Managing Fear: A Short Film on Conquering Your Demons

In the years I've been in this industry, one of the more pervasive problems I have seen talented people deal with is personal fear: Fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, even fear of success. I think a misconception is that successful people do not experience these fears. They certainly do, but they have learned to overcome them, harness them, and succeed in spite of them. 

I spent just a few minutes with the many speakers at Phase One's recent Stand Out! event in Los Angeles and San Francisco a few weeks ago to help free those who are bound by their fears. It was my hope that when people saw this video, they would understand that none of us are immune to the things that frighten us, but successful people don't let them limit their potential. 

Featured in this video:

• Eric Crossland
• Time Kemple
• John Schell
• Dan Saelinger
• Pratik Naik
• Benjamin Von Wong
• Ryan Enn Hughes
• Annabelle Breakey
• Roberto Valenzuela 
• Gregory Crewdson
• Matt Armenderiz

For those curious, this video was shot on a Panasonic GH4 and a 45mm f/2.8 Leica lens (90mm equivalent) I rented from BorrowLenses. I lit the shots with a Fiilex P360EX LED I shot through a small rectangular Profoto softbox set to camera left, about three feet from each subjet. I wanted to create a somewhat distinct line of shadow across the face, so I feathered the light slightly away from them to achieve this as well as get some of that light to spill on the background. 

Naturally all these guys are Phase One/Mamiya Leaf shooters and/or Capture One users, and if you want to take a test drive with the medium format cameras they use, you can. You can sign up here to take a Phase One camera for a spin!

Video Directed & Produced by Phase One / Mamiya Leaf. Filmed and Edited by Schneider Productions.