhere between interior decorating and some light architecture and building. My hope is for that to grow in depth as my career continues.
I’m proud any time a set I’ve designed evokes the appropriate reaction out of the people interacting with it most; whether it’s the director, the producers, the client, the cinematographer, the actors, or the audience. Whomever it may be, I know what reaction I’m hoping to get, and when I meet their expectations, and in turn they meet mine – there’s no way of explaining how good that feels to me. I’m not sure what sets me apart from others. I try to only critically think of myself, and instead see where I can learn from my peers. I know that without my overactive thought process running through all the variables needed for a well-executed look, I don’t think it would be possible to do my job. So my analytical nature pays off.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love Los Angeles. It’s hard to imagine living anywhere else. For starters, the terrain, Southern California offers everything you could realistically want. From mountains to beaches, forests to deserts, and it’s the most well-adjusted area when it comes to weather. I sometimes take the beauty of my environment for granted because I’m so used to it. To have access to all that natural beauty, while also living in a city whose architecture is so lovely and eclectic. It’s so vastly unique and differs street to street. It is constant visual stimulation. Each building has a different story, and there are so many layers. While our city’s history may be more current than a lot of its east coast predecessors, the nature of Los Angeles is inherently whimsical. That coupled with the fact that it’s a city built around an industry that is designed to make people feel better and enables them to take a safe break from reality. That is an amazing grounding point for a city in my opinion.
My dislikes more so revolve around the global epidemics. Just like any other empathetic human I strongly dislike seeing other people struggle and feeling unable to help them. I try to make tiny changes where I can, but reality can feel dismal sometimes. There is always hope though, and Los Angeles has a large community of people whose soul ambition is helping those in need. There are solutions and they settle here perhaps faster than other areas of the country. So in a way, I feel blessed to be able to contribute more than I might elsewhere and blessed to have awareness and clarity to the problems of common humanity. And clearly traffic sucks, but whatever.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1616 5TH AVE
- Website: www.sagealicegriffin.com
- Phone: 9493506876
- Email: sagegryffindor@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sage.artemisia/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sagemalice
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