Daily Inspiration: Meet Zack Larez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zack Larez.

Hi Zack, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I wanted to be everything. That’s why acting seemed so appealing to me. It was appealing enough to bring me to Los Angeles, from Florida, by way of Arizona in July of 2012. In the decade that followed, I became a script supervisor, then storyboard artist and photographer. I’ll be a director and producer before I’m done.

I was bound to make my break as an actor any day. Once in LA, I waited tables at exploitative restaurants, making barely enough to cover rent (and oftentimes not), but I was able to tolerate my poverty because wealth and fame were always but a month away. I was the diamond in the rough enjoying his rough years before he was found and put on display where he belonged. I had taken acting classes in Sedona, Arizona under Sagan Lewis (GENERAL HOSPITAL) and she’d helped me get my SAG eligibility in the form of a small role in a feature film that shot there (SEDONA). Well, once in LA, and once I was fired from my latest waiting job (for not pushing gift cards on people), I decided to find a job I could do on film sets. That should float me until I got famous.

I got to know a guy, Michael Coulombe, over several of the filmmaking mixers he hosted at a local bar in Atwater Village (where I lived at the time). Once I found out what he did – script supervising – and what it was, I convinced him to train me in it. Turns out Benjamin Franklin’s advice was sound – if you want somebody to like you, ask them to do you a favor. So for several years, I worked on film sets 12 to 14 hours a day. I worked on non-union movies, streaming series, short films and commercials. I sat next to all kinds of directors, keeping one eye on the script and one eye on the actors on the monitor while keeping my third eye on the film crew. Script supervisors are supposed to help prevent mistakes from going unnoticed to the point where they hurt the final film and, in the process, help coordinate the shooting of said film in all things regarding continuity. Clothes, props, lights, dialogue, hair – everything. I describe it as keeping track of all the tiny details people think directors are keeping track of but shouldn’t be bothered with.

We’re not making any of the decisions – we’re keeping track of the decisions as they get made and then we hold people to them and tug on the director’s sleeve when something is getting too far out of line. I used to get blindsided by such bizarre questions that I began to get filled with anxiety over what I’d be asked next. “Was this light on in that last take? Was that light on? On which line did it go off? Was that door open? Should she have her backpack? What time goes on this watch? Why can’t she be wearing this watch? Can the actor say ‘Yesterday’ instead of ‘the other day?’” I found that the only solution for me was to become the absolute f*cking authority on anything I worked on. I had all the answers and if I didn’t know, I’d know the fastest way to find out. I caught mistakes before they happened. I got really good and after about six or seven years it was time to join the script supervisor’s union so that I could work on bigger movies and work toward building a retirement and pension, supervising film continuity on into my later years. I wouldn’t go on to do that, I’d become a storyboard artist instead.

I was picking up odd little storyboarding jobs since the beginning. Once I understood the visual language of film from having to keep track of it as a script supervisor, it seemed only natural that I combine my experience with my art skills to begin storyboarding. I improved pretty fast, picking up odd little short film jobs here and there. Somehow I got started in commercials and started making some pretty decent money for the first time in my life, or at least, money resembling what an adult professional should be making.

My early work was pencil on paper because I couldn’t afford the right computer to go digital. But I went digital pretty quickly out of necessity – after almost completely bungling a high-stakes commercial job because of how long it took to cut, copy and rescan physical storyboards. Although I both storyboarded and script supervised for a time, even doing both on a handful of films, I quickly saw that I enjoyed storyboarding more. I got to actually contribute creatively! Yes, I was drawing what the director said, but sometimes we’d have discussions and throw ideas around or sometimes things were vague and I had to make decisions on how to clear them up. I was the expert on eyeline and screen direction and I wouldn’t constantly be asking where the camera needed to be for each shot – I knew. I began storyboarding music videos and that’s when I began working with names people had heard of. The Weeknd, Lizzo, Doja Cat, Madison Beer, John Legend, Eminem, and Snoop Dog. Before long, I was getting my asking rate consistently. I worked on a Twitch commercial and the producer took me with him to his new client – Riot Games. I was storyboarding the esports hype videos for both League of Legends and Valorant. I was there for Valorant esports’ first year and what a year it was. I storyboarded a feature film, MEMENTO MORI, directed by Marcos Efron – probably the closest I’ll come to boarding an entire feature film before I join the Art Director’s Guild and work on blockbusters. By that time, I’d been steadily turning down script supervising jobs; I simply couldn’t afford to miss any storyboarding work. I stayed present in the script supervising community and enthusiastically mentored anyone who came asking, however. It was during the pandemic that I made the full career pivot and I have emerged a new beast.

