Meet Jacob Stewart | Videographer & Cinematographer

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

Hi Jacob, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I am from Fostoria, which is a small town in Northwest Ohio. The towns claim to fame is that it’s where Micah Hyde, the NFL safety on the Buffalo Bills is from. Growing up in a small town has made it easy for me to develop long lasting relationships with people. In a small town, you kind of know everyone around you and you grow up learning to want the best for the people you know. So I think that has helped me be motivated to help other people reach their goals and lift other people up with me as I am building my own life and reaching my own goals.

I have always been close with my family. I remember renting movies every weekend to watch with my brother and dad. Through that I developed my love for film and it is probably what put me on the career path that I am now on.

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 have always been fascinated with storytelling. It started with reading books and writing short stories when I was younger and that eventually brought me to filmmaking, which to me is just a way to tell stories visually. Telling stories is what gets me excited about filmmaking and videography. I get to tell stories and help other people tell their stories. If I am filming a wedding, I am capturing their love story and presenting it in a video that the couple can hold on to and remember for the rest of their lives. I can help a business owner reach more customers with their professional story. And in filmmaking I translate a story from paper onto a screen.

I have pretty much built the career I have from scratch. I took everything I learned from college and hopped around from opportunity to opportunity, networking with other professionals and always being willing to learn with every new job. For the first two years, I was working a full time job and trying to build my own career as a freelancer until at some point I decided that I just needed to take the dive into full time freelance. Which was terrifying.

Building any kind of career in art is difficult. It’s not always seen as a real career and a lot of the people that want to hire you don’t always pay very well. Really, if you make a career in art, you kind of get lucky. And the biggest thing I learned in my career was how to increase your chance of getting that lucky shot. Whether it’s using social media to establish a recognizable brand for myself, or working as many jobs as I can find, often for little pay or even for free to build my network and portfolio.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
It may be because I am from a small town, but I think there is a lot to love about Cincinnati. I would probably start with a Red’s game and a movie at my favorite theater, which is a dine-in theater with recliner chairs. A new ice cream sandwich shop called Cincy Sammy’s opened up in northern Cincinnati that my wife and I love. We have a great zoo and an aquarium across the river in Newport. I haven’t visited a lot of restaurants in the city yet, but one that I would absolutely recommend would be Bru Burger in downtown Cincinnati.

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?
Oh gosh there are a number of people in my life that have helped me get to where I am today. From the encouragement of family and friends to career guidance from my professors at Bowling Green State University, and of course my wife who has always been supportive of my career choice, even with how unconventional and stressful it may be.

If I were to pick one person, it would probably have to be Zach Pike and his crew at Vixel Video. I was fresh out of college and moved to a new city and Zach was one of the first people to take a chance on me. I never thought about working as a videographer before working with Zach and he kind of opened another door for me in my career just by seeing the work that he was doing. I really built the career that I have from that.

Website: Jacobstewartfilms.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobstewartcinematography/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-stewart-639611163/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jacobstewartfilm

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGPurx47j70AJ46KVpcGerg

Image Credits
Michael Ashcraft Photography August Schweitzer