Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Isom
Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
How I got started in entertainment was all about desire, vision, owning the innate gifts that were given to me and never losing sight of those gifts and how to express myself creatively. Laughter, to me, as a child was one of the most precious gifts. I was able to make people laugh and smile brought me joy. I was also able to do voices amidst what some would call a flaw: I had a speech impediment. I was a stutterer. But when I would imitate a cartoon character, I never stuttered; When I spoke as Brian, I would stutter. So getting started for me was learning how to deal with my flaws and insecurities, but also learning how to balance out the gifts that were laid before me.
Growing up in Alabama, I come from a rich legacy of talented and creative individuals. My grandmother was a comedian in her own right. I was always practicing my craft and entertaining my family, doing characters and making people laugh.
When I saw the power in that, I realized I had something.
The more I became myself, every job where I was working, people would confirm and say, “Hey man, why don’t you move to California and go to Hollywood?” That’s how the journey started and the rest is history.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Some of the challenges were external. Some came from me being in my own way. Working on myself was the biggest challenge because I brought a lot of baggage from Alabama. I had a lot of beliefs that did not fit in that paradigm. I had to shift and acclimate to another type of thinking (in Hollywood). It was a little bit of a struggle.
For instance, I had to overcome childhood beliefs that were not serving me and limiting me from opening my eyes. So, for me, the challenge was to open myself up to new ideas and beliefs that were actually positive and beliefs that actually served me while I was endeavoring and working in Hollywood. Essentially, I had to learn myself, learn the craft and focus on being the best.
Yet, I was quickly able to overcome the obstacles because of my military background. In the military, we are taught to adjust and adapt very quickly because change is constant. So there’s no need to be emotional about what is happening. The question is: What are you doing to solve the problem? Because of my collective military experience, I was able to utilize what I had been taught and applied it to Hollywood to the best of my ability. And through all the experiences came beautiful lessons.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a cinematographer. I went to film school at Columbia College Hollywood to study cinematography. I wanted to study to be a director but I had to choose one major or the other. So, I said to myself if I learned the camera, then I could learn directing. If I was behind the camera, I could learn the director’s position just by watching them and understanding composition. And so I thought the transition from cinematography to directing was the best choice.
I love being a cinematographer because it ties into the world of darkness and light. I’m always looking at light and how to have balance. It equally ties into the spiritual realm in which I’m also engulfed in, and where I am working on myself from a spiritual perspective. Having those two correlate with each other brings balance. I’m always trying to balance a shot
As a cinematographer, I’m always studying different ways and approaches to breaking the rules or just being unlimited in my ideas. And staying true to the basics of cinematography and not to get too much caught up in the A.I. (artificial intelligence) tools. Those tools are great, but I want to be in harmony and in balance with the technology and the cinematography of expression.
In 2019, I shot “January 14th,” my first short film with director La’Chris Robinson Jordan. That was a milestone for me because before that I was working on television shows. Before then, I had not had the chance to really stretch my cinematography skills. So, working on that short film allowed me to trust in my abilities and all the knowledge that I had learned up until that point. And the hard work paid off. The short was selected for numerous festivals, including the Oscar-qualifying Pan African Film Festival and the Accra Indie Filmfest in Ghana, Africa. “January 14th” also won or was nominated for over 50 awards.
What sets me apart is my military experience and being a problem solver. When I was working with Byron Allen, I was a camera operator. I was approached by an executive producer if I was willing to give up my camera job to become a stage manager. I took the position because I had been trained how to adapt quickly. This experience taught me how to read the room and bring peace to any set.
As a cinematographer, you are a leader. Your mood needs to be in order and positive. It needs to be uplifting. The way you communicate needs to be balanced. So, bringing order and peace to a set is valuable because it helps the production move along very smoothly. If people don’t have to be worried about whether you’re going to be yelling or mistreating them, they’re going to stick their neck out and give you their best. My superpower is my emotional intelligence and my ability to empathize and show compassion and always be looking to teach and bring no judgment to situations. The key is to balance your emotions even in the midst of chaos.
The one piece of advice I would give is never stop learning and understand the basics of light. I remember reading how Steven Spielberg would recreate Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. By doing this, he was able to embody what Hitchcock was thinking when he was creating those scenes or movies. By experimenting and practicing as much as possible with the best films you love and recreating a scene, lighting it, and understanding how that light works, is how you stay learning. I study movies, commercials, anything that catches my eye. Individuals looking to get into cinematography should also study color and the psychological effect that colors have on the human mind.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I think that most humans desire happiness even if they are stuck in chaos. Therefore, understand that we have a mental, physical and spiritual aspect to ourselves. And if a person doesn’t understand this, it would be a positive thing to start understanding these aspects as well as understanding the natural laws such as the Law of Polarity, the Law of Correspondence – “As above, so below; as below, so above” – and the Law of Cause and Effect. Because if you create causes that are unconscious, you are going to get effects that are unconscious.
I would say to make beautiful and loving causes so that you can have better effects. Treat yourself well, unconditionally love yourself and always be learning. Ask yourself, “What lessons am I learning from every experience?” The good ones and the bad ones. Practice no judgment of any kind towards yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for having a human experience, or judge yourself from the past or the present. Lastly, forgive yourself for anything that you think you did wrong, past or present. Once you release those things, I think the abundance of creativity flows. So, love thyself and know thyself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brianisomconsulting.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blakbuddha9/
Image Credits
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