Today we’d like to introduce you to David Woo.
Hi David, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started out in documentary photography and photojournalism. I wanted to become the next war photographer, but it was difficult to make a living. I also felt showing photographs of disasters and tragedy just wasn’t making enough of an impact in our distracted and polarized society today. So I shifted my focus and began climbing up in the industry as a cinematographer & filmmaker in Japan. After several years living there, I decided to move to Los Angeles & Hawaii to gain more experience working in feature narrative and feature documentary projects which typically involved larger crews and sets.
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?
Being a cinematographer & filmmaker is a tough career path. Probably in most media-related jobs. On the one hand, you’re trying to express yourself and your vision to the world. But on the other hand, you have to be realistic and make sure your bills are paid. The hustle is real. In the beginning, I found myself taking gigs that didn’t really fit into the vision I had. I was also living in Japan when I first started working professionally so the climb was slow due to things like the language barrier, cultural differences, etc. At some point, I just had to accept the journey and the uncertainty this career path is taking me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’ve been really conscious about the projects I take on. I like to work on projects that are intimate and have a meaningful message or theme. In the commercial world especially, it was important that the brands I work with want to inspire change and value corporate responsibility. I primarily work in the documentary or “branded” documentary space and occasionally work in narrative films. I’m not the most tech-savvy of cinematographers, but I do hope that the clients and directors I work with value my eye and intuition for finding intimate moments in a scene or situation. Whether it’s a documentary, a narrative film, or a brand film, I continue to strive for my work to take viewers on an intimate and emotional journey that hopefully encourages some sort of tangible action.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was born in the blue-collar suburbs on the East coast before moving to Japan so I think my humble beginnings really shaped how I see and empathize with people. I was always very curious and thankfully that curiosity took me on backpacking adventures left an impact on me. I enjoy people-watching and listening to others. I find still images particularly intriguing and I still enjoy occasionally taking stills myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://davidwoo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidwooofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidwooofficial
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp0jup0WiLE3-o2LFLfl2ZA
Image Credits
Photos By: – David Caprara – Reylia Slaby – J.J. Ibarra – Yu Kisami – Andriy Semenyuk – Aaron Eccles-Smith
