Today we’d like to introduce you to Tigran Nersisian.
Hi Tigran, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Armenia, raised in Russia, and am currently based in Los Angeles. 80% of my life, since we moved to Russia, I have lived as an immigrant and I think that’s what formed my identity.
I have been a dreamer since I was very little. I liked to imagine things. When I turned 10, I started to pretend that I am a film director. That’s how it all started. I was making childish music videos and films, funny attempts in stop motion, and videos for school projects. At the age of 15, I was full-on dreaming that I would go to a film school one day. In the reality, however, my dream was far away from coming true. Cruel Russian provincial realities in combination with my family’s social status and financial situation made me believe that I have no chances to go to a film school to say nothing of becoming a filmmaker. While I understood and accepted these facts, the little kid inside me never stopped dreaming.
Things changed for me when my mom won the Green Card Lottery. It was right after I graduated from high school and was about to get admitted to a university to earn my bachelor’s degree in geography. My parents left everything they had in Russia, including my two older brothers and their lovely farm, and we moved to the United States. They did it so that their youngest son Tiko can get the opportunity to become a film director. Since then, I have never quit hustling.
My first big project in the U.S. was an international YouTube show called “RusAme”. I conducted social experiments in the U.S., while my best friend, Ivan, did so in Russia. The show quickly became popular on YouTube, but I realized that my real passion was filmmaking.
That led me to apply to UCLA School of Theater Film and Television.
I still had the mindset that I am not good enough to get admitted to this school, but a friend of mine, actor and producer David Garelik, believed in me. When I told him my story and how we moved to the states, he said “dude, you’re in”. A few months after that, I got accepted to UCLA TFT with a full-ride scholarship. That’s when my mindset changed.
My time at the film school went quite fast. I graduated from UCLA with my thesis film, “Out of Mind” which exposed the stigma of mental illness in the Armenian community. The latter was selected to various film festivals and has received multiple awards. Inspired by this successful experience, I decided to make another film with a similar scale of production but this time in Russia. I wrote the script, secured funding, put together a crew, and cast the actors, but Covid-19 changed my big plans. Thus, we indefinitely postponed the production. It put me down. I was prepping for this film for three years, and I had big hopes for it. Nevertheless, this led me to find something much more significant and valuable.
It was late March of 2020; two weeks into the pandemic. I was bored, confused, and had spent too much time with myself. I also wanted to make something extraordinary. Limitations pushed my mind to come up with expressive visuals that communicated my feelings, emotions, worries, and memories. I began shooting those visuals alone in my bedroom. At some point, I was doubting if I would be understood, but then I decided to make the film just for myself. That decision gave me complete freedom. When I started showing the completed film to people, the reactions were extraordinary. I received a lot of praise for the film, and a friend of mine who is a cinematographer told me that I have found my style. It is one of the most important things for a filmmaker.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A filmmaker’s journey is meant to be packed with obstacles and challenges. It’s natural in a way. I am a mountain biker, and I always compare achieving something with riding a steep mountain. The nicer the view at the top, the harder the climb. The same is relevant for making films.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have high standards for my work, and I am a perfectionist. It definitely makes things much more complicated, but in art films, that’s what helps me achieve the atmospheres and feelings I am going for. Currently, I am creating my third art film about the feelings of success and failure. Once completed, I am planning to combine it with the other two films “Tiko” (2020) and The Pain (2021) and make it a trilogy. I am also working on a short documentary about my hometown Ashtarak. My work is far away from the mainstream, and my audience is very small. Though, when showing my films to people, I can see in their eyes that something is happening in them. That’s the most rewarding part, and that’s what motivates me to continue making films.
Mental illness is one of the biggest themes in my work. It’s pretty much in all my films. It’s something that I am dealing with on daily basis, and because of that, that’s what I talk about in my films. Depression feels nasty in real life, but it might look quite fascinating when transferred into a visual correctly.
My biggest passion besides making films myself is flying drones for other filmmakers. I know drones are overused these days. They are forcibly put in films, commercials, music videos. However, when used thoughtfully, filmmakers can get new perspectives with drones. I use it in my films very often, but I develop the shots in a way that they don’t look like drone shots.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
So many lessons learned that I don’t even know which one is the most important. But the most relevant to me today is that I should always trust my instincts and push no matter how hard it is.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: byulorfilms.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/byulor
