Michael Marantz
"My parents have always softly pushed me to take up any film and video opportunities that came my way. They would find me these extra curricular programs, and I just simply loved them all. It was one of those things, where I had these wonderful parents who notice this interest, I had, and helped create opportunities for me to be creative."
"My Dad was literally a rocket scientist having studied at both Stanford, MIT and Harvard. For a long time he was into jet propulsions systems for the US Government before becoming a CFO. My Dad is one, very, very smart guy. So my parents clearly understood the value of being creative and that creativity is an intellectual pursuit in itself’."
"When you have a creative spirit, there are just so many things you can choose from in life. For example with filmmaking there is all of this possibility, so when you have the energy and the creative gifts, then you really can do something special like directing."
"After secondary school, I decided on doing a BFA at Emerson College with my minors in photography and entrepreneurship. While I was at college I was also the president of the National Broadcasting Society (NBS). I was doing all of this while trying to set up a production company with fellow friend and amazing director, Daniel Mercadante."
"When we graduated, I packed my car and drove across the country to Los Angeles. My friends already had this massive house there, so I just rolled up, unpacked my bags and started work. It was tough going at first. That's when Daniel and I started Pillar Pictures. This was a total startup with everybody relying on me to do the business side of things. So I was pretty much thrown right into the thick of it."
"I already knew that this was something we wanted to do, but I was always stuck in the producer role. For some reason, I never owned up to the fact that I wanted to make my own pieces. For a long time I didn’t want to be that guy. Being a director at this time just didn’t appeal to me. So there was this weird conflict of interest going on within me as to what I really wanted to do. For many years I really denied my creative self and my love of directing."
"I really needed to make some money fast, if I was going to pay the rent. While I was trolling Craig’s List looking for some assistant editorial work, I found this job in Venice. I was helping on this overnight edit for the Paul McCartney Show when the editor comes in with an HVX100 and he looks at the P2 card and says, ‘What I am I supposed to do with this?’ I said, ‘I know!’"
"So I jumped right in and worked through the night on this thing. By morning they were so impressed with the edit, that became my first steady job. Me knowing how to ingest a P2 card, got my whole career going from there on. It’s so funny how these little things can change everything. It was a pretty decent day rate too back then!"
"There was a post-house we used to us for all of our dubs nearby. They started talking to me about how they needed a good editor and if I knew anyone. So I jumped right in there and joined them for about a year or so. That was a great experience, but eventually, I left them to start my own post-production company. As soon as I created a brand around it for some more levity, I picked up a VFX job working for Fox on the primetime series '24'. Then I started to get a lot more jobs out of the Sony and the Fox lots. That was totally amazing. For the next couples of years I got right in there and just did it all. It was pretty much all down to my editing and After Effects skills at this time."
"While I was running The Loft Productions, my documentary 'Earth: the pale blue dot' was given a Vimeo Staff Pick and seen by more than 100,000 people. That was incredibly confidence building to know that people really wanted to see what I could make. And then the US economy tanked on me!"
"This was the time when the big boys in LA started slashing their prices to my level. So work started to dry up, because they had bigger facilities and they were able to steal my projects by undercutting me. I started to then think about who would pay me to make the sort of short form content that everyone wants to watch. And then it dawned on me that advertisers would do that sort of stuff. So with my LA editing jobs becoming less and less, I went looking for a job in advertising."
"I thought, OK let’s treat this like going back to college. So when I picked up a job with ad agency, Ignited as a motion designer, I thought I am going to learn this industry inside and out. I wanted to learn about how the industry works and how it could be disrupted. I worked with Ignited for a year, before I moved to New York to establish myself as a social media content producer."
"Social media was getting pretty crazy by this time. Ad agencies were looking for short form content for the web, so I would just come up with cool concepts and new kinds of shooting techniques. I would do anything I could with my post-production and music skills to make these things super interesting. These social media projects usually had a week turn around on them so, so I could easily survive on a doing a couple a month."
"I was doing some seriously great work, but I really wanted to grow it, and do bigger things with bigger budgets. I then decided to work on this app called Muzea with a friend, which I poured all of my life savings into. Within a month, my whole world seemed to fall apart. All of my positivity towards life was suddenly in a hole."
"I didn’t even know how to go forward. At this time, Steve Jobs died, which made me remember his commencement speech. “Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
"And that’s where the inspiration for the name for my next big venture comes from: 'Already Alive!' I was so close to calling my next company ‘Already Naked’, but ‘Already Alive ‘ seemed to do a much better job."
"When I started, I had no idea as to what 'Already Alive' was, let alone what it would become. I just knew I needed something to stand behind. To start off with, it was just me, and then Jason Oppliger who joined as Creative Director. At this stage we were working as a boutique ad agency with a focus on production content. We were pretty much offering full creative services. Then Tim Sessler joined as DP and Drew English came across to do all of the production. It was at this time, that it became what I really wanted it to be. The creative component was so important to me."
"What I discovered through out this journey is that I really love to tell stories through film that inspire people, make them feel, facilitate their appreciation of life, teach them, or just make them smile. At the same time I love collaborating with people who are better than me, who can teach me something and show me brand new things that I would have never thought of on my own."
"However, I feel that a person needs maturity and experience before they can call themselves a director. I believe that one must grow into that title and that it is a title of honor. Once I made the very tough admission that I only want to be a director, it has been one of the best things I have ever done."