Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Payton.
Hi Greg, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, New York, an 80s baby, to two hard-working, blue-collar parents who made sure I was with them, if I couldn’t be with my older siblings after school. My parents did all they could to ensure I could focus on school and have room to discover what I wanted for my life, which turned out to be a life in professional creativity.
Living through the era’s life or death challenges, I look back blessed and grateful to my family, friends and teachers who saw more in me than I saw in my self at the time. They disciplined me, kept me focused and inspired me.
After graduating NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, majoring in Film & TV, I cut my teeth in commercial advertising learning the ins and outs of professional post-production and working with a variety of clients from all walks of life on various brands. I then worked for the City of New York on television series advertising the city’s lifestyle, history and culture. Moving to Los Angeles, I worked with producers at Bunim-Murray Productions, executing digital series about a wide eclectic range of fashion, styles and personalities. I helped launch one of the last music and culture networks, Revolt TV, working with tenaciously resourceful and ambitious creatives. I had the honor of working with the reporters of The LA Times as a part of the news magazine series LA Times Today, helping tell a wide array of LA centric and global stories, earning an Emmy in the process.
Each endeavor enriched the way I saw people, the world and how it impacts the way I see story. Making my own films through coast to coast moves, job upheavals, pandemics, uprisings and strikes has been sobering; fortifying my resolve to keep looking for the truth through my creative work. I’ve most recently had the pleasure of meeting other creatives and being a part of communities like the LA Directors Lab, working side by side with some of the most beautifully creative individuals on their own creative journeys.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It wasn’t always a smooth road. Pain and loss have been teachers in my life and it opened my eyes to how universal it is and how important it is to persevere, for myself and the hopes others have vested in me.
I lost my mother to diabetes during my freshman year of high school. My two older brothers were incarcerated. My father was in mourning and suffered a nervous breakdown. We were on the verge of being homeless. I was filled with uncertainty, anger and attended school on autopilot, going through the motions, while trying to make sense of my emotions.
It was thanks in large part, to the dynamic ecosystem of the Robert F. Wagner Jr. arts and tech high school I intended, that I can say without a doubt, saved my live. From the school’s Co-Directors, staff, teachers and professional artists who were invited to share their crafts, I was supported, nurtured, inspired and challenged. I was tasked with accepting the truth of my life then, to dream for more and work for it, because they believed I owed it to my self.
That saying “the only way out is through”, is true. I had to put a lot of blind faith and trust in elders, teachers and mentors, because even though they hadn’t necessarily suffered the same loses I had, they had the life experiences to know what coping mechanisms I needed to employ so I could come out on the other side clear headed and with a purpose to move forward.
Those tools helped me turn my pain into art during the Future Filmmakers Workshop I was accepted into during high school. That in turn, led me to NYU to major in Film and Television. That fed into many long term friendships that have since become family and a creative engine that has driven me ever since.
It has been making loss and pain mean something through art become the tools I’ve used to cope with the loss of my father to pancreatic cancer, and the untimely loss of a dear friend, one of my first at NYU, to a heart condition.
My road thus far has also been filled with near burn-outs and imposter syndrome. As I look back I smile, because I never folded. I kept my head up and got back to working up the momentum to create, because it’s the best thing I know how to do.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’ve always strived to live a life of creative service to pay forward the creative opportunities I’ve received, the faith people have place in me and the mentorship others have taken the time to offer me. I am a Writer/Director, specializing in being resourceful in bringing what ever tools I have to bare to reveal a story.
Whether it’s been adding the hats as an Editor, Cinematographer, Photographer and/or Producer, I’ve always sought out the heart behind every project. What drives the story? What is at stake for the characters in their world? To what lengths will they go to overcome their obstacles and how close can I get to its truth and authenticity to put on screen and share with a larger audience.
Over the last 20+ years, my work has included short films, documentaries, webseries and interviews with a wide array of profoundly impactful people. With the wide array of colorful characters I’ve engaged with over the years, colorful fictional characters like Batman is one I’m known for, in my love for the character’s philosophy of taking the pain of your worst day and using it to help others.
I’m most proud of the intimate projects I’ve produced with others. With each script or film, I’m overjoyed to get closer to the heart of the story and the layers of deeper meaning behind the story. What sets me apart from others is while I’ve amassed decades of skills working with other corporations, shows and series, I get to apply those skills with other artists in bringing their creative ambitions as well as my own to life.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
My advice is to take advantage of the age we live in. Never before has technology been so close to access. There is nothing creative you cannot learn through free online tutorials on Youtube and diving deeper on other sites at the fraction of the cost of most other financially prohibitive formalized institutions. While it may not replace those other educational avenues, it can be a foundation to build off of. Learn more of what you want to do. Learn more of what you don’t want to do. You’ll be surprised how many like minded individuals you’ll meet.
Constant practice with friends and family on personal projects hones the skills we’re trying to do professionally and organically builds community amongst your equals. Not to entirely take the place of conventional networking, which has its own useful purposes, I would always encourage people to grow with the group closest to you, seek them out, grow with them, challenge each other to sharpen your skills. Get to know people for who they are, not for what they can do for you, or you for them. Don’t be transactional.
Energy flows where attention goes, so the more attention you apply to what it is you aspire to do, the more you do it, the more others gravitate to you and the more opportunities arise for you to excel.
Seek to be of help to those who need your creative know how, your time, your manual labor skills. Most of life is showing up, so show up for yourself, show up for others and you’ll begin to build momentum and a reputation to be the “go-to person” for what it is you’re specializing in. Now while it may not always be the exact thing you’re exclusively aiming to do professionally, so many skills are shared between jobs, the more adaptable you are, the more you grow into your respective lane.
Contact Info:
- Website: iamgregpayton.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/directorgpayton/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@c3storiesproductions
- Other: https://vimeo.com/c3stories
Image Credits
Bahareh Ritter Casey Nimmer Starr Canon
