Success is intoxicating. We celebrate it, crave it, and love to take part in it. Celebrities are often created, trends established, and culture is impacted. But there is something missing.

No one talks about the struggle. The late nights and early mornings. The rejection phone calls. The no’s. We prefer the bright lights. But Simone Varano sees things differently. She embraces the beauty of the struggle, and the reality that comes with it. The German born, VA raised, and NYC-based creative has a style all her own, and is quickly becoming  a force to be reckoned with.

I caught up with her  to learn about her background, journey, and what’s next for her. Tune in.

 


 

Who is Simone Varano ? 

I’m a recent Strategic Design and Management graduate from Parsons the New School for Design. I moved to New York from Alexandria, VA when I was 17 in hopes of pursuing a career in fashion merchandising. Fashion merchandising turned into photography, photography turned into music management, and music management eventually turned into videography. At the end of the day, I knew that no matter what I ended up doing, I had to be my own boss.

Both of my parents were active in the military, so I grew up constantly moving and experiencing different people, places, and cultures. I would say that those experiences have had the heaviest influence on the way that I film and edit my videos. I also feel that growing up in a biracial environment – with my mother being Italian American and my father being African American – has added to my diverse perspective on the world.

 

What got you interested in filmmaking and creating?

The way that I got into filmmaking was completely accidental. I’ve always loved watching movies, and even made little short films with my childhood friends and siblings when I was little, but I never actually thought of it as something I’d want to do as a career. My major in college required me to do a lot of field research that consisted of in depth interviews for statistical purposes. I found myself getting way too involved with the aesthetic of each video interview, obsessing over where the interviewee stood, how each interview transition flowed, how the text on the screen complimented the the mood and feel of each video, etc. It’s funny because about a year before I started taking filmmaking seriously, a member of one of the groups suggested that I look into it further. I told her that she was random.

 

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Tell us about your webseries Hour x Hour.

Hour by Hour started off as a day-in-the-life arts & culture web series, but has now turned into a production company of sorts. The premise of the actual series is simple: I film all of the events and places I end up going to over the course of a week, and then take the highlights of each event and use them to compile a chronological 2-3 minute visual. Each episode features at least one or two up and coming artists from various different creative mediums. They also consist of beats produced by local music producers. The point of doing this is to help bring attention to the dope yet underrepresented.

 

There are  tons of events always happening in NYC. How do you choose which ones to cover?
It’s honestly a mixture of going with the flow and choosing things that I know will be visually interesting. For example, I may choose to go to a lowkey warehouse party over an A$AP Rocky concert. Yeah, an A$AP Rocky would obviously be interesting to shoot, but following my friends into a sketchy graffiti ridden building with amazing local art and multiple performers seems a lot more aesthetically pleasing.

What inspires you to create?

This is a hard question to answer because I feel that there are a lot of things in life that inspire me to create. I’m constantly daydreaming, like, more than the average person. I daydream in school, at work, on the train, waiting in line at Trader Joes, between commercial breaks on TV, during conversations I’m not really listening to, etc. I also can’t listen to music without creating a very elaborate music video for each song in my head. I’ll even replay certain parts if the movie in my mind didn’t play out exactly how I wanted it to go. I know it sounds crazy but it’s true.

For people just starting out filmmaking, how do you suggest they learn the tricks of the trade?

Honestly, you just have to really want it. I didn’t have a camera of my own when I started out, so I rented equipment every few days from the equipment center at my school. I didn’t know anything about editing, so I spent hours upon hours just messing around with different tools in Final Cut until everything made sense to me. Nobody really knew who I was or cared about what I was doing prior to starting Hour by Hour, so I had to let go of my ego and literally throw myself and my work in peoples faces. People will start to gravitate towards you when they see you are serious about your craft, and eventually will do what they can to help.

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Walk us through your editing process.

The most important element in my editing process is the soundtrack. Once I have all of the footage I need, I literally listen to the beat I intend on working with about 10-15 times a day before actually sitting down and putting the pieces together. This is where the ‘daydreaming’ part comes in I guess. I picture exactly what I expect the entire film to look like, and manipulate the footage to get it as close to my vision as possible. What makes my editing process long is my obsession with matching visual movements to the beat of the soundtrack. Depending on what I’m working on, I give myself breaks to watch a TV show or movie before editing again. When you’re staring at a computer screen and listening to the same beat for about 3 hours straight, you start to feel a little crazy.

As a filmmaker, the creative process is usually a lengthy journey. Can you tell us what it takes to produce an episode of HourxHour?

I’ll break it down into steps:
1. Look for events happening that week. Mostly ones I know I can get into for free.

2. Attend events and try to look lowkey when I film so people don’t yell at me or kick me out.

3. Put up a screen shot or two for whatever event I’m at to build up hype around the coming episode.

4. Contact producers for beats to use for that episode.

5. Look over all of the footage and decide which events would flow nicely with what, and which beats fit the mood of the given episode.

6. Edit the episode.

7. Post episode on the Hour by Hour website, and promote it on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

 

What do you shoot with?

Sometimes a Canon 60D, but mostly a Canon 7D.

 

You just finished up your first documentary, The Struggle is Real. What’s the concept behind that?

The Struggle is Real is a documentary that basically sheds light on the hardships faced by our creative generation. It strays away from the typical ‘rags-to-riches’ story by showcasing four struggling artists (A DJ, a rapper, a stylist, and a director) from completely different walks of life. Though the documentary is called “The Struggle is Real”, the message is ironic in the fact that it’s not.

If you really want to achieve success in your desired field,

[Tweet “you’re going to have to do what you have to do.”]

 


How can people check out the The Struggle is Real?

The Struggle is Real will be released online in a 4 part series in the beginning of every month from March-June 2015.

 

You work with a bunch of artists, musicians, and dope people. Anyone we should be on the look out for ?

Yes! Definitely all of the artists involved in the documentary: Rapper Radamiz, event DJ Boston Chery, director and filmmaker Haley Southee, fashion stylist Yaya, and music producer Gordon Pickett.

 

What’s next for you ?

I’m working on a bunch of little projects here and there. I’m of course trying to get The Struggle is Real into some film festivals. I’ve been extremely emotionally involved with the situation happening in Ferguson, so I may end up actually having the opportunity to travel there and create a short documentary piece on what’s been going on. I’m also working on a short experimental film called “You Don’t Look Drunk” , which illustrates the way that alcohol is romanticized in the media. I also plan on expanding the website into something more interactive.

 


 

Simone represents exactly what happens when you take talent, mix it with relentless energy, and a passion for the stories that never get told. She represents the overlooked, underpaid, and underestimated with honesty and truthfulness.  She speaks from the heart, and demands you listen. Once you do, you probably won’t want to stop.

 

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