We were lucky to catch up with Amanda & Michael Drexton recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda & Michael, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Amanda & Michael, 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?

We are a husband and wife filmmaking team, co-founding our production company Artless Entertainment in 2021 after years of working together on films and commercials. We met in Los Angeles in 2009 and became fast friends, immediately working together, collaborating on various scripts and web series projects.

In 2013 we got together to write our first short film. We found that we worked incredibly well together and there were many more short films to come after that. Our first big moment that cemented us as creative partners was when we were hired to write a feature script. It was our biggest paycheck and it really validated our place in the industry. Having started as best friends, then becoming filmmaking partners, the final stage was all but inevitable and we got married in 2022.

What our mission is with Artless Entertainment is to tell fresh and impactful stories. We have a very wide range in our writing, from slapstick comedy to horror, but what’s important to us is that everything we put out into the world needs to have a message. Making any piece of art takes an unimaginable amount of work and dedication, so we only push boulders that we are incredibly passionate about.

We run a full service production company, from concept through to post production and of course not everything we do is narrative. We also work on music videos and commercial content, but even with commercials, we like to inject our unique visual style and brand into what we’re doing. We’ve worked with companies such as National Geographic and RX Bar, Buxom Cosmetics and more. As a husband and wife team we bring our unique and dual perspective to everything we do.

In the narrative space we are constantly coming up with new concepts and are unbelievably inspired by one another. There are no boundaries between personal and professional between the two of us and we love it that way. Life is work, work is life because our work is our passion and we get to do it as a family. Every time we’re on set together it’s the greatest feeling in the world, our job is as adventurous and exciting as any vacation, we’re incredibly grateful that we get to do this together.

We tend to write most our projects, but we’re also always on the lookout for amazing scripts from other talented writers that would be well suited to our perspective. There’s really no area and no subject we wouldn’t want to try our hands at.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2021 we were given the opportunity to direct a feature documentary, an uplifting story about an artist who had been taken advantage of and had lost so much as a result, yet still she remained positive and turned her situation into a world class art installation. Naturally we related to this story as the trials and tribulations of navigating the film industry can sometimes take a toll on us as artists. When we arrived in New York where we were to film, the rug was pulled out from under us. We learned we had been mislead and the story was not truthful. We found ourselves stranded, with no room and board, a DP, gear and a rapidly dwindling budget.
After fighting day and night for over a week to salvage the project, the situation ultimately became unsafe and we had to make the call which was to leave.
We got back to Los Angeles completely lost, it was a dark time and we questioned a lot about ourselves and what we were going to do from here. We thought about giving up, but we just couldn’t do that. We put our heads together and we turned the situation around, drawing inspiration from it to write a narrative feature. This film became “Sour Party” and is now our debut feature film as writer/directors. The film has been touring festivals all year and will be released soon, it’s been an overwhelmingly positive experience. We didn’t give up, we pivoted and made what we feel to be the strongest piece of art we have created in our careers so far.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when we create something that resonates with people. We love filmmaking, it’s  our true passions, so even if we had no audience it would be supremely fulfilling.  However there truly is nothing quite like the experience of watching your work with a full audience of people. Hearing their reactions and knowing that you’ve made a small difference in their day. When people watch our films and tell us that we inspired them, or made them feel seen in some way, that’s the true power of art and what makes it so rewarding for us.
We try to always say something important with our work. Even in a slapstick comedy we still sneak in some message or meaning that transcends the story on the page and connects to something deeper. Art is a powerful tool for change and we feel a responsibility to always say something with what we do. When that message gets through to others, it’s the best feeling in the world.
At a recent film festival where we had our world premiere of, “Sour Party.” a producer came up to us and told us that the film brought him out of a really low place and reminded him of why he’s in this business. That’s what storytelling is all about.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artlessentertainment.com
• Instagram: @artless_ent @amandadrexton @madrexton
• Other: https://vimeo.com/artlessentertainment/showreel?share=copy