Gabrielle Mendoza Edits Major Network Promos and Cosplays Spider-Girl — Both Are the Same Career

Make this me and make this. It might not be perfect, but it's me. Really need to hear that right now. Gabby expands kind of your mind and being like, "Oh, if I'm not good at this, how can I put my own voc like my own voice to this?" People usually know me for doing Spider Girl. So, that's what Okay, we love Spidergirl. Cosplay is all about, you know, bringing the character to life and uh paying attention to detail. Once CO hit, there wasn't really much to do. So, that's kind of what I did is become these characters and put on a narrative with it. So, so from what you just said, we we got to understand that your cosplay has influenced, you know, your path and what you do as a multimedia editor are fascinating. I just want to say that. I just want to say that, you know, that's what we do here. you know, we want to get to know uh behind the scenes, you know, of all these different positions and and roles that people play in the captivating, you know, world of film making. Hey, before we dive into this amazing interview, I have to take a moment to give a huge shout out to our sponsor, On the Set Apparel. They are all about quality gear for creators like us with clothing designed to keep you comfortable and inspired on set, ensuring that you feel and look your best as you pursue your passion. So, use code OTSP20 for 20% off your next order. Let's get back to this amazing interview. And don't forget to use that code and tag us for a shout out. Peace. Welcome. Welcome all my fellow creatives to the Ironbound Film and Television Studio here in Newark, New Jersey, home of the exclusive On the Set podcast, where we take you behind the scenes of the captivating world of filmm. I'm your host, Steven Strickland, and today's episode is geared toward our digital creatives. You see, digital creatives, they take a raw idea and they transform it into a mesmerizing visual and auditory experience. They're not just editors. They're conductors of pixels and sound waves. They're storytellers, visionaries, if you will, technical geniuses. Our guest today is a 2017 Ruters NORC alum. She is a true multimedia master whose work has absolutely redefined the boundaries of digital storytelling. Her accolades include being a video editor, a graphic designer, uh the owner of her own anime comic shop called Peach Manga. Uh she's a media manager and assistant editor for All Black, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, Acorn TV, Wet TV, all those TVs that are housed under AMC Network. She's a screenwriter, a photographer who specializes in portrait and documentary uh photography. And that's right, she's a cosplay enthusiast. Yeah, this multimedia genius does it all while pushing the limits and the boundaries of the latest editing technology. So, what I need you to do is grab your headphones and settle in and get ready to be inspired by this wonderful journey, an incredible journey of our guest, Gabrielle Mendoza. How are you? Cool, cool, cool. All right. Yes. Fix her mic. Thank you. All right. Cool. So, uh we're getting ready to get started. So, thank you. Thank you. So, how you doing today, Gabby? Not too bad. It's a pretty good enough Sunday. Okay. Is it okay if I call you Gabby? Yeah. All right. So, uh, glad to have you here. Thanks for coming to the show. Thank you for having me. It's our pleasure. So, you you are a Ruckers Norc alum. Shout out to that. Uh, double major. What is it? Journalism and video production. Yes, I am. I only went to school for three years. I was ready to get right into production. So, and I had no real experience with my family or anyone really with any type of film and I wanted to just get right into it, but yeah, I did I wanted to do video production, but I was like, "Oh, I really like how they taught me journalism in records, so I stuck and did two." Okay. How do How was it, you know, juggling the two? It was kind of hard because I wanted to do kind of an advanced type of experience. So, it was doing more classes than more colleges are telling you to do. So, it was a little bit much to do, but um it's it's really great because it kind of meshes well together journalism and video production. So, I was able to use both in the same courses. It was good. So, I I'm assuming that you know uh your time there uh ex not expired, your time there inspired, you know, you being a multimedia, you know, editor. Yeah, definitely. It was the professors and also like the ambitious students and also just Newark. Just being in Newark kind of makes you feel inspired because you see a lot of these artists and I did I wasn't in Newark a lot, you know, growing up being like in Union. But ever since college, I was always in the city filming around and interviewing people for journalism classes. So, it was really exciting and it was really inspiring like just the city altogether. Okay. That's nice. Nice. Shout out to Norc. Shout out to Union. Um, so I want to get a little bit into uh being a cosplay enthusiast. Now, um, cosplay is all about, you know, bringing the character to life and uh, paying attention to detail. How did you get into that? And who is your favorite uh, character to play or costume to play? Um, yeah. I I when I was I think in high school, my friend suggested maybe we should go to the New York Comic-Con one of the years and I always wanted to be something from Doctor Who. So, I was like, "Yeah, let's be something easy." And then once I went, I like fell in love with being these characters. And then when once COVID hit, there wasn't really much to do. So, I was like, "How can I also cosplay? you can't really go to conventions. So maybe I could do this and edit and photograph myself in my room. So that's kind of what I did is become these characters and put on a narrative with it. So yeah. All right. Cool. How long how long did you do cosplay? Are you still doing it or was it just I do I do it here and there. I think it's kind of an