From The Philippines To The US, Filmmaker Nichole Ruiz

It’s interesting to look at filmmakers’ resumés because some are pretty short while some are extremely long and full of the incredible amounts of work they have done. Nichole Ruiz’s CV is one of the extremely long ones and it appears that this woman, who is a film director and an accomplished cinematographer, has worked on over forty projects in just over two and a half years. That, in itself, is incredible. It also means that she is a dedicated movie person who loves filmmaking more than most people who have been in the industry decades longer than she has been.

Nichole is from the Philippines and she currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She has always loved movies, no doubt, but when she decided to get serious about working on films as a career she came to L.A. to attend the famous film school New York Film Academy. She immersed herself in all her classes and she learned a great deal there. The rigorous and intensive training taught her everything about the process of filmmaking – from beginning to end. She learned the fundamentals from long time industry insiders and besides directing, she fell in love with the art of cinematography. Whenever the chance arose, Nichole would jump at the chance to work on projects where she could be involved in the camera and lighting departments and also being Director of Photography.

Of course, when she directed her own film YOU, she fell in love with directing again. That was one of her favorite films to date. She was so passionate about it and she loved working on it from pre-production to the final cut and then entering it into film festivals where it has done very well and garnered a lot of attention and great reviews. Working on a project from the get go was a terrific learning process and she found out that it gave her the feeling of being a real artist.

One of the big things Nichole learned during her very busy career is that filmmaking is basically problem-solving. In other words, nothing is guaranteed and nothing is guaranteed to work out the way you thought it was going to or expected it to. People don’t show up on the set, so you have to replace them or do their job yourself. If something breaks, like a camera or a light, then you have to solve that problem as quickly and efficiently as possible or the whole production can fall to pieces. Nichole believes in constantly pushing herself as a filmmaker and trying to make each film better than the one before.