We recently connected with Javier Parra and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Javier thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

Ever since COVID lockdown was in full effect, I felt watching movies was a good way to pass the time. Life before 2020 was orientated towards errands and social engagement whereas any movie that dealt with heavy subjects was barely a consideration. With an abundance of time on my hands in the spring of 2020, I dove right into films that were challenging and required undivided attention. These films made such an impact that I wanted to channel my reactions to a platform that could be shared. I created a blog through WordPress called cinetings.blog (which is still active) where I would post blog entries to a variety of films. The act of watching a film was one that I took very serious where I would put my phone into airplane mode and have a notepad in hand for anything that stood out from the film. The act of blogging really made me think through my reasoning for liking a film or barely getting through it.

Once the parameters of lockdown loosened and work resumed to normal operating hours, I stopped contributing to the blog. I still watched movies, but I didn’t treat it to the same degree that I did when I was blogging. Around this time, I felt extremely engaged to social media and decided to part from it for several months. Feeling more present and less at the whim of sensational clips definitely made me feel more at ease. It also made people forget that I existed since I limited my digital presence. But I always said that I would hop back on as long as I had something to promote, and use it as a marketing tool. It was at that point that I thought about restarting back the blog, and make it a weekly habit.

At first it was hard to strike a balance between the demands of work, and keeping a consistent output with the blog. However I started to realize a process that worked for me where I would watch the films, and immediately start writing afterwards. If I felt there were some loose ends, I would resume writing the next morning. On the social media side, I found posting clips from the film on my story a good way to funnel people to read my blog entry. Even with posting stills from the films I wrote about, I think that a lot of people couldn’t be bothered to read anything longer than a caption. It was here that I decided to abandon the written entries and transition into video reviews of the films I watched.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

It all started in high school where I noticed that I paid attention more towards the film classes than anything else in my schedule. I loved the process of breaking down the formal elements of scene and how they contributed to the thesis of the film. My school also offered video production classes where I was able to experiment with telling my own stories or renditions of popular works. All of this enthusiasm eventually inspired me to pursue Film at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

It was here where my idealism about film was recognized by other like minded individuals who shared a similar regard for a film as an art form. Being at film school did challenge me to think deeper about story and avoid falling into cliches that spoil a good chunk of mainstream films. I’m grateful that it exposed me to every facet of filmmaking, and how each component of it can be an area of specialization. I found lighting to be a strong suit of mine and discovered this by helping out upperclassmen with their projects. Eventually all of the favors that I did for them came back full circle when it was time to film my Senior Thesis “Gloves Off” which ended up winning Best in Show at the end of the year screening.

After film school, I decided to continue my skill for lighting and landed a job right out of college at film equipment rental house. Even though the position was more on the back end, I still collaborated on film shoots by helping out on Brooklyn College students on the weekends as a Grip and Electric technician.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I would like to grow my audience on Youtube by creating videos that go beyond a general breakdown of a single film. The concepts behind these videos would span several films that either discuss a particular topic in film history or even provide commentary of a certain filmmaker’s body of work. Seeing other content creators make film essays has been inspiring to create work that deviates from there style and give my sense of why films are either effective or empty.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The biggest thing that non-creatives might not understand is why do all of this work if there’s no profit attached to it. I would say that the action of making a video in itself is enough for me to sustain a sense of purpose within my life. I find the effort that it takes to build something from nothing incredibly rewarding, and if I happen to monetize from it one day, even better. I would be naive to disregard the importance that money has in our current world, but its not the driving force behind my creation. Since I do have a full time job that takes care of my financial obligations, I feel that content creation gives me a freedom that is not available when you have to create for the sake of a return.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinetings/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-parra-0b08799b
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@cinetings