Meet Kevin Michaluk | Director of Photography & Studio Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Michaluk and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Persistence. As a cinematographer, as with all roles in the film industry, it’s important to understand that you will not get hired for every job. You will not always be brought back to work with a director you thought you had collaborated with well. Things will never be as easy as you hope, and the film will never look as stunning or perfect as you imagine. The most crucial thing is to shrug off the failures, learn from them, and persist. As long as you keep pushing, you will eventually arrive at the destination you were meant for.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I took a non-linear path to get to where I’m at now. I went to film school to be a director. During that time, I fell in love with writing, and realized that maybe directing wasn’t for me. Meanwhile, I always had an aptitude for cameras and editing. I worked on commercials and films as a gaffer, grip, and camera assistant until I ultimately decided to leave Los Angeles and move back home to Maryland, where I am from. It was always a temporary situation while I figured out my next steps. There, I worked in corporate and legal video, while focusing most of my time and energy on writing narrative fiction. After a year, I had saved up enough money and laid the groundwork to move on. I quit my job, packed my car, and drove cross-country to Portland, Oregon, where I lied to my eventual landlady about having a job, and lived off my savings while continuing to write. Several months later, I was broke and in desperate need of a job. I took the first one that was offered to me, and spent five months doing manual labor on the railroad. It was, at that time, my lowest point in life, and yet one of my most inspired. It’s funny how that works. I think when you are so hopeless, your creativity kicks into overdrive to help you through it. Fast forward a few more months, and I was interviewing with a couple of creative agencies in Portland. I ended up landing a job at a well-established production company in the city, and worked my ass off to capitalize on the opportunity. I served as their in-house director of photography for the next five years, shooting a wide range of commercial projects from web ads to broadcast spots. However, narrative is my greatest passion, so all the while, I continued to network, take on unpaid projects, and initiate collaborative relationships with fellow local filmmakers. It was like having at least two full time jobs. Maybe three. I was very fortunate to have supportive employers who allowed me the flexibility to take on outside work, and even use their equipment and resources in the process. I’m very grateful for their advocacy in me chasing my dreams, while still giving them everything they expected and needed from me.
While I was still with the agency, my business partner and I opened our own studio. So that was another full time job on top of everything. My wife is a saint for being patient with me and constantly cheering me on while I was spread so thin. Soon after opening the studio, I left the agency to shoot films and commercials as a full-time freelancer, and to continue to grow and run the studio. Being a business owner has been a great learning experience, and an excellent opportunity to build upon my already blossoming body of work. It has allowed me to reach even more clients and collaborators, as well as materially support the Portland film community through advocacy, equipment, and shooting space. It is a rental studio for photographers and filmmakers, but it is also a hub for creativity, a place to hang out with likeminded artists, and a home base for our field work operations.
Getting to where I am today was not easy, but it was all worthwhile. I have always been a believer that the only people who fail are those that quit. Patience and persistence remain as the pillars of a successful career in content creation. You must be disciplined, decent, and above all else, hungry. People are naturally attracted to passion. Despite taking a winding road, I have always been someone who knows what they want. I have found that expressing intent is a very important step in achieving your goals. You cannot, and should not strive to, arrive at your destination alone. When you tell people what you want to do, and you are passionate about it, they naturally want to help you get there. If they don’t, then you are probably surrounding yourself with the wrong people.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Portland is a strange place in that it is not a conventional city to visit. There are no major landmarks. There are no famous historical sites. The one thing people have always known about the region, before Portlandia put it on the map, is the Oregon Trail, which you can learn about in neighboring Oregon City at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, but trust me, it’s pretty underwhelming. When you visit Portland, you’re going to experience two things: Food and Nature. The food in Portland is phenomenal. For whatever reason, there is a culture of small businesses here. People don’t go to chain restaurants like they do in most other places. I have traveled to many places, and I have never seen such a commitment to unique, mom-and-pop restaurants. Even the most unassuming of bars here have food that’ll blow you away. As for nature, it’s unparalleled. You’re an hour-and-a-half from the coast, which is unlike anywhere in the country. You’re less than an hour away from Mount Hood, and the vast wilderness that surrounds it. The hikes, waterfalls, rivers, rainforests, mountains–it’s all within arms reach. And if you go a bit farther, you’re in the desert, which is a whole other beast. There’s kind of an embarrassment of riches when it comes to scenery and outdoor activities. If I had to pick one restaurant, I’d say go to Eem. It’s curry-heavy cuisine from southern Thailand mixed with Texas Pit Barbecue. Holy shit.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have many people to thank for helping me to get where I am today. Off the top of my head, though, I’d like to call out the support I’ve received from my friends at Funnelbox, a production company in Portland, OR. They have given me countless opportunities to flourish. I’d also like to say that I don’t know where I’d be without my business partner and regular gaffer Kevin Dyer. I often feel like a bygone artist, and he is the patron of what I create, always down to sacrifice his time and energy for my crazy musings.

Website: kbmichaluk.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kbmichaluk

Other: vimeo.com/kbmichaluk

Image Credits
Kevin Dyer Jonathan Robinson Caitlin Callahan