We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrés Mejia Plazas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrés below.

Andrés, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I have written and directed two short films. The first is a drama called “What if Birds Aren’t Singing, They’re Screaming” and the second is a comedy called “SACRILEGE!”. The process was similar for them two because I had started thinking about the idea because of other films that inspired them, and had brainstormed themes, lines of dialogue, and shots I wanted to include in the projects. From there on it was working on pre-production and pitching the idea, writing the script, the whole logistics of production, shooting and editing. What if Birds… was particularly personal because I wrote it from the back of my mind not knowing what it all meant, but as I finished editing I realized what it was all about and why I was writing in the first place. SACRILEGE! is a lot more direct in what it’s trying to say and I knew it from the beginning, but it’s just as special to me because it is a lot more authentic to my voice as a writer.

Since then I have been working on a vertical format talk show, made for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts. We called it “Chin’s Way” because the host is our friend Chinwei and she talks about her opinions on things her friends like.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I make films that use vibrant colors, a sense of humor, and absurd scenarios to tell stories inspired by my queer experience, and my admiration for the women in my life. Whether or not a certain piece is autobiographical, I like using my characters to speak my mind or face issues that bother me in I see in everyday life. I wouldn’t claim my style has a “female sensibility” or that my films deal with “female issues” because I don’t want to self-appoint myself of being a flag bearer for “womanhood” but instead I use female and queer characters to express the stories I want to tell because of how inspired I am by the women in my life, whether relatives, friends, celebrities, or fictional characters as well.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I started thinking I was more into music videos because how much I would listen to music and try to visualize an image system for it, but I grew out of that as I realized how much the music video business depends on the client’s vision rather than the director’s. But also, as I learned more about film and its history, I realized how complex it is and how much of a commitment it is that I inevitably wanted to go into the challenge. Film encompasses so many art-forms that music videos felt like very finite projects and even a bit limiting for the things I want to accomplish at least.

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

That the groundwork for writing screenplays is necessarily three act, eight sequence structure. Not to break the tradition, or call it useless, but I always found myself stuck when I had to follow a blueprint. I would find myself forcing things to fit in and mark all the checklist points for “proper” storytelling. I had a mentor tell me that it’s okay to creatively break the rules, but in order to do so you must know the rules and follow them properly so you know if breaking them will be effective, and he was absolutely right. Once you know how to do that you learn that the traditional structure should be used as a tool and not as paradigm, and that makes it so much more freeing because now you learn to trust your gut, but also have a helping hand once the path seems foggy.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @andres.mejiap
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrés-mejía-032a40290/
• Twitter: @mejiaplaandres
• Other: Letterboxd: andresmejia

  Additionally working on a vertical-format talk show:
  Insta: chins_way
  TikTok: chinsway
  YouTube: Chin’s Way The Talk Show

Image Credits

Liu (Neil) Lingyu
Zuzanna Mach