Meet Anthony Cubba | Video Editor

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

Hi Anthony, what role has risk played in your life or career?
The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was accidentally committing tax fraud and then packing up my car and moving to Los Angeles with that money to start a career in film/video. I was blessed to have a safety net that would be there if I failed because I could just drive it all back and live with my parents, but I was (and still am) rather stubborn so who knows what I would have done. Luckily I was able to grow a network that has continually given me work and I built a career over the course of a decade.

Risk is an inherent part of being a freelancer, because you don’t always know what your next job will be. For instance, I know people who live in LA that work in the film business and were unemployed for over a year during and after the union strikes, and now that massive fires have ravaged the city, business may not pick up again for awhile.
I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been working steadily for the last eight or so years with a couple months here and there where I had to live off savings. And that’s the key: to know that it will eventually happen and to be prepared.
To also mitigate risk of unemployment, I’ve had to constantly pick up more skills which open me up to more opportunities. Especially now that video editing and filmmaking have been democratized by social media and easily accessible tools. To stay ahead I have to continually be better than the cheaper option because companies will always want more for less.

Besides the obvious risk of unemployment, I’ve had to take on other risks. Sometimes I have to choose between a gig I want to do but pays less (or nothing) and a gig I really don’t want to do at all that pays well. The gig I would want is usually something that could advance my portfolio, add something cool or just be an opportunity to work on something I really care about but that has to be weighed next to quality of living at that moment. I’m currently working a gig that I both don’t enjoy doing and I can’t put on my editing reel but it pays well for a decent amount of time.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
When I moved to LA, I started working on sets and events as a PA working long days and nights for little pay. Some of it was fun because I met some celebrities like the at the Emmys, and some was fun in the same way war is fun in the trenches with others that you create a bond with. But this didn’t suit me, and I got into Post-Production with the aim to learn more about storytelling and make things with my hands. For years I was an Assistant Editor, which is not the creative side of editing – AEs prep footage for Editors and troubleshoot issues. I pigeonholed myself for awhile by moving up to Lead AE, which is a very technical position with some managerial aspects – no creative work at all. I was hired at BuzzFeed and thankfully they gave me the chance to edit. I was thrilled, and ever since I’ve only worked a couple AE gigs and have learned so much about editing and storytelling – but only enough to know that I have so much more to learn!

It’s hard for me to classify what I do as ‘art’ most of the time when I’m working on an advertising project, but I have to remind myself that I am creating things that I hope make people feel something, and isn’t that what art is?
I always try to tell a good story no matter if it’s a narrative piece, documentary, an advertisement, or branded content. I hate the idea of adding to the media noise in the world so I try to make everything impactful – of course that can be impossible sometimes by nature of the piece.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are two answers to this for me – the practical answer and the grander Bucket List item for me.

The practical answer is that I would book a treehouse AirBNB outside of Portland, Oregon and go on hikes, visit hot springs and enjoy the excellent food that the Portland area offers.

My bucket list travel destination where I would love to take someone is Japan. I want to see something very different from my normal culture/society and experience both Tokyo for modern frenetic culture and Kyoto for an ancient Eastern experience.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My parents deserve a lot of the credit for where I am in so many different ways. When I wanted to attend college for something as silly as “Filmmaking” with the dream of being an actor/director, I received both support and a lot of advice. Throughout the years afterwards they’ve attended premieres, offered up a house to shoot a short film in, financial support, and always shown up when I needed them. It’s a cliché, but I wouldn’t be anywhere near successful at something creative without them.
My friends James, Maggie and Ian, who have always been incredible forces for good in my life whether it’s creative, emotionally supportive or sounding boards for ideas. We continue to build creative things even if it’s outside what we thought we’d be doing at our age.

Website: https://www.anthonycubba.com

Instagram: @piratecat

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonycubba/

Image Credits
James Warren