Today we’d like to introduce you to Fletch Power.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Ever since I was a child, I’ve been fascinated by my shadow and how it would shrink or grow throughout the day. Every summer, I’d try to race my shadow. If the race was at noon, I’d win. But if the race was at five? My shadow became Usain Bolt. Twenty years later, I now realize that my childhood fascination with my shadow was not about light so much as it was what the lack of light created.
It wasn’t until I had graduated high school that I discovered that a career with cameras was possible. I was working for Americorp as an HIV Awareness Educator for their City Year program when a friend noticed me carrying a camcorder. I had just moved to Washington D.C. for the job and was using it to record all the new sights I was seeing. He asked if I’d be interested in creating a documentary with him, and that became my first gig, which led me to becoming my program’s official videographer.
After working for City Year and living in DC for about two years. I decided to move back to Florida to attend Full Sail University. Living in D.C. had shown me the disparities in neighboring communities due to a lack of knowledge and resources, something I was already aware of having grown up on the Westside of Orlando, Florida. But seeing this at the Capitol felt different. Places like where I grew up, they only give you two options: go to college or go to jail.
With only three months left of college, I decided to take a trip out to California to see what the hype was about. I remember someone on campus running up to me and saying, “You should go to LA if you want to work on the camera team!” My original plan had been to go to Atlanta or New York since I had family there, and it would’ve been an easier transition. But once I stepped off that LAX tarmac, I knew there was no turning back. It hadn’t even been a month since I had graduated when I packed my bags and booked a one-way ticket to LA.
Fast forward to six years, and I’ve worked some pretty cool jobs… For companies like Panavision and Light Iron; platforms and productions for Netflix, Lions Gate, and Warner Brother’s. Now, I’m currently a freelance cinematographer and a scholarship recipient and participant of the American Society of Cinematographers’ 2020 Master Class.