Meet Perry Gershkow

Today we’d like to introduce you to Perry Gershkow.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
For me, my passion for filmmaking all started as a kid. My father, being a documentary editor, was my biggest inspiration. I remember spending days with my dad at his office in San Francisco, hanging out next to him, watching him edit for hours on end. When I was 19, I bought my first camera, a canon t2i. At this point, I was living in central California, going to school, and surfing with my friends. I started filming my buddies surfing, skating, hanging around the house, road trips, you name it. Taking this footage and bringing it onto my computer and editing it was what changed everything. I started shooting weddings, kickstarters, birthdays and helped out on any shoots I could. I wanted to ingest as much knowledge as I could, and as fast as I could. I remember making my first surf film when I was 23. I didn’t really have any idea at that time where it would take me, but it was what jump-started my career in retrospect. I put myself out there, and in the end, thats what created my success. Seven years later, I own a plethora of high-end camera equipment, I get to travel the world and shoot surfing, commercials, documentaries, branded videos, get to work from my house in San Francisco, and lastly, I love what I do.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think that all depends on how you define a smooth road. There have been endless struggles since I began filmmaking, but thats how you grow as a filmmaker. Most of what I have learned in filmmaking has come from learning from my mistakes. If you play it safe in filmmaking, you’re surely going to have a short-lived career. Filmmaking is all about trying new ways to be creative and original, even if that means taking some risks. I learned from my beginning years of filmmaking that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to find my style of filmmaking. I would experiment with different angles, unique ways to utilize light, finding subjects that had compelling stories, I just wanted to somehow find a way to separate myself from the pack. Being freelance, you have to be able to cope with the idea that work isn’t going to just show up at your door step everyday. Some months you can have three big projects, and some you can absolutely nothing. Those are the months where you have to keep that confidence up and realize that thats a time for you to enjoy life outside of work and take advantage of being freelance. When you stress about not having work, you will continue to not have work. Its an organic process in which if you make good work, more will come. If I didn’t have any struggles along the way, I know for a fact I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Please tell us about Perry Gershkow Productions.
My business name is Perry Gershkow Productions and I specialize in filmmaking and directing a variety of different videos, ranging from commercial work to surf film to micro documentaries. I also have a production house with my friend Kyle Buthman called TreeHouseVisual, where we do similar work. If I were to take a step back and look at my work from the outside, I would say I am known for creating a cinematic feel to my films. Hopefully inspiring people to want to travel and enjoy the outdoors.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Wouldn’t do anything differently. It’s the path I took to get here that made me what I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: perrygershkow.com
• Email: perrygersh@gmail.com
• Instagram: perrygershkow

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