Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Gonzalez.
Jay, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It all started off when I had my son. At 25 years young, I was faced with new challenges of being a new father and not knowing my life was going to change forever. I’ve always been a creative at heart, made beats in high school, had a rap group and we would rap my parent’s bedroom since they didn’t allow computers in our rooms, I would lock in for hours writing lyrics and making beats. Having strict parents, I wasn’t able to do much like hang with friends so I spend most of my life indoors. I began learning how to make beats and in hopes maybe I’ll have a future in music. Time went by and having a newborn music just became a hobby. At four months old, we received terrible news that our newborn of four months old had a rare form of eye cancer and we needed treatment right away. Our lives were on hold. We began chemotherapy and fought the battle and as we fought it, I picked up my phone and documented our visits. I would put together little videos of our visits and share it with our supporters which helped us through this tough time. I began to receive positive feedback on the videos and it was amazing. I was shooting all these on my iPhone 6 and knew if I wanted to pursue this as a passion, I’d have to up my quality. Saved up for a better camera and that’s when everything changed for me.
My quality was better than ever and knowing all the positive feedback, I decided to shoot music videos/event recaps/Real Estate and weddings which helped me learn the networking world. Between being a beatmaker and my new passion for videography I found myself Direct messaging one of my favorite producers !LLMIND during my shift and surprisingly he responded minutes later. I offered him my time for an opportunity to work with him. Little did I know, it was a perfect time. Knowing he’s fromNew York and I’m from Los Angeles, I never would imagine he would give me that opportunity. At the time !LLMIND was starting his “PASS THE AUX” tour and he was going to be in Los Angeles the following week and he was looking for a videographer. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. Its 2020 and I’ve been working with !LLMIND for over two years now and it’s been amazing. I truly am thankful for his knowledge he has shared that helped me work with artists like DAVE EAST, A BOOGIE WIT DA HOODIE, LONDON ON DA TRACK, TRAP MANNY, GASHI, ISAIAH RASHAD, P-LO, GUAPDAD 4000, BIG BOYS NEIGHBORHOOD, MARLON CRAFT, APL.DE.AP (BLACK EYED PEAS), VALENTE RODRIGUEZ (GEORGE LOPEZ SHOW) and more…..
Great, 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?
Imagine getting a call from your phone carrier telling you that your account was getting hacked. That was one of many road bumps that I’ve encountered. I remember this phone call and will never forget it. My account was breached and over 3k was gone from my account just like that. This was the same week I was going to meet !LLMIND and keep in mind this was all via social media. My privacy was taken and my trust was an issue now. Talking with !LLMIND over DM I felt like it could’ve been a scam. Everything and everybody was against me, so I thought. I received a text with a location to meet !LL even through these tough times with identity theft and a kid with cancer, I really had no time for risks but took a chance to work with someone I looked up to. I drove down and met him and it changed everything. Cancer changed my life. My son changed my life but also this meeting changed my mindset in my career. In 2017, I reached out in hopes to get into the wedding industry and not having any experience I first had to build a pro-folio which meant shoot free weddings. I received some bad feedback at first. Not knowing what I was getting into I began learning more and more… Fast forward 2020, weddings have been one of my hardest and most stressful jobs but knowing the in and outs it became a lot easier and the payout was worthy. Although this was all happening, we are still till this day trying to separate family time with the new passion as being a videographer and editor.
Kraft Visuals – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
It’s hard to say what separates me from other people, but when you have a passion you don’t compare yourself. You’ll just do what you love. Your work will eventually speak for itself. My primary focus is wedding videography. It truly brings the most out of me when it comes to work ethic. The panic and the stress is what keeps me alive. As for a company, I’m still finding out my flaws. I’m learning more and more everyday and I’m sure that will never stop as long as you love it. I have a goal and my goal is to collaborate with a team to bring our visions where we can all learn. I know I have many things I have to learn and I know the obstacles we had to face, through it all I am most proud of my family. We have made it here and know as a company, I’m proud of us.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My childhood memories are sometimes a blur. These days they are a fantasy… Not knowing what tomorrow brings always stuck to me. Being a kid, I lost one of my closest cousins due to a fatality. All this bottled up throughout the years which later inspired me and wrote my thoughts on a paper. If it was rhymes or if it was making beats to ease the pain. I did it… Not a day goes by I don’t think about him, I use that as encouragement. We live in a world nowadays where you think you’re in control, you are not in control. Anything can happen, believe you have your own path.
Pricing:
- Weddings starting at 1600$
- Music videos 600-1400$
- Hourly 110/HR events plus edit
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kraftvisuals.com
- Email: Kraftvisuals@gmail.com
- Instagram: @kraftvisuals
Image Credit:
@KraftVisuals
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
