About

Hey, I’m Russell Fowler, I’m a visual artist, and I Love Film! I’ve shot weddings since 2002, but have been shooting Super 8mm Film since I was a kid.

I had  a very successful financial career as a stock broker at a national investment firm, till I realized that I was a misguided artist. Eventually, I made the difficult transition into film and television. I was fascinated with shooting and editing so I interned on a tv show interviewing celebrities for a San Diego TV show while attending night classes at UCLA Film School. This led to my self producing, directing, hosting and editing Unleashed TV, an extreme sports tv show centered around Surfing. This aired locally and internationally on DirecTV as a “pay-per-view program. I was sponsored by Canon Cameras, Vans Shoes and various other surf industry companies. Made a good living too. After 5 years on the air it was time for bigger fish, which led to my getting hired at  Deluxe, were I eventually came to be in charge of handling major clients like Columbia Pictures, Paramont and 20th Century Fox.

This joy ride came to a screeching halt when my baby-girl Tabitha was born. Sweetest little thing. My boss declined my request for time off to be with my wife and newborn daughter. I gave 6 months notice and only requested my accumulated vacation time. He said  that it’d be a bad career move. What? Boy that royally pissed me off! So I had enough, and said, “thank you, but I’ll go ahead and take my full legal “13 week paternal leave” then”.  Can you imagine?

So during my time off, I busted my butt to make sure I’d never have to go back to that slave driver. I did some very temporary editing work for Amber Productions from Santa Barbara while I built my own wedding videography company from scratch. My wife Saundra helped me get our new company off the ground naming it Stellar Productions at first. However my distaste for the flat look of “video” led me to begin shooting weddings with my old Super 8mm film camera. How beautiful it looked compared to the lifeless alternative I was seeing on the marketplace. Eventually we changed our company name to Stellar Films to represent our new stance in the motion picture film business. John and Thea, of YWD magazine took a liking to us, bless their hearts, and helped us to get noticed among the greats within the wedding industry…thanks John & Thea! 

After awhile I found out that there were Kristen of “Bliss” and Paul of “Fifty Foot Films” who were also shooting films a couple years ahead of me and I must add…their works are amazing.  What a relief, since this was a very large hurdle to tackle alone. Paul Korver being a big Soap Operas celebrity, had a huge success at carving out a path for the rest of us film enthusiasts. Thanks Paul, you rock!

Nowadays, there are many videographers who are following the trend for the growing demand from brides across the nation who are interested in the warmth and beautiful vintage look and feel, of film.

It wasn’t long before I saw the need to start a budget film and video company under a new name, Bon Vivant Cinema for our brides who either couldn’t afford film or who didn’t like film altogether. However, after several years running these two separate companies, Stellar Films and Bon Vivant Cinema, I began to see that it’d be better to pull my companies together under one roof and call it Russell Fowler Studios. Soooooooooo, I’m proud to announce that with my associates and all we’ve built over the years, will now be under one roof offering a wide range of services from wedding photography, videography and cinematography to a wide range of budgeting  needs. Yeaaaaah! Website is currently under construction, so this is it. It’s all here at my blog till I get it finished. 

Aside from work, which is rare these days, “if” I’m not working, I’ll be surfing or at least dreaming of surfing. I’m into tropical warm waters with medium sized waves. I’m a Surf trunks and flip-flops guy naturally. I may have been born that way. Yep, came out with little surf trunks and flip flops, true story. I also love beach volleyball, music, art, fashion, good books and independant films. I’m a total introvert till I get to know you,  then I become a major blabber-mouth, especially after a couple margaritas…. : )’  If I had it my way, I’d live in Hawaii each and every winter since it’s summertime there then, I can’t stand being cold. I only read books that captivate me and I love sunsets. I don’t like being a boss at all, but I also don’t like being  an employee. I’m just happy to create art with other artistic people exploring new boundaries. I do not follow any predetermined paths in my career or otherwise.

I never watch the competitions work for pointers but have seen everything out there, have my own style, prefer making my own path. I’m embarrassed at how the “wedding videography” term is associated with the word “cheesy”. I don’t do cheesy anything! I love weddings, and I count myself lucky to get to do this for a living. I’m very hands on for every single wedding done by either myself or by my growing ranks of associates, to ensure that my clients get the style and quality they’ve come to love from what they’ve seen on my sites over the years.

I can’t believe how fast time flys, I must be having fun.

Cheers,

R.