Meet Alex Maier | Documentary Filmmaker

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

Hi Alex, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
My decision to work for myself came after another decision. That was to seek a path in life that give me fulfillment and meaning. I was scared of falling into a monotonous career that didn’t engage me just for the purpose of earning a paycheck. From an early age I saw how that destroyed people’s happiness and well-being. After making that decision for myself I arrived at the only option, which was to work for myself.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When I started, I didn’t consider myself an artist. I just shot photos and videos because I enjoyed it, and I wanted to show people what we were doing. It started as snowboarding videos and nature photos. Somewhere along the way I decided that I would be doing the photography/videography for the rest of my life. It would be my lifelong craft. In order to put the time and energy into it that a lifelong craft requires I would also have to make a living from it. If I was spending 40 hours a week doing something else I wouldn’t be able to give it the energy it needed. Mixing that dream with reality meant working other jobs to earn money while I fine tuned my craft. I wasn’t expecting to make money with it, I was just going to do it until I was good enough to earn a living from it. That took about 5 years of committed work. I would work 30 hours at a paid job and work 30 hours at my craft. My craft made no money for me until about 5 years of this.

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.
Everything that’s fun to me and most of my friends involves the outdoors. We would visit all the hiking destinations in the area.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Michael Loukinen – My documentary mentor Tony Beres – My videographer boss and mentor
Amy Robin – My girlfriend and partner on my biggest movie project so far.

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