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Ben Mikha is a filmmaker, boundary-pusher and traveller of the globe. So naturally, we wanted to pick his brains. Chase sat down to chat with him for our new podcast series, Media Offline.
We wanted to talk to the powerful creatives who inspire us most here at Syrp Lab, so we decided to start having some conversations. Media Offline is this collection of conversations, and Ben Mikha is one such creator.
Shooting all over the world for the likes of Sony, Rolls Royce and Beautiful Destinations, Ben’s career as a filmmaker has taken one insane leap after the next. At 22, a trip to India shook up the course of his life; he caught the travel bug and set off, getting a job as a flight attendant and documenting his travels as he went.
He soon won a Discovery Channel internship, which allowed him to commit to his craft and become a full time content creator. Ben is building both a repertoire of skills, and a huge online following - fast. Now, he works with some of the biggest brands and tourism boards in the world. But we’ll let him tell you about that.
Chase dives in deep with Ben about his incredible journey, his philosophy and how he keeps pushing himself as an artist.
Without further ado, let’s hear from Ben.
Images supplied by Ben Mikha
You make ads for the most beautiful places in the world. Where did that start? How did you build that career?
I started back in 2015 on a GoPro, and I was just out there shooting nature-style videos. It was just like documenting the lives of myself and my friends and my family, going on these spontaneous adventures around New Zealand. I just fell in love with the creative process because it involved so many aspects of things that interest me. Music, visual stuff, being able to capture and create a story.
How do you go from GoPro to where we are now?
Obsession. Actually, though - I get bored of stuff pretty quick once I’ve figured out how to use it and I’m always thinking, ‘how do I get better’ or ‘how do I step it up a level?’
So what were you doing at that time when you were creating these GoPro videos?
I was an optical assistant at Specsavers.
Love that. Really adjacent to filmmaking!
Yeah, so long story short I went to India. I made the decision like five days before going to India, because a friend at the time asked me to go. So I took the GoPro and I just started taking photos as well of the travels and I put that on Instagram. I was just like, ‘this is super cool’.
And funny story, I got back to Specsavers and one of my first clients that I got on the day was a flight attendant. I helped her out and everything, and then at the end she was like, “You’d make a really good flight attendant because of your demeanour, it’s right in line with the type of people they bring on.” And that’s what actually inspired me to apply for it.
That’s sick. So just a chance occurrence, that this was the person you talked to?
Yeah, I’m a big believer in signs. I was just like, whatever! The GoPro eventually turned into a GH4, and the GH4 eventually turned into a GH5 and that just carried on.
So that obsession just went with bigger and better cameras?
Yeah, well there’s a limitation especially with small Micro Four Thirds cameras. I wanted to understand what was the difference between a Micro Four Thirds centre and an APSC and what that meant for depth of field and noise profile and all those little nuances within camera bodies that I wanted to understand.
Was that mostly a technical obsession there or an obsession with wanting to tell stories, capture these places?
Both. Technicality allows you the artistry.
That’s a sound bite, I love that.
So you’re obviously not a flight attendant any more. How did you know when to make that jump? Because I think that’s something that is so terrifying for people who do it as a side hustle or while they have other jobs. How do you know when that moment is right?
You don’t. Seriously, you never feel like you’re ready. I came off a three month stint with Discovery Channel, travelling around the world and creating content for them, and then I went back to flight attending. Flight attending is a really cool job, but all I wanted to do was create and be on my camera, whatever that meant, whether that was shooting corporate stuff or weddings or anything to get me hours on the camera. That’s all I wanted to do.
So I just made a decision and the way I executed that decision was writing down a date. I wrote down a date and was like, this is the date to stick to, there’s no compromises here. Two things I would say to somebody who is looking to take that leap of faith are: number one, buy your own gear, first and foremost, especially if you’re a soloist because otherwise you’ll always be at the mercy of trying to find somebody to rent gear from. You won’t make as much money to be able to support yourself if you’re always renting gear. The second thing is to have work, at least one job lined up before you take that leap.
