Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Matteo Rossi.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I always knew I wanted to do something creative even as a kid. I actually started out in my pre-teens in theater and shifted towards writing in high school. I grew up watching a lot of the classic films and TV shows my family would show me and that influenced me as well to want to take the storytelling to the big screen and at 19 when at San Diego State, I made my first short film and was immediately hooked. It’s all about building the best team and consistency and since then, here I am 13 years later working on post of my 5th feature film releasing later this year. When you know you love what you do, you want to continue to do it as much as you can.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Of course there are bumps along the way, and times when you have many ‘close calls’ that turn out to be nothing or people who are all talk and then are complete time wasters, but fortunately I have met some very talented great people along the way too. It’s always difficult as an indie filmmaker to get the financing at first, but the more content you put out that gets recognition you begin to build up a good track record and more people believe in you and your work because you’ve proven yourself. You have to definitely invest in yourself starting out and then people will hopefully invest in you after that. It’s all about staying positive too; the right mentality even when things aren’t going the way you planned.
Please tell us about Italian Cowboy Productions.
I write produce and direct so all of my films go under my name title production company which was an inside joke from a long time ago ‘Italian Cowboy Productions’. I just love making character-driven drama and action thriller films so that’s what you’re going to see when you see the production name at the beginning of each of my films.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have kept some valuable connections and kept in touch with the people going up the ladder in this business too; sometimes you can really tell who these people are. I think you can trust a lot, but at the same time, you have to keep your guard up and there were times when I got a sense a project or this person was going to just waste my time and nothing was going to happen, and my first instincts were right so just being mindful of those type of pitfalls.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2751807/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelmatteorossi/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/michaelmatteorossi
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelmatteoro
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