Don’t miss out on THEPERSPECTVE-related content straight to your emails: subscribe us here.
Tell us something about you.….
My name is Josh, I am a 20 year old videographer and industrial designer from Croatia. I was born in Vancouver, but my family decided to move to Croatia when I was 12. I spent about 6-7 years there before I moved back to Canada for university. I love spending my time innovating, designing and creating new things. I always try to be productive and I am the type of person that cannot sit still on a couch for hours. My brain is always buzzing with new ideas. I love skateboarding, capturing memories on video, traveling, baking, designing, fishing etc…
Your favourite place you always love to travel to? Place you would love to live one day?
As a videographer, I always aspire to be different. The world is big but so many places have already been visited. My ultimate goal is to travel to some place where not a lot of people have visited, such as Antarctica. I think it would be incredible to go Antarctica or the Arctic and live like a local. Sleep in an igloo, hunt for my own food etc. When travelling, I always look for an authentic experience and I want to feel like a local. I am not a big fan of fancy resorts and similar. One place that I love to visit is my home Croatia. I am blessed to be from such a beautiful country that so many people “vacation to”. Nothing compares to the orange roofs, golden fields, turquoise water and friendly people.
Do you have any specific goals you would like to tell us about?
I always try my best to continually set myself goals. I don’t set many goals at the same time, I always find one thing that I really want to accomplish and I do everything in my power to accomplish it. It all started with my first sponsored trip to Iceland when I was 18. My friend and I really wanted to go to Iceland but couldn’t afford it so we sent business pitches to over 200 companies in Iceland, telling them we would create the craziest video for them if they were to sponsor our trip. After lots of no’s, tears and sweat, we actually got a phone company, Alcatel Mobile, to sponsor our entire trip. Everything from flights for me and my friend, accommodation, excursions, food and transportation. That was my first business trip.
How would you describe your lifestyle?
I would say my lifestyle is a struggle between balancing school, travel and work. So many videographer nowadays are dropping out of school to “chase their passion” however I am not a believer in that. I think there is always a way when there is a will. For example, I set up my school schedule so that I only have school the first few days of the week so that I could travel the rest of the days. Although I think there is a lot wrong with universities, I think there is positive in every situation. I am a full time industrial student in Vancouver, Canada. People think it’s funny that my passion is videography (and my career currently), yet I’m studying industrial design. When applying to university, I felt like I already knew a lot when it comes to video production and editing plus I felt like videography is something that can’t really be taught in a school, but on your own time. I wanted to learn something that I was completely unfamiliar with and that’s why I took industrial design and I absolutely love it! I think there is definitely a cross-section between videography and industrial design and both compliment each other.
How would you describe your videography/photography style?
The videography industry has become so saturated these past few years that I think it’s really hard to develop a style that hasn’t been seen before. For me, in my videos it’s really important to make it seem as natural and “real” as possible. I am not a big fan of preset transitions and light flares and other fake video manipulation tools. My ultimate goal when video editing is to showcase something in the most realistic and beautiful way possible so that everyone watching can feel as if they are there with me. A big thing for me in my videos is the sound design. I learned over the years that sound and sound effects are EXTREMELY important and can make or break your video. It adds another layer of immersiveness that makes your video feel alive. I also create all my own video filters which a lot of people seem to like. It has very warm tones, washed out greens, bright reds and also has a bit of an RGB split effect so that it almost feels 3D (very subtle).
Do you have a favorite photo?/Whats your favorite shot (you’ve made)/ a project which meant a lot to you /means a lot to you?
It’s really hard to pic a favourite shot but if I had to pick one it would be my shot of Martin Garrix. Personally, the shot isn’t incredible to me as much as the memories behind it are. I was 17 or 18 I think and I was filming Ultra music festival in Croatia. That was my first event that I shot in my whole life. All the other photographers and videographers that were working were way older than me with so much more experience. I was one of the few that were allowed on stage to photograph the event in front of more than 50,000 people. Being a huge fan of Martin Garrix, I really wanted to meet him. Hours before his set I ran into him backstage and I told him how much his music meant to me and how he was a huge inspiration to me considering he started chasing his passion very young just like I did. I told him my name and we parted ways. Hours later I was 1 of 5 photographers on stage when it was time for Martins set. I remember hearing the first song play, Martin running up the steps to the DJ booth, he turned around, saw me, ran back down the stairs and gave me a hug and said “you can do this”. That was a pivotal moment for me in my career for sure. I remember waiting for the first drop when BOOM the pyro exploded and that’s when I got this shot. In that moment I knew that that was exactly what I wanted to be doing.
Worst travel experience?