avenue for me to do other things. It definitely is a way for me to like train myself or test myself on graphic design. So, it's just another way to me to try to do storytelling in a way. And I still do it. I do it like every now and then. It's mo mostly during the fall seasons, but it's something I do love doing. People usually know me for doing Spider Girl. So, that's what Okay. Spider Girl. We love Spider Girl. Yeah. All right. So, has your No. So, from what you just said, we we understand that your cosplay has influenced, you know, your path and what you do as a, you know, multimedia multimedia editor. That's cool. That's cool. Uh, so Spidergirl, why Spidergirl? I think it was just like something that I always loved about being in New York and the idea of just Spider-Man and the story of me loving the city and me loving this character that just swings around and saves people. It was always fun to like create my own narrative and put myself in it, which is what I always love doing is putting someone that looks like me in those story lines. So that's what I love doing. Okay. Well, I I'm an actor and I play, you know, I play detectives on TV, but you are like a true detective because you have to, you know, find and collect all of this archival footage for, you know, the things that you do. Uh, how is that? And what what is the most um what's the most difficult or the hardest project you've ever had to, you know, find uh material for? I think a lot of it can be kind of difficult because especially in my line of work of editing, it's kind of you have to go back and remember all these different shows or different movies and different bites that might pertain to whatever type of edit that a producer wants. So, it it's all kind of hard depending on like what it is. But it's pretty fun still too like just scrubbing through an old movie you had and not knowing, oh that actually sounds good for like as a funny moment in Alien versus Predator and using that in its own type of way. So it's pretty cool. That's great. That's great. So do you have a verification or preserving process that you could, you know, walk us through? Like you mean like archiving? Yeah. When you're archiving, you know, how do you keep the how do you keep the uh the quality and the authenticity of of the the footage that you find? Yeah. Um for us, for our programs, we use things like Interplay Access, which is like a big program. It's kind of like this huge iCloud for files like uh movie files, footages that we have that can go for years and years that can be saved on this huge machine at work. So, it's kind of this process that's more like an engineer would know more about it, but I work with it constantly of just saving shows and movies. So, that's kind of what we use on our end. Right. So, you started out as a I want to get this right. You started out doing some work as a gaffer. And for those who don't know what a gaffer is, a gaffer is the correct me if I'm wrong, the chief electrician on the set. Make sure the lighting and things are correct. Right. It it was kind of like uh me doing any type of production work um around because I was young. So I would do gaffer, I would do production assistant. I would it would be a lot in these small uh in uh these small production teams. So you're kind of you can be a gaffer, but you're also a production assistant. You can be somebody who's working with the clapper. It's kind of being a yes man in those days. So that's kind of how I started is like, "Oh yeah, whatever you need me to be. I'll be a gaffer if you need it. That's right. That's great. Cuz we all start out, you know, somewhere um you know, in our goals and our aspirations. The the studentled series uh that you were on the production, it was called Rhonda Mitchell, MD at NGIT. How was your time and your experience on that? And how has that led to um the things that you do now? Yeah, I think it was such a great experience. It was my first time even I think we filmed that in the Bronx, which was super fun. Um, I work with a team, Fictional Films, who's also a kind of small, uh, production team that also works out of, um, Newark. Um, it was super fun because I loved working with the team. They're a really small bunch of, uh, artists and it was just a cool time to be a part of people that are organized and were ready to work and were ambitious like me. So, it was really exciting to be a part of. How did how did that collaborative effort um help you understand you know teamwork and you know set Yeah, I think it like helped me realize you know what type of team I want to be a part of. It real it made me realize that I want to be with people that are as ambitious as me but also as kind as me who has great work ethics who are inspired but also are willing to inspire the team around them. So it just gave me an outlook on who I want to be a part of in these you know production crews and in life really. Okay. And what has what lessons have you learned you know from that to help you in your professional career? I think it's like always be always be kind is always the biggest thing for me. I think people don't kind of take into consideration a lot, especially in like uh this industry or in corporations, but being kind to everyone is one of the biggest things I always say, but also just having a good work ethic. It doesn't matter if it's a small production or a big production. just be aware of who you're with and who you're collaborating with and that you're trying not to waste anyone's time and not even your own time and just being having that good work ethic is so important. You are fascinating. I just want to say that. I just want to say that you know you're you're telling these stories is great. It's that's what we do here. you know, we want to get to know uh behind the scenes, you know, of all these different positions and and roles that people play in the captivating, you know, world of film making. So, again, one more question about, you know, your being a being a gaffer. Do