[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What was your career path before Hot Rod Cameras and what was your ultimate goal?
Illya Friedman, Founder of Hot Rod Cameras, Entrepreneur, Inventor, Podcaster: My career path before Hot Rod Cameras was as a freelancer. I was mostly starting off at the bottom working in the camera department, primarily as an assistant, second assistant, first assistant and operator. Over time I sort of developed a reputation for being particularly adept at certain types of complex camera rigs, so car rigs, crash cams, things that involve stunts. I would get a lot of calls for Hey, we need you to fly out to shoot nights in Utah for a couple of weeks because we’re going to be blowing up buildings or we’re going to be flying helicopters. We need to do special camera rigs. That worked out pretty well for me. It was very interesting, every job was different. I thought that I might do that probably for the rest of my life. I hadn’t really planned a lot in advance of what I was going to be doing.
I was a young guy, I was in my 20s and then when I was on my way to work one morning on the 110 freeway, I was rear ended by some guy doing 50 miles an hour while I was stopped in traffic. I got terrible whiplash. I went to the emergency room. I was talking to the doctor.
The doctor said:
Hey, you’re really lucky. You’re a camera guy? Oh, you can go back to work immediately, just don’t lift anything heavy.
I said:
You don’t understand what a camera assistant does. The cameras are very heavy.
He [doctor] said:
As long as you have to keep lifting heavy things, you’re not going to get better. I’m going to say you take 6 months and do something else with your life and figure out if this is really for you.
It was a real interesting moment for me because I hadn’t ever really considered more than about the next two weeks. I didn’t have a lot of like long future plans. I was doing well with what I was doing. I was enjoying what I was doing but at the same time being forced to take that break, being forced not to do work made me realize…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Illya Friedman is an entrepreneur, inventor, cinema technologist, studio builder, podcaster and producer. A renowned camera technologist spanning the eras of film, video and digital cameras, he worked on the team that invented the world’s first 4K cinema camera. Illya got his start working professionally in the camera department in Hollywood in the early 1990s, and is the inventor of camera, lighting and optical products used by filmmakers of every level. Upon opening his company, Hot Rod Cameras, Illya became widely credited as a pioneer in the ‘DSLR Filmmaking Revolution’ and his L.A. based brick and mortar store sells cameras, lenses, lighting, grip and workflow tools to professionals and aspiring professionals alike. Hot Rod is a primary supplier to both the traditional entertainment industry, the new creator economy, and even performs full studio build outs. Along with co-host Ben Rock, Illya created the weekly Cinematography Podcast, which features interviews with hundreds of cinematographers, directors and filmmakers. Notable guests include Academy Award-winning DP’s, such as Robert Richardson, Linus Sandgren, Robert Elswit and Vitorrio Storaro. The show also features prominent directors like Ron Howard, Antonie Fuqua, Ruben Fleischer and Randall Einhorn. Many guests of the podcast are also clients of Hot Rod Cameras. Occasionally, Illya produces feature films, his most recent is a fictional story about young skateboarders in Los Angeles, entitled Concrete Kids. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Roku, Tubi and other platforms.
CONNECT WITH ILLYA FRIEDMAN
LISTEN TO ILLYA’S CINEMATOGRAPHY PODCAST
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