We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dylan Baumgartner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dylan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I first knew that I wanted to pursue a creative career back when I was eleven or twelve years old. Guitar Hero II and School of Rock had come out around that time and I think the exposure to that combination lead me to wanting to play guitar and perform in a band and I’ve been involved in musical projects for the last sixteen years of my life. But as a kid I was also interested in how movies are made. I would watch all the bonus features and listen audio commentaries on my favorite DVDs like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. In middle school and high school my friends and I would cobble together these comedy sketch videos on our flip phones, also this was before social media so it was just for our own enjoyment. That eventually lead to me attempting to attend film school after I graduated high school. I dropped out of film school because I couldn’t afford it, but when I moved back home I still kept making short films on my own which lead to me doing music videos and live session videos for local bands that I’ve become friends with over the years. I still don’t know exactly what I want to do specifically like be a musician or a director, but I know that I enjoy working on creative projects and making connections with other creative people.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I play guitar and for the most part fill the role as manager for the band Slingshot and I also run a video production label called Reelverse Productions where I make music videos, live performance videos and live sessions. I also run a magazine series called Reelverse Magazine that highlights local artists, musicians, filmmakers and small business owners. I really don’t like not being busy so I always have something going on.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part about working on any artistic project is to see how other people interact with it after it’s finished. Sometimes it’s crazy to me how something that was once just a thought in my mind has an effect on someone I don’t know. Like years ago I did one of my first music videos, it was the first one that I was doing it completely by myself. I had storyboarded all the shots with poorly drawn stick figures and I just filmed it on my iPhone because couldn’t afford my own camera. After getting all the shots, editing and publishing the video, I saw a video on instagram of the artist’s little niece reacting to seeing her uncle on the TV and seeing the joy on that kid’s face and knowing that in a small way I had an impact was rewarding enough. But I also did get paid the last $300 I needed to buy the car I was saving up for at the time, so that was a nice reward too. Thanks West of 33!

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I think my views on NFTs can be summed up in this quote from Sam Rami’s 2002 action/sci-fi film Spider-Man: “He stinks and I don’t like him”

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelverseproductions/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reelverseproductions518
• Other: Slingshot Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slingshot.band/

Image Credits
photos 1,3 and 4 by @lowbudgetproductions.lbp main photo and band photo by @joe_joseph_k_photography other photo by @destroy.your.brain