Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sara Farrell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Sara, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I didn’t realize all my random creative pursuits were setting me up for my dream career and for perfecting a craft that I accidentally fell in to. I grew up studying music composition; playing drums and random instruments for over a decade. I was a stage actress and that follow me into college. But I left school with new passions, primarily filming, writing, directing and editing. Composing the stories I wanted to tell through cinematography consumed me. I wanted to find new ways to bring together everything I’ve learned and being a digital creator was my answer. My cinematography experience taught me new ways to tell enticing stories through the use of quick moving and abstract camera angles. My love of writing and acting set me up for narrating work and my years of music study helped me with synchronizing the music, narration and editing together. I fell in love with composing my own creative stories by combining multiple mediums into one. Would I have loved the chance to speed up my learning process, of course. To know how to do this ten year sooner and to not face any roadblocks I’m sure would be something, but there would be many. Deaths, abusive partners, sa’s and years of deep routed depression to where my identify and sense of self completely unraveled would follow. I had years controlling partners and forgetting my self worth which derailed my progress for years. But looking back, I believe the chips fell the way they were meant to. These formers years of life lessons, toiling in other fields and finding the will to push past my demons gave me newfound strength and perspective to master what I do. Falling into being a creator was a healing journey for me, it allowed me to put my heart completely into something and the love it provided back was priceless. I don’t think there is a true fast track to mastering an art so I’m grateful for the time I took to get it right.
Sara, 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?
I was in an era of healing after breaking out of a relationship that was controlling, and emotionally abusive. I had put my entire life and dreams on hold for almost a decade and after all that time I finally decided to take my life back into my hands and start living for myself again. Halloween and horror was always a deep passion of mine, I grew up basically wanting to be Morticia or Elvira. Through my love of the macabre I developed a character persona for myself “Farrell Fortress” and it helped me find my voice again. It started with just getting me out of shell. I was going to all the horror events I could find and bring in socal I learned that was a never ending pursuit. I completely changed my wardrobe to more outrageous colors and macabre styles and patterns, creating a trademark look for myself. It all just started with randomly documenting what I could find but doing it in a lighthearted and silly way. This turned into a series of adventures that I would go on with my loved ones and now fiancé who I met along the way. Now I’m a full time spooky content creator on Instagram. I have a fulfilling career traveling and promoting Halloween special events, haunted locations, and spooky businesses. Through this journey, I wanted to empower people to not take a backseat on their lives, to remind them that they are the ones in control and no one has the power to take that away. There’s so much in life worth experiencing so I wanted to motivate people to set out on their own adventures.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part about being a creator has been being able to make a significant positive impact on someone’s else’s life and to inspire others to go after their dreams. I’ll never forget I did a video on a new up and coming business in Long Beach called Eclipsed Emporium. They specialized in goth thrifting which was such a unique concept. The video blew up on tik tok and Instagram and the owner told me that she was constantly getting a line out the door of people waiting to check out her shop. She had people traveling out of state just to see her store. She told me how she was so scared to start her new business but the video completely turned the tide and she felt confident that she could make this business successful. I’ve also had the privilege of meeting incredible people that follow this account and they will tell me that they get inspired to get out of their comfort zone and try something new. Or they’ll tell me they get inspired to start their own adventure channels and it is the most gratifying thing to hear
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My goal or mission is to give exposure to as many Halloween haunts, spooky business and haunted locations as possible. I hope to expand this across the country and across the globe. I want to continue to inspire people to get out in the world and trail blaze their own path. I want to expend this to full length feature videos on YouTube and I plan to debut my new horror history trivia game show on this channel later next year.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://tr.ee/NWKRMkRX2U
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@farrellfortress?si=OfZwqFb80sZMO0vd