you think your time as a gaffer helps you in your editing to create uh the moods for for scenes? Yeah, I definitely think it does. Um, just being on set in general helps is kind of getting the mood of what they want and what producers or creative directors want. It definitely helps kind of seeing the insight of having a different perspective of being a production and also being like in a closed off kind of room being an editor. So, it does it definitely does help being a Yeah. Right. And editing is something you've always wanted to do. It is. Um, I've always wanted to be an editor since I was nine. And I would do these little cringy um, music videos that I could get on a Windows editor and make those on YouTube. Please don't look it up. I hope no one ever finds them. But it was kind of like these little things that I always wanted to do of making like music videos for like cartoons or anything. Um, and it made me inspired to, you know, continue. Right. So let's get into trends in the industry. Now there's AI and and and was it machine learning that's definitely you know been something do you feel that that is reshaping the industry when in terms of you know editing things like yeah definitely I think with AI I always have some strong opinions about it but I think that using AI as a tool is always helpful especially in editing in production and I think it's important to learn um how it can utilize us I mean how we can utilize it. But it is also important to know, you know, when we should be creating ourselves and when we should put our own human, you know, touches on these things and knowing that it is kind of this big important and scary thing, especially us in the industry and worrying if our jobs are going to be taken by machines thing. Even actors, yeah, definitely worry about that. That's why it's always so scary. But um I think knowing how to use it as a tool is still very important rather than shutting it on off completely and just being completely negating it from the conversation is it's not possible anymore. So just learn about it first before you totally shut it down. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, cuz I I'm one of those people that was totally scared and was like, "No, shut it down." Even I am. It's kind of scary to be like, "Oh, somebody can edit just push a button and an AI machine can edit a 15-second thing that I could do and I have to do in like a week." It's scary, but it doesn't, you know, have the same human touch. It doesn't have your own voice to it. And how can people respond to that is kind of something we have to learn to, right? Are there any new uh new tricks or uh trends that editors should be, you know, prepared for, be on the lookout for? I think it is it's really AI is like the big thing. It's I know Adobe's utilizing it. I know Avid's getting kind of friendly with it as well. So, it's kind of getting you're dipping your toes in understanding AI because it's not going away, unfortunately. It's kind of always going to be there, but knowing how to use it, knowing how to make sure that you're still an asset to any team is always important. All right, cool. So, has the trend of uh immersive uh what's the term? Uh immersive technology, has it, you know, affected your work? I think like uh you can see some shows coming out that are more immersive. Um, I think there's one coming out that we have called Lap of Legends where there's an a Formula 1 driver that's going to be racing with AI generated versions of older AIs and we're going to see more social and TV elements of being of that being utilized and shows using that. So, it's definitely more immer people want more immersive things. So, I I know a lot of these companies are trying to come out with more of them. Yeah, that's cool. Editing. Editing is just so dope. They say that's that's that's another way of telling the story. You have the acting. What is it? The writing, the acting, the editing, something like that, right? Um, a lot of people don't understand that editing, how important editing is. You know, me being an actor, being on the set, and I know what take I did, the takes, different takes I did, and then to watch the film and say, "Oh, they didn't use this take. They used that take. Why did they use this take?" Like, we don't have any we don't have any control over what the editor and the producers and directors, you know, what they choose. And um people don't understand that you have a huge weight as an editor on your shoulders. How do you how do you deal with that? It it it's what I love about it is like having a good team, having or being able to at least collaborate with anyone. It could be like a director that you're good with collaborating with. It could be a director that can have different opinions. It's just knowing how to like roll with the punches. That's what editing is. And I also think like editing is like being a chef. You get all these ingredients and you chop it up any way you can and it could be a completely it could be the same recipe, but it'll taste different. So, anyone has their own voices to editing and I think like it's the idea of collaborating is such a big thing with editing. It's just understanding that yes, your voice matters, but being able and open to hear other people's voices is what really is important about editing. Yeah, that's cool. I used to think that editors, well, I know there are some editors that just want to be in the room by themselves, just doing it. Okay, here's the first draft. Go, I send it to you and check it out. tell me, you know, to what it looks like. But I know there are some editors like yourself, I'm assuming, you know, from what you're saying is that, you know, you love that collaborative effort. Uh I myself when I I direct as well, and I like to be a part of the editing process, you know, so the editor, you know, that I'm that I'm with, we go back and forth, we look at the film and all the things like that. So, I mean, I never put my name on the credit as