We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Thomas Petborisooth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Thomas, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
Happiness is an interesting concept lately. I feel happy when I get to be creative or express myself in the artistic form. But like all emotions and states of being, it can wax and wane based upon the circumstances this existence gives me. I’ve had a handful of jobs from door to door sales; although those may have been pyramid schemes now that I think of it, to spending most of my 20s in retail working with a lot of people from all ages and walks of life from holidays and peak shopping seasons. So I don’t think about going back… often.
I do think I am happier working in the small corners of the entertainment industry where I can, while I continue focusing my craft in my independent work and creative outlets. There have been times where I didn’t know if I wanted to be in the film industry anymore. They were projects where the creative teams kind of lost the plot of the enjoyment of making entertainment and just wanted to get the day done and appease their clients. There was a commercial that involved two large corporations promoting a huge franchise with Youtube influencers and their fans who volunteered to be on camera with them. The kid fans wanted to be on camera with their favorite YouTuber and the client and creative didn’t care. I was the second assistant director so I had to deliver a lot of unfortunate news or express the miscommunications. It was awkward, the influencers felt bad because they also let their managers do all the talking which ended up alienating their young fans. It was never a long feeling, just a sourness that made me realize that I enjoyed projects where the crew and creative actually cared about the whole production process as well as how everyone wasn’t just in it for the pay.
What it gave me was a standard to follow and enforce on my projects my priority to surround myself with people who respect the project we are working on. Of course, I am not in full control of the projects I can work on, yet. So, when push comes to shove, I just remain as civil as possible while mitigating confusion and frustrations. Even with the state of the industry now, I remember that I am doing the work that the kid version of me would love to just witness.
Thomas, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Professionally, I have made a living working in Production, Set Dressing, and Post Production with some stints of Directing, which has always been the goal. I was lucky enough to have friends in college that graduated before me who moved to LA before I did, so the summer I graduated from college studying Film Production and Theory, I hopped on a feature film, Street Level.
I went from being on set to the office from commercials to music videos, to indie films, and then wanted to experience more parts of the industry. I played around in Post Production Accounting and found my way into network television with props and set dressing. Recently, went to Manage a Post Production team for an Emmy Winning show Nick News and directing Network Interstitials for broadcast television called Nick News Breaks.
The work I’ve been most proud of have been the projects I worked on outside of the paid work. I’ve written and directed over the last 10 years short films, tv pilots, and webseries like PA’s on Youtube out of my own pocket to win dozens of awards and meet countless new collaborators. The projects were the comedic musings of friends and comedians while the ones I had a hand in writing were machinations of my own processes in loss and learning to reconcile the decisions I made choosing an artistic career and moving to a whole new city such as “Bags and Busses”, “Half a Glass” and recently “What’s Wrong with Her?”. Another one of my favorite things I’ve helped create is podcast named Nerd On! The Podcast, that had guests from childhood enjoyment such as Kevin Conroy and Andrea Romano from Batman The Animated Series, Jeff Nimoy and Lex Lang from Digimon, and Writers for Marvel Comics like Rob Liefeld and Jim Starlin. This show got enough attention to get us to cover and get exclusive access at E3, Power Morphicon, and San Diego Comic Con.
I think the thing the sets me apart from others in my field is that I’ve made a lot of my bones doing the below the line work before being given a chance at the above the line work, so most of the time, I can’t turn off the need to make sure everyone isn’t over worked and feels respected in their field. So as much as I do have a very singular vision in my stories, I make sure everyone feels heard and part of the storytelling and not just some cog in the machine. If there’s one thing I’d want future clients to know is that I care about the human experience first, how we treat each other, how my message empowers or nourishes my audience to do something positive after they receive the message. There is a fun and whimsy in stories and creative outlets, and if it can be also honed into a firm direction that engages people to feel like they can make a difference or curiosity sparks self discovery, then I have done my job.
The thing I’d want followers or fans to know about me and what I do is to engage with the work. I am not too interested in the surface level reviews, or judgments, and I wouldn’t do the same for any of my fellow creatives. So if I sound didactic or pushing an agenda, I probably am. I alway relate art to food or relationships. I can scarf down food or chase down attractive people, but if I don’t take time to engage and honor the origins and intentions of these essential parts of life (food and companionship) then I am just an animal, not a human that is blessed with reflection and experiencing the world.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
We need to learn how to stop letting the algorithm dictate our media diets. There’s that saying “We are what we eat” and the algorithms all know that. In a machine learning time, it’s even more important to practice cognizance so we can realize when we need to disconnect and make some decisions for ourselves. All in all, these would help promote discovery of our own instead of letting the algorithm push “oh you like this, try this?” whereas there is so many artists and creatives out there that are just waiting for even one person to enjoy their work and art.
Because of my podcast I have been able to talk with people I would never imagined and learn so much and have the privilege of being part of the reason they enjoy the world we have. Because of film festivals and indie theaters there has been so many films I’ve never would’ve seen if I stayed comfortable just letting the algorithm press play for me.
Just taking a moment to go outside the comfortable and discover something else outside or in whatever app just opens a world. Watching a film that you always wanted to check out but just stuck to the same old because it’s easier watch something you already have is the death of new original authentic work and that goes for all forms of human art.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think non-creatives have a prismatic view of the world people in entertainment live in. But that probably works both ways. The best I can say to try and bridge that, is to express any type of love that requires us to reexamine the world and how we experience and engage it, and how it becomes a life long journey. This is something universal, building a career, starting a family, loving a life partner, it’s never the same, there are small or sometimes cataclysmic shifts and changes we observe, endure and embrace.
Figuring out you want to be a creative is just taking the reins in the relationship of creation and consumption and becoming a producer in that world. Instead of always buying at the grocery store or food market, you grow your own garden. Maybe you want to see something you’ve never seen before.
The actual journey is the stupid suffering that rich people have romanticized (maybe not rich people but whales of clients) because there is a lot of self-doubt. “Am I good enough?” “Is this worth it?” “What if people hate it?” “How will I live with myself if I fail?” All this that not only do people not in the creative world ask, but we ask ourselves in our dark moments. These are universal too, what if you’re not a good parent? What if you’re a terrible employee?
However these creative pieces don’t always affect the audience first, they true first audience is ourselves. And just as every fingerprint will profess that we are all unique in our own ways, our perceptions on art and what is beauty and what is worth living for have similar broad strokes, but are infinitely unique in their own way.
That’s where the infinite love and joy of the art comes in and why we do this, because when you work hard in your craft and engaging with the craft of others, you will find that even the smallest things in life inspire you to keep going. That’s the thing art truly has uniquely, the insight is immeasurable.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6958427/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_1_in_0_q_thomas%2520petborisooth
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talldarknotugly/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/petborisooth/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-petborisooth/
- Twitter: https://x.com/TallDarkNotUgly
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4PoFarkuxLxwfRS3IATApg
- Other: https://vimeo.com/thomaspetborisooth
https://writers.coverfly.com/profile/writer-94786b97d-89244
Image Credits
California Film Foundation
HAAPI FEST
NERD ON! The Podcast