So, I am a storyboard artist. It is the profession that I have had the most success in and which I find most rewarding. I will happily do it into retirement. However, I do consider returning to acting with all of my hard-gained knowledge and experience in filmmaking. I also explore photography and have already become quite capable in under a year. I do street photography on a near-daily basis and focus on portrait and figurative photography with designs to book headshot sessions regularly between storyboarding jobs. I have a mind to combine my photography and art like I’ve combined just about all other experiences I’ve had. Photography is keeping me engaged with people and learning how to better contemplate and set up shots, oiling a gear that I hope will spin over into directing film. In the next five years, I hope to be in the Art Director’s Guild, storyboarding on the biggest sci-fi and fantasy movies imaginable while financing my own short films and directing feature films and perhaps a few music videos. I’ll also have been releasing my own comicbooks, ezines and perhaps short stories.

As I was being fired from a restaurant in Arizona, the then-manager told me that I wasn’t seeing “The big picture”. I know now that she was right and that I wasn’t looking at her big picture – I was looking at an even bigger one. Still, I see it and still, I’m hired to help people draw their own big pictures. It’s what I do – drawing and dreaming and envisioning things before they’re made by people who turn visions to reality for a living.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Lack of money sure made things difficult. Transitioning from non-film work to film crew work was financially straining – if not impossible. I had to ask my parents for assistance on that one. Early jobs paid minimum wage or often less. There used to be a lot of $100/day jobs going around. I don’t see those anymore, thankfully. More established script supervisors used to seem to peck down on the non-union individuals more than they do now and now there is more of an outreach to help train and transition people into the union. That wasn’t so while I was most active – in fact, it seemed like union members didn’t really care about the hardships the non-union members faced. The advice often amounted to, “if it’s so bad, join the union.” But it was never like the union was inviting people in with open arms, either. So, quality of life was rough at times. Sure, it was a pretty great thing to get paid for helping people make their movies, but the pay was only ever enough to cover a little of the time between jobs, maybe a couple of weeks or a month before you had to be back to work. People just aren’t built to work those long hours that consistently. It took a toll on my health. True, I slept poorly and I was a smoker on and off at the time, so that didn’t help. Some can handle those long hours and shifting schedule quite well, but I could never seem to.

The world of acting is certainly fraught with difficulties, but I doubt anyone would want to hear about them from a never-was. I’ll just sum it up with an analogy: picture those grizzly bears perched on rocks in the river casually swiping up the salmon as they leap into the air trying to get upstream. As an actor, you gotta get past those grizzlies and get on upstream where your real career is. Those grizzlies were perched on those rocks long before I got here and they’ll be there long after. I’ve got tons of very potent advice for acting hopefuls, but I’ll share it with those who ask.

I want to say being Latino (specifically, Mexican-American, aka ‘Chicano’) was also a challenge but it’s pretty hard to quantify. How can one really say when and to what degree they were passed over for a job or offered less money or opportunities because of their race? I know that when I was an actor starting out, Hispanic men had to pass for white or could only really hope for gangster roles to get steady work or any work at all. Hispanic women that couldn’t pass for white (like the lovely Linda Carter did!) had to allow themselves to be fetishized as the spicy Latina. That’s been changing, especially as of late! Like John Leguizamo has said, there need to be more actual Latinos in positions of influence and authority in Hollywood. Just look at who is ultimately making the decisions to decide what kind of earnest representation you can expect and how much is temporarily based on trends. As far as how many Latino storyboard artists there are in the Art Director’s Guild, I can’t say without a roster list, but I only know of one. I’ve worked with producers and directors of all ethnicities and genders and I’ve seen conditions in Hollywood change A LOT in the decade I’ve been here. But still, sometimes you come across somebody who doesn’t seem to like you for reasons you can’t figure out and you gotta look at the only possibilities left on the table.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m probably one of the best working storyboard artists money can hire. And one of the fastest. So, if I’m good and fast, well that rules-out the third (cheap). I’ve been drawing since I was filling the margins of my test papers with sketches in middle school and I have years of practical filmmaking experience to draw on. I work digitally in Clip Studio Paint, often during virtual meetings with the director and can accommodate just about every directoral personality and style. I suspect producers like me because of how production-minded I can be as far as communication and scheduling. I would say I specialize in music videos at the moment and that I always specialize in sexy-cool fantasy. Look at the videos “Freaky Deaky” by Tyga and Doja Cat and “From the D 2 the LBC” by Eminim & Snoop Dogg. I didn’t come up with those ideas, the directors did, but when they called me to draw their ideas, they called the right guy.

