Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Ray McCann.
Hi Nick, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been directing short films, commercials, web series, and music videos for about ten years now. I was fortunate early on to work in the camera department as a camera assistant and then a DP. This got me “in the room” with professional photographers who were all beginning to have to direct, whether they wanted to or not. I got a front row seat to what filmmaking requires and the network to grow within. My confidence grew and ultimately began pitching commercials as a director. Looking back it was such a gift as I always just thought I would work in the camera department to keep the lights on and then work on my own film and music projects on the weekends. I was approached to develop a script of mine into a feature soon after but ultimately it wasn’t the right time. I was still learning, logging hours, figuring out how to lead a team technically, socially, and emotionally. I wanted to take directing seriously because it felt like such a gift to be offered the role in the first place.
Commercial work allows me to build my life, and when I’m really lucky, support my own projects including a short film in Puerto Rico and my musical project The Bigst Hands. There is so something important about learning how to show humility, spend other people’s money successfully, execute a concept, and maintain professionalism at all costs. Those skills will make all the difference.
Currently I’m pitching a feature film and, while that world is different from advertising, the need for patience and attention to detail remains the same. Financing, distribution, and copyright law all feel so far from the act of “filmmaking” but
knowing that world is crucial. When not tangled up in all that I also print my photographs in limited editions and have a gallery show in the works and some music coming out on April 4th, an instrumental single called “Gottogo.”
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
“Content creation” is so challenging for artistic people. There needs to be a whole lot more time contemplating a creative idea than the social media world wants to allow. I cringe when artists refer to themselves as a “content creator.” That breaks my heart. Y’all are artists! Shout it! Be proud. “Content creation” props up a broken neoliberal capitalist system that makes money for a wealthy few far more than it celebrates self expression.
Whether they mean to or not, many artistic people prioritize a social media schedule over their craft. Even the act of just thinking about likes and follows takes you away from your unique inner monologue. The focus must always be on your ideas and feelings. I do my best to share my projects, ideas, even short clips of me playing music online, only when they are fully baked.
A good mental exercise is asking yourself “Would I still be doing what I’m doing if the internet, and fame, and money, didn’t exist?”
More times than not awards can end up being more of an obstacle than a blessing. To see and feel the jealousy, self-doubt, and hurtful behavior peers go through because they didn’t receive recognition is truly heartbreaking to me. It’s important to “feel the feels” but then keep moving forward and know your worth. An “award” is so fleeting. Attention goes elsewhere instantly, especially now, and that’s ok. Don’t dwell on it and just get back to your craft.
While artistic people are guided by a well-tuned sensitivity, they are some of the toughest people I know. Artists can take criticism and defeat at levels most people can’t even imagine. Artists can’t help but feel and grow, that’s magical to me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I have been consumed with music and film for most of my life. Jazz band turned into guitar lessons, then playing locally in Baltimore, MD and on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD. My high school photography class was the gateway drug to my love of filmmaking. Developing film and messing around with Photoshop and iMovie set my imagination on fire.
Time-based mediums fascinate me the most. Time itself is our friend and our foe, at my best and at my worst time is usually the culprit. I find the steady beat of a song, or the pace of a film to be very soothing or playfully jarring. A meter is set to measure time and experience a feeling. It’s a promise in a way. “For X amount of time let’s devote our attention to this.” It could be five seconds or 5 hours.
Historically and culturally film and music lean on one another. Many major moments in American music history are captured for future generations through film, songs are inspired by movies, and most modern films rely on a musical score, or at the very least, a sound mix that further establishes the world of the story. Great dialogue has rhythm, the wind has a musical quality.
Great songs and films tap into a feeling instantaneously. Our bodies react to a sound and an image, we get hijacked, how incredible is that? I’ll spend my life figuring all that out, sounds great.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I like holding myself to always watching, or listening, to any piece of music or film once all the way through no matter what. Mainstream stuff all the way down to the most eccentric “fringe” work. It’s way too easy to stay in your comfort zone as you get older and more experienced. How counterintuitive is that? I’m comforted knowing that there’s a whole world of ideas outside of my own. The only way to stay inspired is to be broadsided by something you may have otherwise not come across. I like finding similarities in vastly different pieces of art and expression. I must prove myself wrong whenever possible.
The flip side of course is close-mindedness, but what I truly “dislike” would be how people are manipulated to divide one another through art. Media is so good at drawing lines in the
sand while also being the best at erasing them. What a paradox. The responsibility lands on who’s at the top, who has the microphone. Let’s try passing that microphone around a bit more.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nickraymccann.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/nickraymccann
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/thebigsthands
- Other: www.nickraymccannstudio.com
Image Credits
Nick Ray McCann
