Diego Contreras
"I was always very passionate about photography, art, and music but I never saw those things as more than fun hobbies I could do on the side. Yet there had always been a hint of artistry and creativity in my family. My grandfather was a well-known writer and music composer in Guatemala. He founded what became a large newspaper in his early 20s."
"My brother who now works in the tech startup world has been writing and blogging since the Geocities days. I turned out to be more of the visual artist in the family. I was always drawing and painting stuff and creating imaginary characters and stories in my head."
"I picked up photography around high school and I played guitar in punk and metal bands for several years. I started using my own photos on promo posters for my bands and that’s how I first got into Photoshop. But going after a creative career was never in the plans for me. I grew up in Guatemala and was fortunate to get a scholarship to go to SMU in Dallas, Texas. After completing my second year of school as a Business major, I figured out I could take additional Photoshop classes through the Advertising program."
"The advertising part of it was just an excuse for me to learn more about graphic design, but it eventually started growing on me. I was learning about the top creative agencies out there; places like CP+B, Droga5, and Wieden + Kennedy. I couldn’t believe people were getting paid to work on such amazing TV commercials."
"One of my professors suggested I apply into the creative program and after a very tough application process, I got in. I took on the challenge of completing two degrees at once and went through summer school to graduate in exactly four years."
"The advertising part of it was just an excuse for me to learn more about graphic design, but it eventually started growing on me. I was learning about the top creative agencies out there; places like CP+B, Droga5, and Wieden + Kennedy. I couldn’t believe people were getting paid to work on such amazing TV commercials."
"One of my professors suggested I apply into the creative program and after a very tough application process, I got in. I took on the challenge of completing two degrees at once and went through summer school to graduate in exactly four years."
"Months before graduation I promised myself that I’d only go after a career in advertising if I could land a job at one of my favorite agencies. I made a list with five places and made an effort to contact and share my website with every single one of them. I was very persistent and ended up getting in touch with four of them and later got interviews with CP+B and Droga5."
"I now had this dilemma because I also had a business degree and some companies like American Airlines were calling me for interviews for marketing related positions. I gave those a shot and I’m not going to lie, they were some of the most dreadful experiences in my life. It felt like I was getting quizzed for a final exam I hadn’t studied for. I was probably being judged based on how I tied my tie, and whether my handshake had been firm and professional. After they asked me what I wanted to be in five years I answered: “A Creative Director”, by then I knew I’d failed the interview. I walked out of there knowing I’d never wear a suit to work."
"The stars aligned and I got a job at CP+B as an Art Director. I was 22, which was a very young age compared to the average new hire. The agency had just won an Agency of the Year and Agency of the Decade awards, and that meant they were also probably the hardest working agency out there."
"I had my first of many all-nighters on my second day of work. An insane ad world lifestyle kept going for almost three years. I’d wake up, drive to work, work all day, work all night, drive home in the middle of night, cry myself to sleep and repeat. Even on weekends."
"I don’t think TV commercials or web banners are worth losing your personal life over, but that experience really paid off for me as I learned a lot of lessons that have been a huge influence for who I am as a filmmaker today."
"I had to come up with hundreds of TV commercial ideas on a weekly basis, and I’d see about 98% of them die daily. That immediately trains your brain to think quickly and you learn to never get attached to a single idea. I also got be a part of many TV and web commercial shoots. Being on set really sparked my interest in wanting to start shooting on my own. I was touching every aspect of the creation of an ad, from writing the idea to storyboarding and doing a lot of the prep work before the shoot. Yet once I was on set I would just join the rest of the agency people and sit behind a video village only to watch the directors and crew do all the fun work."
"I remember being on set and not even thinking that much about the cameras. We were shooting on the newly released Red Epics and Arri Alexas and the most advance gear, and I never realized how lucky I was to be a part of that process. But soon I realized I wanted to do so much more than just sit behind a video village. One day on a shoot for Windows Phone, I was sitting with a director and he had his new Canon 5D MkII with him. He was obsessed with the video mode and I asked If I could try it out. I was blown away with how beautiful everything looked through that screen and I decided that day that I would save up and get myself my very own DSLR."
"And that’s how filmmaking started for me. I bought a Nikon camera and started shooting all the time. I’d find excuses to go out and shoot stuff, everything from cooking chicken to chasing a forest fire or go on a short family trip. I’d then have hours of footage and I’d spend my late nights editing it all down. Everything about it felt natural to me. I grew playing with still cameras so I had a basic understanding of exposure and composition, but editing and coloring were definitely influenced by my experience working on commercials. I kept shooting little films and eventually started putting them online. With each film I kept learning more and discovering my own style."
"It’s funny how these videos I was doing for fun started actually affecting my professional career. Eventually I got an interview with Anomaly in NY and I found myself meeting with their Chief Creative Officers Mike Byrne and Richard Mulder. To my surprise we spent the majority of the interview watching and talking about my Vimeo videos! I loved that they were so supportive of people having passions outside of advertising. I was offered a job there and I packed my bags immediately and moved to New York City."
"While at Anomaly I was given opportunities to shoot projects within the agency. I started with a short documentary about the agency and it got a lot of love around the office. I learned a lot by just working on these projects and I’m thankful for how supportive they were with helping me develop my skills. Agency creatives generally hire professionals to shoot their projects, but over time I was being given the chance to shoot our own test commercials for some of the agency’s brands like Motorola and Google Glass."
"I then started getting more and more personal projects including music videos. These were owning pretty much all of the little personal time I had outside of work. I was literally doing two full time jobs at once. I was having calls with labels during my lunch breaks and scouting locations late at night after work. At the moment I was still considering these projects as my little side films, but eventually I started realizing that I was actually becoming a director and I had never planned for that to happen. I was loving every second of it. Film was all I could think about during my workday. These projects gave me the freedom to tell my own stories in my own personal style and that’s what I’ve enjoyed the most about becoming a director. The last two years have been an amazing experience and I truly consider myself lucky that I’ve been able to chase after my dream of becoming a filmmaker."