Haha! I have 2 worst travel experiences that I wanted to share. The first one was when I went on a trip to Cambodia. I am usually always 100% prepared when going on a trip but somehow this time I forgot that you needed a visa to enter Cambodia. I was at the airport in Bangkok when I realized that you can get a visa upon arrival in Cambodia, however, you need 50USD and a passport size photo which I didn’t have at the time. I had little time so I quickly ran through the terminal to find an exchange office. I got the 50USD but I couldn’t find a place to get a passport size photo. I went into Cambodia not knowing what was going to happen, but thankfully all I had to do was pay a small fee. After the Cambodia trip I headed with my friends to Vietnam. The day before our flight at dinner, some one mentioned something about a visa for Vietnam. Once again, I had forgotten to get one but unfortunately this time you needed to apply for a visa A WEEK in advanced. I was freaking out. I ran home by myself and applied for a rushed visa which was supposed to take only 4 working hours. However, i applied after they were closed which meant that my visa would arrive the next day at 12pm, but our flight was at 10am. They didn’t let me on the flight without the visa so my friends left to Vietnam and I had to wait a few hours for my visa to arrive and then I boarded the next flight to Vietnam. Another crazy travel experience was to the Bahamas. I never knew how hard it was to go to the Bahamas until I embarked on this journey. What was only supposed to be like a 12 hour flight turned into 36 hours of travel. My first flight was delayed which effected the rest of the flights. The flights route was Vancouver-Seattle-Fort Lauderdale-Freeport, Bahama. When I arrived in Fort Lauderdale (after sleeping over in Seattle) they told me I didn’t have a ticket for the final flight to the Bahamas. She didn’t let me board and I had to make a million phone calls before I could board the last flight that day to the Bahamas. Let’s not even talk about the 5 flights it took me to get back from the Bahamas…
Did you enjoy the cooperation with Suspiciousantwerp? Would you like to tell us the story behind this video?
Yeeeees! Suspicious Antwerp is an amazing brand to work with. A friend of mine and me wanted to go to the Bahamas because we both didn’t have school for a week in February. When deciding on who to send pitches to, we thought of Suspicious as we were both fans of their products. We sent them our Bahamas proposal and they agreed to hop on board. One thing I loved about working with them was they were super chill and they let me use my own creativity. Some companies are very strict and constraining when it comes to criteria for the video which obviously effects the final outcome.
You love to create content? How did you discover it?
I started taking pictures and making videos when I was 12. My mom is a photographer and my dad is a designer so I guess I get my creative side from them. For me, creating content was always about capturing memories that I can look back and smile at one day. To this day, my purpose hasn’t changed and I am primarily creating content for myself to look back at and perhaps show my kids one day what a cool dad they had haha!!
For how long are you creating content now?
For 8 years, but professionally for about 3 years.
What was the best that happened to you?
One of the best things that has happened to me was studying abroad in Singapore. I studied one semester at Asia’s #1 university, and number #11 in the world! It’s hard to put that experience in words, but studying and living in an exotic place like Singapore was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Being in south east Asia, I got to travel to some incredible places and some of my favourite such as Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong and more. I got to see pink beaches in Indonesia, I was deserted on a private island in the Philippines, ate scorpions in Thailand, visited thousand year old temples in Cambodia, flew through a monsoon in Vietnam etc. Some of the best memories of my life were made while on exchange.
You’ve got your own ‘start-up’ brand (@iusedtodreaminc) would you like to tell us more about it?
I Used to Dream was an idea that was created after the big Iceland trip with my best friend. For years we have been talking about doing something crazy and travelling but we never did anything about it. Iceland was proof to us that in order to make your dream come true, you have to MAKE YOUR DREAM COME TRUE. It’s in our hands. With my apparel brand, I want to inspire other people to stop dreaming and start taking action now. My brand is something that’s always in my brain and I work on it almost every single day. I cannot share the details of what I’m planning just yet but all I can say is that I really believe in this idea and that it will resonate with people. I have been planning it for the past few years and will probably release summer of 2020 when I graduate university. It will not just be a clothing brand but a MOVEMENT and it will also help other people say “I Used to Dream”.
Your Goals for 2019?
My goal for 2019 is to continue doing what I’m doing just on a larger scale. I want to continue travelling but I also want to work for bigger and more popular brands around the world. I also really want to focus on my own brand I Used To Dream.
What does motivate to you to do what you do?
The fact that what I do now affects my future motivates me. I love being productive now so that things are easier for me in the future. I love inspiring people. Although I sometimes think I don’t inspire, I get lots of messages daily of people telling me that they really feel inspired. I want to be that kid who turned nothing into something. I want to be an example to everyone that everything is possible if you just put in the work. It sounds so cliche but it’s absolutely true. Just like starting a fire with a magnifying glass. It only works if you place the magnifying glass so that all beams of light are concentrated into one dot. If we focus all our energy in life in one goal and do everything in our power to make it come true, it will.
