Today we’d like to introduce you to Garrett Poll.
Hi Garrett, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My mom instilled a love for movies in me from an early age, raising us on classic black & white films as well as musicals. At the same time, my dad was taking me on adventures out in the desert and forests of Utah on dirt bikes.
I wanted to pursue film when I was about 10-12, but ended up getting into music and then racing amateur motocross. Shortly after I started racing, I began making social media videos on my phone at the races for my old brand, Broke Amateur Racing. I very quickly realized how much I loved filming and eventually stopped racing and began covering the race series. During this time one of my best friends, Erik Hansen, helped me by giving his honest opinions when I would ask for feedback.
After that, I started picking up some freelance gigs here and there while cutting concrete for my dad. I was lucky that he allowed me to have such a flexible schedule to pursue this and I will be forever grateful for that.
I finally caught a break when Covid happened and the last four rounds of Supercross were held in Salt Lake City, where I was finally able to rub shoulders with other filmmakers in the moto industry. It was perfect timing as Wes Williams had just restarted Vurbmoto and was looking for upcoming filmers and riders and I had just recently filmed for Chance Hymas at a recent race. Wes mentored me and brought me onto multiple Vurb and Red Bull projects that I will never forget.
After a couple of years, I was finally confident enough leave my dad’s concrete cutting business after 12+ years to pursue film full time and my friend Dylan Lunt hired me on as a videographer at Oz Marketing.
After the first couple of years I started leaning into the more project management and cinematography aspects of the job and slowly became more and more confident in referring to myself as a DP. I’ve now had the opportunity to lead some smaller crews and create some projects that I’m very proud of. But the best part is I still feel like I have so much to learn and I hope I never feel like I’ve learned enough.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Yes and no. Although I dabbled a bit in my early years, I didn’t really get started until I was 28, had a family and mortgage.
Because of that, I feel like I didn’t have the luxury to take any and all projects to create connections and get experience, I had to really pick and choose the opportunities I pursued.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an in house commercial DP for Stormhouse Films and I also freelance from time to time as a DP and various other positions.
I specialize in action sports, cars and documentary work. I’ve shot hundreds of hours of motocross footage at races and events, so when I get to do some one-off motocross projects, they’re fun to try approach differently than I would’ve in the past.
I think I’m most proud of my video with Chance Hymas and Vurbmoto, my music videos for Eventide (I get to really be creative with lighting on those), and my documentary work on Chasing Dust 2 and The Coalescence Series with Vurbmoto.
Any big plans?
Eventually I would like to be full time freelance or in house for a brand I admire. I’m not when or if that will happen, but I’m trying to lay the ground work now.
I’ve been loving working with my friend Erik and his bands music videos. It helps with him being in the band and also working in the film industry so he understands the planning and work that goes into and is a great collaborator and has allowed me to take lead some of the creative on their projects as well as DP them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Garrettpoll.com
- Instagram: @Garrettpoll_dp
