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

Branden Ray, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Practice. Keep trying. Do it again. It’s never going to be perfect but art will always be rewarding. I don’t think there’s a quicker way to learn anything than to just try and do it. As a filmmaker, the first time you finish a film and share it with an audience, even if that audience is one person, you can see what’s working and not working and immediately start to realize what you could have done differently.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My older brother had a friend who was making films; he was probably 15 at the time, and I was 12. He had a film showing at a local small-town film festival, and my parents took me and my siblings to it. These were just low/no-budget films made by people in town having fun with their friends, but the audience reacted to them the same way they did when sitting in a multiplex watching the latest blockbuster. I always loved movies, but this film festival helped me see that anybody could do this and chase that feeling of thrilling an audience. Over the years, I’ve pursued all kinds of creative media, but I keep coming back to making films and showing them to audiences. It’s extremely difficult to make money as an independent filmmaker, but it’s the only thing I am really passionate about. I just want to entertain, and if it eventually turns into a career, that would be amazing. But for now, I’m going to make the next best thing. I’ve spent years trying to turn my talent into a career, and I keep coming back to wanting to make movies with my friends and family regardless of monetary rewards. But don’t get me wrong, money is nice. I currently work as an independent contractor for a resurfacing company and make films in-between.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I don’t believe artists need to starve or suffer to create good art. You deserve happiness and health along with everyone on this planet. Do what makes you happy, unless you get joy out of harming others, then don’t do that. Life can be miserable at times, and for a lot of people it’s miserable all of the time, so don’t inflict pain and suffering on yourself or others in your pursuit of creative expression. There is pure joy out there in art… so chase that. If creating your art isn’t fun then why are you doing it? That being said, I do have to constantly remind myself to have fun, especially when I’m trying to meet a deadline, but it is something I’m striving for.

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

One of the first filmmakers I became obsessed with as a teen was Robert Rodriguez. He came from a large family and started at a young age, like myself. His book “Rebel Without a Crew” is essential filmmaking reading. It’s basically his journal from the time he started working on his first feature until he broke into Hollywood. I’ve always tried to approach filmmaking from his philosophy of using what’s right in front of me. Rodriguez taught me the superpower of resourcefulness, and through him, I got into Tarantino, who has a completely different but equally genius approach to filmmaking. I highly recommend watching both of their Q&A panels on YouTube. If Rodriguez’s superpower is resourcefulness, then Tarantino’s superpower is research. The man has seen more films than anyone on the planet. Then when I got my first job working in a movie theater, I was hanging a poster for the film Cop Out, and my manager mentioned that it was a Kevin Smith film, to which I said, “Who’s Kevin Smith?” “What? You call yourself a filmmaker, and you don’t know who Kevin Smith is?” my manager replied, then enlightened me, and on my next shift, he brought his copies of Clerks and Clerks II. I watched both films and learned the final superpower… the power of writing. Kevin Smith was able to make a black and white film about two guys talking behind the counter of a convenience store and turn it into entertainment. If that’s not a superpower, I don’t know what is. On the Clerks II DVD, there’s a behind-the-scenes clip where Kevin Smith has just finished the first cut of his film and invites two of his film buddies over to see the cut. His two film buddies? Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino! I distinctly remember the joy I felt knowing that these guys were friends. And that’s what I keep chasing, the joy of making movies with my friends.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.selmanscope.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/theselmanscope/
• Twitter: twitter.com/SelmanScope
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@selmanscope/videos

Image Credits
Eye Splice Photography