Life & Work with Tay’Laur Ambrene of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tay’Laur Ambrene.

Hi Tay’Laur, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always been a huge pop culture nerd, music, movies, TV, magazines, you name it. Been this way since I was suuuper young and my grandma took me to see the latest Disney classics on the regular. I remember loving Britney Spears, Ashanti, dancing to Bratz or the Cheetah Girls and other music videos in my living room. To this day I turn to music & movies for healing & extra inspiration.

But my first ever experience with media production was making my first home video. It was a slideshow of pictures from my wild but fun as hell high school creative writing class over music, combined with funny videos from my favorite shows at the time like That 70s Show, Family Guy or Saturday Night Live. And it was all put together on Windows Movie Maker. Damn, that’s crazy to think about now. That’s how long I’ve been doing this; for 14-15 years! I loved making memories, taking videos or pictures of my friends to remember the fun we had and that still hasn’t changed.

I decided to make another one in college when I joined Theater; this whole time I just wanted to be an actress. I auditioned for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. I’d met some great friends that year and the shenanigans backstage were always a riot. I’d wonder what the people watching the show would think if they ever caught what we did behind the scenes.

So same as I did the first time, I put pictures and videos I’d taken of us from the whole show season and combined them with bits of pop culture. This time though, I made a mock version of the intro from John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club; I was obsessed with John Hughes movies. I used the Don’t Forget About Me by Simple Minds song and everything. It was over an hour long. I even showed it to my friends and they enjoyed it! They didn’t even know I was recording them all that time, so going through all the memories made us laugh. I still have that one online. The next one I did was a mock version of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but same process; pictures and videos of the cast goofing off together offstage, either during rehearsal or hanging out before/ after. Somewhere around this time is when I had the idea to start making movies.

I bought books on screenwriting and taught myself the basics, started writing a bunch of ideas out on paper, notebooks filled with script pieces and fleshed out story ideas, man even through class that’s all I did was write.

I transferred to CSUN and focused more on writing there whenever I could get the time. I dove deep into directors & creatives I admired like Issa Rae, Spike Lee, Kevin Smith, Ava DuVernay, Hype Williams, Melina Matsoukas and Robert Townsend. I made a couple mini films there and more after I moved to San Francisco with my sister for a year. She and I started collaborating more and I’d make B-Roll films centered on her clients. We made a low budget music video for one of our musician friends. After that, I decided to take on more videography gigs and have been doing them whenever I can!

In between mini movies and gigs is when I decided I wanted a production company of my own. Our first name was Emobcipation- a mix of Mob (We called ourselves the Curly Mob) and the word Emancipation. I eventually changed it to Studio Passion to be a sister company to my lifestyle blog & streetwear brand, Passion T.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Oh not at ALLL. The road’s beeeen bumpy. Still can be.

I actually wanted to go to film school at first, but didn’t have the money to invest in that, which is why I continued to teach myself anyway I could. Read books and scripts, watched plenty of movies and music videos, watched YouTube videos on the whole process, different effects and transitions, etc.

After college, I was all set to make a film I wrote and collaborated with my college friends and we even started filming, but scheduling got harder and I’d already went back to live at home in Lancaster, which made it hard to go back and forth from Northridge. My grandma insisted that I get a job & I got depressed because I wasn’t able to find one. I was overqualified for damn near everything in my area simply because I had a degree.

Home life wasn’t easy at the time either. Black parents & grandparents just have a different idea of what respect is. To my grandma, at the time, speaking up to her and saying what was on my mind was disrespectful. I’d found a part of myself in college and couldn’t go back to the way things were at home. I had to decide to either put myself first, continue speaking up and move out or stay and do things her way. When my sister motivated me to go with her to San Francisco where she was going for school, I decided to leave. But it was such a quick choice and move, I didn’t get a chance to tell all my friends what was going on. To this day, I don’t even know if they know everything that happened. And I still wanna make it!

I tried to make another film through Co-Vid in 2019-2020 and half of it is completed, but around that same time, we were displaced from our apartment and moved in with family. I tried to get more videography gigs and start a business, but it just wouldn’t get up off the ground as fast as we wanted it to. We started focusing on building something so we could make money long term. A year later, we were told we had to leave. It’s hard to focus on what you really want to do when things aren’t going great in your living space.

Jobs are harder and harder to find nowadays, finding a healthy, stable one is even worse. Gigs can be spaced out where money isn’t always coming in. Saving money long term has been both making mistakes and impossible. It’s hard to find multiple people who can pay your full rate. You tend to meet a lot of snakes who smile in your face and want to take advantage of ityou and your energy, even in family. It makes me really sad to think about how many people I’ve had to disconnect from.

After staying in a hotel and with family, a family friend, we found another place with the worst corporate landlord in LA. We went to court back and forth for months and again, we ended up displaced. We’ve been homeless, stayed in hotels & our car for months. It’s so hard out here right now for everyone and it shouldn’t be this hard for creatives who literally build LA every single day.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Studio Passion is a design & media studio that specializes in production for fashion, music, online media & film; so far we’ve shot & edited fashion ads, event content, behind the scenes, photoshoot/ boudoir visuals, and a low budget music video. I’d love to produce and collaborate more music videos, move forward into web shows, online content, animation and films! I’m honestly proud of everything created so far. Each visual is a step forward and helps me grow as a creative.

I love collaborating with other women and queer babes. As a media brand, we’re different because we’re so intentional about who we wish to work with in front and behind the camera. We always want to be inclusive. Even for our 2nd unfinished film, most of the production was women, particularly Black women!

Okay maybe that’s my most proud moment so far. Finished or not, that is such a triumph and we won’t stop there!

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Please follow us on Instagram! DM us for collaborations & hired creative work! We’re still developing our website & upcoming Kickstarter campaign, but all info will be posted there!

Pricing:

• BUBBLES (basic package with 3 hr video shooting & light editing; good for 1-2 hr exercise or dance classes, short content creation, performances. low budget music videos, mini photoshoots, etc): $233
• BUTTERCUP (midi package with up to 6 hour video shoot with editing ; good for low budget music videos, fashion ads/ commercials, concerts, events, photoshoots, intermediate content creation, etc): $355
• BLOSSOM (full creative director package with up to 8.5 hr video shoot & editing, directing, photography & styling; good for day events, long form content, short films, music videos, weddings, etc): $625

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xo.studiopassion

Image Credits
(1-2, 6) Celeste Gossett & (3-5) Tai’Leah Marina of Soulfulight LA,
(7) Tay’Laur Ambrene