Life & Work with Martin Risberg of New York

Today we’d like to introduce you to Martin Risberg.

Hi Martin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I first picked up a film camera at the age of 12 in Sweden when I was inspired by a friend of mine to get into filmmaking after he had made his own short film. That journey continued for a few years of making my own shorts until I more heavily started investing in my hobby.

In 2012 I moved to California and studied at SLOHS for a year, and then continued to study film at SBCC in Santa Barbara. During my time there I found my true love for producing, and helped make 8 short films.

Upon graduating I moved to San Francisco where I would spend the first 6 months working as a PA, Production Coordinator, and eventually some Line-Producing on commercial productions. I picked up the basic skills in filmmaking, but was also looking for a full time job.

I found advertising by happenstance when interviewing and fell in love with the tempo and creativity of the industry. I spent 3 years at a smaller agency in the Presidio, working on productions and post-production for national brands. The work took me to shoots across the country, and getting more familiar with advertising as a whole.

I left that job in 2019, going to a larger agency with offices across the US. There I really got my hands into advertising production in a traditional sense, working on national brands and filming both domestically and internationally. In my 6 years at the agency I ran accounts for national airlines, Amtrak, and a series of well-established US brands.

In 2022 I moved to New York, and have since been working both full-time and freelance in the advertising industry, continuing my journey of producing ads on a global scale.

On the side I continue to make short films and just finished my latest one in August, called ‘Cioppino’. The short film is right now being submitted to film festivals for 2028.

Alright, 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?
I think working in production is anything but a smooth road. Finding your way into this industry takes both hard work and a fair bit of luck. On the side I’ve also been navigating the immigration system of being a foreigner working in the US, having to navigate the instability of advertising on top of any legal ramifications of being without a job.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m always proud of the campaigns that I work on that have been a journey to get there. Oftentimes it’s not something that the consumer sees, but a simple :30 second commercial might have been over 15 months of work. And as a producer I get to be part of that whole journey, seeing it from the initial creative idea on one slide to a full blown multi-million dollar campaign. What I love about that perspective is how you can see truly how smaller movements over a course of time can make a real impact on the work, and constantly having to weigh what fights are worth fighting or not.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Staying highly organized and calm in the eye of the storm. Production is a constant influx and change of plans, and you have to find a way to be the most solid foundation for your team to stand by. If the producer is showing stress or that they are loosing grip of a project, the whole team feels it immediately.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://martinrisberg.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/martinrisberg
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinrisberg