Today we’d like to introduce you to Fernando Madero.
Hi Fernando, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My quest into the world of filmmaking began when I was about 19 years old, I had just moved from my hometown Mazatlan to go to college in Guadalajara. I always loved action sports and I was really serious about motocross racing back then, I used to go on road trips with my friends following the national championship all over the country. Every race was a new adventure, it was dangerous and we always had new challenges to deal with. I loved it. Injuries are common in the sport, so whenever I used to break something, I would shoot videos of my friends riding at the track. And what began as a hobby quickly started to grow into a passion. Fast forward a couple of years later… I was studying for a bachelor’s degree in communications. At the time it seemed like the right choice, but I was really only passionate about one class… Photography and video production. I really didn’t care about the other classes and still had no idea what I was going to do for work when I graduated, I just knew that I wanted to do something that mattered and that I was truly passionate about.
At the time, I was also working as a marketing assistant at “El Informador” the biggest newspaper in the state. I really enjoyed working there, I was learning a lot about marketing and mostly I was fascinated with the stories that would pass through my hands every now and then. Around that time, I had just gotten a GoPro. I went on a surf trip with some friends for the weekend and decided to make a video. When I got back I edited the clip in windows movie maker, the clip is 720p since my computer at the time couldn’t even handle 1080 lol. When I finished the video, I was so excited, I couldn’t wait to show it to all my friends and I rewatched the thing like a million times, it was an eye-opening moment, realizing the possibility of immortalizing memories & stories, potentially forever. Then suddenly… Click. I realized that film production was my true calling. I was always fascinated with movies and cameras since I was a kid but I never thought that it was something I could actually pursue. But as soon as I realized how powerful and transcendental a single film can be, I was sold. So I decided to drop out of college to pursue a career as a filmmaker.
Naturally, my family said that I was crazy and that I was going to starve to death. But after some months, I finally convinced them to support me in my quest and I moved to Vancouver to start my film production studies at Vancouver Film School. I have to admit I was never the “great at school” type, which made my family very hesitant about enrolling me in a very demanding and expensive school, they didn’t believe I was going to make it through and I don’t blame them. The school curriculum was hard, but for the first time I felt truly hungry for the knowledge given to me in these classes, and I was determined to graduate top in my class. After an intensive and amazing year learning the ropes of filmmaking at VFS, my thesis project, a 15 minute short called “Parallel” produced by me, went on to premiere at Cannes Film Festival. My family was very proud and still are today. As I was getting ready to graduate, the first thing I had to do was to put a strong reel together, so I could show off my skills and hopefully get some work out of it. So I hit up Andres Alonso, a fellow motocross pilot from my racing days who was now racing cars, to see if he would allow me to come and shoot some car content at the track one day.
We had only seen each other in a couple of races, but we used to follow each other on social media, he responded by saying that he was actually wanting to produce a short film but didn’t have a director yet… Enter “Driven by Desire”. Andres was living in Puebla, we would have Skype meetings to discuss the project. As we started getting more invested, it started growing like a snowball, so after talking ideas for several weeks, I wrote the script, moved back to México, and started working with Andrés to make this happen. We ended up producing the biggest supercar film Mexico has seen to date. An action-packed 15-minute experimental racing film. It was a 7-day shoot, we had five supercars and a crew of 20+ traveling between different cities, the film featured a full race sequence on a closed track and we even shut down a highway to film one day. Boy that was exciting… As big as it sounds, we shot the thing with minimal resources and asking for a lot of favors. Upon completion, Driven by Desire was nominated for best drama by the London Motor Film Festival. To this date, this has been the most logistically complex project I’ve produced and directed, and Andres who also produced Driven remains a really close friend. This was definitely a milestone in my career, which gave me the confidence to take the next step and move to the entertainment capital of the world… LOS ANGELES. I arrived to LA in September 2014.
And enrolled for a producing specialization in New York Film Academy, which allowed me to enter the US on a student visa and then acquire a work permit. During that time, I started an internship at Arsenic Magazine, where I quickly became immersed in the world of social media. Working there was a blast, you could say that it was like a “Boogie Nights” meets “The Social Network”. They used to have a beautiful house in Laurel Canyon, we would be working out of our laptops in the living room, there would be models shooting poolside and walking around the house in lingerie. We would even have family dinners on Fridays and at some point, we were really like a big family. It was not easy to get in tho, hundreds would apply and only a handful would get chosen to join the “Arsenic Fam”. Luckily I made the cut and during my time there, I not only met amazing creators/friends who I still work with today but I also learned how LA works and used that time to network as much as possible. At the time, I had also just started shooting models and being a part of Arsenic definitely made me step up my game.
After I graduated, I decided I wanted to focus on establishing my own company, so I parted ways with the Arsenic Fam and started booking shooting gigs here and there, which was unsteady AF. I had to figure out how to secure steady work, which then led me to start working with brands on optimizing their social media, and eventually I started creating full marketing campaigns for them, which would allow me to secure a steady paycheck while still creating content on a regular basis and most importantly having the freedom to keep developing bigger film projects. So I took this model and started a marketing agency called “Kampagn”, I partnered with an old co-worker who had an impressive resume and experience in the marketing space.
