Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Rankin.
Hi Andrew, 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?
Chapter 1 Kansas. There is absolutely nothing to do in the suburbs of Wichita, Kansas.
But one of my friends had a webcam. So The Puppeetes was born.
Please don’t click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePuppeetes/videos
Chapter 1 Part 2: Father Rankin
My father, bless his heart (he’d not dead or anything just blessing him) worked in the IT field, but more importantly, working in church tech. So naturally, as his second born, I followed. Thus, my childhood was surrounded with technology, most of it being more hardware and older analog pieces. “But atlas!…” Cries the writer, “There is more to this story.”
Chapter 2: A Very Merry Rankin Christmas.
There are 12 of us Rankin’s. Grandpa Grandma (actually bless her heart she is dead) my father and my uncle. And then the nice thing is that both my father and his brother got boy-boy-girl as the order of their offspring. All very close in age to the other set of Rankin kids.
So every Christmas, the Rankins would get together, and as the adults baked and cleaned and cooked and stood around staring at each other, the children would create a video. They were never good. They are not like “Oh cute the kids made a video.” No, these videos are just not good in general.
Until one year….
Chapter 3: We Made A Music Video
We did. One year we made a music video. Most of our stuff before that was just some narrative stuff that didn’t have must narrative to it. Then someone somewhere found it and gave us an award for best unofficial music video for the month of January of 2019, and for our prize we ended up with a trophy of a naked lady.
Mother did not take a liking to such things, but none the less we all very much liked what we had produced…..
Chapter 5: As One Does When One Goes To College With An Interest In Filmmaking.
He pursues a degree in Computer Engineering. Then fails Principle of Programing and Calculus 1 so he changes his major to Multimedia Communications with a Concentration in Film Studies. Then that man graduated that university and moved into his mother’s sister’s house in Atlanta.
Now that two years have past he has created a much better reel to show the masses that he can be a Director of Photography, and they keep hiring him as a gaffer.
But may his dream never die.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I wouldn’t say it was the smoothest, nor was it even close to straight. The only real challenge were getting to a point where I didn’t really have an interest at college learning about anything else after failing two core classes for Computer Engineering.
Another challenge is that a lot of these low-nos that you end up on because you’re just starting out, you don’t really get a director that understands the different departments nor do they have a real solid vision on what they want this film to be. So there’s always a department that is caught slacking because someone higher up didn’t put enough love into them and it brought the whole film down.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in DP and Gaffing. I’m trying to get more people to get me on as an AC that way I can see better DPs work.
There a piece that is about to hit some festivals, so I can’t say much yet. It’s called A House Build on Sand and it is one of my better works as a DP. Mostly on the lighting side. Most the camera movements where ideas from director Genesis Davis, but the lighting was a big collaboration between my gaffer, Nathanial Shirah and I as DP.
I’m mostly impressed with the lighting because it’s clean in a since that nothing looks to source or nothing looks like it was staged and that’s been my biggest struggle starting out. Half of that is the tools we use the other half is who is using them.
As of right now, I’m not going to say that my art is not the best at separating me away from others that are on the same level as me, so I sell my personality. I absolutely hate sending people my resume, like the PDF file I can’t see anyone finding out who Andrew Rankin is from a single-page file, So I rebuilt my website to better show who Andrew Rankin is rather than just what I shot. On the welcome page of my website, you can hover over the positions that I have placed under my name and they spin so that’ fun. There’s a button that says “DIE” and if you click on it you basically die (I’m not telling you what happens you have to find out yourself.) And if I get bored enough then I’m thinking of adding some internet games onto my website just for kicks and giggles.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Oh, my word I’m a full-on goober. There have been a couple of people that say I sound narcissistic when I claim that I am the funniest person that I know. I’m not saying that other people can’t make me laugh I’m just sayin on a day to day basis I make myself laugh more than any other person I have ever known. I also have a tendency to be very loud just in general.
When I’m not invested in a film gig, I am also a music producer for a band called Kirby B. Weaver from Kansas (it’s just the same friends that I made videos with while in high school) I like taking pictures on film, mostly for the whole process, I am super intrigued with processing my own film except I left my scanner in Kansas and I have forgotten multiple times to retrieve it.
I also work a lot in church tech at Gracepointe in Loganville helping them out, getting them to a point where it easier for the volunteers to come in on a Sunday and have an easier understanding of how a Sunday morning runs.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rankthelion.editorx.io/rankin
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rankthelion/
- Facebook: https://twitter.com/rankthelion
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rankthelion
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxfJmcFVUD9jdsZPlI1LrZg
