This is a timeless and modern day love story that took me halfway across the world to the southern hemisphere, all the way down from Austin, TX to Montevideo, Uruguay.
Before I launch into the journey, I’ll tell you the big takeaways from the experience which was one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences of my life! Keep in mind that I’m telling this story as a filmmaker, humanitarian and crypto enthusiast. There are some short fashion films at the end!
Key takeaways:
Be present, show up as your true authentic self, fully engage in life and magical things will happen!
When faced with limited resources, your most valuable asset becomes your resourcefulness.
When you start to see your constraints as a source for creativity and your limitations as a source of inspiration, there’s a universe of endless possibilities available at your fingertips.
To feel your own consciousness harmonize with your environment is a blissful experience that’s hard to describe but part of this story is an effort to express that feeling visually with my filmmaking and cinematography.
True Story:
I’m going to start this story by mentioning the serendipitous nature of Austin. There are so many incredible people here with such amazing attitudes and the amount of activity, events, community and growth taking place, really sets the stage for the most unique opportunities to emerge. All it really takes is a willingness to show up and embrace the nature of what we call Austindipity!
About 2 years ago I was invited to a yacht party by foundingAUSTIN’s Dan Dillard. I was able to find the right balance of getting some shots on the canon 5D mark iii, having fun in the water and connecting with some awesome people in a community of fellow entrepreneurs.
I met a really inspiring life couch at the party named Becky. A week later we randomly ran into each other at a coffee shop and as we took a minute to chat and learn more about each others life trajectory, in that moment she realized I should meet her friend Jason. That was the 2nd time in a week I was told to meet Jason by two separate people. Apparently we had so much in common, she felt a synergy and proposed we should work together. Becky made the introduction via text and I set up a meeting with Jason the next day. During our lunch, I learned about his background as a media producer in the world of cryptocurrency and about his successful career. We talked about how we could help each other grow and connected about a month later when he hired me to shoot a cryptocurrency project with him in Uruguay. Invited to make a film with bitcoin millionaire Doug Casey at his mansion near Punta Del Este, we interviewed him about his investments in crypto and learned many valuable insights on the future of finance.
Once my job was done, I had booked 5 extra days to explore the country on my own and since I already had all my camera gear, the moment was perfect to make the most of it. I didn’t want to just go sight seeing and do that touristy thing but I wanted to really become immersed in the culture so the question became how to do that.
Being alone in a foreign country for the first time can be scary and I imagined what it would be like if I was the only one in the entire country just roaming around empty streets. What would a place be without the people? It was only then that I realized how I could really connect with the culture was to build a connection with the people who make up the communities there.
Creating works of art that would stand the test of time is an inspiration for me and it become a unique way to connect with a community of people in the capital city. My goal became to find a creative community of passionate fashion designers who had a common interest in collaboration and creating art work together.
Early in the year I decided to dedicate a certain amount of my time and efforts on passion project. The purpose of these were to push boundaries and open opportunities, to explore creative possibilities that I never knew existed. The theme for my passion projects that year was Love because there is so much hate in the world especially with Trump as president. I felt compelled to tell stories that lift the soul and inspire people to open their hearts towards a better humanity.
I didn’t really know where to start so I went onto social media and did a search for people living in Montevideo. A unique profile picture of fashion designer Javier Ramirez popped up and I immediately realized this was the guy I needed to reach out to. He loved the idea of working together and connected me with another designer who might also want to collaborate on a fashion film. Fashion designer Victoria Campbell helped coordinate the shoot and consulted with me on wardrobe, models and story ideas. She also brought a talented hair and makeup artists Sylvie Vernazza onto the project and another designer Mauricio Pera Scavone. With support from a local modeling agency Valentino Bookings, we had plenty of talent to work with and everything started to come together nicely.
Location scouting was such an enjoyable journey and I received deep satisfaction knowing that these special places would soon be characters in a love story that we were creating together as a community. Here are some of the scenes I discovered during my location scout if you’d like to have a short glimpse of the vibes from Uruguay.
In the world of media production, capturing a story can be very stressful and filled with anxiety. There’re endless variables to consider during pre-production and when it comes time to perform, you’re not just a passive observer of the scene but part of the action like a character, choreographed to the movements of your subject. Because I didn’t have a director or producer on set, it was up to me to not only have a vision of a love story but to manifest that vision into reality with a community of creatives.
Instead of stressing out about the limited time we had to get all the shots we needed, I realized that when you’re in alignment with your own humanity, a single moment in time can feel like forever. Allowing myself to become one with the moment put my being in a state of flow and brought me into the present. Living fully in the present is rare to realize but incredibly fulfilling when accomplished. When your in tune and totally aware, opportunities that you never thought were possible suddenly pop out at you like golden rays of light.
I'm so happy that I now have a beautiful group of friends there and that we all shared in the creation of a lasting memory! Each of us put our heart and souls into the creation of this work and brought our talents, efforts and passion to the table.
I could go on about the technical aspects of how I shot everything, the gear I used, the techniques, post-production, color grading, etc. but I really just wanted to tell the back story of how it all came together and how impactful this experience has been on my life.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about the filmmaking process or if this story resonated with you. I’d love to hear about similar experiences or projects that others may have worked on. I’m planning a trip to Budapest this year in August to hopefully pull off something similar, only next level content! If there’s a love story that inspires you or something you’d like to see created, please let me know!
Here is the resulting fashion film and below that are some additional fashion films from my short time there. I hope you enjoy watching them as much as we enjoyed creating them!
When two people from separate worlds feel a powerful force pulling them together, the distance between them becomes a connection.
Our journey to Uruguay landed on the beach in Montevideo and started with a dip in the ocean. Lucía Lois was loving every minute of it!
“Search” is a film about those moments in between being lost and found. Great freedom comes from living in the present, but when we stray from the now, we lose sight of what we have.
The "Serpentina" collection by Javier Ramírez, is inspired by the poem by Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini entitled Serpentina. Javier Ramírez designs originate from Uruguay and are reflective of the style and diversity that permeates the country.
Thank you so much for reading to the end and watching all the films!
Much love!
-JZ