Today we’d like to introduce you to Conor Long.
Conor, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It’s been pretty wild actually. Well, I was raised in Park City, Utah and grew up with the Sundance Film Festival, which is where my love of independent film emerged. I have been making my own movies and animations since I was a kid and never really stopped. After college, I was lucky to find some opportunities to shoot projects all over the world and spent a fair amount of time in China and Taiwan trying to get my first feature off the ground. Eventually, I came back to Utah, having learned a lot, but was unable to get that project made. So, I did what any rational person would do, and maxed out all of the credit cards I could get my hands on, sold my car and immediately dove into a different movie. The result was my first feature. A sci-fi comedy called POINT B.
After that, I went to graduate school at the University of Utah to make more films and to focus on animation. There I was able to direct more internationally and got to teach animation for a couple of years. I graduated in 2018 and finally felt ready to make the journey to LA, where I have been freelancing as an editor/animator, directing music videos, writing and pitching projects around town. It’s been great. My heart has always been in LA and it’s been nice to finally call it home.
Has it been a smooth road?
Bahaha… smooth as butter.
No, it’s been an incredibly bumpy road with far more failures than successes, but I have learned a whole lot. I mean, I moved to Taipei for a year with a script and pitch deck, with stars in my eyes and a dream to shoot the first American film entirely in Taiwan. The whole thing was a giant failure, and I came home with my tail between my legs.
I have had a producer gets drugged and go missing in Cambodia, we accidentally burned down a (small) forest in Latvia, I have had a close friend and lead actor of POINT B pass away before we finished shooting the movie so we had to find a way to make the film still work, and most recently had a covid outbreak onset.
I swear I am more unlucky than negligent, but all that is to say that the journey has had major bumps along the way. Just gotta keep your head up and not stray from the path.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I specialize in writing, directing and animation, and mostly make comedy and genre movies. My brother is a highly acclaimed special effects makeup artist, so we’ve been collaborating on some monster stuff lately.
I believe I am most proud of my diverse skillset. In Utah, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades. I know that’s not cool in LA, but I am proud to have worked in pretty much every department. I think it makes me a better director knowing exactly what I am asking people to do and having some degree of intimate understanding of their job.
I would say what separates me from the crowd is my Utah upbringing, my skills as a stop-motion animator and my experience in directing films all over the world. Directing people whose language I don’t speak and who don’t speak English is an incredibly rewarding and interesting challenge that I think has made me a better director over the years.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Oh man… that’s a tough question. I think titanic shifts are happening as they’ve been happening to the film industry over the past 15 years or so. Who knows exactly where we will be but based on trends in distribution that are only being amplified by the pandemic, the theaters are what I am most worried about. I am an art-house person at heart, so I am really worried about what will be happening to all the small theaters around the country. I am particularly worried about my beloved Tower Theater in Salt Lake City. My heart would break if they didn’t survive.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.conorclong.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conor_long/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/conor.long.3914/
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3707201/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1
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