We were lucky to catch up with Darren Haskins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Darren, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Yes and no. It’s been a long journey of realizing where to focus my energy. I’ve known since I was a kid I wanted to entertain, but growing up in Los Angeles with so many distractions it was difficult for me to understand where to invest my time when I was spreading it out too much on having fun. Originally, I thought I’d focus mainly on acting, but once I learned the basics to screenwriting I jumped right in because I had so many ideas going through my head. A screenplay is the foundation to any film project so, I started writing features, but I didn’t realize how difficult and expensive it would be to get them made or even read. Then I discovered I can learn to hone other skills doing short films. I can write on a budget, keep the characters and locations limited, and use the short film as a proof of concept to anyone interested in expanding the idea. I produced, directed, acted in, and edited a few shorts and comedy sketches on my phone, and posted them online which I was able to attract a producer to help create my most recent shorts HARD AS IT GETS and WHERE IS MY MIND? that are now in the festival circuit while having my next project, BINGO in pre production. Overall, I’m very thankful for the progress and improving the production value of each project. It’s a timely learning process and you have to love it. Creating your own path can be frustrating due to how slow the rise is, but we must enjoy the journey moving towards our destination at a pace we are comfortable with. Move too fast and life can become overwhelming causing stress and that’s a silent killer in many ways.

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 first was introduced to a camera as a kid when my dad would film my sister and I, and I was always goofing off. When I saw it playback on the tv I couldn’t help but laugh at myself and how good it felt. I noticed family members enjoying themselves too which gave me confidence. As I got older the influences of In Living Color, Mad Tv, Saturday Night Live, and The Chappelle show had me wanting to do character roles. Jim Carrey was a big influence along with Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams which inspired me to make short videos with friends for history and english classes In high school. I eventually was lucky enough to do some professional background work where I once acted as a mime, in Disney’s Even Stevens, having a funny scene with Shia Lebouf. That was a push in the right direction, but I was also playing baseball which is what I wanted to do more at the time, and thought if that didn’t work out I could fall back on acting. Baseball fizzled out after college and I lost focus of the direction of my career path. I put experiencing life to the fullest where I lacked discipline and focus on the things that really mattered to my spirit which was creating. Don’t get me wrong I had blast with my experiences and they have helped shape many of my projects, but if I realized how some choices back then would stahl my progress I’d act differently. Also, it’s hard to have interesting ideas if you don’t live out some crazy moments so it’s all meant to be the way God plans it out for us. After studying screenwriting at New York Film Academy, The Groundlings, and Second city I was inspired with a new thirst to create. When you first start writing you hear, “write what you know”. So, I took that and of course added entertainment value to my stories because that’s what we learn from Hollywood. It wasn’t until I moved out of Los Angeles when I realized I needed to prioritize my time, money, and energy much better as well as putting myself out there more to network and improve on my social skills. After all, it’s not always what you know but who you know. So time management ,discipline, and be good to people have become key factors in making sure I’m not stagnant too long, and as always chipping away at daily goals to improve my journey along with my craft.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think people get caught up in the illusions of those they choose to support. Because we are in a system that gives us very little time to truly critically think thanks to our busy work schedules to survive and provide, and attempts to balance relationship and family life we tend to automatically latch on to creatives or “influencers” we think have our best interests in mind when in actuality they don’t. So, we end up funding not only with our money but our energy to those who are hurting our society as a whole. Let’s take social media for example. The censorship and suppression of those who actually have good intentions with talent and not influenced only by money,status, and ego backed by powerful people have a huge disadvantage with the algorithms. When people see certain individuals being pushed by the algorithms they tend to assume this person is “trendy” they must be important/good so I should listen and support not realizing they’re part of a bigger agenda that doesn’t have societies best interests in mind. So many artists now a days are full on demoralizing to the mind, body, and spirit yet we’re supposed to believe they are positive for the newer generations? I don’t buy it the way I used to. As an indie filmmaker trying to spread your work can be difficult because a lack of money to push your product can stahl the growth. So, if people, especially those who claim to love and care about you took the initiative to follow, like, share, comment to your work without constantly robotically begging, which I find annoying and why I don’t do it lol, it could help push the algorithms more but they don’t because no big name company or “influencer” has yet to push you. Sadly, people need to be told who and what to like based on it coming from a so called “reliable source” rather than taking initiative to help push you because they want to see you grow and succeed.I understand the work you put out needs to be good, but if there’s obvious progress coming out I think it’s important to show support. Support your family and friends the way you support the celebs/influencers you don’t even know.

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

My main goal is to entertain while also putting subject matter we can all learn from. As a writer we all have something to say, and I want to say and see something different than what is being put out in the mainstream. The key is trying to make the story interesting enough while also being visually stimulating which can be a challenge when working on a budget, but with faith in The Most High and the creative energy he offers within I believe he will provide what I need in order to improve from the last project. At the end of the day, I just thank God for the opportunities he puts in front of me to learn and improve from.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10460853/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wimmshortfilm?igsh=ODA1NTc5OTg5Nw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-haskins-876b66132?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/haigshortfilm?igsh=ZHF6NzE3c3V3MmRy&utm_source=qr

Image Credits
Steve Escarcega, Joseph Bacelis, Onnoleigh Sweetman