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

Alright, Brandon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I grew up watching horror films, with one of my earliest horror movie memories being George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. I can remember being fascinated with the filmmaking process watching “making of” features that would air on TV, and “HBO First Look” episodes. But it was watching a marathon of George Romero films in high school that gave be the Inspiration to pursue a career as a film director. There were many years of setbacks before I was finally able to connect with talented professionals that could help me realize my first film.

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 am a resident of Pennsylvania, and a veteran, having served in the United States Marine Corps and later the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. I grew up watching horror films with my mother. All the classics. Carpenter, Romero, etc. I had a desire to pursue filmmaking as a career. But, passion wasn’t enough, and one person cannot make a movie. It was difficult to find anyone to make a movie with. Unfortunately, a lot of people loved TALKING about making a film, but not a lot of people liked WORKING to make a film.

It was Romero’s passing that caused a stir in me. I was always passionate about his unmade Resident Evil film, and always wanted to tell that story of what happened. I slowly made friends with other professionals going to horror conventions, and over time, came up with the idea of doing a documentary. I thought it’d be real short… 30, maybe 40 minutes. But, through research with my co-writer Robbie McGreggor, who years ago did this indepth article on the first Resident Evil’s entire production history, we found there was a lot more information. A lot more story. So, we set out to create this ambitious project to tell that story. It would be my love letter to director George A. Romero, as a thank you for inspiring me to pursue this career.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My biggest mission with filmmaking has been to provide opportunities for others. I had met others over the years that had talent, had training, whether as artists, actors, special effects, etc. Many talked about how difficult it was to just pack up and move to Hollywood, or to find work that paid. One of the biggest downfalls of independent filmmaking is there are many out there taking advantage of people’s labor, either claiming their crew would be “paid on the backend” or that the film would “provide exposure for their careers” when neither was true.

I attempted to put people to work, provide a workspace where the crew was made to feel like family. They were usually paid for each day’s work, unless their contract had other payment arrangements. In every case, I didn’t want temporary employment, I was seeking talented people that would want continued employment on other projects. One thing that made me feel really happy was seeing them get employed for other productions because of their work on my documentary. It was great to see the crew continue to find work.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One thing I had to learn on this journey was this: no matter how nice people can appear, not everyone has your best interests in mind. It’s unfortunate. It can make you mistrust everyone if you let it. Sometimes, people just want to profit off your work. Sometimes they just want your work. But not you. So, navigating that space and learning to recognize that, while maintaining your bearing, maintaining a sense of… being nice to everyone, not being a cranky asshole just because one or two people you meet weren’t nice people.

My problem is, I try to see the best in people. And sometimes I can be TOO trusting with people’s motives. It’s definitely something I had to unlearn. To still be friendly and treat people with respect, but also ensure that people have the best intentions when working with me. Overall, I’d say 99% of people I’ve dealt with have been amazing. Supportive, patient, enthusiastic. But as you continue your career, you’ll eventually meet people that want to take advantage of that, and it’s something I try to protect myself, as well as my team, from.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kotdfilms.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.salisbury.148?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Twitter: https://x.com/MrMidniteOwl?t=H6J-SfmaJHT3eVMiCsHkug&s=09

Image Credits
All images provided by Brandon Salisbury. Used with permission.