In this installment of the Movie Talk Blog we take a look at filmmaker. He is a film Director, Editor, Compositor, Writer and Actor. He makes narrative Films, Music Videos and Commercials. His started his successful company INFANCINEMA and his career has taken off ever since. Let's take a look at what Phil has to say about his film making journey.
Before we take a read what he has to say you can take a look at one of his short films below.
What made you go into filmmaking? Is this something you wanted to do from a younger age?
I used to do extreme martial arts, so I filmed and edited our training sessions. This was my first experience in video making. My teachers at school in Germany reached out to me to help them do documentaries about the school and other subjects. At this time I was also pursuing a career as a personal trainer, which had always been my dream.
The first time I visited my brother Matt Tkocz ( www.mattmatters.com ) in Los Angeles, he showed me some Hollywood film studios. Right away I realized I was chasing the wrong dream. As soon as I got back to Germany I bought my first actual camera and started working hard on my other passion, filmmaking.
I watched several short films on your YouTube page. Can you tell people the difficulties of making some short films.
Being unique as a filmmaker is the biggest difficulty. What I want to create has to be different from what anybody else does. Many crew members I work with disagree with my vision and try to make it less crazy and more mainstream, which to me is like sabotaging a masterpiece. I have to work really hard to keep focused and stay true to myself.
What got you into making narrative films and who are some of your favorite filmmakers in the industry right now?
After college I was self-employed with my company Infancinema. For a few years I mostly worked on commercials, but it didn’t take me long to realize it wasn’t fulfilling to me. I became a filmmaker to tell my own crazy stories, not to promote somebody else’s stupid products. So I took a risk and started working on my narrative film skills. My role model in filmmaking is Jacky Chan. His unique style of action comedy has served as a big inspiration for my films.
Infancinema is your film company. What future projects do you have in the works?
Right now I'm working on an extended version of my latest action comedy short film, Room 325. This is a 15-minute short film, which is going to be shown in a theatre in Hollywood.
After that I'll start with my next super hero action comedy series, Homo Herotic. It's an observational cinema in a style rather similar to The Office, but it’s about the life of a superhero. After that I will start working on my other series, Love you more. It’s a 60-minute real-time drama web series about a boy trying to hide his girlfriend’s corpse from her parents.
If you can give some advice to the up and coming filmmakers what would it be?
If you want to pursue a career as a filmmaker--or as anything creative, really--quit your day job today. Don't waste any more of your time on something else. The world is full of people who are more talented than you, and you can't afford to be working less on your creative projects than they do. Use at least 16 hours a day to work on your dream. It’s an unbelievable rise, but it’s one you have to be willing to take. Are you ready to do everything for your dream? Or are you just one of those phonies who don't take their dreams seriously? This is your only chance to become who you want to be. You got one life. Use your time wisely.
You can watch more short films on Phil's youtube page here. You can find his social media links below.
IG - @infancinema
Twitter - @infancinema
facebook - @infancinema
Alex Owumi is a professional basketball player and bestselling author of Qaddafi's Point Guard and The Fire Raven series. You can view his website here.