I also get the calls to board out the esports videos for both League of Legends and Valorant by Riot Games. I was part of the first year of Valorant esports and I’m very proud of that. I work with some really first-rate producers and a creative director that allow me to do my best. Those hype videos are really a thing of beauty in my opinion. It’s such an open and free form that can go in so many different ways but they always have to impress and amaze some of the hardest-to-please viewers around – and we always do. I’d point to the 2022 Valorant Champions “Welcome to the Finale of VCT ‘22” video as a prime example of my work there. I’m also proud of the work I did on the feature film MEMENTO MORI, directed by Marcos Efron and produced by The Conley Entertainment Group with which I have history that’s yet to be released. I did weeks of work on that movie and I feel as though the boards had a real impact in the production process. I’ve already gotten a few job calls from people who’ve seen my work on it, calls representing big-name directors. I’m really looking forward to its release and what it could mean for my perceived value in the marketplace.

What sets me apart from other storyboard artists is my varied and thorough experience in filmmaking. I’m an actor and script supervisor. I understand scripts, what good storytelling is, what objectives directors have on set and how they get them. I know all of the lingo and much of the capabilities and limitations of standard gear. I’m an expert on coverage and eyeline from when it was my job as a script supervisor to track those things. Basically, when a director is working with me, they’re working with another highly competent and experienced filmmaker who understands them – not just somebody who knows how to draw. The common wisdom is that directors don’t want to be working with somebody else who also wants to direct – and I get it. But I prevent that from being a fault by being very good at taking direction and committing myself to helping the director make their movie as good as possible. So when you work with me, you’re working with a guy whose head is in the right place as far as I can tell, who has a considerable amount of work as a storyboard artist and filmmaker to his credit and who lives their life dedicated to imagery, story, fantasy and the sexy-cool without apology. My sense of style, excitement, timing and sexiness is something that’s infused in all of the projects I take on. I don’t draw things that bore me and I always need to know why something is being depicted. As a result, the material I put out always has energy, direction and purpose to achieve a desired effect. Inspired. So, I like to think that I am a sturdy and true companion at the crucial times when the director has to address their team and say, “this is the movie I want to make.”

With all of my time working closely with directors as a script supervisor and learning how to handle the various breeds, I became good at being a bit of a therapist or counselor to them. Much of the time, storyboards get drawn after locations are locked down and before shooting, so there is a small high-pressure window in which I’m used to working. I’m good at helping the directors ease some anxiety and I can identify the times when I may actually need to guide the conversation to help extract the visions and ideas in their heads.

Lastly, I have experience with martial arts and firearms and it’s an ongoing obsession of mine to study how machines and people move, so I’m a reliable person to depict action sequences.

I was a decent actor when I was younger and if I ever get back ’round to it, I expect to do alright. In the meantime, I’m thrilled to do small roles or even recurring background like I do on FX’s MAYANS.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was always “the artist” growing up. I did very well in grade school and was a bit of a brain, scoring the highest even in my Gifted Program classes. I’d finish tests so quickly that I had loads of time to fill the paper margins with sketches before turning them in. After my father retired from the Army and we moved from Fort Eustis, Virginia to the Tampa Bay area of Florida around age 14, I began to have difficulties. I dealt with racism and bullying for the first time as well as being exposed to economic disparity. Things got bad enough that I had a nervous breakdown and suffered from chronic depression thereafter. I went from being the perfect, straight-A teacher’s pet, everybody-likes-him artist brainiac to just a lonesome outsider who kept to just a few friends and used art to try to sort out his thoughts and feelings. I missed so much school that it’s a wonder I managed to keep my grades up enough to graduate on time. I had a very overactive imagination and experienced extremely strong crushes on one girl or another – always girls that weren’t interested in me, or maybe they would have been if I weren’t so odd. I would learn, years later, that I was too blinded to see that some very nice and deserving girls would have happily dated me. I just couldn’t seem to see the world around me plainly – it was always mired in anxiety and fear and drowned out by intensely strong imagination and fantasy that excited one minute and numbed the next. As I leveled out, I would get into acting and then into filmmaking and move to Los Angeles, seeking a way to turn my art and imagination into a career.

