Joshua Kendell Martin

Joshua first came across Angelbird eight years ago. “I was looking for a new media card for my camera and everything else was about $70 or $80 more than Angelbird,” he explains. “So I just went with the affordable option at the time — and then I realized, wow, this is actually working really well.”

 “I like the brand aesthetic, the way that Angelbird presents itself,” he explains. It feels like it's geared towards the creator, like the filmmaker and the photographer.”

“When I first got my card, I reached out to Angelbird on Instagram, and I became an early ambassador. I like the collective because it gives me access to products and new opportunities to create films.”

Joshua’s journey in cinematography and filmmaking started when he was a child. Given a camera by his parents, he began taking photos — a curiosity that blossomed into a passion as he grew up.

“This was before we had social media content teaching you how to use cameras,” he explains. “There were maybe two helpful videos on YouTube, which I watched almost religiously — and the rest was just trial and error.”

Before long, Joshua began making money through photography, using it to support himself in college. It was there that he began taking courses on documentary-making and discovered his next calling.

“They opened up my world to a whole new visual medium — to telling stories through moving pictures — and to telling real, authentic stories. I’ve been immersed in the video world ever since.”

Joshua mentions that one of his favourite recent projects was a documentary-commercial his agency created for Dramamine.

“The project involved us travelling around the United States and interviewing an underground community of vomit bag collectors. They collect these very lavish bags that all have different stories behind them.”

“This was really different, because the client took a risk by doing something with this level of authenticity. We won a couple of awards for the work, and we were selected as finalists in Tribeca. So that was a very rewarding project.”

While the Sunny Sixteen team plans their work carefully, they also understand the value of spontaneity. The best stories often emerge once you start shooting — which is exactly what happened with the Dramamine project.

“There were a few planned moments where we had to move things along for specific shots,” Joshua recalls “But most of it was just capturing what we saw in the moment, getting to know the people and their personalities. That's what we really try to focus on.”

“If we can understand who the character is, then we can shape them the right way from a visual perspective — and that's the best way to go. You figure out who the character is, and then you fit the narrative around them.”

While Joshua has some go-to equipment, he adapts his setup to create the right feel for the project. “The cinematography style that we chose for the Dramamine project leant towards a ‘guerilla’ style. It was polished enough to make the production feel high quality, but at the same time it feels real.”

The Sunny Sixteen team often completed several shoots in a day, moving from site to site. For this reason, Joshua chose equipment that fit the logistics of the situation too. “We had a small team that travelled a lot, so we chose to keep the camera packages quite small.”

“I'm very particular about what I put on my camera package— especially when it comes to media, battery life, lenses and stuff like that. I try to hone down the scope of the project, and then I make that my north star to figure out what gear I'm adding.”

“I use the Fujifilm GFX 100 II as my personal hybrid camera, and then Kenefinity as my main cinema camera. My main YouTube content camera is the Fujifilm XH2S, and I love my Viltrox 13 mil lens. Sometimes, if we’re working with a bigger brand, they'll loan us cameras to use.”

“All my Fujifilm cameras have Angelbird cards in them. I have 512 GB and 1 TB CFexpress Type B memory cards in my cameras right now, and I’m using Angelbird SSD drives. Anything and everything that takes SD cards has Angelbird cards in it too.”

Joshua recommends backing up cards regularly to mitigate any risk of losing files. This is particularly important when changing sites throughout a working day.

“If I know we're going to be moving location or moving scenes, I change the card I’m using. Even if I have a 1 TB card and I really trust it, it's just a good habit. You don’t want to spend all day filming and then lose your work because you didn’t back up your cards. I also have multiple cards — never have just two cards on set!”

When asked about his biggest career challenge, Joshua explains that he experiences imposter syndrome —the feeling that despite your success, you’re ‘faking it’. “Imposter syndrome has always been a struggle for me”, says Joshua. “It can be paralyzing at times.”

Joshua definitely isn’t alone, as other veteran creators deal with the same self-doubt —such as Ava Pivot, who we recently spoke to. Both agree that the solution is to keep learning and improving:

“When you get thrown into a situation where you don't know what to do, that's when you feel imposter syndrome,” says Joshua. “The way that I've tried to overcome that is to understand where I am in life and understand my skill sets. And if I don’t know something, I try to go and learn it.”

Unusually, Joshua believes that creative freedom starts with something unexpected — limitations. “When our agency is planning a project with the client, we write a sort of creative rule book,” he says. 

“I know that sounds funny, because it doesn’t seem like rules and creative freedom should work together, but they do. Because when you’re creating a documentary, you can shoot anything and everything that you want — so how do you create visual harmony?”

“We build a framework of ‘rules’, like we're going to only use 35 milli lens and a 50 milli lens, or we're only going to shoot in daylight. Once we’re there on the ground, we can get creative. But first we have to know how we want everything to look. So creativity can come from this unexpected place too.”

Joshua’s passion for cinematography and learning shines through in his work. But like many creators, his personal life drives him forward.

“I have two kids, a son and a daughter, and so being a parent has been really inspiring,” he says. “Because whatever work I do, it represents my family now. I take inspiration from life lessons, travel experiences, parenthood — and faith inspires me as well. Inspiration is always changing for me.”

Looking to the future, Joshua has set his sights on bigger narrative-based projects. “I want to do a big narrative project at least once. But the most collaborative and creative projects are what we really look out for at Sunny Sixteen — that’s where we can really put our stamp on the work.”

“I've noticed that there’s a pool of creatives that embrace the social media world as well as the workplace world” Joshua notes. “Both are really good—but it can also get muddy sometimes. Do you want to just make tutorial-based videos to post online — or do you want to actually do the creative work?”

“If you want to be able to have a voice in this space, you need to go through the path that you want to build a career on. That means getting on jobs, making your own projects. Start making the jobs that you want to be hired for in future.”

“And then bring people on your journey. You definitely need to be around people who are more skilled than you, so you can learn from them — and then later you can give back to others in the same way.” 

“If you make good work while you’re learning, share it, because people are going to really admire that. That's my best advice.”

Big thanks to Joshua for being in the Angelbird Collective. We look forward to seeing what else you do as you enjoy creative freedom — without limits.

Connect with Joshua online:

Instagram

YouTube

Sunny Sixteen