Today we’d like to introduce you to Alejandro Arocha.
Alejandro, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I should start with the fact that my older brother and sister are in the same industry. My sister Lizette is a Production & Network Operations Coordinator for Olé Sports, and my brother Andres is a Senior Editor for Telemundo. Growing up, my sister and I would watch my brother edit his projects on a bootleg version of Premiere, after he went to college, my sister started editing her own things, where I would now watch her until she moved on to college. All this to say, it definitely runs in the family. What’s funny however, is what really put me on the path to where I’m at now though, was a girlfriend I had in early high school. See until I met her, I thought I wanted to be a mechanical engineer.
She was in TV production, which I didn’t really care for much at the time, but I had invited her to a youth group event, where one of the leaders caught wind of what she was studying and was interested in starting a little film crew for the youth group. She invited me to their first meeting, where I met one of the most important people on my journey; Brian. He was a guy who was in film school, and he was invited to be the brains behind the projects. I started by acting, and would sit in the editing room with Brian after, sometimes suggesting cuts and edits. He was extremely supportive and really liked my ideas, so much so he wanted me to help him come up with future projects, where he would let me operate the camera, teaching me techniques and how to use his equipment.
Eventually, he cut ties with the youth group for personal reasons, but it was very sudden, and we had a big meeting to discuss what the plan was moving forward. The leaders were worried, spitballing ideas, meanwhile in my mind I thought; ‘I have my brother’s old camcorder, and we have bootleg Premiere CS6…’ so I jumped in the conversation and told them that I’ll take it from here.
From that moment onwards I started recording our projects and events, and I taught myself how to use Premiere. I honestly didn’t think much of it, it was just something I was doing for the youth group, until one day, while I was filming, someone from the church told me; “So will you pursue a career in this?” to which I was befuddled, responding; “You can do that?”
Once I learned you can, the rest is pretty much history.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
You won’t summit a mountain on a paved road.
Before I went to film school, I was under a lot of pressure to be accepted into the the big schools in Florida where I grew up. My sister being valedictorian didn’t help either.
Unfortunately, I was not accepted into any University in the entire state. This devastated me as I had no idea what I was gonna do, and most importantly, how I was to break the news to my parents. You see, soy latino and an immigrant, hearing that from your youngest child after both older siblings worked their asses off to get into a good university is the last thing you want to find out. The truth is, school was pretty tough for me, it was hard to keep me engaged, so I was engaged just enough to pass and graduate.
Fortunately, there was still hope. See my sister invited me to accompany her at her job for a week before I started my senior year, she worked at a small TV station in Gainesville Florida, where I learned how to use professional equipment, software, and even directed a small bit for the local police station. While at her job, her boss informed me of a small community college in Orlando called Valencia College, with a state of the art film program, and that I should look into it.
Prior to finding out I didn’t get accepted anywhere, for what it’s worth, there was one school that did. A private school called Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota Florida. I toured it with my family, and we liked it, but there was one small problem; by the time I graduate, I would be in a debt of at least $125k. I don’t know how but my parents were supportive all the way through, I suppose I didn’t really have any other choice. Until the night before student orientation, which would have locked me into going to that school. I was on the phone with my girlfriend at the time, who was also accepted there, I found out she would also be in huge debt, with even more scholarships than me. With that, I remembered the words of my sister’s boss, and made up my mind. Around 2am, I went to our living room, where my parents had the dining table flooded with papers, calculators, files, scrambling to figure out how they were gonna help finance my education. The sigh of relief dissipated all the pressure in the room as I told them I was going to Valencia.
I remember this as the first tumultuous transitional period of my life, though, the following years were relatively smooth sailing, getting through film school having the time of my life. From there, honestly, nothing has been smooth ever since covid, and to top things off, I had the great idea of moving to Atlanta for “more work” the same year the writer’s and actor’s strike began. But hey, I’m still sailing, and I’m ready for what’s to come.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Lately, I’ve been honing my practice mainly through photography, challengeing myself to capture ideas in different conditions or within different parameters, as I do aspire to be a cinematographer. Although as you can imagine, it’s a double edged sword in that I haven’t had much time to work on my own projects and ideas, but thankfully it’s been due to working on more productions. On set, I specialize as a 1st AC (Camera Assistant). I mainly work in Atlanta, Miami, and anything in between.
All that being said, I’m proud to say that last year I completed a huge big project that I had set for myself; the completion of my portfolio website alejandroarocha.com. My roommate and best friend Michael helped me build it from the ground up through HTML & CSS. Truthfully, I don’t like to be confined to just a ‘filmmaker’ or ‘photographer’, I aim to put as much effort as I can into anything with my name on it, and I feel like my website is a full representation of my creative vision and flow. Even though it’s finished, I know fellow artists and creatives will understand, it’s always a work in progress.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Towards the end of last year I thought to myself, I could be doing better, but I could also be doing much worse, I think what ultimately matters is that I’m trying, and I’m still going. There have been many moments where I’ve asked myself if I should abandon this industry, this career, being creative as a whole. But I just keep circling back at the fact that this; what I’ve built, been a part of, the experience I’ve gained, the people I’ve met along the way, the support I have from my friends and my family, this is what makes me happy, and thankfully, I’m doing alright.
A saying from my home country my father always says when in moments of doubt: “Pa’ lante es pa’ ya!”, it quite literally means “The way forward is that way” it’s simple, but it keeps me going. My mother has always and will still tell me I need to pursue what makes me happy. I can truly say I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to do just that.
I think now, my biggest goal in life moving forward, beyond happiness, is to be a part of something much, much larger than myself. I don’t mean like working on a huge franchise or being famous, far from that. But to be a part of something that can mean something special to someone, or even a few people, an inspiration if you will. I think that will make me content.
Contact Info:
- Website: alejandroarocha.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cosmicindex/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-arocha
Image Credits
Alexander Burnham Erica Pierluissi Sultan Khan
