Today we’d like to introduce you to Rochelle Brown.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was nine years old, my parents made the courageous decision to move from Jamaica to Georgia. It was not an easy transition for any of us, but we made it through. And it was in Georgia that I developed a love for cinema. On Fridays, my best friend and I used to get dropped off at the movies and we would watch whatever the newest films were for that week. Our tradition continued through high school until that one fateful Friday when we saw Kill Bill Vol. 1. I was completely enamored by this film; it was the first time I had ever thought about how a movie was made. I couldn’t help but think about how much I would have loved to work on the film. During that time, I joined our Mass Media class and started shooting segments for our video yearbook. Eventually, during my senior year, I became the news anchor/segment producer for our weekly Friday news.
After graduating high school, I attended the Savannah College of Art and Design and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinematography and promptly moved to Los Angeles for an internship with Participant Media and Director Davis Guggenheim. From that internship, I secured my first industry job as an office production assistant (PA) for the short-lived CBS show, “The Defenders”. That job led me to my first on-set job as the camera production assistant for Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”. That job changed my life and after that, I went on to be the camera PA for Robert Richardson for about a year and a half.
All those wonderful 1st and 2nd assistants that I was fortunate to PA for were the ones who taught me and eventually hired me once I had finally joined Local 600 as a 2nd AC in 2014. I was a union 2nd AC for eight years and had the fortune of working on projects such as “The New Edition Project”, “Brooklyn 99”, “Veronica Mars”, “Space Jam: A New Legacy”, “Yellowstone”, “Judas and the Black Messiah”, and many others. Currently, I have been working as a Camera Operator and Steadicam Operator on projects such as “The L Word: Generation Q”, “Rap Shit”, “Little America”, “Rez Ball” and many other shorts and commercials.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The journey has not been an easy one, but anything worth something isn’t going to be easy. From the moment I started film school there have been obstacles to overcome but they make the journey even more interesting. I’ve dealt with everything from not getting a living wage in Los Angeles to having your skills questioned because you are a Black woman to sexual harassment in a workplace that had previously felt safe.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Steadicam/Camera Operator, Photographer, and Visual Artist. I specialize in media-based visuals, I assist directors in getting their visuals on the screen by physically framing the camera up on whatever scene they wish to capture. That translates to my personal projects that tend to have a still photo aspect and a cinematic aspect to create one cohesive visual. What sets me apart from others is my unique and personal immigrant experience. I use those experiences daily, for instance, on a set when I need to ask an actor to do something for the sake of the camera movement and story. I am most proud of the fact that I have accomplished a lot of the goals I set out to accomplish. I’ve gone without having a direct example to emulate, to see that yes, someone like me could accomplish this goal too.
What does success mean to you?
I define success as the physical accomplishment of a goal that you have set for this physical existence. I judge my success on whether I’ve reached my goal, whether I have maintained my values, treated people with kindness and respect, and whether I have reached the goal and maintained my happiness.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brwngirl.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rochellebrwn/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rochelle-brown-a126608/
Image Credits
Lewis Jacobs Jessica Brooks Isabella Vosmikova Scott Garfield
