Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Antonio Schuelke . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Antonio, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I believe the biggest risk a creative who is pursuing making their art into a full time job is their courage. More often than not creatives are too scared to take the leap because of the risk factor. Those risks include: income, sustainability and lifestyle. However, as a creative, if you are not willing to take that leap and face those risks head on then I believe that will impact your self-confidence and will evidently impact the quality of your work. Everyone has a different situation as to why they won’t take their risk, but the the first step is still a step towards progress no matter how big it might be. In my situation, my life completely took a turn overnight. I went from a full time student to living in West Hollywood in a span of 12 hours. I left my home, friends, family and personal relationships in order to pursue my goal of making my art into my main source of income. I didn’t know and still don’t know if what I’m doing is going to work out, but if I’m sacrificing family time, holidays, friends and everything in between then failure is not an option. Personally, my biggest risk isn’t that I took a chance on myself. My biggest risk is putting everything I have into what I’m doing because of how much I sacrifice in my own personal life. As of right now, I am creating more than I ever have and that has put me into a position where I was able to buy my dream car, live on my own and work with an amazing production company (AMP Studios). Though, for how beneficial my risk was, I will not let myself let off the gas because if I let up just a little, everything I sacrificed to do what I do would have been for nothing.

Antonio, 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?

When I started working in the social media space in 2020 I saw it as an opportunity to learn about myself and use it as a step to further my career. For almost 4 years I knew that my opportunity was one that I might never have again so I pushed myself everyday to make sure it never slips away. Over the past 4 years I have been most proud of how much I learned about myself and what I am willing to do to improve my work and what I can do to make myself seem the most valuable creative to the people that I work with. Being the most dependable person in the room has been my biggest goal. It’s one thing to know how to work a camera or take photos, but to me that’s the bare minimum of how I work. I want to make sure the people I work with know that I can do every piece of a production from writing, filming, producing, photos, editing and even knowing every prop needed for a shoot. I want the people I work with to know that I am dependable so that they don’t have to worry about my ability to get the job done. The more I am able to provide, the more trust I build for clients.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Since I was 18, my goal has always been to be the greatest film director in the world. As I previously stated, I sacrificed a lot of my free time to pursue this goal and there is a lot more that goes into it that most people might think. I live and breath movies. Every time I listen to a song there’s a part of my brain that always pictures what kind of scene I would use the song in. Even when I watch films I’m over analyzing certain shots in the film, why they chose to use those particular shots and how I would do them differently. My biggest dream has always been to make meaningful, impactful films and inspire the next generation of filmmakers the exact same way I was inspired. In terms of my career, I want to win an Oscar for Best Film and Best Original Screenplay. However, my personal goal is to give whoever watches my films to feel the same joy that I feel when watching my favorite films.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I outsource a lot of my philosophy from movies, television shows and video games. There’s almost this sick part of me that always finds the meaning behind every piece of media that I consume. I believe that all forms of media are not just for entertainment value and they can provide relatability to almost everyone. I believe movies, television and video games are versions of the world from that we can use to help build our perspectives on the world that we want to live in as well as shape us into the people that we want to become. They open our eyes on our own reality and can be a useful tool to better ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://antonioschuelke.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schvelke/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonio-schuelke-37422025b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@antonioschuelke/featured?app=desktop