We were lucky to catch up with Harry Waldman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Harry, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
-I have loved movies since I was just a few years old, but I was always someone who was a bit too “practical” when it came to my career, despite the fact that my Dad has been a successful artist since I was young. I assumed that you were supposed to graduate college and then work at a job that you weren’t passionate about in order to pay the bills. The thought really depressed me, so I tried not to think about it too often and focused on my hobbies, which included watching movies, playing video games, sports, listening to music and hanging out with friends.
I studied business in college, which did ultimately teach me how to be a good leader as a film director/producer, but the content didn’t interest me much. I assumed that I would get some business marketing job out of college that I wouldn’t really be passionate about. I started to have these fantasies about finding myself working a marketing gig on a film production during my junior year of college, and while the fantasy excited me, it also depressed me because it didn’t seem realistic considering my situation.
During the second semester of my senior year of college, a few weeks after watching “The Social Network”, which is one of my favorite films of all time, and which I believe had an influence on what I am writing below, I had a dream that I was going to a prestigious film school, taking various filmmaking courses, collaborating with other students to work on film projects, etc. Near the end of the dream, I met a psychic who told me that one of my closest friends (Inspired by Mark Zuckerberg stabbing Eduardo Saverin in the back) would steal my film idea, but despite this awful fact, I would become a successful filmmaker.
While I believe that I get along well with most people, I can be a vengeful person if I feel that I was wronged. What truly shocked me about this dream was that I was so excited about the prospect of me being a successful filmmaker, that it completely overshadowed my distress over having my film idea stolen by my best friend.
Suddenly, I woke up and jumped out of my bed, grabbed my backpack and jacket and ran to the front door of my apartment, getting ready to go to one of my “film classes”. Then, I realized that it was 12:10 p.m. on a Saturday; that I had just been at a bar the previous night with friends; and that I wasn’t a film student at a prestigious film school, but a marketing student at a business school; and I would graduate college and find some job that I hated; and that would be the rest of my life…this was the single most depressing moment of my entire life.
I stared at my bedroom wall for about 20 minutes, and then a lightbulb popped on inside my head. I told myself, “So you finally figured out your passion as you are graduating college. That’s unfortunate, but you’re still only 21 years old. You have plenty of time”. I immediately came up with a plan for my filmmaking career. I would graduate college with my business marketing degree, and find a decent paying job in business after college during the day while pursuing my filmmaking career during the evenings and weekends. This plan launched the beginning of my exciting filmmaking career, from watching youtube videos on filmmaking and working as a Production Assistant on film sets while working in Insurance to pay the bills to being able to direct and produce my own films as my main passion, while working for a Post-Production company, handling video editing and video ingest.
Harry, 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?
I began in the Film industry working on an Indie film as a Production Assistant, while doing plenty of research on my own and working on my own personal projects. My first big break happened when I met the Producer on a film that I worked on, who brought me onto some of his sets. He ended up producing and shooting my first professional short film, “Enter the Room”. It was vital to see his process from the Producer side of things, and I have since used what I have learned from watching him, in addition to expanding on his process with some of my own ideas as I have produced 2 short films and 1 feature (“In the Backseat”, “Bay For Blood” and “The Corridor Crossing”) film since “Enter the Room”.
I focus on many different areas of filmmaking, with an emphasis on directing, casting, writing and editing, which are my favorite parts of the filmmaking process. I am as passionate about filmmaking as any individual you will ever meet, and I like to tell dark, psychological character driven stories that challenge the audience intellectually and emotionally. Ultimately, I do make these films for myself, but I hope that my films resonate with audiences and leave them with something to think about after the credits roll.
While I am proud of all of my projects, I would say that the project that I am the most proud of is my feature film, “The Corridor Crossing”. I came up with the idea for this story many years before I even began to make my short films, but I wanted to gain some experience with a few shorts, before taking on this bigger project, which I believe was the right move, as I learned of the incredible amount of time and effort required in order to make a feature film. “Enter the Room” is another project that I am particularly fond of as it is very personal to me. The film is directly based on a negative experience that I had with a roommate during my freshman year of college, and it was very cathartic to be able to get this experience off of my chest and tell my story.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
It’s the filmmaking process in general. While it has been a blast going on festival runs and receiving some recognition for my work, that part of the process pales in comparison to the personal satisfaction that I receive from telling my stories. Of the filmmaking process, I would say that the most rewarding part of the process is editing. It can be tedious in the very beginning and watching some of the early cuts can be painful, but there is a moment in which all of the footage is cut together, and after going through a handful of cuts, I suddenly gain this feeling that the film is going to work; it just needs to be cleaned up. And this is one of the strongest emotions that I have ever experienced, because as a filmmaker, I spend so much time stressing over the fact that too many things will go wrong (and there have been plenty of road bumps on previous projects) and that the film just won’t connect (and ultimately won’t work) once cut together in post production. This was particularly true when I reached this stage of post-production for my feature film, “The Corridor Crossing”, which I believe will end up being one of the monumental moments of my entire life.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I initially told myself that as long as I stayed true to myself and put in the time and effort on my projects, that everything else would fall into place regarding receiving recognition. I began the festival circuit for a couple of my short films back in 2023 and have seen some truly remarkable films that struggled to get into film festivals, receive any distribution and even be noticed. Over the last year and a half, I have learned of the importance of marketing and self promotion. And I have come to accept the fact that taste is subjective and that not everyone is going to like my work, especially considering that my films are pretty dark and can be a bit hard on the eyes because of some of the camera/editing/coloring techniques displayed throughout my films.
Of course, I want to continue to put my work out there and for others to love and appreciate my films, but I believe that is vital to stick to making the type of films that I truly want to make and accept the fact that my films tend to be more directed at a niche audience than the masses. As long as I can accept this fact, I will be a happier person overall.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://edgewaterfilmproduction.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hwaldman18/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harry.waldo.3/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrisonwaldman/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryWaldman1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZ2cMMN2wCYoC5IptbvemQ
- Other: Filmfreeway:
https://filmfreeway.com/HarryWaldmanIMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7046012/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/harrywaldmanStage32:
https://www.stage32.com/profile/586379The Dots:
https://vimeo.com/harrywaldman
Image Credits
Jordan Sasticum
Konrad Proce
Lance Eliot Adams
Leni Irizarry
Justin Casterline