We were lucky to catch up with David Watkinson recently and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

After forty years living in Santa Monica and working in Hollywood on movies and TV shows, I moved to Colorado to finally work on my own project writing about the nature of reality, our place in the universe and other topics that I’ve studied outside of work.

David, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My work started in the early 1980’s, when I moved to Santa Monica and found myself doing story analysis for the most famous and important literary agent in the world at the time, Irving Lazar.

Irving represented literary giants like Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw, Truman Capote and many of the greatest screenwriters, movie stars and directors of the day.

I found myself working for Irving toward the end of his career, when his wife hired me to be a story analyst for her production company. I quickly learned that Irving was sending her his clients’ scripts for me to analyze (summarize and judge their potential as a movie project.)

I also began working in movie production eventually becoming an Assistant Director and 2nd Unit Director.

It was around the time that personal computers came on the scene. Since I was a bit of a tech guy and a visual artist, I envisioned the day I that I could create stories and videos using computers. As a result, I quit movies to work in the new field of multimedia.

For example, I produced animated videos for a law firm and created one of the first interactive presentations of evidence in a court case.

But then, a movie production company called around Hollywood looking for someone who had production experience and computer multimedia experience. Because I was running monthly meetings at the American Film Institute about the new media, my name kept coming up.

So I started a long career creating and programming interactive graphics, animations and videos to play live on the set for movie scenes where an actor was shown working with screens that could range from the size of an iPhone or computer monitor to the size of an entire wall.

For example, my work can be seen throughout movies like Men in Black and two of the Batman movies to name just a few of the over 30 movies that prominently featured my work.

In 2005, I transitioned to working in television, when I led a team that did all the graphics, animations and videos for the entire run of the TV show Bones.

Then, after finishing all three seasons of Seth MacFarlane’s series The Orville, I decided it was time to get to work on my own projects.

In the three years since my wife and I have lived in a suburb south of Denver, I’ve written the first and second novels of a Sci-Fi series and a kids book for eight to twelve year olds. In addition, I’ve started a project to bring people together over shared values.

All of my fiction is designed to be exciting, interesting and thought provoking with lots of humor, while talking about important subjects.
For example, the middle grade reader Wendy’s Plane Ride deals with the love of animals, overcoming fears, misunderstandings and group pressure, all while Wendy tries to develop telepathic powers. It’s a very fun read for both kids and adults.

My first book in the Sci-fi series Preserve Planet: Alien Adventures deals with the following questions: Are we alone in the universe? Is reincarnation real? Do aliens care about endangered animal species on Earth?

The second book in the series, Songbird: Astral Adventures asks: What do early American colonial times, present day mafia crimes, WWII Nazis and the future in outer space have in common? Answer: they’ve all been visited by Songbird and her friends.

Specifically, the book looks at out of body time travel and manifesting a desired present and future.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

In my spare time, I’ve taught at most academic levels culminating with work as a visiting assistant professor at the UCLA graduate school of film.

But traditional teaching can be less rewarding than hearing that someone learned something about life through the joy of reading one of my stories.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I believe we’re on the cusp of an era where the esoteric subjects covered in my books will become more prominent in the lives of most people causing some long held beliefs to be challenged.

In that case, I think it’s important that we all remember the values that we share, rather than what divides us.

To help with that process, I’ve introduced a project in a 20 minute video entitled “From Quantum Physics to World Peace.” It’s on my website, where the motto is “Learn from the Past, Live in the Present and Create the Future with Love.”

It’s a mission I hope all good-hearted people will support.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fineday.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.watkinson.946/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-watkinson-0316526
• Twitter: @finedayacademy