editor, but, you know, so yeah, I'll be editing my stuff sometimes. um content consumption has drastically changed you know thanks to social media and with all the things you know emerging and changing what things have you adapted if any with your you know with what you do I think um most of the things that we do now I work with kind of the um creative services team so it's the promotional bit of it and it is the majority of our work now is social is kind of how Can we caption for social? How can we make it more accessible? It's a majority of our deliverables is for social because not a lot of people have cable anymore. So, it's kind of how do we make a lot of these trailers that we made for on air to be more palatable for social. So, it's it's a big part of my career now is kind of editing these little social bits and stuff. Okay. Hey, we love we love social media edits and and little bits and things like that. Um, how do you how do you balance creating content across multiple platforms and still keeping the quality brand quality? I think it's just know always knowing what a brand wants is a good thing. Uh, um, as a creative, you want to kind of put your own spin on things, but it's you have to know being with these bigger companies and TV networks, you have to know how they talk. It's kind of not how you talk. You can add a little bit of it, but it's mostly how they talk on these kind of scenarios. So, it's if they want it one way, then now you know the recipe, so you can apply it to any way you want to. So, let's move into milestones in your career. Everybody has, you know, milestones in their careers, uh, or what we we might like to call their big break, things like that. What what happened or when was your big break that led you to all of those uh uh platforms and channels that I mentioned in in your intro? AMC, uh uh BBC America, all of those. How did how did that come to be? It's funny because it it go it really just goes right back to Newark. Like Newark kind of gave me city. It gave me that confidence being in um being estab not even established but trying to be established and learning these crews in Newark and everyone was trying to be established with Newark Film Festival, Ironbound Studios and also Ruckers. So, um, my big break really came from Rucker specifically because they just started their video production classes and courses and my professor, Professor Takasu, she kind of gave me that inspiration and also the push to go for other companies other than like, oh, I only thought I can be in TV and film doing this one thing. I can edit a show or a movie and doing this one thing. But she said, oh, maybe you can broaden it. Maybe you can do promotional stuff, maybe there's this type of things. It's having that type of like people around that are able to widen the way you see things and open it up more and be like, "Oh, there are other opportunities that I didn't even think about. So, it really does come back to Newark." All right. Shout out to the brick city. Newark is Newark is popping. I don't care what nobody is popping. Um, so you're going from, you know, student le projects to working on iconic promos for shows like The Walking Dead, uh, Interview with a Vampire. Okay. Interview with the Vampire and True Crime Story. All right. I mean, that's that's amazing. How do you balance, you know, keeping true to the story? I think I think it's still like back to like um what kind of the creative directors kind of want, but it's also like you watching the TV shows and you watching the film and kind of like being an audience and seeing what these viewers want because what do you want? What do you want to see on the billboards or what do you want to see on social media? You want to see these types of clips rather than those? and kind of like meshing it through and knowing not only the voice of the brand, but also like how would you want to see it as a viewer, right? I I like your I like your mindset and I like these gems and these jewels that you're dropping, you know, that's why we have you here, you know, to let people know, you know, what's going on in your head and what you do and and every guest that we have here, you know, uh it's just coming back to the collaborative effort. That's one of the big things, one of the things that I'm big on, you know. I love a team. I love this team here, you know, and I hope they love me. Yep. See, they love me. They love me, too. Uh, and and we love you now. I mean, we love you. They loved you before that, but you know, we really love you. Really love you now. Um, so have you always been keen on a collaborative effort? Has there ever been a moment or times where you're just like, you know, I'm just gonna try this myself and see if they like it or has it always been a collaborative thing? I think like when I started, that's what they kind of taught you is like, oh, you have to, you're in this most competitive industry. You have to kind of make your way, but they don't really, you know, tell you how hard it is to make in your way or even how to. They just say, "Do what you can to make in your way. Do it by yourself if you can." And and it's kind of like that big thing that they try to promote to you, but I feel like it's not true. And I like that I at a young age I was shown that being in a collaboration of people and hearing other people's voices and trying to tell your own, but also trying to hear out other people is way more important than you just trying to mosey your way through by yourself. It's good to have people at your table. You know, you want people at your table to eat. You don't want to just be alone at the table. Come on now. Everybody can eat. Mhm. Everybody can eat. And you want people at We got to make a t-shirt for that. You want people at your table. You don't want to eat by yourself. You want everybody to eat. That's cool. Uh, Peach Manga. Yes. Am I saying it right? You are. Yeah. Peach Manga. I got it right this time. Yay. Peach Manga. Your own online anime comic