So you continued to improve technically and make connections through your travel and commercial work. How did Beautiful Destinations come into the picture?
Beautiful Destinations was the next pivotal step in my career. They just revolutionised the entire social media travel game. All the best and biggest travel people, like Sam Kolder and Jacob Riglin, they’re all from there. I sort of just got picked up by them randomly and got asked to fly to Jamaica in a couple days time and said yes, and just ran with it from there.
I remember sitting down with the founder, Jeremy Jauncey and he just asked me what I wanted to do.
What was the answer you gave him?
I said ‘I don’t know!’ I literally said that. Because I wasn’t sure at that time what I loved most about the craft.
That’s a pretty intense bootcamp to be in.
Yeah, I think after I said ‘I don’t know’, I said, ‘I just want to be a better filmmaker’. Because I didn’t have an exact title, editor or DOP or director - I didn’t understand what any of those meant within a crew. I just wanted to be a better filmmaker.
What kind of stuff were you making with them? Obviously travel is such a diverse field of production, what was your niche within that?
Their niche is small teams that execute 20 peoples’ jobs. That’s how I describe it.
So, intense and a lot of hats?
Very intense, like we were working 15 hour days, 10 days back to back, and then going straight back and editing it. Like, literally - that’s not an exaggeration. But it’s awesome. My favourite thing was obviously seeing the cultures, and all the travel. But also it’s such a network of creators that they have - you just connect with all these different humans that have a passion for something similar to you.
How did you start building those connections? We have a film community in New Zealand, but it’s not like LA where everyone’s centred around a couple of industries. So it can feel very daunting growing up here, wanting to get into something like that - the number of kids who think they have to move to America to get into the film industry! How do you start to build those?
Instagram, first and foremost, was the ultimate connector. Because you could reach out to somebody who’s also a photographer and say, “Hey, I’m going here on this date, I can get some photos of you and vice versa.”
I think within the film space it’s about knowing producers and other craftsmen within the space. And if you do a good job and build a connection with them, they’ll bring you back, and if you don’t, they won’t bring you back.
So in terms of Instagram, with starting to build connections and build this brand online, is it still the same today? Is that still something you do, reaching out to people? What has your relationship with social media become?
A recluse (laughs). Nah, but for five plus years I was posting three times a week or whatever, sharing a lot of my life online, which is great but nowadays I’m more focused on trying to better my craft as opposed to sticking to trends or adapting my format to the format of the platform.
Is that something that’s inevitable with age and time or is it more of a conscious choice for you being that you don’t want to be a part of that culture of creators?
It’s not that I don’t want to be part of them, I have a lot of friends that do it and I think what they make is great - it’s amazing. But where I’m trying to go is different, it’s more longer format, it’s collaborative, there’s a lot more storytelling, there’s a lot more intention and art to it. It’s not to say that you can’t do that on Vimeo or Youtube, you totally can, but I just feel more inspired by the greats in actual cinema. And that’s what calls out to me, so I head towards that trajectory.
Going with what interests you more at the moment?
The path of finding yourself constantly and reinventing it. And I’ve had to take a step back to allow that process to unfold.
If you were trying to build your career again today from day one, how would you do it now?
I don’t know if I’d change anything, because everything had a season.
For us at Syrp Lab, it’s Ben’s technicality and drive which inspires us most. This obsession to master techniques, which he then brings to projects for dream clients. If we could only take one thing away from this conversation, it would be that professional growth is about opening yourself up to chance opportunities and being focused on putting in the hours to improve your craft. If it’s something you’re passionate about, you’ll take the time to learn and obsess over the techniques that will push your career forward.
We love talking to filmmakers about their journeys - it pushes us to be better. Hopefully it has the same effect on you. If so, check out more from our Media Offline series. There’s plenty to wrap your eardrums around!
