We were lucky to catch up with Avai D’Amico recently and have shared our conversation below.
Avai, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
One risk I took was deciding to forge my own path in the entertainment industry, instead of just working for someone else, or waiting for the right person to notice me so I could finally get my big break. Choosing to make my own opportunities was a scary thing, because when you’re producing your own film and television productions independently, you take all the risk, and you’re the sole person ultimately responsible for, well, everything. If someone else drops the ball, you’ve got to pick it up and run, for the sake of completing the production. It’s a responsibility that requires either a lot of money, or the ability to wear many different hats, so you can get many tasks done on your own if you can’t afford to hire someone else for specific things. Producing my own productions, while risky, also has felt the most rewarding, because I have more freedom to express myself creatively, and I take pride in my work. I think those things resonate with audiences, too.
Avai, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m an independent filmmaker. My recent murder mystery, A QUESTION OF GUILT, is now streaming on Apple TV, Tubi, and Amazon Prime. One thing that sets me apart from many of my peers is my attention to detail, and my thorough planning during the pre-production phase. Before even picking up a camera and stepping onto a movie set, it’s important to have a clear vision for what you need to accomplish each day of production. Even if audiences aren’t technical or aren’t working in the entertainment industry, most people can still tell the difference between a good movie and a bad movie. What the characters wear, what body language they use during a performance, how the camera moves, how the room is staged, decorated, and lit – all those things impact the overall quality of a movie. Paying attention to the little details will have a big impact on the final product, and can make your movie feel professional and polished, even if you only had a tiny budget.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
For many years, I focused primarily on full-length movies. Since I was producing my own productions independently, without the backing of a big studio’s money and resources, I typically work with actors who are not household names. When my movies would come to streaming platforms, I never got the amount of views a big studio movie would get, which wasn’t surprising. What was surprising to me, though, was that many of my friends hadn’t seen my movies yet. When I asked them why they hadn’t watched, one common answer was they have busy lives, and when they finally get a chance to watch some entertainment in the evening, they’re more likely to watch a big studio movie with actors they already recognize, versus a low budget indie movie with actors they’ve never heard of. When they only have two hours of time to watch something, they want to make sure those two hours are very entertaining, and they won’t want to risk wasting time watching a potentially poor performance. This is part of what prompted me to pivot from full-length movies toward episodic television series. Many series become popular, despite having less known actors, and I think part of that is the shorter running time of an individual episode makes audiences more willing to try something unknown. When I’m only asking for 22 minutes of someone’s time, instead of two entire hours, they may be more willing to watch an episode. Then once they see how good the first episode is, they’ll let episode two play, and before long they’ve watch two hours of my work, but they were more willing to start because they could decide after watching just one episode.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Sharing a completed production with an audience, whether that happens in-person in a movie theatre or getting onto a streaming platform, is the most rewarding part of filmmaking for me. I find the entire process exciting, from developing a concept into a screenplay, securing the filming locations and building movie sets, putting together the right crew and cast for a particular story, and working with talented editors and musicians to put it all together into a watchable movie. Each step of the j0urney is fun, but once it’s all completed and audiences can actually watch the finished movie, that’s kind of the entire point of making the films – to share our ideas with the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.avai.media
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/avaidamico
- Twitter: https://x.com/avaidamico
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@avaidamico
- Other: https://tubitv.com/search/avai%20d’amico
Image Credits
Jesus Sanchez, Ross Demma