shop. Yeah. It's um this anime manga bookshop that me and my sister kind of own and to these days it's kind of uh I wouldn't say retired but we're kind of in the progress of working on it and seeing how we can expand it to not just manga and anime. What is manga? Manga for some people that don't know. Yeah, it's Japanese comics. It's very famous around even around these parts. It's getting even more wide widely famous. And of you've seen like Naruto, One Piece. Um, a lot of those are like books that we've had. Somebody likes which one do you like? Heavily into One Piece. All right. I got I got to look into that. Okay. Yeah. What episode a thousand third? You're current. Oh, okay. So, CIF is a thousand episodes in. I am on a 100. So, not even. But um yeah, but we own this kind of mango shop and we kind of want to expand it. So, we're taking a little break this year, but hopefully next year it's we're doing big things with it, which I'm super excited about, but it's a lot of work on it we have to do. All right. Did um uh take us on a journey of, you know, how it started. Did did cosplay have any any influence on, you know, you doing this? I think it's mostly like cosplay kind of, but it was mostly like me wanting to express another way of like things that I'm interested in and trying to see what if people are interested in it too cuz people have been with um nerdy culture and pop culture. So, it's kind of it it was also a way me and my sister wanted to make we wanted to make an online shop, but we also wanted to make kind of a brickandmortar shop mostly mainly for like female owned and for a place for women to feel safe to be in a comic shop to walk around and share their interest with people. So, that's where it kind of started. We kind of we went into this one video game shop and we were like, we don't feel all that comfortable. We want and we know that there's so many women that want to feel comfortable and are interested in a lot of these things. So, we wanted to create a shop that kind of gave that feel. I think like being a woman in the industry is always kind of you always have to think about where your environment is and who you're around and if there's any safe spaces. Um, I did have like these uncomfortable moments in like a bigger production where places didn't make me feel safe or crew members that were also female didn't feel as safe. And it's just being aware of, you know, what are the safe environments and how you can because kind of production is a different beast. Yeah. Um, compared to like what people think about corporations and corporate world. So they think they can act kind of differently and it's not the case. It's just remembering etiquette and how you know how you want to treat other people and how you should be kind to other people and respectful of other people. So it's kind of being aware of your surroundings, being aware of other people's surroundings, other women's surroundings and even men and how they're feeling too. It's just making sure that everyone feels comfortable around the set, which is great. And I I want I want you to do something for me. I want you to look right into that camera. That's your camera right there. Yeah. And for all the people who manage sets, let them know how to keep and make women feel safe or anybody, but because you know, you tapped in the fact that you were well, you are a woman um uh and wasn't feeling safe, let them know how can they keep you safe on sets. Yeah. On sets, I think that it's important to communicate with your team members. It doesn't matter if they're the talent or just a PA. It's all about communicating to seeing how they feel comfortable and what works best for them, too. Because I know that it's kind of everyone's on a time crunch with production, but it is important for how people are feeling and what we can do as a team to make this go better for how comfortable everyone else feels. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Make them comfortable. Make them comfortable. Keep them comfortable. Speaking of keeping people safe on set, how did you see the uh on set? Yeah. Uh Quiet on the set documentary. I did. How do you How do you feel about that? I think it was definitely an important conversation that a lot of people should have is in not in just the industry but how in any type of job and how uh children are handled or even anyone is handled in these environments but it's super important especially um dealing with kids and how that can affect people on the long run. Mhm. Um especially in the industry like you we see these kids grow we grow up with these kids and then you see how that kind of affects them and how we were so hidden from this. It's kind of good to expose. It was hard to watch but it's good to expose and have a conversation about what should be happening and respectful of the talents and the people around sets. So it is important to have that conversation. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we don't know what's going on in people's lives in general, let alone, you know, behind the set. Uh there's a there's a uh a saying, I don't know exactly who said it. Um but you don't know my story. You see the glory, but you don't know my story. You know, things like that. And like you said, it does need to be talked about, exposed, you know, because there are children, there are kids who want to be in this entertainment profession, you know, and if they don't know the possibilities, not even possibilities, the things that do go on, things that have gone on, you know, they they need to know that it's things and people out there that may not have their best interest at heart. Yeah. And I think it's an important thing like being a film school student to learn too because even in Crimson, my short film, I've dealt with um an actress that was only 14 and I was only a couple years older than her and not knowing, oh, am I dealing with a child as safe as I can? Luckily, I was. But having that conversation with students and also people in