“When we spend time doing things that we love simply because we love them, it fills us for the things that we need to do.” Melody Paine

The universality of art is a reality that is felt by every individual. In most form of arts, it takes intentional keenness and experience to identify and bring out the details that make art unique. This is especially true in photography. Our guest today, Melody Paine, is experienced in this form of art, and says that in photography and filmmaking, the most special and memorable moments are always captured in the most ordinary of times and spaces.

Melody Joy Paine is a photographer and filmmaker for Imperfect Joy. She helps families craft visual memories that pull into focus the beauty in little details that they will want to remember most. She is currently studying under an Emmy-award winning filmmaker to build a new branch of her work called Kama Muta Films. She will work alongside her husband, David, to tell stories of how businesses have made an impact on individuals and communities by keeping their heart at the center of what they do.

In today’s episode, our guest will be discussing more about her journey to being a professional photographer and filmmaker, as well as the transformation that came with her getting into entrepreneurship. She will also talk more about the unexplored opportunities in photography and film making.

Listen in!

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www.imperfectjoy.com,

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First, I want to talk about art being a core thing that is important to our lives and not just in the business for me. [3:05]
I have always embraced art and I started as a musician when I was in junior high, elementary school. [3:15]
I have always love being able to see the transformation of something and how it takes form. [3:50]
I have a bachelor’s degree in Biology and wanted to be a neurologist specializing in MS. [4:10]
The main reason I got into photography when my mother-in-law and my bother passed away shortly after my husband and I got married and everything got on hold. [4:20]
I decided to spend time at home with my kids because after that experience there was nothing more important than family to us. [4:48]
As a stay-at-home mum, I found something to do which was photography. [4:58]
I started doing it for my kids and family, and it evolved into something artistic and led into entrepreneurship all the pieces of running a business. [5:10]
I began in project photography which required everything to be perfect. [5:36]
I started feeling stuck because my perfectionism started getting in my way. [5:50]
I couldn’t get into my creative space because I constantly had to try to make everything Pinterest worthy [5:58]
I did a lot of bereavement work because that was where my heart was, helping people to heal because it was also the place where I was able to heal. [6:10]
One family called me up to capture the last moments of their 2-year-old son whose heart was failing and had to be taken off life support. [6:20]
For 6 hours I stayed with family at their son’s bedside and captured every moment because it was important for them to be able to remember their son in that journey. [6:36]
It was definitely the hardest bereavement session I had ever done. [7:00]
I edited and put together this gallery and it was the first time I saw the importance of the details. [7:24]
It was the first time that I saw an actual story from beginning to end through the photos. [7:50]
I sent it off and felt that in some way I had encapsulated this moment so that the family could go back in that moment in a way that was not as painful. [8:04]
I realized that I did not want to do that in the moments that suck anymore. [8:32]
So, I wanted to tell stories, let go of perfection and help people capture their ordinary moments that mean the most when they are gone. [8:45]
That is why I named my business ‘Imperfect Joy’ as a reminder to myself of what I am doing. [9:00]
One of the challenges I came across in this business is that people have so much accessibility to capture these moments on their own; however most people don’t see the joy in the moments in front of them until they are gone. [11:45]
Because I have experienced loss myself, and I have been in front of so many families, my art goes beyond the tools and encompasses the ability to capture perspective and details which are so mundane and ordinary for people to notice but make a difference. [12:14]
Before quarantine started, I had been working part time as a mum, where it started as a part time thing but became something really important to me. [14:10]
My husband and I then decided in January 2020 that it was time so he left his job to take care of the kids since it was not realistically possible for me to do both. [14:45]
March came and everything and everything was obliterated and all the plans were changed. [15:19]
I tried different things but they were not going as per to my standards. [15:34]
I also wasn’t really in warm market because a lot of people haven’t seen family seen and don’t know what they are or what goes into them. [16:30]
I am not doing film making where I can control everything, I have to work with whatever components that are there which vary and I have to roll with. [17:13]
With film making not being something new I felt like I was just trying to scratch the surface of something that wasn’t quite ready. [17:28]
There is market for it because of the value it brings both for businesses and families but right now it is really hard and that is why we are transitioning to businesses for those various reasons. [17:45]
Commercial break. [18:19]
There are different types of stories that can be told for businesses and what you are talking about is the impact story. [22:49]
What we want to find are businesses which intentionally have an impact on individuals and communities. [22:56]
It is not only good for the people who join in on this business and are impacted, but also for the business owner to see returns. [23:11]
There is a blending of what I had done in a new market and we are calling this Kamamuda Films. [23:30]
Kamamuda is a new term that was defined by psychologists for an overarching emotion. [23:46]
It is described as a sudden feeling for oneness or belonging and is likened to the reaction people have when they feel connected to a deeply moving event. [24:15]
Art being a journey of transformation and, I have had the frustration of being in the process but haven’t seen it come to life yet and being in between is sometimes a really hard place to be. [25:44]
We have combined the different skills we have with my husband and therefore I have the reminder every day that I am not alone in this journey and this struggle has been shared. [27:39]
In the pandemic I was part of a networking group of business coaches who did better in the pandemic. [28:15]
A lot of the messages that I got from them did not resonate with my situation because their perspective was not the same with the industry that I was in which was hit incredibly hard, and for a while I felt lonely. [28:32]
Now that we are starting to get back to people again, we are planning to do a community event for our grand opening. [29:15]
We want a place where we can show our first business film to our community with a story that is from a local business and give people a reason to gather and celebrate. [29:55]
If we can make progress in the relationships again, then there will be a lot more progress happening in our business as well and that was the biggest element that was missing. [30:22]
When we spend time doing things that we love simply because we love them, it fills us for the things that we need to do. [33:18]

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