Continuously learning and leaving your ego at the door
From Chris Naka
VCspotlight is a bi-monthly interview series with the documentary filmmakers and video journalists who comprise our global filmmaking collective.
Brooklyn-based Chris Naka is Director of Video at Atlas Obscura. Before he got into nonfiction video, he oversaw digital content for the Blue Man Group, working on projects ranging from a Game of Thrones music video to a parody unboxing video. Chris’s work has been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Lil Yachty’s Twitter. He also has two guinea pigs named Muffins and Chin Chin.
Where did you grow up? Where do you live now?
I grew up in Chicago, IL. My wife and I relocated to Brooklyn, New York five years ago for work but haven’t left the midwest behind. I’ve been told on shoots that I’m an extremely “midwestern director” because I start most sentences with “Can you please…” or “Whenever you’re ready…”
What’s one thing in your camera bag that you can’t live without?
I never leave for a shoot without a manual air blower. I had a few early experiences with stubborn specks of dust or sand that were too small to show up on a field monitor but were definitely there when ingesting footage. Now I’m always blowing air on and wiping down my optics. It doesn’t help that I’m irrationally attracted to shooting contre-jour.
What was your first-ever job?
My first job was working as a cashier at a local grocery chain in the midwest. This led to an early realization that I’m better suited for solitary, focused work and don’t thrive in an “always on” customer service role. I’d much rather push shopping carts in a blizzard than get harangued by surly shoppers at the register.
My first paid video gig was writing, directing, and editing a parody iPhone 6 Unboxing video for Blue Man Group right before the phone’s release. Prior to this project I was an exhibiting video artist, so the biggest challenge (and something I’m still working on) was the realization that making art for myself is a wildly different from creating something for a client. Best to leave the pretentious ego at the door and recognize that everyone is working in good faith towards the same goal.
What was the first large project you worked on?
The first larger production I worked on was directing a Blue Man Group cover of the Game of Thrones theme song in 2015. I pitched the idea, they thought it was a good idea, and asked me to direct the music video in NYC (which I was not expecting). I had no experience leading a team of that scale and no idea what was expected of me. I literally pulled the producer, Doug Baldinger, into a small conference room on the morning of the shoot to ask if directors really say “Action!” before each take — or if that’s just something from movies and TV shows. Doug gave me a permanent marker and told me to write: roll audio, roll cameras, and action on the back of my hand.
In retrospect, it was so valuable to enter video production with almost no relevant experience or prior knowledge of how things are supposed to work. I knew that every crew member brought years of expertise to their craft and the only way I’d fuck things up is if I tried to unnecessarily assert control due to my own insecurity. I reframed my goals around working so everyone on the team had what they needed to succeed and tried to learn as much about everything as I possibly could.
It was the day I truly fell in love with video. This was also the beginning of my working relationship with Doug — we left Blue Man Group two years ago to launch Atlas Obscura’s video department and thankfully he’s still my producer today.
Your first nonfiction project?
The first nonfiction video I worked on was a micro doc for Atlas Obscura about Ellen G.K. Rubin, more commonly known as The Popuplady. Ellen has an amazing collection of over 9,000 movable books and ephemera dating back to the 1500th century. I went into the project with a lot of misconceptions about what was and wasn’t appropriate on a doc shoot: I didn’t conduct a pre-interview, thought it would be a gross violation of ethics to ask Ellen to repeat any actions for the camera, believed it would damage the integrity of the piece if I had a story structure in mind prior to turning on the camera, and shot an insanely lengthy two-hour interview for a five minute piece.
The following week we hired a freelancer director for a shoot and she sent over a super tight story outline, highly directed b-roll coverage to capture, and soundbites to get that were identified during a pre-interview. It looked much more like the shot lists I’d put together for a Blue Man Group shoot and I was like, “Oh, so that is okay. That’s a much more reasonable approach to this kind of thing.”
I have over a decade of experience making wack-o video art, but have only been doing non-fiction editorial work for the past year and a half. I’m still learning all the time.
What’s a ritual or mantra that’s particularly important to you as a filmmaker?
I’m autistic and deal with anxiety about nearly everything (talking to strangers, going somewhere new, getting my hair cut…), so it’s been crucial to develop strategies that turn my uncertainty and fear of failure into extra motivation to work towards having a successful shoot. I’m a huge proponent of meditation and physical exercise to stay focused — my therapist introduced me to an awesome guided meditation app called Buddhify that I use if I’m feeling stressed on the way to shoot.
It has been important to accept that I’ll never be one of those super unflappable filmmakers who show up cold and capture magic without breaking a sweat, but I can prepare enough to do a good imitation of one :)
What inspires you?
I find inspiration all over the place: the editing in an old anime movie, how Robin Gibb’s insane falsetto comes in on a Bee Gees song, or the recently released Cats theatrical trailer (at least it won’t be boring).
