Today we’d like to introduce you to Brent Bishop.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m a film director, animator, and multi-instrumentalist musician. My work merges all of this into a single vision, and I’ve always been motivated to learn new art forms, instruments, and techniques. In the same way, a chef wants to get cozy with as many recipes and spices as possible, I’m continually hungry for new ways to more completely express myself. I’m also not afraid of mistakes or being a beginner at something, and I think that destigmatizing that – while simultaneous having this desire for excellence – is part of how the Renaissance Man thing got started for me.
And looking back – I now see I was fascinated by all these art forms before I even really understood what they were. For example, when I was a wee tyke in Pennsylvania, I used to do this sketchy climb inside our closet to snatch my mom’s 35mm photo camera. I’d set up my toys – dinosaurs, trucks, whatever – into interesting scenes and take pictures of them. I’d also sneak packs of matches and hairspray to add real explosions to the scenes.
(Kids – take note: aerosols and alcohol-based sprays create EXCELLENT pyrotechnics. Gasoline is messy and smelly, and you won’t be ready for it until you’re at least a teen and have mastered lighter fluid.)
Anyway, at the time, I thought nothing of these little photo sessions – but I now realize I was setting up shots and directing! And in my early lust for animation, I’d make flip books and get other kids to create more to add to my stories. Again, with hindsight – I was building a little Elementary school production company.
Likewise, with music, I used to take all our pots and pans, yarn, sewing tape measures, and floor lamps to construct a badass little drum set. This was my first foray into music, and I stuck with it long enough to convince my parents that if they wanted their kitchen goods back, they needed to buy me a real drum set. Actually, they got me a crappy toy drum at first, but I stuck with that too.
So even as a kid, I did whatever I had to do to follow my creative compulsions and get these fully-formed ideas that were booming in my mind out into the world. With time, my access to skills and tools has improved – but I guess I’m still tormented by the limitations! Either way, I’m moved by this creative mandate to express my imagination, and I’ll learn whatever I have to learn to express it!
One evolution that came with maturity was the concept that art can inspire positivity, open-mindedness, and change. During my years at UCLA Film, I warmed up to the idea of using beauty, humor, absurdity – even shock value – to communicate positive messages. In my work with filmmaking mastermind Gregory Tuzin (bishoptuzin.com), we’d explore these themes in narrative films and music videos, using comedy, beauty, character, and surrealism to convey positivity.
Please tell us about Just Sayin’! Comedic PSAs.
Just Sayin’! Comedic PSAs (JustSayinPSA.com) showcases comedians, actors, athletes, and public figures speaking out about the causes and issues close to their heart. It’s funny, heartfelt, and really feels ALIVE. Having made a lot of surreal work in the past, it’s a little unnerving to make something so direct and vulnerable. But we live in an “all hands on deck” time, politically, socially, and culturally, and it’s been fulfilling to create art in the name of activism.
I’m moved by all the comedians, late night hosts, and public figures using their platform to promote good causes, and I was inspired to create these short, sweet, beautiful little soapboxes for their worthy ideas. And hopefully, it creates a sense of community for anyone who believes in equality, inclusion, the environment, and SPEAKING UP.
So while the oppressive bozos of the world are busy carving themselves a lasting place on the wrong side of history, we can use our talents and passion to blast a little sunshine up everyone’s ass in the name of positive change! That, in a nutshell, sums up where I started and where I am now.
Great, 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?
The challenges I’ve faced along the way are the same challenges I face now. Maybe it’ll always be that way, with the bar simply raised each time my game is bumped to the next level. It boils down the challenges of creating the best, most authentic, most moving art that I can, and sharing it with as many people as I can.
So the struggle looks like this: how can I push myself and my project (whatever it is) further creatively? Technically? Where am I getting lazy with it or taking shortcuts? What rock hasn’t been overturned? How do I pay for it? How do I get people on board? How do I value it and myself enough to wake up with the fire that THIS HAS TO HAPPEN?
