Today we’d like to introduce you to Shane Stanley.
Hi Shane, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I actually started in front of the camera at nine months old. Century 21 real estate had just launched and a producer on the ad campaigns was a friend of my father’s and they needed a well-behaved baby that could be the child of the couple they had cast and somehow, I landed the job. I spent my first seven years in front of the camera. My father was an independent filmmaker and landed some big corporate accounts with companies like McDonald’s, Hughes Aircraft and Encyclopedia Britannica and watching him and his team work all the equipment was fascinating to me and I quickly learned how to run 16mm film cameras and edit machines. I never really went back to being in front of the camera and was working steadily as a part of his crew at a very young age.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nothing comes easy and honestly, I think that’s what keeps me going. Sure, I had a father who was a filmmaker but other than learning the craft, I wasn’t able to really utilize his resources much to help. My father was a very successful documentary filmmaker and I didn’t want to make docs, so when I graduated high school, I (re)started from the bottom by calling everyone I could just to get PA and assistant jobs, many of which didn’t pay. All I cared about was getting time on sets, meeting new people, and building my resume. Fast forward 30-plus years and the grind hasn’t stopped. Sure, I am my own boss and produce the films I want to make but the road of an independent filmmaker is unpaved and often treacherous. You have to create content you believe in, raise money, cast up, crew up, and deal with every element in making, marketing, and distributing a film. I am hands-on from concept to delivery and although I enjoy the process, it does become quite taxing. I’ve been fortunate with some success along my journey which, much like in golf where you have a great game that you’re constantly trying to emulate or beat, it’s what keeps me coming back for more. Recently, I’ve learned not to look in the rearview mirror and try to relive some of the glory from my career, but just keep my eyes forward and embrace what’s next. What will happen, will happen and I’ve learned to find great peace in that.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a filmmaker. Some of the projects that I am known for are “Gridiron Gang” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Mistrust” starring Jane Seymour, and my various works on TV shows that range from “Red Shoe Diaries” to “Rock of Love.” We have a film that was released in June called “Double Threat” with Danielle C. Ryan, Dawn Olivieri and Matthew Lawrence. The New York Times included it in their Top 5 action films to stream this past summer which was nice, considering the massive hits that were hitting the big screen with the reopening of theatres. I am extra proud of this film because we produced it during the heart of the pandemic for literally NO money. It’s a lot of fun with mind-blowing stunts and a decent production value for what it is, considering the whole world was shut down when we filmed and the actor’s union had so many restrictions on us governing what we could and couldn’t do. Interestingly, after the film came and went with a modest release, in October one morning at about 4am, my phone started blowing up. Fearing someone I loved was in trouble or worse – dead, I looked to see what was going on and it was a bunch of emails and texts from all over congratulating us on “Double Threat’s” success. I had no idea what was going on. Once I came to, I learned the film had broken into the top 10 on Amazon Prime. Over the next week, the film continued to climb into the top 5 remaining there for quite some time, while only new studio releases “The Northman,” “Ambulance,” “Dog,” and “Memory,” kept us out of the top spot. We’re talking about films that cost well over $100M to produce and God knows how much they spent on advertising. The fact our little ‘lets get out of the house during Covid and make a film’ project that was written in only four days and as we often quip, “was produced for the cost of a TikTok video” had broken through and is being hailed as “one of streaming’s biggest hits” by several publications, which to this day, has the critics and press scratching their heads considering the film’s success came out of nowhere.
We just completed “Night Train” which is supposed to be released in January in North America. I say “supposed to” because we all know how things can change in the world in a blink of an eye, so barring any surprises, that is the plan. “Night Train” is about a single mom struggling to make ends meet who evades capture by a ruthless FBI Agent while running black market medical supplies in her legendary souped-up pickup truck. It stars Danielle C. Ryan, Diora Baird, Joe Lando, Abraham Benrubi, Ivan Sergei, Brent Bailey and Joseph D. Reitman. I am actually more excited about this film than anything I’ve been a part of in quite some time because of how much fun it was to make and how good CJ Walley’s script was, I only hope I did it justice.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I would reiterate that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I know that sounds cliche’ and there are the exceptions but if someone had told me at eighteen years old, with four Emmy nominations and two wins already under my belt, that it was going to be a long and grueling road ahead, I probably would have prepared better and created a business plan years sooner. Life marches by and when we are in our 20s we think we have the world by you know what – but when we turn 30, 40 and then the big 5-0, we realize we didn’t know much about anything. I have simplified my advice to this, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worse, and expect the unexpected.” Additionally, cherish and nurture relationships you make along the way and always treat people with respect.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shanestanley.net
- Instagram: officialshanestanley
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ShaneStanleyOfficial/
- Twitter: @shanestanley
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/shanestanley1
- Other: www.whatyoudontlearninfilmschool.com
Image Credits
Copyright © 2019-2022 Rolling Thunder Films, LLC
