Today we’d like to introduce you to David Mansanalez.
David, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always loved movies, just never seen myself in the film industry. I’m originally from Northern California, Yuba City, a small farm town north of Sacramento. As a young adult, I didn’t have the financial backing to move to LA, so I did the next best thing I could think of and joined the U.S. Army.
After serving four years in the military and one deployment to Afghanistan, I decided to finally make my long-awaited move to Los Angeles. I attended the Los Angeles Film School, which gave me a huge platform to network with industry professionals and other students that were grinding hard to get in the business.
I started working on music videos and commercials that a few instructors and friends I met put me on. I worked with artist and athletes to name a few such as Lindsey Sterling, Andy Milonokis, Seidy Lopez, and Daniel Sandoval to working commercials and tv shows for AT&T, Mitsubishi, Google Play, Netflix and so forth.
After a few years, a few buddies and I decided to come together and create our own production company, 4 Ways Entertainment. We figured why work for others to create their vision when we are storytellers, and we can create a vision of our own. We just finished a short film titled Slipping Into Darkeness, starring Victor River, Noemi Gonzalez, Seidy Lopez, and Steve Villegas.
Slipping into Darkness is a story of Juanito “Jay” who is struggling to not follow in his father’s footsteps. Jay’s life changes dramatically when an old friend is released from prison, and they cross paths, stirring up a past life of bad habits.
With the weight of Jay’s financial and difficulty and family responsibility, he’s presented a choice that could devastate his life. We created this film to empower the Latino community and to break the cycle of GENERATIONAL INCARCERATION.
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?
Being a writer and producer has not been the smoothest of roads, but compared to the military, this has been cake. As a creator, the hardest part of being in the industry is not always having the financial means to get the projects done. Networking and pitching projects helps. I’m hoping to secure an agent by the end of the year, I know that will definitely make things a bit easier.
4 Ways Entertainment – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
4 Ways Entertainment was created by me and my good friends; Alex Ferrufino, Oliver Paradise, and John Mercado. We have all been working in the industry for quite some time. After a while, we decided to come together and create content we want rather than work on someone else’s vision.
We are currently focusing on Latino-American content, and that’s what’s going to help us stand out. Currently, there is a big push in the entertainment business for Latino content. My team and I want to be apart of the movement and help tell stories that shine the light on our culture and social issues and injustices.
Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?
This industry is constantly changing, I think in the next 5-10 years there will be a shift in the short form content. Filmmakers will have to learn to create shorter stories to appeal to the generation that like everything fast-paced. Obviously, the movie theater is an experience, so that will never change, but I do believe the short content, like skits, will get a bit more in-depth and add a lot more quality.
Contact Info:
- Address: 14416 Victory Blvd. Suite 100, Van Nuys, CA 91401
- Website: www.4waysentertainment.com
- Phone: 530-415-0510
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4ways_ent/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4waysentertainment/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/oh_davy/
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