Bio

Salvador Jaramillo is a Mexican-American Filmmaker born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He began experimenting with editing and filmmaking at the age of fourteen. For fun, he would edit anything from home movies to movie trailers using his homemade tape-to-tape edit suite.

Salvador’s step-father recognized both his technological and creative interest. He made him a part of the event videography family business. Salvador picked up very fast and used his movie knowledge to create interesting wedding videos.

I learned a lot during this time. I became aware of the editing artform and what it meant to tell stories through media. I experimented a lot and I thank my step-father for allowing me so much creative freedom.
While most kids my age mowed lawns and washed cars during the summer, I helped my step father shoot and edit wedding videos for our family business.

Through wedding videos, Salvador learned a lot about telling stories. He learned quickly what shots were needed during a “scene” to make it work. He taught himself the notion of good coverage. He discovered basic editing and filming principles such as the importance of reactions shots and how they helped enhance the overall emotion of the piece.

I didn’t want to bore the bride and groom’s family. I wanted to make them cry, laugh, live the event. Get an emotional response out of them. Editing allowed me to do that. All weddings are the same but what details we cover and include is what makes them special and different.

A hobby soon turned into a job. By the age of 18, he turned event videography into his own business by completely taking control of the video aspect of the family business.

From the purchase of his very own computer he knew he wanted to work with computers. He grew interested in web design and graphics. He loved creating almost as much as he loved the technical side of computers. Non-linear editing was very expensive  and almost non existent during the mid 90′s so he spent most of his time editing wedding videos linearly(tape to tape)

Salvador’s edit suite grew. He had several SVHS decks, video mixer, titler, soundboard and monitor that he put together himself. His technical side led him into computers. Computers became his passion and led him to pursue a computer engineering degree at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo.

During this time in college, Salvador continued doing wedding videos. Often times heading home during the weekend for a wedding shoot. Salvador’s suite went digital and did much of his early non-linear editing on PC based machines using Premiere and then using Vegas(later bought by Sony)

Although he loved attending Cal Poly, his desire to create and tell stories overshadowed his desire to program and code. This  desire led him to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He had a dual passion for filming and editing but ultimately decided post-production was much more interesting to him than producing and directing a film.

Editing is the very last step to telling the story and showcasing the director’s vision. There is something satisfying about being able to put a picture together for the director. I love every aspect of it: shaping performances, experimenting with structure and solving problems.

It was in college where he learned the fundamentals and principals of film editing but also where he gained vast knowledge in the technological part of post-production.

Salvador Jaramillo graduated from the Academy of Art University in 2010.