We recently connected with David Lvov and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

At the beginning of my career, I worked as a high school teacher for a few years. I learned that these days a lot of parents don’t read books to their children anymore. I was shocked when I found out and it made me realize something that I took for granted all my life. My mom had about a bookcase full of children’s books she would collect from thrift stores and garage sales that she would read to me and my sister until we were too old (and probably a little longer than that). Not only was it a great bonding exercise, but it created a love for art and storytelling that lasts to this day. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that my mom took the time and effort to provide quality books and VHS tapes while it would have been so easy to just put us in front of the TV and rest. The film that inspired me as a 10 year old to start filming my friends was Chicken Run (1999), a DVD she found second hand for my birthday. After seeing it I immediately went into the garden and used my toys as props and my eye as a lens to copy the shots of the masterpiece I had just witnessed. That led to me filming my friends for fun, then going into high school theater, then to art school and now in Hollywood! Every time I visit her in The Netherlands, I take a moment to look at the bookshelf and remember how it all started.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

Visual art and storytelling are my craft. I started out directing high school stage plays back in The Netherlands when I was 18 and that really got out of hand. At some point I really was spending all my time and effort on these plays (and not on my job) and decided I should make it my career. I went to The Utrecht School of Arts for a bachelor degree and in 2023 made the move to the United States to go to film school. Ever since then I’ve been doing all sorts of jobs as a Production Designer, Theater Director, Graphic Designer… Honestly anything I can creatively use my hands for.
What sets me apart from other artists is my one core belief about art. Originality is a quality by itself. I think doing things different just for the sake of it is enough. It always sparks my interest. Works of art that most people would consider bad, I have a lot more sympathy for if they were trying something new. It can be a struggle because sometimes the job requires something to be generic, but I feel like that’s easier to do than something original. It’s also a reason I’m not so worried about AI taking over. Originality is the one thing it will never be able to achieve.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

PLANNING! In art, not that important. If you google a tutorial on how to draw a face, you will get a YouTube video that sketches out the structure of the face; exactly where the eyes have to go, how big the nose has to be, etc. I think that’s how a lot of people learn to draw. Imagine my surprise on the first day of art school, when my painting teacher just started drawing an eye without any plan or sketch in sight. And later I found out that most portrait artist don’t make a rough sketch but just start drawing. I’m not saying it’s wrong to plan your drawing out, but one thing I love about art is that you sometimes just have to take things step by step and decide what’s best based on your previous step instead of clinging to some sort of pre-made structure. It was a freeing revelation.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

That would have to be my arrival to the USA. It was always my dream to go to film school, but to be quite honest: None of the film schools in my own country accepted my application. Instead of giving up, I started applying to film schools all around the globe and was shocked to find that The New York Film Academy located in Miami would have me. Then I saw the tuition… It was about 8 times as much as I could afford at that time. I decided to take a gap year and just work my butt off, hopefully find some grants on the way there. 12 months later, I had just about enough and found out that the apartment I booked, burned down. That was the day before I would fly to a continent I’d never been to. Great! Not even a day in the States and I’m already homeless. On the airport, I was frantically looking for something and landed on a cheap hostel. It all worked out fine in the end, but I’m still very proud I never gave up during that year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.davidlvov.nl
• Instagram: @david__lvov
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-lvov