Team

My Journey to Maui

I didn’t always live in alignment with my desire and authenticity.

A freshly minted philosophy and economics college graduate in New York City, I packed my bag and took that one-way flight on a 3rd of October to Maui with $1256 to my name. Never been here, didn’t know anyone.  The first week out of the start gate, I blew through $500 on lodging, bought a Maui cruiser (old beater) for $1700 on credit and the transmission blew one month later! Now in debt, a car that no longer reversed (I had to park it strategically so that I could push it out and not get stuck), but happy as a clam, I got a job at one of the most prestigious hotels in the islands, Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea.

I loved my peers and over years worked my way up the management ladder. But with every day and every shift, something stirred in me, some feeling of dissatisfaction, of FOMO. I realized I wasn’t doing anything to release my creative drive.

So, against my parent’s wishes and other’s well-intentioned advice to keep “the safe” thing, I quit. I began dabbling in Hawaii wedding photography and years later webcasting weddings from the beach, all the while exploring other career paths from web consulting to book publishing to PR, online marketing, and even managing an Olympic Gold Medalist Alpine Skier (of all the things you would do from Maui, this one takes the cake)!

Filmmaking Is “the Thing.”

In 2012 it became clear what sparked the most joy in me. Like my abrupt one-way flight to Maui all those years earlier, I followed my gut, I quit it all and focused solely on filmmaking, initially as a Hawaii Wedding Videographer.

My partner in film, Chris and I made many many amateur mistakes that everyone goes through when they first try to make films, but we stuck with it, spent thousands upon thousands of dollars on education in the cinematic arts. In addition, I went to film school.

That guy starting out many years ago would never have dreamed that one day he’d be saying he’s  been hired by a 5-time Emmy-Award-Winning Studio, as well as by NBC Universal in Hollywood itself.

But it’s really people like you, couples who just want the best story told, who get our creative juices flowing. And that in turn gets couples excited about what they see in our portfolio. They  tell us again and again: “wow… there is something different here!”