the industry is so important because you're dealing with kids that aren't aware of safety and aren't aware of how they should be approached even in as you know sometimes money breadwinners of their family. So it's kind of important to know boundaries with children. Yes. Yes. Boundaries are boundaries are really important. you set them early and you won't you hopefully won't have any problems, you know, later on, you know, in life. People need to be able to set boundaries, you know, boundaries for respect, for, you know, communication, like you said before, you know, communicating with the people that you work with and things like that. So, yeah, thank you, Kev. Thank you. No problem. I mean, we're not done, but I'm just thanking you for that. Thanking you for that. Let's talk about a time where you're on set where everything was was was great and you were very happy to be there. It was it's fun because um before I was a media manager and assistant editor um I was the creative assistant to the production team for IFC. So um I was doing all the things that you would do as a assistant. I was getting bagels. I was scheduling things. It was nothing. We did nothing with editing. I kind of had to learn it on the spot. Um, but what we used to do is we'd used to do random promotionals where we would do bingo in between shows and movies on our network. Nice. And we were able to do it with u employees kind of. They were getting like the spot IFC employees doing bingo. But my favorite thing to do was we had a Christmas special and we had Mick Foley who was a if anyone knows a famous WWE wrestler be a part of it. And just being able to say, "Yeah, I was on the set of watching Mick Foley dressed as Santa play bingo." Like that's that was one of the coolest moments because I was a big WWE fan growing up. So I was super excited and he was super nice to work with. But um that was like one of the moments everything was organized, but I was so geeked to uh see McFoley. All right. So, um, looking back on your, you know, your management, you know, career and, um, you've had the responsibility of shaping, you know, young minds of and training up and coming, you know, editors. Uh, did you ever see yourself being in that role? I think as in like instructing more like in a college type of like in a professional type of way of teaching. Yeah. I mean anybody. Yeah. And and and in the in the editing. Yeah. Professional. Professional. More than a professional. Yeah. I think so. I just I love being I always say that I like collaborating with people. I love helping people learn new ways because it helps me it helps me learn new editing styles and it helps me learn shortcuts that I didn't know. But being able to help someone and see their work kind of skyrocket into great workflows and work great work ethics, I would love to do even that more often. Okay. All right. Those of you who watching, she would love to do more of that. Gabby would love to do more of that. Hire her. We're going to tell you how you can find her later. All right. Don't worry about that. We going we going we gonna get to that. Now, we all in life or a lot of us, you know, we have these moments of reflection over our lives and and career. And a lot of people may not admit that we ask these questions to oursel or this question to ourselves. But I'm going to ask you this question. And if you can go back in your career with all the jobs, all the promos, all the editing, all the video stuff, all the multimedia magic that you've made, is there something that you would do over? And if so, why? It's funny. Um I uh when I started I with uh my college career, I started with video production and I was like, "Oh, I'm just going to stick to that." And then I jumped on journalism as a double major. I definitely thought I should or I always regret at least not doing a triple major or even like a minor in graphic design. Okay. Just I as much as I know about um the different programs of editing and graphic design, I wish I knew a little bit more. So, it's definitely something I wish I just kept going with, but I I was really set on only going to school for three years in college. So I was like, uh, I could learn on the there's YouTube videos I could learn on the spot, so it's okay. Okay. Wow. So you would go back and take an an extra major, too. You would do another one. It could be the Asian, you know, Filipino and me. I want to do a little more. That's what it is. All right. I feel you. I I respect that. I respect that. Now, here's a question that I I ask all my guests. Um, and you're an editor. So, this is this is this is great. So, in editing, music is a big part of can be a good a big part of, you know, the editing process. And, you know, music can make or break a film, right? If your life Well, your life is a movie, right? Let's talk about the soundtrack to your life. What are five songs that would be on the soundtrack to Gabby Mendoza's life? Five is so much. There's I wish there was like even more because I have so many different like vibes. Okay, but you only get to pick five. I know. Five. It would I would have I don't know what, but I would definitely put one of my favorites is Childish Gambino. I would have to put Gambino in there. Um maybe Flight of a Navigator. a little sadness to it, but it's a good beat. A lot of his work is great. Um Tyler, the creator, I'm big on. It's one of my other favorites is Tyler. Um I would probably put one of his like kind of uh not not like as popular songs is Peach Fuzz. So like a good kind of like bouncy beat to it would be great. I always like like kind of that smooth kind of jazzy feel for me, but also like you get you need a little bit of rock in there. So you got a little Fleetwood Mac in there, a little soft rock in there. Okay. So some Rianon. So Fleetwood Mac for that one. So what is that? Three, four, three. Yeah, you got Charlie Gambino. You got Tyler, you got Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac. Amy Winehouse is good. Wow. Yeah. I'm