We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dalton Turner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dalton, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

The first instance that I can remember that made me want to start on my film making journey was in middle school. I was staying at a friend’s house for the weekend and his dad (Doug) was competing in a film competition. The whole process piqued my interest so I began asking him questions about everything, and he basically took me under his wing and mentored me on the whole process. Soon after I began writing my own stories, making my own short films, and competing in festivals of my own. Now I have about 30 scripts under my belt, 12 films, and some awards from competitions I have competed in.

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.

The two things I get clients for most frequently are weddings and music videos. What sets me apart from other cinematographers is the quality and overall feel of my work. What I make won’t look like some other video you come across on YouTube. No matter what it is I’m making with a camera, it will look like a very stylized film whether it be a wedding, event, music video, etc. I’ve been years studying different lenses, cameras, color grades, filming techniques, shot framing, and much more in order to hone in on my craft and grow as a creative. What I’m most proud of from my team and I is the consistency of quality and how hard everybody works to see the finished product be as good and clean as possible.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building a following on social media is still challenging to this day, but one thing I’ve found that helps grow is doing events and posting to subreddits. If I’m playing a show as musician I still talk about my film career, and if I’m doing client work as a cinematographer I still talk about my music career. It helps a lot with networking. For those just starting out my advice would be to stay consistent. The trending hashtags and all of that don’t really matter in my experience, but staying consistent and having a specific tone to your posts helps a lot.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Watch their content, or at the very least just engage with it or share it to somebody who may enjoy it. Lack of engagements really hurts people trying to get their material out there and it only take a few seconds to like, sub, or share to somebody else. Just take the time to help somebody out who’s spent countless hours trying to make a song, film, or whatever it is they create. It only takes a second.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @notdaltonturner
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalton-turner-7404a5296?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@slothcinema?si=ribz2XU0DbBh6Q4m

Image Credits
@synnfoxphotography (Jessica Sullivan)