Meet Lilton Stewart III of November 11th Pictures

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lilton Stewart III.

Lilton, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born November 11th, 1980 in a small town called Jennings in St. Louis, Missouri.

My journey with film started fairly early when I was in junior high school. I had this game on the Super Nintendo called Mario Paint, and I would make cartoon shorts with it by recording scenes on VHS then pausing the recording until the next cell was finished and record again. I would take the tapes to school and play them in my social studies class.

Mr. Lewis was always cool with taking a moment out of the class to showcase my latest work. I eventually got into music, thinking that I couldn’t go anywhere with my animated film talents. I had a fairly nice run as a rap artist and eventually started a recording studio called YBM Studios. I would record local artist songs and would include mixtape cover artwork and music videos. I got really good at doing ultra-low cost quick turn-around rap videos.

I eventually got a second recording studio up and running in a mall and was quickly making way in the St. Louis entertainment market. Due to some personal life failures, I thought about moving out of the city and starting a new life. One day I found out that they were bringing an Art Institute to St. Louis and that it would feature a film program. I quickly enrolled, and in July of 2012, I begin my educational journey to becoming a filmmaker.

I had no idea where I would end up with it, but film had always been a part of my life. Being someone who was always about finding the best financial route to a career, I gravitated to Cinematography even though Writing and Directing was my passion. I graduated in 2015 with my Bachelors in Digital Film & Video Production.

I went on to make a living shooting wedding’s, events, corporate videos, and even short films. I wanted to get more out of the skill I was sharpening, so I went to Hollywood, CA and took a week-long master class at the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers). I learned a lot but even better made a ton of connections with people I still work with to this day.

Eventually, I knew LA is where I and my company, November 11th Pictures needed to be so my family planned accordingly and made the drive here to Los Angeles, California.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it has been far from easy, and this journey isn’t for enthusiast filmmakers. I lost a lot of friends and family that I was super close to because I chose to work on being a better me over being a stagnate me.

Upon arriving here in Los Angeles, my family had to sleep in a car with our dogs, wash up in Wal-marts, sign up for weekly showers at shelters. We got scammed out of a home we tried to rent for almost all of the money we had. Then I had to go to court to prove that we weren’t squatting in the house and had been ripped off.

We eventually found a motel in Inglewood to stay at, but it was overrun with addicts, dealers, and prostitutes. We had kids, and this was not what we had in mind for them coming out here. We found help from family members who allowed us to stay in their home while we get on our feet. To this day, the struggle is still very strong with us.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with November 11th Pictures – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
November 11th Pictures is an all in one production company that focuses heavily on creative narrative storytelling. We handle literally almost every aspect of production at a low cost, so clients don’t have to worry about searching near and far to assembles crews, get gear, or worry about post-production.

We have a Writers Room with over six writers to aid clients in turning ideas into treatments and screenplays. We have industry standard Camera, Lighting, and Sound equipment along with crews ready to aide in the production side of projects. In addition, we also provide post-production work, including sound design/mixing, coloring, etc. I myself Direct, Write, DP, Edit & Color.

As a company, we are proud of being able to provide quality work for creatives whose budgets don’t meet those that bigger companies demand. The biggest thing that sets us apart from others is our cost to quality ratio… No one can match it.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I want for November 11th Pictures to start producing our own feature films. We can produce projects for a fraction of normal cost because we house and own all of our own equipment and all of our writing and production is all in-house. We are working on a few features that we hope to start producing in 2019, and hope that people will see and support our efforts in the industry.

Pricing:

• Writing (Treatments & Screenplays): Starting at $75 (per page)
• Cinematography (No Gear): $325 (day rate)
• Cinematography (With Gear): $500 (day rate)
• Sound Recording (With Gear): $250 (day rate)
• Gaffer (No Gear): $325 (day rate)
• Gaffer (With Gear): $450 (day rate)
• Full Production (Crew & Gear): Starting at $1,200 (day rate)
• Post Production (Edit + Sound + Color + Master): $150 (per completed minute of footage)

Contact Info:

• Phone: 314-339-NOV1
• Email: nov11thpictures@gmail.com & liltonstewart3@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nov11thpictures/ & @liltonstewart3
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nov11thpictures/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nov11thpictures

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