I'm a little bit of a romantic lover girl, so Okay. sadness is in there, but a lot of soul in her. Um, trying to think of another one. Um, it would be probably Arctic Monkeys. Arctic. Arctic Monkeys. You're so dark. I love kind of like that dark kind of feel and kind of that old 60s. I'm very retro. That's kind of how I feel a lot of my suit is is very retro type of feel. A lot of bouncy retro feel. Okay. I like that. what they say. I like that for you. I like that for you. Um, versatility. Versatility is is a blessing. You have this versatility, right? I we see that from all the things that you do. How do you balance all this versatility? Like, how do you balance uh your how do we say it? Your your limitless creativity. How how do you balance it? What what do you do to balance? It's it's not easy. And also, I think it's probably me jumping around. It's probably the ADHD going, not going to lie to you. Um, it's just like how I always want to express myself. It's never just in one straight path. I always like, oh, I love music. Oh, I like movies. Oh, I like designing. I like comics. I love like like different cartoons. It's kind of it's an explosion. That's what I always like to describe myself is explosion of my interests in everything I want to do. So it's learning new things and trying to be as trying to grab in in this life we don't have much time. So it's trying to grab as much skill and as much as we can cuz we don't have that much time so might as well do as much as we can. Yeah. Yeah. Time is of the essence. It is. But it is hard to juggle. It's not I will never say it's an easy thing at all to juggle. So although it's a hard thing to do to juggle, you know, to all the all the things that you do, would you say are you a strong believer in uh utilizing everything that you know a person has or just kind of focusing on one thing? I think it's I I get stuck with one thing for a while and then I start being like, oh, what's how can I express myself using this or using that type of art form? It's kind of I can stick to to one thing for a good amount of time, but it's also like I like being able to explore other things because then it gives you more room to take some space from that main thing that you were working on and just have some space and then have other ideas for it. It kind of just opens up your mind more and more perspective more by doing other things and and and and in doing Yes, I I strongly believe that. And within doing those other things, you might get ideas for that first thing. Yes. That you were doing, right? And it just only enhances it. Definitely. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. So, creatives. So, creatives, uh, a lot of times we I'll say we because I'm a creative as well. We get stuck in wanting things to be perfect. Yes. Right. How how would you encourage creatives to battle or fight against that that want for perfection? I think uh one of the big sayings is like you don't learn from perfection. You can't really get any notes or learn from you know learn yourself from being perfect. So it's good to make mistakes. It's good to like find a balance of maybe, you know, I'm not the best in this and not having that ego. It's really good to have because then it expands kind of your mind and being like, oh, if I'm not good at this, how can I put my own v like my own voice to this? How can I make this me and make this? It might not be perfect, but it's me, right? And nobody's perfect, you know? Bars. Come on, Gabby. It may not be perfect, but it's me. Yeah, man. It may not be perfect, but it's me. I'm sorry. I really need to hear that right now, Gabby. I really need to hear that because there's so many things that's going on. So many things that I do in my career. Excuse me. I'm an actor. I'm a director. I haven't directed in a while, but I'm a director. I'm a producer. I haven't produced it in a while. Produced it produced in a while. And I'm a host. And I love to bring uh people to new audiences, new audience to people. And we just talked about chasing perfection. And I'm one of those people that do, like I said, and that's why I threw we in there. I'm one of those people that really tries to chase perfection. But you said you can't learn from perfection. You really can't. And it's not per it's not perfect, but it's me. And that's all that you can be is you. Yeah. And that's what you really what everybody really wants, you know, to be seen. So it's you. Thank you, Gabby. Yeah. So, that was a moment. Um, shout out to my makeup artist, Bria, for, you know, touching me up after my tears. But that's cuz Miss Gabby over here is dropping gems and giving us a word. I'm about to give you an offering in a minute. Um, so let's talk about the business side. Do you have any tips or strategies for creatives coming up that can balance all the things they do in their business life, just not their creative side? I don't know that many tricks about it, but I know that it is important to knowing, you know, taxes when it comes to being a freelancer. Come on. You know, learning about um the importance of how to properly commission people and how to make contracts, that's important. And the creative side is important, but knowing, you know, how to get yourself protected the business way is important. So, I think that's something that people kind of don't pay too much attention to or don't know how to, but I know that there's like YouTube to go forth and YouTube University. Yeah, that's how we all learn these days. But, um, I think it's important to know. Yeah. Rather than just, you know, knowing how to edit, you know, knowing how to do your own accounting books is important, too. That's why it's called, you know, as cliche as it sound, you know, I know we've all heard it, but that's why it's called show business. Everybody's focusing on the show, but they don't want to learn the business. And it's hard because you have to juggle it as one person, right? But it's very important to like at least having designated