Aline and Junior, known professionally as NomadMakers, are filmmakers and creators from Brazil. After four years of traveling around Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia, they developed three important pillars that have come to shape their work—video production, travel content creation, and online courses. In living their nomad lifestyle (without a “home” placed on a specific land), they work as video producers, all the while teaching other people how to do the same, making their dreams of work and travel come true.
How does your nomadic lifestyle inspire your work? Could you speak more about the process of documenting your adventures?
We think it’s so beautiful how photo and video skills can give you the opportunity to capture and immortalize a special moment! Especially in this nomad lifestyle. We are constantly moving to a new place where everything is new, and we can pay attention to details that we would probably notice if we lived there for a long time.
And the more we develop as professional videomakers and photographers, the more we can transfer this feeling we are experiencing in the process of our productions. And it’s incredible. For us, being a videomaker/photographer is more than just an occupation to make money while we travel. This passion is what makes us motivated to always improve on our skills and in this journey.
What kind of steps did you take to develop your skills over the years?
Before being nomads, we weren’t photographers or videomakers. We worked for more than 10 years in another completely different kind of market. Aline used to work in advertising and Junior in IT. When we got tired of this corporate lifestyle, we decided to quit and make this dream of being a nomad come true. It is not as easy as it sounds, that is for sure. We were very afraid of this project not working as well as we planned. After all, starting a brand new life, in our 30s, was very challenging.
And in the beginning, we had this idea of selling crafts wherever we went. However, in the very first months, we realized that it would be more difficult than we thought, and it wouldn’t be very sustainable. But then, we were in this small city in Brazil, and we were invited to a random tour agency to make one of their tours for free. And in exchange, we voluntarily decided to create a video, with our cellphones, to capture this experience. And for some reason, it turned out very well and this company actually liked it.
After, we had this big idea of producing videos for companies while we travel, especially because, at that time, we had a simple DSLR with a kit lens, that we almost never used. And that was the starting point to becoming nomad filmmakers. We started offering videos for restaurants, and then for hotels and tourism agencies. We started developing our portfolio and founded our own video production company. Meanwhile, we began to share our productions and our own way of working in a nomadic lifestyle on social media. And, after 4 years now, we have this NomadMakers company, with those 3 pillars we mentioned: video production, content creation, and online courses.
There is one important thing we have learned after these years: you will always be developing your skills as a filmmaker. There is always some new thing to learn or improve on. And we are always following this specific cycle: studying > practicing > improving portfolio > getting new clients > and getting back to the first step and doing it all over again.
Among your rich body of work, do you have any photographs (photo series) or videos (video series) that stand out to you as a favorite?
Oh! This is a hard question! Actually, we don’t have a favorite production specifically.
We always say to our students: “your last production will always be your best one” because we are always improving our own skills by practicing. So, talking about video skills, our last productions are our best ones, though, there are many from the past that we loved by the experience lived while producing the video.
What gear can you absolutely not go without?
For us, it’s our camera, our 20mm and 50mm lens, and our drone.
What are your go-to camera settings?
We have a Sony a7c - Full Frame.
What do you use for post-processing?
We edit our videos in FinalCut Pro
If you were to give 3 pieces of advice to someone starting out as a photographer and filmmaker, what would they be?
Follow this cycle of: study > practice > make or improve your portfolio > go for clients > go back to step 1 again. Produce videos about everything you want, not only when you have a job. The more you study and practice, the more you develop as a filmmaker!
There’s no need to hurry your process! Go step by step and learn how to celebrate each small achievement!
And most importantly: NEVER compare yourself with others, ALWAYS inspire yourself by others. Comparison puts you behind others, Inspirations pushes you forward!
Lastly, could you speak on your experience with stock photography and videography (if you have any)? Are there any thoughts, comments, or concerns you have about the industry?
Honestly, we always thought about the idea of selling our videos in stock footage marketplaces, though we never actually did it before receiving the Wirestock invitation to upload videos for a specific project.
And we can tell that it is being a great experience for us because we were able to make good money so far, and it’s also a great opportunity for Nomad Filmmakers because it’s one more good tool to work with this occupation while traveling. Especially for us, Brazilians, making money in dollars is really a good deal! Lol!
