Name: Luke Assenmacher
Company: Reel World Film Makers
Get to know Luke Assemacher from Reel World Films!
Filmmaker Luke came to the Hub about two years ago when he first approached the Hub team about some video projects. At the same time, he just moved out here to Hawai’i and he describes the hub as a landing pad for him. He says that, “besides having a brother out here, the community was rad, and was a large part of why I stayed out here and stayed motivated”.
In the interview, Luke stated that he loves working at the Hub because of the diversity of people. You never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll learn. Part of that is the kitchen social zone too. Luke admits that in a lot of coffee shops, it’s kind of weird to talk to people. But in the Hub’s kitchen area, it’s where you can push all phones, internet and whatever else aside and just talk to people if you want to.
As for his work, the production company, Reel World Filmmakers, is made up of a team of motivated individuals with the belief that by owning less, you can live a little more. They connect sustainable communities through sharing their stories in films, commercials, documentaries, and corporate marketing strategies. Currently, he has been helping Chef Hui document their work in feeding people and helping local restaurants faced with the hard effects of COVID-19. You can learn more about this, Luke and his work here, and watch Reel World Filmmakers videos here.
3 Questions:
1. What work do you do?
I do full service video production. The way I explain what we do at Reel World Filmmakers is that we make engaging branded content through authentic documentaries set around perspective, experience, and community.
In real terms, I have a Marketing degree in the background which helps to create the full service video production. That means, we work all the way from content development, to producing the videos to the post production, which is editing, and then also to the distribution end. A lot of us here have a background in distribution, so we have the knowledge and the resources to do what the video is set out to do as far as the analytics side and having it land.
2. Do you have a Passion Project? OR What’s your WHY?
It’s such a funny question, especially as an entrepreneur because work, well video, definitely started off as my passion project as I traveled.
I took a few years to like travel, which was a good way to meet different people and communities and get to hear what they are doing and I loved that. But I don’t really consider video as my passion now, it’s more of a profession.
For the ‘why’ in ‘why do I make videos’ I think it’s because in my opinion, everybody wants to do some good. And in that, hopefully we [as Filmmakers] can be there along with you to see you doing that good and therefore help spread the good throughout your community. Whether the subject is an individual or a larger corporation I think everybody wants to do some good. So that’s what keeps me into making videos and keeps me passionate about it. I try to keep an optimistic attitude in all videos.
It seems like in quarantine, I have so many little passion projects going on. But spearfishing has recently become my newest quarantine hobby. I think it’s because of the unknown. As a traveler, which I was for several years, and even in work, just the aspect of the unknown is definitely cool and interesting to me. Underneath the water right now, everything is so unfamiliar to me as a white boy from Iowa growing up in cornfields, like, I couldn’t see the bottom of the Mississippi River, it’s always been a mystery and now I am in the ocean where you can actually see the bottom and it’s like ‘whoa’! So now definitely anytime I can gear up and go out there it feels amazing. Even with surfing, it’s the same way, I mean the ocean, period is just a new thing to me. Living here for the past couple of years i’ve tried so many things, like also learning the Hawaiian language, which has become another hobby recently, since I saw it on Duolingo.
3. What do people not know about you?
I pride myself on being a minimalist. Like to the point of having exactly 7 shirts, 4 pairs of underwear, 2 swim trunks, exactly 2 pairs of socks, 1 belt, 2 pairs of sandals, like that’s what I have. If anything else comes in, typically something has to go out. Not having a lot of things definitely transfers over to my filmmaking and I think what adds value to my production is that it’s just very minimal. I try to focus the videos and life on what’s important: family, health, love, you know things like that and the rest will kind of fall into place.
