evan odinsoff
Director of visual media
Photograph taken by Andrew Castro @acastrophoto
Evan Odinsoff was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, California. When he was a child he wanted to be a scientist, soon after, he discovered the amount of math involved and realized that it was a profession better suited for someone else. He really began to immerse himself in the arts. He has been involved in the arts since as long as he could remember – whether it be sketching, pastel, music, graphic design, writing, music, photography, and cinematography, which he continues to be involved in today. Evan has worked as a director of photography, director, and many other positions for numerous thesis films, narrative projects, and commercial work.
Evan received his undergraduate degree in English from CSUCI in Camarillo, CA, and decided that telling visual stories is where he wanted to invest his energy. His love for photography began as a child. A child staring into the framed photos on the walls of his home: cypress trees and waves crashing into rocks that his father captured. When asked if he could find the defining moment that led him to where he is now, he would say that the pure love for storytelling is what drove his passion. One day, he took a road trip up to San Francisco. The person he was with brought a camera with them. Evan started to take photos on Haight, Ashbury during a parade. There was a photo that Evan captured on a bustling street with unaware bystanders, and adorned on a wall was a sign that said “listen to this wall”. By chance, a man walked right in front of it and at that point, enough of the crowd cleared up in order to snap the moment. Evan gazed at the photograph and realized that a picture was able to tell you what an entire novel could, just without the words.
His creative influences are eclectic. They range from authors like Virginia Woolf and Thomas Pynchon, to scholars like Foucault, Baudrillard, and Chomsky. Then, there’s artists like Caravaggio and Rembrandt - photographers like Jeff Wall, Stephen Shore, or Gregory Crewdson. And when speaking specifically about the filmmaking space, he would have to say that his inspirations include Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emmanuel Lubezki, The Cohen Brothers and Roger Deakins, Robert Eggers and Jaren Blaschke, Robert Elswit, Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick and John Alcott, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Vittorio Storaro. There’s many more, but he believes the point he likes to make is that all of the arts influence each other, and further, the state of a society influences the arts.
Evan believes that we all have unique stories to tell. In terms of his own unqiue perspective, it would be the number of “mistakes” he’s made in life. He states, “I think mistakes are nothing more than experiences, and how we choose to handle them is what shapes us. Once we discover who we are not, it brings us one step closer to discovering who we are.” In other words, one might say he’s experienced quite a bit of life.
The graduate program at LMU has provided Evan with a wealth of knowledge as well as the tools to work in the narrative, and even commercial space for that matter. He has also learned the value of creative collaboration, and says, “as people, we should be trying to elevate each other rather than bringing each other down. That is what LMU instills in us, that other schools might not (given how competitive and stern most programs are)”. When it comes to Allusion Magazine, Evan’s excitement begins with the team and their passion to create such a unique industry platform. For him, the most exciting part of this is experience is being a part of that team and having the opportunity and platform to share these resources with LMU. He states, “Working with Allusion is an exciting endeavor for me. I love educating and giving back, and being a part of something so inclusive is an honor”. If Evan had to pick a favorite quote or guiding philosophy, it would be: “Why do we fall? So we can learn how to pick ourselves up.” from the film Batman Begins.