Today we’d like to introduce you to Emmanuel Camacho.
Emmanuel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The constant pursuit of chasing what excites me most has gotten me to where I am today; an established commercial director, cinematographer, producer and creative from the city of Chicago.
I began my pursuit of filmmaking at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where I received a B.A. in Media and Cinema Studies, the first graduating class for this major. After graduating from U of I, I received a camera as a gift from my mom. I didn’t know it at the time, but that camera would become an extension of myself and the camera I would go on to shoot all of my first projects early in my career.
The day I decided to pursue filmmaking full-time was a very memorable day and a day look back on as a reminder of how I’ve gotten to where I am today. At the time, I worked at an apartment real estate firm, in the department of accusations. It wasn’t a job I was particularly in love with, but it was a job. After leaving undergrad I thought, like most young people, I needed to get in the door somewhere to begin getting work experience. My parents also expected the same of me. At this point, I had been using any free time I had to shoot photos and work on short videos for different events and parties as a way to network and gain some experience behind the camera. I met a young producer/director, Greg Buissereth at one of these parties and asked if I had an interest in filming a music video the following weekend.
The day before the shoot, a Thursday, Greg calls me and tells me the video would be for Raekwon from the Wu-Tang Clan. I grew up a huge fan of Wu-Tang and saw this as a huge opportunity to break into film and video in Chicago. I went into my boss’s office and begin to explain that I wouldn’t be making it into work the following day because I committed to filming a project that would require most of the day. My boss was clearly frustrated with me and gave me an ultimatum right there: come into work the following day and keep my job, or quit my job and go to my video shoot. I decided to quit my job without telling my parents, which was a scary leap faith. I went on to film the music video following day, and I remembered leaving the set thinking to myself, “I want to do this for the rest of my life”. I felt so accomplished in my work behind the camera that I decided, even though I had no clue where I would start, I would pursue filmmaking as a career.
A few years later, I reconnected with a great friend of mine and now business partner, Steven Walsh, who was returning to Chicago from his 3-year stint with Teach For America. With Steve’s help, we formed a team of creatives that would become our creative productions team, Lucid Creative Agency.
Today, we’re 3 years in as a company and have had the opportunity to work with a variety of people and clients from Nike, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Revolt TV, ESPN, award-winning rapper and artist Common, among others.
In our work, we hope to provide a new lens and a fresh perspective in experiencing digital creative media. The diversity in our team from background to education, as well personal interests are very much a representation of what we bring to the table as creative producers.
Has it been a smooth road?
Though I’ve been very lucky in my career to get the opportunity to work on incredible projects, from ESPN X-Games to Central Standard: On Education, PBS Digital’s first nationally distributed series, it has not been a smooth road getting to where we are today as a team.
For much of the first 4 years of working in this industry, while learning to master the craft of filmmaking, as well as learning how to manage and operate a business I worked essentially gig to gig in order to fund my dream of making a career of my film and photography work. I crashed on friend’s couches, many times I had to borrow money from my parents to pay for rent and to purchase new equipment, and for the first year of our business donated my living room space in my apartment which served as our first office.
With the help of our friends and family, and the constant pursuit to improve our work we’ve come a long way. Today we share a studio space Chicago’s South Loop area that we’ve branded, Monochrome Studio. Our studio space has really given us the opportunity to expand what we could do creatively and efficiently.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Manny Reel Films – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Our company’s focus is on digital creative services, primarily in video and photo production, but also in branding and marketing. We’ve really tried to differentiate ourselves in the commercial video production space in Chicago by creating new and interesting work that is a representation of the diversity of our team. I think what we’re known best for is producing visually exciting content, whether through photography and video production but also through augmented and virtual reality.
I think what I’m most proud of our company is our attention and energy we put into our work. As a young team, myself being the director at 28 years old, it has been an uphill battle proving to clients and producers that we can create strong content just like if not better than firms that have senior staff and have been around for many years. In the same respect, I think the fact that we’re a young team, with a diverse pool of talent and perspective, sets us apart from groups that have been in this space for some time. We think because of that we offer a fresh lens and energy around producing content for today’s audience.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I think the best part of Chicago is the support fellow creatives have for each other’s work. Though we’re a large city, I think the creative community is a relatively small one. So in a lot of instances, you’ll have the creative community come out and support each other in a variety of ways. It’s a great attribute of the creative community in Chicago.
I think what I like least about our city might be the weather (a typical Chicagoan response). All kidding aside, I think what Chicago lacks that large cities like New York and Los Angeles have in abundance is the support from major commercial industries and companies in the creative spaces of Chicago. I think in the last few years that has begun to change for the better in think in part due to the success of Chicago creatives that continue to live here and create here like Chance The Rapper, Hebru Brantley, Vic Mensa and others. I look forward to a time when Chicago as a city can support and inspire artist of all kinds to remain in Chicago and help to make it a better city for all its citizens.
Contact Info:
- Address: 329 W. 18th St. STE 413
- Website: http://mannyreel.com/
- Phone: 773-790-9906
- Email: mannyreelfilms@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mannyreel/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MannyReelFilms/
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