And even tho we always worked well together in the past, one year into our venture we started having massive differences. And even tho I was the chairman and CEO of the company, we had active contracts and were profitable, I had to close down shop. I was heartbroken at the time and felt like I had completely failed my investors and as an entrepreneur. Luckily all throughout, I worked on growing my personal brand Madero Films, which I then registered as an LLC and was able to migrate my clients & investors to my new company, and looking back, it was all for the better. As being attached to the wrong partner was only going to slow me down (and it did). As the Silicon Valley saying goes… “Fail fast and fail often”. Today my company Madero Films keeps operating as a creative agency and production company. Over the last years, we have continued to produce marketing campaigns for clients worldwide and by now, we have produced more than 150 videos, ranging from music videos, web series, and commercials, to fashion, adventure… And now even a movie! Which I had the opportunity to co-produce and direct photography for, the film is currently in post-production and expected to release this year, and couldn’t be more excited. Currently, I am working on the development of a couple of top-secret projects which hopefully you’ll be seeing on your favorite streaming platform very soon.
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?
The road will always have obstacles, and the sooner you realize that dealing with problems is just a part of life and that the more you are doing, the more problems you’ll have to deal with. The sooner you will start growing. I could write a whole book about the struggles I had to overcome to get here but to name a couple of the biggest ones… After graduating, I only had a one-year work permit. During all that time, I applied to dozens of production companies and nobody would hire me. It turns out that I was in the in-between… Where I was not qualified enough to be a producer at a big production company, but they wouldn’t hire me as a production assistant because I had too much-producing experience and they want you to stay in your lane. My school advisor suggested that I dummed down my resume, but then I wouldn’t get hired as a PA because I didn’t have any PA experience… So at the end couldn’t get a company to hire me and sponsor me for a work permit. So my visa expired and I had to stay in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant for over a year, I could only work cash gigs which tend to be pretty small, and I also couldn’t leave the country during that time.
Eventually, I fixed my status and was able to get an uber driver account. So I started doing that on the side while I was setting up my company, but there was a catch… at the time, I had a motorcycle and was lured into one of their promos where you’d get the car for free if you completed 100 rides a week. The thing was that even if you completed the 100 trips, they would still charge you for the car. Because every single trip had to leave from LA county, which was nearly impossible to achieve, so long story short. I’d ended up stuck in a 6-month contract driving 100hrs a week for less than $5.00/hr and had no money to pay the penalty to get out of it at the time. Around that time, I started creating content for a bikini brand, which then I pitched on doing a bigger content marketing campaign and they agreed. It was with that contract that I was able to pay the penalty and get out of that situation. The closing thought would be to change the way you perceive problems, instead of seeing them as problems, see them as challenges. And understand that there will be always something to deal with, especially if you are trying to achieve a lot.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Director, Producer, and Photographer. My main specialty is Directing Film projects. But from the early days, I always produced my own projects since I was always business savvy and soon realized that this was the way to get my films made, rather than depending on a producer to hire me as a director, I could just produce it and hire myself. Photography has been a passion of mine since I was young, and when I moved to LA, I also started venturing into fashion photography and started working with models, it was a great way to network and grow my brand while staying active behind the lens. My favorite shoots are the ones in epic natural locations, it takes knowledge to master the studio shoots, but once it’s setup. That’s that. On the other hand, in outdoor shoots, there’s always a surprise. Every shoot is going on a new mini-adventure and discovering a beautiful place all while creating beautiful art and in many occasions actually getting paid to be there.
To this date, I am still the proudest of the first project “Driven by Desire”. Since then, I’ve worked with big industry names and on big productions. But that film was something special. Looking back at what we achieved with very little experience and the amount of logistics it took to execute, I am still amazed. Yes, there are many things I would have done differently now but all of that only came through experience. Who knows… maybe we’ll do a re-mastered version soon. What sets me apart? My intensity: I don’t even know if that sounds right, but… I’ve always pursued “intense” experiences. There’s something that makes me feel alive when I am on that edge. From jumping 120ft gaps on a dirtbike to night diving with hundreds of sharks in French Polynesia, the same applies to my work. My main goal is always to make my audience feel something. If you are looking at something I produced and felt absolutely nothing, then I have failed. I apply the same intensity to my work and seek to pursue bold & edgy themes and in some cases polemic stories that a lot of people don’t dear to tell.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
My ability to see problems as challenges and to get back up after taking a hit. Motocross taught me that we are not made of glass, and we can definitely take some punches. That doesn’t mean being reckless and seeking to get hurt, but taking calculated risks. Many times you would crash, and the rule was. If you can get up and the bike is OK, do the same jump in which you crashed right away. Before it creates a psychological barrier. And even tho you would definitely be scared inside, you would have to push through it and clear that jump. On some occasions, you couldn’t get up, you had broken a bone, and even tho it was painful. After recovering, you’d go back and do it again, learning the lesson as to why the crash happened and getting over that fear of crashing again. Since then, I’ve been applying the same to life and work.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.maderofilms.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/madero.x
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaderoFilms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FernandoMadero/featured, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGvd2a0qEIk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dxNLVk9N8Q
