We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Director Ab a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Director thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?
I was working two jobs at the time. I was a part-time manager of 2 separate movie theaters and a full-time manager at FedEx. I was making excellent money but I wasn’t getting any sleep because I was working 65-80 hours a week and my social life and creative endeavors? Forget it, that wasn’t happening, I was living to work at that point. No type of self-fulfillment in my life. A slave to my employers. One weekend my friend had a bachelor party and I was the designated driver. I literally came home and took a 30 minute power nap, and went out. I took everyone else home and fell asleep behind the wheel when I was on the highway. My car hit the divider in the e-mail, the front passenger tire exploded, and I came super close to hitting the wall. I tried to fix the tire but the jack that I had broke. One of my friends was a mechanic but he was at work until 2pm so I was stranded on the highway, it was around 3am at this point. My phone was on 6% and my body was shutting down. So I turned on my location so they could find me and I fell asleep in the car, on the side of the highway. I go back to work that following week and I tell my boss at FedEx what happened and if they could transfer me or even demote me so I could get better hours for quality of life. My boss told me to take some vacation days to clear my head and come back. I already knew at that point I couldn’t live like this and I needed to make more sacrifices to actually pursue my dreams. The movie theaters I managed closed down, and I left FedEx and took a massive paycut to start working a 9-5 because I needed structured hours with open weekends, holidays, etc. I started my business a few months later and the rest is history.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a filmmaker and a media personality. I started out making music (I was in a group), and I bought this old Flipcam from Craigslist for $20. I figured I’d try my hand at this “vlogging” thing like most people were starting to do. So I started a Top 10 series centered around everything pop culture. One video in particular ‘The Top 10 WORST HipHop Songs This Year” went viral and did 4 million views in 2 days. VladTV & WorldStar especially started posting more of my content. I started doing more and more videos and less music, alot of that was because the people I was making music with weren’t about that life anymore and I needed to pivot to remain relevant. I started doing movie reviews and tons of people on Facebook were tuning in. One night I received a FB message asking if I wanted to produce a reality show with a family that had celebrity clients. I didn’t know anything about tv or film production, but I always knew I wanted to make movies and be in entertainment, and I’m not the type to turn down opportunities, I’ll figure it out no matter what I have to do. A Canon T6 camera was given to me, and I watched a 3 hour long YouTube tutorial on how to use it, and I just immersed myself in all things production from there. ISO, Shutter Speed, proper composition, the 180 rule, proper lighting, camera angles, literally everything. We met with the family and it was with Fetty Wap and his extended family and their businesses in Paterson NJ. Every weekend from 10am-10pm for 2 years I spent with them and used that time to gain massive experience behind the camera as a director, producer, editor, everything. Being around them also led me to meeting some important people that helped elevate my brand and my business by default. I never went to film school, I never had a mentor that put me around specific people, I never had a rich relative to buy me expensive equipment, nothing. Everyone I’ve worked with I had to build those relationships myself, and everything I know I had to teach myself. Everything.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Everyone can’t go. At first I wanted to help everybody. Cmon guys let’s all be creatives together and achieve these goals together like a great big happy family yaaaaayyy. Nope. Doesn’t work like that. During your journey you’ll find out that people are talkers and not doers, people have dreams and goals and would rather make excuses then to actually pursue those goals, and people are just flat out lazy. Folks would rather live in regret than make the necessary sacrifices to elevate in their field and evolve as a creative. Especially once they find out they’re not going to reap the benefits financially for a good amount of time, then all of a sudden they’ll paint you as the villain because you’re not bringing them along for the ride. That’s fine, this is a one way trip and everyone can’t go.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Stop gauging peoples talent by their follower count and their financial status. You’ll find that some of the biggest decision makers in entertainment have less than 2k followers. Just because someone isn’t driving a hovercar doesn’t mean their business isn’t profitable or that they aren’t talented. All I see online is “you’re still trying to do x y and z when you’re this age? Give it up”. Those are destructive opinions, it’s hard enough trying to make a name for yourself with a lack of resources, having those type of views are even worse. At the same time, artists need to be honest and really ask themselves if they’re doing enough. Excuses are easy to make, everybody’s got bills, everybody’s got life issues, what’re you doing to make sure these things aren’t holding you back from progressing?
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @AbwonUno