My interests have always included martial arts, movies, art, women, filmmaking, sci-fi and video games. In recent years, I developed an interest in tabletop gaming, taking up both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering. I never went through that phase growing up and it’s nice to enjoy it now. Having to learn, remember and apply the rules is good for me. I organize the D&D club at my local game store (known as Adventurers League) and also organize an international community of storyboard artists that meets twice a month. I’ve become increasingly interested in hosting and fostering groups and communities as I’ve gotten older; I just get tired of waiting and hoping that there are groups out there led by people who have my interests at heart. Now I just make them. Maybe this sprouted from long years of feeling like an outsider – then striving for acceptance from people who hoarded power and influence for themselves and served their own agendas. Lately, I just don’t see the need anymore.
With each passing year, I’m also increasingly interested in Mexican American culture and the Chicano presence in American society.

Understandably, Mexican history isn’t really taught in American schools, so I had to learn a lot of it for myself as an adult. Moreover, the Chicano role in American history is also barely touched on if at all and I believe it’s important for all Mexican-Americans to understand that they have as much a right to be here as anyone else – that their ancestors are from this continent – these shores. Growing up, I was made to feel like an outsider, an unwelcome immigrant, although my family had been in America for generations, had fought in WWII and Vietnam, and possibly went back even further if you consider that the west was once Mexico. Now I’m interested in helping other Chicanos see that they are true Americans in the fullest sense of the word. This sentiment extends to all immigrant races and people of all backgrounds. America today is a product of not any one people but of all of the people of the world combined. Some seek to exploit our differences to further their personal interests, but I believe American society is stronger for all its different members, making it like a steel alloy in the best of times. It’s a beautiful thing and it’s a message I have an increasing interest in spreading.

I’m also very interested in VR and augmented reality as well as space and time travel. Our organic limitations of perceiving and understanding reality and how one person’s reality differs from another – these are things I ponder often. I’ve taken up photography in part to grasp moments of reality and hold them for inspection and increased understanding – the appearance and form of them anyway.

Somebody close to me says they’d describe me as “Seeming serious and focused on their interests but one of the most easygoing and laid back people once you get to know him”. I would also like to think I’m funny and somewhat clever although I often get hung up on a thought or even stutter or trip over words. In any event, one of my favorite things to do is make my loved ones laugh.

My interests for the future include joining SAG (I’m SAG eligible) and resuming my acting career, joining the Art Director’s Guild and continuing to storyboard the biggest and most creative music videos, video games and movies, acquiring an art and photography studio, forming a production company and directing some inspiring original material. I will also be releasing free ezines of my photography and my own comicbook via my website. I hope to travel more and work remotely. I organize my own photoshoots now and will soon be shooting demo reels, music videos and short films on my own. I started streaming on Twitch and making YouTube videos during the pandemic and I’m keen to continue. I’m interested in making the art I want to make and becoming rich and famous for it, primarily because it will enable me to go on making the art I want to make.

Regulate AI-generated images.

Pricing:

• Storyboarding Music Video & Commercial $1,000/8 hours
• Storyboarding Narrative $800/8 hours
• Headshots 2 hours, 2 looks + retouch $300
• Photoshoot Your Choice 2-3 Hours $300
• Custom Non-Commercial Illustration $50-$1k/piece

Contact Info:

• Website: zacklarez.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zacklarez/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zacklarez
• Twitter: twitter.com/zacklarez
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDv-mYFD5fDKbeLWuHs15RQ
• Other: twitch.tv/slyraptorz

Image Credits
Lukas Silva, Rosvita Rauch, Christian Breslauer, DAPS, James Larese