And maybe most importantly – how do I get the world to see/hear/experience it? When I was young, the obstacles started with “how do I get a real drum?” That same obstacle, blown up to current proportions is “how do I finance a feature film so that we have the best possible cast, crew, location, art department, marketing rollout, etc.?”
Sometimes confronting those obstacles has gone smoothly, sometimes it has been a tooth-and-nail slog. The details, I think, are less important than the realization that each new achievement will put my face to face with new challenges, and what matters is my commitment to the reaching that vision.
I realize that sounds kinda simplistic, put when shit hits the fan in the middle of a project, and everything starts screaming “YOU DON’T REALLY THINK THIS WILL WORK, DO YOU?!?” The only thing that really matters is whether I say YES or NO. So my job is to stay in the YES. And that’s also the message I strive to communicate.
What makes your artistic voice unique?
I’m a film director and a multi-instrumentalist musician, and there are a few things that make me unique. My creative drive is part of it. I’m making film, art, and music every day. It’s like eating, sleeping, or breathing. Except that I also push myself in the creative department. Sometimes that means pushing an idea, or sometimes, as I described earlier, it means learning a new instrument to express an idea. Either way, that mojo is inside, and IT’S GOTTA COME OUT!
I think my creative voice is also unique. My work is both absurd and poignant, comedic and dramatic, carefully orchestrated and wildly chaotic. It’s cute, cuddly, and filled with subtle nuance, but it’s also dark, irreverent, and blunt. That voice gets injected into all aspects of a project – script, cinematography, sound, music, art, wardrobe, dance – whatever! It’s not about control, really, I just LOVE all these aspects, and treat each step as an opportunity for collaboration, new ideas, and reinforcing the vision.
Being a multi-instrumentalist musician is also unique. At least my brand of it. I sing I play guitar, bass, drums, piano, harmonica, mandolin, uke, etc, I’ve been trained in sitar, tabla, and Balinese Gamelan, and the tsoura (a stringed Mediterranean instrument). My music reflects this worldwide buffet, so it includes lots of different styles, from rock to bluegrass to gypsy jazz to inventive collages of sound. And that gets looped through my creative voice, and somehow it comes out as a cohesive vision, rather than a puke-fest of things that don’t belong together. (Right…? Guys???)
Finally, I specialize in collaboration. I love creating a team and pushing/inspiring/adapting until we’re getting FUCKING RAD results. I love creative partnerships like my co-writing/directing with Gregory Tuzin, where we consciously push to get the absolute best out of each other. So whether it’s film or music, I put a lot of attention into creating an environment where everyone thrives and feels empowered to bring their best to the game.
My goal is to have everyone (including myself) walk away feeling filled and fulfilled, and surprised at all the ways in which we went beyond our original vision. And when that happens, I think the audience can feel the result — a little extra tingling glow that’s more than the sum of its parts.
You can check out my film and music at brentbishop.com.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Hmm… Lots of good things come to mind. The one that feels relevant to this interview is that I used to LOVE going on that ride inside the big iconic ball at EPCOT Center. It used to blow my mind in there – the atmosphere they created, the story, the notion of the creative spark spanning eons of time – from cavemen to the Michelangelo to visions of the future.
And even as a little kid, I was smitten with their craftsmanship. How do you make those little floating stars? What’s inside those animatronics? How do you create those fire effects in the burning library at Alexandria? As an imaginative little kid, that place was pretty much heaven.
So I used to love to go in there and dream – dream about the past, the future, and about crafting whole worlds that people can experience. All of which was their intended effect, so…. Bravo EPCOT. Nailed it.
Contact Info:
- Website: JustSayinPSA.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justsayinpsa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustSayinPSA/?modal=admin_todo_tour
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JustSayinPSA
- Other: brentbishop.com
Image Credit:
Gregory Tuzin, Chloe Weaver, Carissa Dorson, Keith Pikus
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