By Mia Reid
UC Santa Barbara alum Malakai Isaacs didn’t always know he wanted to be a filmmaker. He discovered his love for film after a 10-day backpacking trip in Wyoming during the height of the pandemic. After the trip, during a bleak day of Zoom classes, he realized he was happier in nature. “What the hell am I doing?” he remembers thinking. Then he changed majors from Environmental Science to Film and Media Studies, in order to pursue his passion.
UCSB Film and Media Studies alum Malakai Isaacs found his passion for filmmaking after reconnecting with nature through a backpacking trip and the summer course The Coastal Media Project.
Now, two years after graduating, Issacs has been working as a freelance filmmaker, shooting a range of documentary projects and commercials and finding his niche in the film world. He shot the documentary Finding Peace: The Story of Cliff Kent, which follows the life of a Santa Barbara commercial fisherman, and he completed his first commercial project in Costa Rica for the Neritic Diving gear company. Isaacs’s passion lies in nature-based, underwater and adventure filmmaking, telling unique stories about wildlife and the people who live, work and explore it.
Isaacs honed his craft in many Film and Media Studies lecturer Chris Jenkins’ production classes at UCSB. During a summer course, The Coastal Media Project, while shooting the film The Last of the Last, he first explored underwater filmmaking and developed techniques he still relies on today. “That was a pivotal moment,” he said. “That was kind of the start of it all.”
In a recent interview Isaacs shared his tips and tricks for emerging filmmakers, and bringing nature to the attention of the world.
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a filmmaker and photographer?
A: As far as photography, I was a late bloomer. I drove across the country backpacking and fishing. Taking the camera along was a way to share those experiences. I met a mentor who was a pretty successful photographer. We had a cool trip in Wyoming and spent ten days out in the mountains. I was doing environmental science and I came back and had to log into a class right away for Zoom school calculus. When I was like, ‘what the hell am I doing?’ It was the moment where I realized I needed to switch to something I'm more interested in.
Malakai Isaacs, a UCSB Film and Media alum, captures aerial footage with his drone for The Fish Reef Project in Goleta. He credits the UCSB Coastal Media Project as pivotal in his filmmaking journey, noting that he still applies today the techniques he learned then.
Q: What drew you to nature-based filmmaking?
A: It felt like a way to be involved in nature, travel, see wildlife and experience things I wasn’t at that time. You can get to places with a camera in your hand that you can’t just being an individual. I figured that out pretty early. People perceive you differently. They let you into opportunities you wouldn’t experience otherwise. There’s this kind of egotistical aspect to it—you’re unlocked to a world that feels somewhat exclusive.
Q: Can you share one of your most memorable shoots?
A: The fondest memories and shoots are when I felt out of my comfort zone. I had been pitching ideas and photos to companies—diving, spearfishing. I was talking to this student in Florida who had charters in Costa Rica. Pretty quickly he said, “I’ll fly you down here, give it a shot, pay for your expenses, and you can just film for a couple of weeks.” I was working with extremely skilled divers, intense individuals, living in the jungle and the heat, on the water every day. It was incredible but intense. The guy I was working for, I ended up kind of having a falling out [with him] afterwards, and it was tough.
Q: What are some tips and tricks for young filmmakers?
A: You need to have someone to guide you. You need people above you to learn from and take inspiration from. Having someone physically to be excited about your growth, someone who's in the field that can go a long way. I would say that, really, number one is networking. Getting out and talking to those people who are doing it. I have to pretend like I know what I'm doing — fake it ‘till you make it.
Q: Were there any specific professors and classes at UCSB that taught you valuable skills in filmmaking?
A: It is important to highlight those production classes. I felt like they gave me some serious skills in what I'm doing now. Those are some of the primary skills that I rely on these days—what I learnt through Chris’s classes. The first class I took was Launch Pad, which was a window into Chris's world. Then the summer program called Coastal Media Project was the start of it all, I started to shoot underwater that summer and dive, which was a pivotal moment.
Mia Reid is a third-year exchange student from New Zealand, majoring in Film and Media Studies at UCSB. She wrote this article for her Digital Journalism course.