Today we’d like to introduce you to Santiago Guiastrennec.
Hi Santiago, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started very young, noticing that I loved audiovisual media in Argentina, Buenos Aires. I was born there and lived there until I graduated high school. I used to do YouTube videos of myself going to places and gaming videos, making them “funny” or just interesting to me, which at the time, was a copy of other famous YouTubers out there. I started doing this when I was 12, using a small GoPro, a phone, Sony Vegas to edit and a whole lot of tutorials. I wanted to be a “YouTuber” but with the progression of the years and by the time I finished high school, I realized I was a lot more intrigued by professional video production, rather than making videos for fun, and understanding how every step of the process is achieved. By then, my family had the tremendous opportunity to live and work in the United States, more precisely at Orlando, FL, for 2 years.
Thanks to my self-starting attitude towards “creating videos” I had a much better understanding and workflow than most of other students when I started college, pursuing a technical certificate in Video Production.
Because of some time-wise limitations of our Visa, I knew I had to take a fast-paced learning experience before having to go back to Argentina, so I started reaching the advanced classes at a young age. Professional in the industry and Professor Brian-Marc Whittaker, offered me an internship opportunity to create a long-form corporate video for the credit union “CFE Federal Credit Union”, now named Addition Financial. The requirement for this project was to look professional and filmic, and to obviously represent the corporate’s action and brand. This was a big challenge at the time, but me and a co-worker (a student like me at the time) were able to produce and meet the requirements after some really hard work and editing time. The video had a great impact on the corporate side, so CFE donated $2,000 to the Digital Media program thanks to our work. This experience opened an incredible whole other world that I didn’t even acknowledge I liked: the Film Production world, since producing said corporate video required the team to apply many techniques strictly related to film.
At the said time with 19 years of age, reaching my 20’s, I was almost completely sure I wanted to be a professional video editor, until I joined the Film Production program at Valencia College, School of Arts and Entertainment in Fall 2018. This is where I truly developed my film production skills and knowledge and fell in love with the camera department. The fast-paced environment and challenges guided by active professionals that the program offers is highly difficult to find around Florida.
During the program, I participated multiple times as an Assistant Camera, Camera Operator, and Director of Photography, and this last role is the one I do more often for corporate work.
2018 to mid-2019 was one of my busiest years, but I was able to do film internships and experience being a production assistant for high-budget productions with Disney, NBC, etc, experience the challenges of being on professional short films, commercials, documentaries, music videos, and corporate video production. As a highlight, I’ve also created my own organization/production company: VANDA Films to start showing my work for companies that needed professional high-end productions, always with the intention to develop my career and professional life, as well as gathering more experience. I found myself in a lot of challenges regarding camera rigs and building, precise skills and etiquette, and problems on set that I’ve never thought of, but was always able to work around them. Managing communications with clients and people that were interested in working with me was also a big part of said year, resulting in a huge impact on my professional development.
With all of the gathered experience in mind and while still studying, I started specializing in the camera department as an Assistant Camera and Camera Operator, with the goal of being a Director of Photography for Commercials and Films in the future.
Everything seemed great until I reached a bit of a throwback…
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I consider myself quite lucky, but I didn’t have a really smooth road. Even though I was lucky enough to study and experience real productions in many different roles during the Film program, in July 2019, our Visa was about to expire, and we had to move back to Argentina to continue our lives. This moment was one the biggest impacts in my life. I was maintaining a very good academic and professional progress, in a different country and in a different language. I was able to build professional and friend relationships, but it felt like I was saying goodbye to all permanently.
By the end of 2019 in Argentina, I wasn’t working neither studying, and my previous production work during school wasn’t reaching all the corporate opportunities I used to have in Orlando, and neither the economic situation in the country was good, in fact, it started to be one of the worsts, which is one of the main reasons that the film industry over there is much more dry.
I managed to live and work for some companies as a freelancer, using my organization/production company name VANDA Films. I also worked as an Offline Video Editor for a production company in LA called Everpost for some time, and lastly getting a full-time job as an audiovisual producer at one of the biggest digital news companies in Argentina. Even though this company is one of the biggest on their industry, the experience at this job was not even close to a low-budget production, there was lack of equipment, budget, organization, and so on.
The only highlight of this time is that I met the love of my life and my now fiancé, Melissa. She was one of my biggest inspirations to keep pushing forward towards pursuing my dreams as a cinematographer, and to never throw down the towel.
The situation in the country was getting critical, and myself being a very realistic person, I still felt like I had nowhere to go and that I lost all of my skills and potential after spending 1 year and a half at place that was not doing great, and that the idea of being a filmmaker would sound crazy and unreliable to any other one living in Buenos Aires. Many professionals from the film industry in Argentina that I had the opportunity to talk to, would only ask me “why would you come back to Argentina?” so you can imagine what the outcome of being a film professional would look like.
Suddenly, we had the greatest news at home, my family got another opportunity to go back to Orlando!
As soon as we did all of the paperwork, we moved back to Oviedo, FL, during May 2021. My fiancé being a citizen was also able to move and started working right away, which made it seem like our life was going finally back on track. We both knew we needed to move out for a while, so we did!
Today, I am very happy and humbled to say that I keep pursuing my dreams towards achieving a higher-level of cinematography for commercials and films, and I keep having opportunities to help a lot in the camera department. Myself and my “best try to develop myself with a name out there” with VANDA Films, has won awards for music videos, short films and been nominated for many other film festivals. I am currently working part-time at Valencia College, School of Arts and Entertainment as a Teacher Assistant and Lab Aide, helping new students of the program reach a professional level to work in this fantastic industry.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about VANDA Films?
VANDA Films is a new award-winning video production organization based out of the Orlando area, but able to produce cinematic content for all over the country. VANDA specializes in producing Commercial and Corporate videos, with a true emphasis on cinematic techniques and storytelling. With true passion, we strive to make story the most important aspect of productions to help business owners connect with actual people on a more personal level. VANDA Films also puts a huge emphasis on organization to make each and every project run smoothly.
As a small, self-started organization that started as a base to be able to put all of my productions out there, I am very proud of all of our experiences and content we delivered for companies such as Orlando Tree Trek, Visionbody, La Cucha Team Gym, Sighthound Inc., and many more, but I am especially proud of our recent film production music video work “Thunderclouds: Cover song by XOFIA ft. Áquilon”.
This piece of work was filmed in Argentina, Buenos Aires, and post-produced in Oviedo, Florida for artist and singer XOFIA (Sofia Berardi). The artist has stated that this video made XOFIA’s musical debut a huge impact in her music career, and her music can now be found in Spotify, and our work on IMDb under the Music Video category. Some behind the scenes pictures can be found on this article too!
This music video by VANDA Films has been nominated and won in multiple film festivals so far, such as:
International Music Video Underground (nominated and winner for Best Monthly Cover Song)
FilmGate Festival (nominated for Music Video)
Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival (nominated for Music Video)
Madrid Film Awards (nominated for Music Video)
National Short Film Festival (nominated Quarter-Finalist for the AMERICAN bracket)
Buenos Aires International Film Festival (selected for the Music Video category)
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I usually hear the podcast “Team Deakins”. I mean, it’s impossible not to be amazed by hearing the best cinematographer of modern time and how he works! This podcast serves as inspiration and resource to better asses cinematography as an overall.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@vandafilms.co
- Website: vandafilms.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vandafilms/
- Youtube: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7194427
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/iagocine/
Image Credits
Brandon Vasquez Valencia College BTS Valencia College Digital Media
