Today we’d like to introduce you to William Alan Harris.
William, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born an only child in Orlando, Florida and grew up in a Disney created town called Celebration. The arts have always been in my life, starting from my parents. My parents are entrepreneurs as my father is a Corporate Magician who travels the country performing magic for the top fortune 500 companies. My mother is from England, thus allowing me to be a dual citizen who would draw characters from my comics for me until I learned myself. I feel that my consistent summers visiting my family in England also helped grow my artistic foundations as I visited many museums and ancient castles as well as learning the subtle differences in the British culture versus American culture. Instead of sports, I went to a dance studio for 17 years with my mother and learned ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop. I did not realize until now that the timing of dance classes helped me time my edits to the music, especially for music videos. These core foundations of the arts being accepted at an early age allowed me to want to create more and more until I got to my favorite medium of videography. I have always have been drawing since I was a child but would love to steal the camcorder from my father on vacations because I enjoyed filming and narrating over the footage. From childhood stop motion videos with an old camcorder, I began to want to take videography more seriously in middle school when I started a YouTube channel with my next door neighbor who had a camera as well as editing software. We created many fun, immature outlandish videos until Junior year of high school, where he moved away. These early film years made me learn how to create ideas and execute them while working over the shoulder with someone while they edit our idea. After my neighbor had moved, I began to take film more seriously, getting my equipment instead. During high school, I also became further involved with musical theatre singing, acting, and dancing on stage but found that my favorite part of school was television production. My school’s television department class played morning announcements every morning on our televisions across to 2000 kids on campus. Every Friday we would have a short film play. Early high school, I was heavily involved in theatre but began to move into the television department and fell in love with creating these films every friday, evoking reactions from other students.
A crucial part of my time in high school was becoming an Eagle Scout as a built a break area for a pet shelter in Orlando. I did not know it then but directing my friends on the building process, getting my project concept approved with a solid pitch, and presenting myself to a board of directors really taught me crucial lessons I apply when creating videos now. I then went to college at Savannah College of Art and Design where I was blown away by the talent and variety of characters that filled the school from all over the world. I was obsessed with the collaborative opportunities available that not a lot of other students were utilizing. I started as a film major but switched to advertising and branding as I realized most of my film opportunities were outside of class. I wanted to be more multifaceted as I realized the value that advertising and branding have on all creative mediums. Outside of class, I was and still are doing music videos for local artists. Being able to work and learn from upperclassman in majors like fashion design helped grow my knowledge of how I can make my videography skills useful to other creatives. Savannah has been a great creative hub networking me to the city of Atlanta for work. I believe everything happens for a reason, and the people I have met have introduced me to the worlds of Atlanta. New York and London. My duel citizenship aided a lot for my work with London based artist Jimothy Lacoste. The work I have done with him has been featured on Crack Magazine and Wonderland, promoting his new music videos co-directed by Jimothy and myself.
Great, 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?
Looking back on everything so far, it feels as if it has been a smooth road, but it is that danger of uncertainty that is the biggest struggle. I make sure never to let myself get into the mindset where I question my decisions it is very easy to look at the work others make and the paths others are taking around you and compare them to yourself.
Please tell us about your business.
My business is mostly in videography and editing alongside creative brainstorming tailored to the client’s project. From my studies with advertising and branding, I can offer more than your normal director offering insight on video promotion, helping boil down what the truth is behind an artist’s brand. I am most proud of the visual cohesiveness that represents myself as a person. I am always obsessed with visual composition and love to place frames over the main videos of my work. Putting the frames over my work forces me to think each frame is a painting. I love to collaborate, so I make sure for every music video I do to have a painter recreate the last frame of my video for me to transition to at the ending. I like that I can create content that is easily digestible and loop-able.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
My consistent persistence and desire to network with new talent that I could provide video work for or someone who can add their art on top of my videography. Persistence and consistency is what I feel goes towards a growing network, and mastering a skill with 10,000 hours of work.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1063 Nash Drive Celebration FL
- Website: https://williamalanharris.com/
- Phone: 4072804213
- Email: william.a.harris1224@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williamalanharris/?hl=en
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/w_a_h24
Image Credit:
Ben Krueger
Molly Johnson
Brian Kwan
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