time to do so. Mhm. Well, we learned that you're great at time management and at juggling. So, try to be. Yeah. We need to come to you for, you know, more advice on, you know, what we need to do. Yeah. What we need to do. So, we talked about Peach manga earlier, right? Um, have you ever thought of doing your own anime comic? I have. It's definitely something that I've wanted to do. It's I'm not like very gifted in illustrating or that type of art, but knowing, you know, having a script ready for it would be great. It's definitely something I want to do. Having my own cartoon would be like even better for me. I'm big on cartoons. Saturday night, I mean, Saturday morning cartoons are always big for me. So, I would love to have my own cartoon one of these days. And be a voiceover for it would be so cool. So, what I want you to do right now is say that you're going to do it. Say that you will do it. Yeah, I definitely will do it. You see in the future that I will have my own cartoon. That's right. You got to speak that thing into existence. Definitely speak things that are not as though they were. Definitely. We have a lot of power in the tongue. Yeah. So, I definitely believe that. Yeah. We got to speak positivity into into our lives, you know, and wipe out the negativity. Things that we say can come to fruition. Yeah. And it's important. So always be positive by you know your work and like what you want to do and how you speak to yourself is very important because you know that's that energy follows you. So yes make sure it's good energy if it's going to follow you. Yes. I know our showrunner Marlin can attest to that. Uh he's big on you know meditation and speaking great things into the world. That's how this happened. That's how onset podcast came to be. You know he spoke it. He said this is something first was this is something I wanted to do. Then it became something I'm going to do. Yes. And he took the time to plan it out. And yes, I'm biging you up, Marlin. He took the time to, you know, plan this out. And we're here today on the said podcast. Come on now. But your host, Stephen Strickland and with Gabby with Gabby Mendoza. Come on now. It doesn't get any better than this. So we're talking about future projects. Can we expect what can we expect from Gabby Mendoza in the future in addition to your own comic? Yeah. Are you excited about anything that you're working on right now? I'm working on something that I'm going to try to launch. I'm hoping to launch in the fall. It's kind of going off of what I already do on Instagram, which is cosplay based, but like kind of creating my own story of making these editorial photographs with just self-portraits and how I can kind of make it and embrace it in different types of art form. So, definitely something that I'm doing, something I'm not willing to at least talk about just yet, but something I'm excited about. All right. I like it. I like it. And you you you do so many things. We've talked about a a lot of things and I know you just mentioned some things that are coming up and it's just the tip of the iceberg with you. What is the that was the tip of the iceberg with you? What is your ultimate plan and what is your ultimate goal? What can we look really really look forward to from Gabby Mendoza? I think it's always like my whole career or my life goal is always looking for ways my big word today is collaborate is figuring out how to tell my own story but everybody else's story you know in any way I can in any type of art form I can and whether it's through film through TV through through magazines through editorials anything I want to be able to to learn how to tell everybody's story or even my own and kind of like collaborate with everyone else. So, that's my big goal is figuring out new ways to do that in more ways, too. Okay, Gabby, you have really blessed us today. you really blessed us today and I want to thank you for being here and sharing your insight uh sharing your journey you know with us all the great things that you do the the tips that you've given the the message that you gave me uh today and just being open and honest about you know your journey and your career. here. Um, that sounds like an ending of the show, right? It does. Yeah. We're coming to the end of the show and, uh, I'm I'm happy. I'm I'm I'm still, you know, full of full of, you know, full of emotion. Um, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here. Thank you. To, you know, to talk about what it is that you do and all the great things that you do. And we look forward to and we have a huge expectation. I know I do. And I'm hoping that our viewers have a huge expectation from more from Gabby Mendoza. Real quick, because I promise you I would. Can you tell the people where we can find you? Yeah, I'm always big on Instagram and Tik Tok as godamn Gabby. Um, yeah, it was a it was a name I came up with when I was like in high school, so I've had it for a while, but it it goes with me and it's become my brand name. So, if you want to find me on anything, it's Godamn Gabby on Instagram and Tik Tok. It's uh G O D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D A M N G- A B I Okay. Yeah, cool. And you know me, I'm Steve. You can find me on Instagram at I am Stephven Strickland. I spell it with a V. All right. Spell with a V. Don't hit me with the PH. We We're not We don't do that here. We don't do that here. Um Hey, it's been great. And again, I appreciate you being with us today. Give me something. Thank you so much for having me. Boom. Uh, it's a pleasure to have you here. Remember to subscribe to the On the Set podcast and stay tuned for more engaging conversations with industry experts. Uh, and until then, keep learning, keep exploring, and keep embracing the magic of storytelling. Remember this. You can't learn from perfection. And it may not be perfect, but it's you. Gabby taught me that. I'm your host, Steven Strickland. And as always, remember, do what you love and love what you do. [Music]