Aaron Switzer(II)

Aaron "Fokus" Switzer was born Aaron Switzer on October 14, 1973 in Florence, South Carolina. Known by his colleagues as "Fokus" he began his journey in the entertainment world in 1987 at the age of 14 when he discovered hip hop music. After this discovery evolved into a true passion, he decided to devote himself to becoming a competitive battle DJ. From there he made a local name for himself in music under the stage name D.J. A-Run. Following high school, Aaron joined the military & was sent to Virginia Beach VA where he would spend the next several years on active duty in the Army. Although fully intending to spend his entire career in this role and retire from the Army, he had an unfortunate accident forcing him to end his career after only 10 years. Fortunately, while on active duty, Aaron used his G.I.Bill to further his education and pursue a degree in arts & entertainment. His studies focused primarily on graphic design, photography & video production. While attending school he also did freelance photography and graphic design for musicians as he was still very passionate about playing a role in the music industry. After a few years of photo shoots with musicians and print work for brands like Lowrider Magazine as well as other various record labels, Aaron found himself wanting to expand into other mediums. Around that time a work study class opened up at his college allowing him to get hands on experience working at a functioning television station. This program ignited a new flame in Aaron as he realized the possibilities of getting actively involved in video production. He went on to write, produce, shoot, edit & even narrate his first documentary based around the hip hop culture that had played such a huge role in his life. This documentary served as the final project in his video production class in which he received high marks, ultimately passing the class and seeing his work aired several times on the local public access TV station. It was at that moment that Aaron knew that this was his calling, he knew he had to make a career out of video production. All of the events described took place while he was on active duty in the army. It was shortly after graduating from college that he got injured during an army training exercise and ended up leaving the military with a severe physical disability. It took a few years before Aaron got back on his feet and was able to see that the injury was actually a blessing in disguise. Although the injury was debilitating, still causing him to suffer to this day, it allowed him to achieve two of his biggest dreams. The first and most important dream being to raise his son as a stay at home dad. The second dream was being able to develop and build his own film and video production company. Now, in 2019 he has successfully achieved both of those goals with a son who is about to graduate high school and a company called G-Street Films which has spent the last 15 years focusing on music videos & documentary style filmmaking. At this point in his career he has a professional cyclorama studio in the Sodo area of Seattle WA and is fully immersed in the development and production of both short and feature length films. This year alone Aaron has successfully released several short films as well as a feature and a documentary series along with several more projects in production that are slated to be released in 2020. The year also marks the start of several collaborative projects that involve Aaron's company "G-Street Films" teaming up with Michael Brumfield's company "Erco Films Co." in addition to Sheldon Black's company "ShokkVision". Together they come together under an umbrella company recently developed called "The Chimera Collective". This new group has big plans in the works for 2020 and beyond. When asked what he'd like to say to anyone considering working with his team, Aaron says "Gorilla Up & Let's Work" a catch phrase he's coined that is a twist on the old "cowboy up" phrase modified to refer to the strength of a gorilla, a figure which is prominently represented in his G-Street Films logo