Meet Ty Brueilly

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ty Brueilly.

Hi Ty , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I didn’t start diving into the Los Angeles/Hollywood scene until early 2023, when I got the opportunity of a lifetime, which was to premiere my experimental work, ‘A Night In Charlotte With Sweeney Ty’ at the world famous TCL Chinese Theatres and I have been working in and around Hollywood ever since, flying back and forth from there to my homestate of North Carolina…Asheboro to be exact.

However, my filmmaking journey began on a serious level in 2016 when I was 36 years old. I had recently moved back to North Carolina from living in Changshu, China for several years. In 2016 I was married for less than a year and was mentally dealing with two close family losses. My last grandparent passed away while I was overseas and my closest Aunt died from an overdose early in 2016. Those myriad of both those really positive and negative emotions were supreme catalysts for some very profound works.

There are many ways to cope, and my background with music and photography up to that point really taught me that creating art is by far the most effective way for me to hash out those feelings enabling me to put them out in front and battle them through the form of artistic expression.

I already had some decent cameras from my photographic work. I was being published online at NatGeo on a weekly basis from my travel photography, but I never really made the transition to learn what that camera could do film-wise until our honeymoon. And when I did that I was frustrated because I didn’t even know how to properly maneuver around the auto-focus. I thought I was capturing some really great footage for my wife and I to look back on and enjoy, but instead most of the time you hear the mechanical clicking and zooming of the auto-focus. It’s totally laughable now, but not when we first started reviewing that footage.

Fast forward to Fall of 2016, where all those aforementioned emotions needed an outlet. So I decided to establish a lore and world, I created characters and wrote a script, found a location and shot my first film, ‘Shucks’ which was purposely unpolished, heavy on symbolism and addiction awareness with inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy, in particular the Inferno segment.

I had the coaching of Odell Payne & Shamus Coneys who are legendary around our area in the field of filming, both had shot music videos for me in the past, which really helped springboard me into taking on this production. Odell really let me be hands on with him for projects we did for Relay For Life and The City Of Asheboro, and taught me the best settings, lens and sound for what I needed. Shamus allowed me into his office to watch the editing process, which he always related to music production, so he was really speaking my language on bringing something I was familiar with as an example on how to use those same techniques in video, then suddenly it wasn’t so overwhelming and very doable, I’ll always have so much love and respect to both of them for that, and honored to still call them friends to this day and Odell even shot two of my most recent music videos.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
With an extensive background in other forms of art, it hasn’t been as rough of a road as it could have been, because some of those lessons you learn are transferable, and can work in the realm of filmmaking as well.

For instance, all those “dues” I had to pay in music, by putting in the work and finding a network, demographic and fanbase oftentimes moves with me to those others artforms that I’ve been adding to my repertoire.

So most of the time the people who dig my music, also enjoy my photography, my fashion and my films, so I don’t necessarily have to start from the beginning every time I decide to create different art, most of the time they are along for the ride and support.

However, there is always the struggle of finding financial backing. I say this in almost every interview, that the “starving artist” thing is absolutely real and can last a long time. There are ways to combat that, most certainly, but it’s a double edged sword. I’ve seen the most creative and imaginative artists move solely into commercial work because that’s how they can make a living and that can suck your soul dry of anything creative because you can spend all that time and effort into something like that and get burnt out to where you don’t want to create anything artistic again.

I was close to that myself, during the pandemic and shortly after I was filming a ton of advertising, commercials, political campaigns, social activism pieces, other random documentary works and music videos. I didn’t want to pick up the camera for myself for a while, then I decided to not be available for hire for an indefinite period of time, which I still am in. I’ll pick up work from people I truly admire, believe in and want to help, but I’m done with the rest for now.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have embraced the title of Director more in the last two years, because I feel I have actually earned that. I was hesitant before but now I am very confident in being that, I feel like I have shown and proved that in many fronts of the art world.

However at the very core of me, I am a visual and audio artist. I do a whole lot, but I learn to condense what I do into a title that isn’t so overwhelming.

I have a 20+ year history in music; both a live performer and a recording artist, mainly hip-hop, but has evolved into film scoring and pop/folk in the last decade. I have released 8 solo albums, a handful of collaborative albums with labelmates, a conceptual album, 4 compilation albums, 6 instrumental albums and a Christmas album. I have performed in over a dozen countries, boasting over 2,000 performances. I’ve shared the stage or opened up for some of the best. I also have an extensive background in photography, fashion design, social activism, event programming/directing and teaching. That in a nutshell already separates me from others.

With all that being said, I’d rather focus on my film work. I am the most proud of the cinematic world I created for ‘Shucks.’ We are currently ten titles deep into this lore. Now, I want to make it clear, that these are not direct sequels as one of the more recent reviews stated. These are additions to an ever going story. I really don’t want them to be called sequels, but I am not mad at you if you do!

‘Shucks’ was originally premiered at the Sunset Theatre in my hometown of Asheboro, N.C. on Veteran’s Day weekend in 2017. I really had no idea what kind of reception the film would get. It’s a silent black and white film. But it does have a score, I didn’t realize how much I would have to clarify that when I made it, lol! Like I mentioned before, it has heavy symbolism with addiction awareness as it’s main focus, but it doesn’t slap you in the face with it. It’s hidden at times.

There is also tones of suicide awareness and PTSD awareness, which in a bold move from me, was the reason I personally and purposefully chose Veteran’s Day weekend for the premiere. So with all that said, I was nervous about how it was going to be received, for the most part it was positive and has opened up hundreds of conversations about it, which art should do.

Immediately following that we got a two year distribution deal with Amazon Prime, which was very difficult to do at that time on such an experimental and independent level. That really was all it took to get off the ground because before 2017 was over I got a call from Oaxaca film festival showing interest in the film. That eventually set up this incredible journey that my ‘Shucks’ cinematic world has been on these past 9 years, which like I said, at this point in my career is what I am most proud of and I specialize in giving my audience a “forever impression” from my rustract, gritty yet beautiful creations that have been called “eerie meets elegant.”

With the ten titles that have the ‘Shucks cinematic world’ has evolved into, the icing on that cake, is that after those have been shown in nearly 200 film festivals in the world with an accumulated 100+ awards in a dozen different categories, the original film, ‘Shucks’ is getting more momentum and exposure, finally having it’s long awaited and highly anticipated Hollywood Premiere at the world famous TCL Chinese Theatre later in February 2025! People are seeing the newer stuff and getting curious on where it all started at, which is a beautiful thing.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Timing is critical. Location is also just as critical. I am very hesitant to use the word luck, but just to be honest and aware, there has been a level of luck involved, but that only enchances what’s already in motion. I have yet to really fully understand if being put in these situations were a stroke of luck or if it was something more divine, such as destiny or fate. I don’t think I will ever know, but they more I am put into situations that have all the right components to level up, I feel more like it’s destiny and not luck.

Furthermore, I feel like luck is something that had a higher risk of failing but for some reason it didn’t. If that makes sense.
Kinda like going to the casino. It’s a high risk that you are going to lose, with many variables not in your control. So when you win, it because a level of chaos was in your favor and it becomes increasingly more difficult to do it again. Whereas, in life and business you have more availabilty to make sure all the ingredients and steps are there to ensure the success level you are going for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.filmandfashionbybrueilly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livebyacode/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ty-bru-b2b11866
• Twitter: https://x.com/TyBru
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MTTSTV
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ty-bru
• Other: https://linktr.ee/tybrueilly

Image Credits
All contributed photos from Film & Fashion by Brueilly