Finding Love
If you are lucky and fortunate enough to find your dream career at age 15 you are among the few. I remember thinking only about film and photography and my mind just exploded all the time with new ideas and concepts. I was in high school, I didn't have to worry about taxes, rent, keeping up with clients, managing overhead, etc. It was just focus on the art, there is nothing else.
When we chase that love it takes us through obstacles filled with success and failure. We learn a lot about ourselves and hopefully learn from this times of good and bad in business. Going into college it was the same mindset. I didn't have to worry about anything besides creating. It was a happy marriage, and I was esactic
4 Years Later
Fast forward to 2018. I've been honored to work with people such as Post Malone, Tidal, Sean Kingston, etc. It's been an unbelievable ride, but now the whole idea of creating isn't what I'm chasing all the way. I asked myself the other day "what am I doing this for?". Do I just wanna create pretty images for my career? How am I giving back to the world and doing my duty as a good human? These are questions that really stuck with me and left in a state of confusion. Yes, I live and eat filmmaking but I don't wanna just be making great looking films. I want to be creating things that are making someone feel a certain way and maybe encourage them to go do something or even put them in a state of reflection.
I recently watched 2 movies that made me come up with this answer. Her and The Spectacular Now.
Both of these reflections put me in a state of reflection
1. The state of social media and the side effects but positive and negative.
2. The look on relationships and what it really means to be in love with someone. Is it for the sex or because you really care about that person?
These are 2 things I question in my real life and to know I can be making films about that changed how I view my own work.
Call To Action
I feel that when we say we are "losing passion" or "Not feeling inspired". I don't think that means we are losing interest. In my eyes I see that it's us forgetting we are in an infinite world with infinite ideas and we are zoned in on just a small view of what we can create. The 18 year old parker would be so happy for what I've done and accomplished, which is great. Progression is awesome but figuring out how to make content and have it affect someone is something so powerful that I'm now chasing. Making pretty images is great but what are they for? Why not find a story and attach pretty images with it. In the near future I want someone to walk out of a movie theater or exit out of netflix and say that they felt something watching a film I made. That is what I'm after. My love has transitioned from making aesthetics to creating emotions, and I believe that's just me growing up and seeing the world in a new way.
Maintaining Love
The idea of keeping the fire going is a great mindset, but pausing and reevaluating is maybe more important. I feel like from 2016-2017 I just put my head down and worked. I didn't ask questions and I never wondered what my work was for. I just did it cause I loved it and that's totally acceptable but I believe it is our duty as humans and creatives to create things for the sake of human emotion. That is what our backbones are made of and is what keeps us so in touch with ourselves and with others.
Find your passion, work hard and reflect. It's a hard thing to do and you might even second guess yourself because what once seemed like the ideal future might have shifted and that's okay. No one ever said following your gut was a bad thing.