Meet L Fried | Filmmaker & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with L Fried and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi L, how do you think about risk?
Risk played a pretty big role in my life following college. After I graduated, I decided to move to Seattle—a city in a region where I had little to no connection. For most people from Florida, NYC is a natural move upon graduating, and I was actually born there. Though I had a decent sized support system in New York, I really wanted the challenge to immerse myself in an environment that was pretty unknown for me. So that brought me out there, where shortly after arriving, I landed a graphic design internship at the Seattle Art Museum.
That internship turned into a brief contracted position and many years later a full-time job specializing in video production. I left that position when I decided to return to my home state of Florida. Coming back after 15 years is not without its risks either. While I do have my family here, most of the friends with whom I grew up around have moved; the population has increased immensely; the cost of living has soared, while the wages have grown in a miserly amount. And now I have to find the ways to get my name and skills out there to those who need it, yet have no idea I exist.
I think every thing we do involves a certain level of risk, but the biggest ones for me involve the decision of where to call home, and how to (re)establish my name somewhere.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Having moved from art to design to filmmaking, I feel like my work approaches a project holistically. I tend to get lost in the research and history of what I’m working on. What was happening in the world when this film or story or artist lived? These details tend to inform elements like typefaces or media used in certain projects.
For example, I worked as a production designer on a short film, “Untouchable,” that takes place in the early 2000s and the centerpiece scene is the protagonist narrating in her bedroom. For that scene, I found an Apple iMac M6498— the desktop computer with the semi-spherical white base and the translucent screen. We were able to use software that was installed on the computer to create posters for later scenes, with authentic fonts and clip art from the new millennium.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Hopefully they are visiting sometime during the winter or early spring, if thats the case we definitely need to make a trip down to the Everglades. Maybe stop at Robert is Here on the way down for some smoothies and to see the animals. A spot that holds a level of nostalgia for me is The Standard Miami Beach, my grandpa and his girlfriend used to go there every spring when it was a retired folks spa called The Lido. We used to visit them and enjoy grapefruit in a cabana where the bar now is, these days for special occasions I get the Limonata de Coco.
We’re really gifted with such a diverse selection of food down here, although I don’t really eat out too much some favorites are Red Thai in Young Circle (Hollywood), Achla Hummus (Hallandale), and any Las Vegas Cuban cuisine. I live close to a lot of Haitian restaurants, so that’s something I have yet to try—but I love Caribbean food, so taking a friend to a spot that serves goat or oxtail would be a treat.
Other places to check out would be any green spaces around here: Fern Forest, Secret Woods, Constitution Park and of course my patio that is seemingly surrounded by trees, birds and iguanas.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Can there be multiple? Ultimately, I think my parents are my biggest fans. They recognized when I was young that I had a proclivity for art, and brought me to painting classes every Saturday. They were always willing to support me in my artistic pursuits—well, maybe not when I wanted to try voice acting.
But their encouragement led me to other mentors in my life. A class on lighting in video gifted for my birthday, introduced me to Brody Willis, who has been my mentor in film production since 2018. Moving back to Florida, my mom insisted I speak with the County Commissioner to learn how Broward supports filmmakers. From Steve Geller’s team and the Film Commissioner, I was able to connect with a wonderful local filmmaker and photographer, Tabatha Mudra. Since moving back here almost a year ago, Tabatha has been such a wonderful friend and creative to join forces with and also a huge source of guidance.

Website: https://fried.works

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fried.works

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/l-fried-81510a6a

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@lfried?si=xqtvCbk9zFYjXXfe

Image Credits
Film Still from “Untouchable,” Directors of Photography: Garrett Elmer & Adam Gaulke (Image 4)