Today we’d like to introduce you to Alron Phillips.
Hi Alron, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I actually started out in the music industry. I was playing college basketball in Texas when I got the call to do music. I quit basketball and attended MediaTech Institute in Dallas. There I learned everything in recording arts such as producing, mixing and mastering, live sound techniques, audio engineering, business of music, and etc. After I graduated I worked in the film and TV production field being a gofer and a jack of all trades for a production company called Berg Productions. During that time, I was working with different artists outside of work, helping them with their sound while gaining experience in the music industry. I created my production company NuJuRu Entertainment LLC and started working on my 1st album. Before I could finish my album my wife, Kristen Phillips, and I got married and moved to Florida. I had to start all over with everything. I reestablished my business and started working on my album again. Then I realized that I couldn’t just put an album out there. In order to be successful, I knew I had to get music videos done. So while shopping around for production companies to produce my music videos, I realized how expensive it would be to hire someone to produce them for me. That’s when I decided to learn how to do music videos so I can produce my own music videos and maybe produce other artists’ music videos on the side for some extra income for my own projects.
So I attended F.I.R.S.T. Institute here in Orlando, FL. There is where I found my love for making films. I only attended the school in order to learn how to make music videos, but during class, we were shown how Christopher Nolan used cameras, lighting, blocking, and storytelling in order to tell the story of “The Dark Knight” specifically the interrogation scene. After seeing that, I fell in love with filmmaking. So, everyday in class I annoyed my instructor with a lot of questions, because I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could. I went home and practiced lighting, camera shots and movements, storytelling, and anything else I could learn about filmmaking. I took what I learned in basketball and started studying films to learn how to get better. I started writing screenplays and before I graduated, I shot my 1st short film, not as a class, but as a professional. We just wrapped up a successful red carpet movie premiere for our film called, “Methodical” and it’s having a great run in the film festival circuit. We just won an award for editing in the Hollywood Golden Age Film Festival. I will be turning “Methodical” into a full feature sometime in the future.
I am currently working on my next film titled, “Consequences: Aftermath” starring Christopher Hill and Chenara Imrith, in which I am the executive producer, director, and writer. We’re already in the post production phase. I’ve helped others with their films in different ways, but this will be the second film under my production company. I have so many things lined up in film and TV productions that will last me a lifetime. Also, I will be putting a focus on my music pretty soon, so I can put what I’ve learned into action by producing music videos for my album and finally releasing it to the world. So, I haven’t lost my focus on that. I’ve just expanded my business. So, now under the umbrella of NuJuRu Entertainment LLC, I’ve started two DBA’s called NuJuRu Studios for my film production business and NuJuRu Records for
my music business.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
This has definitely not been a smooth road for me. Trying to learn a new skill, practicing it, using your money to fund it, going to school for it, doing the full procedure of making a film and producing an album, and still working a 40 hour a week, 9 to 5 job, and making sure to spend time with my wife is a great struggle of balance. Then to top it off you don’t get paid for your work, just gaining experience is a struggle. I love my journey though. You have to love the journey. You have to love what you do because if you don’t you will find reasons to quit especially when things go wrong. During productions trying to keep everything together while things are literally falling apart or being broken costing money and time. To be honest, I appreciate everything I do and everyone I meet, but I realize that sometimes you have to go through the hard stuff to make you stronger and better. I do feel like my growing pains are strengthening me to be better than I was a second ago. Always getting better constantly.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My profession is in the entertainment industry. I specialize in music and films and I am very good at almost every position in each. In the music industry, I write, play, compose, mix, master, produce, arrange, and sing. In the film industry, I write, produce, direct, cinematography, operate the camera, post-production editing, graphics, film scorer, actor, etc. The good thing about me is I’m not just the typical jack-of-all-trades. One who’s usually good at everything but not great at anything. That’s not me. I’m a jack-of-all-trades who’s practiced and trained and honed in on every aspect trying to perfect everything I do so that I can be great at everything I do. I’m a firm believer that I will forever be a student in this industry and I will always seek to learn more and be better so that I can deliver high-quality music and films that rival big-budget radio-aired music and Hollywood blockbusters. And that’s what makes me unique. I’m learning and growing in every aspect of this entertainment industry. Though I can’t do it all myself, by myself, I’m smart enough to surround myself with a team of cast and crew that are much better than I am so the film or music can be that much better.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I think it’s very important to have a few mentors in different levels of relationships in your life. To have a personal mentor who has been where you are and has a track record of success is such a great relationship to have to move forward. Someone like an instructor who is actively working in the industry or just anyone who knows more than you can take your skills and knowledge to the next level of success. It’s important when working on a project to hire people that are better than you are at certain things so you can learn from them. Volunteering your services to people’s projects so you can be in a position to learn would be very beneficial. And let’s not forget those distant mentors. The Christopher Nolans and Quincy Jones’ in the world can mentor you from a distance by just studying them and their process and learning and growing from them. There are YouTube, social media, you can research successful people’s body of work, watching Master Classes, or watching roundtables online. You can also join some webinars to learn more about your craft. And the most important mentor is experience. Practice, practice, practice your craft. Doing all this research and getting advice doesn’t mean anything if you don’t put it into practice. I practiced as much as I could over and over again until it started to become seamless. Then I practiced some more. Then always challenge yourself to do something that you’ve never done before. If you see something done in a movie, then try it. This is the moment you DO want to try this at home. Research it. Figure out how they did it. Then figure out how you can do it. Then practice. Learning to motivate yourself, I would say, is more important than experience, because motivating yourself is where it starts. Quoting my own phrase, “live your life as if your future self is watching.” Meaning, people always say, “I wish I would’ve done this in my past, because I would be better off now.” Well, if you work as if your future self is watching, telling you to do more, be more, do better, then you won’t have to worry about your future self, because you would’ve done what you needed to do to be that successful person in the future.
Contact Info:
- Email: alronphillips@nujuru.com
- Website: www.nujuru.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nujuruentertainmentllc/ https://www.instagram.com/nujurustudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nujururecords
https://www.facebook.com/alron.phillips/ - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFuRlFvm5eUsnN0yxFaXP5g
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8689212/
Image Credits
Diego Cano Jason Haase – Jason Good Media Michael Dalmau
