B L shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi B, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
I tend to lose my track of time whenever I’m really deep into a project. I enter this sort of obsessive state of mind where with each new accomplishment within the project feels like it’s getting closer and closer to being completed. It’s a real drug, the feeling of your projects that were once just imaginative thoughts, being turned into reality piece by piece. Really reminds me why I love what I do, bring creative works to life is a truly addicting feeling.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a filmmaker, I’ve been making short films since 2019 as part of my horror anthology series called, ReflectedBrain. I’d describe my style as a form of mixed media, lots of green screening, 2D, 3D animating, compositing, all combined together to bring my visual vision to the screen. To me, sound design is very important in the film medium, so I try my upmost best in that regard to produce really creepy and effective sounds, depending on the scenes. I also produce my own film musical scores, unless stated otherwise in the credits.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who taught you the most about work?
What taught me most about my work was movies themselves. I’ve been exposed to movies all my life and very early into my life. Now that I think about it, it’s insane what movies I was exposed to early on. But I think watching movies really helped me understand the elements of film storytelling, I remember being around 7 making my own little movies with my vhs camera and action figures. As bad as they might have been, in my head it was amazing, and I had already had the basic understandings of story structure. Instead of playing with my figures like a normal kid I would pretend they were playing into a fully made three act structured movie.
Believe watching movies can teach you a lot as a pursing filmmaker. I never went to film school or even studied film, the way I frame my shots, tell a story, edit, it’s all just comes second nature to me. I know people learn their skills and craft in a different manner, but this is how I learned.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
I believe failing hard is our biggest teacher. Whenever failure comes my way or something doesn’t turn out the way I envisioned, I try to learn, adapt, reshape, see what works and doesn’t. It’s easy to right off your work and say “Well I’m making art for me only” and in a way yes I do make art for my satisfaction, however part of that satisfaction is having people enjoy what I make. It’s an often struggle of mine with my own short films, finding that balance of making them engaging for an audience. Sucks having the short film you put in so much work in having little engagement, that’s just how it is at times, having to learn how to adapt without sacrificing your vision and stand up for your art. Overall failure has taught me more than success ever has.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m totally committed to my ReflectedBrain production project no matter how long it takes. I know there’s just an audience of horror fans waiting, wanting these types of horror. Horror is a popular diverse genre with as many sub-genres as one’s creative mind can conjure up. I plan to setup my series this upcoming year by getting actors in, writing more longer stories with characters involved, have a lot of creative ideas just waiting to be structured and having a cast of actors to collaborate would be a huge elevation to my storytelling. I plan on moving into feature films eventually of course still under my ReflectedBrain brand. Might be a long journey but I don’t care how long it takes, the journey there is the fun part after all.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
I feel like I am doing what I was born to do, at a very young age even though I didn’t fully exactly know what being a filmmaker or director was, I still had that imaginative drive make stories. I don’t see myself doing anything career wise, well my backup plan has always been to move to a small town as a detective, but I don’t see that realistically happening.
I wish I had a drive to do something “normal” career wise, it really does suck looking like a loser in the public eye while you’re trying your best at this artistic craft. I don’t wish to be “artistic” it’s just what I am sadly, or fortunately, all a matter of perspective.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reflectedbrain/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reflectedbrain
Image Credits
Reflected Brain
