We recently connected with Landon Coats and have shared our conversation below.

Landon, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The more projects I work on the easier it gets to take a step back and judge my work objectively. Being able to determine what I liked and didn’t like about the projects helps me to make more deliberate decisions on future projects, which makes the process feel more meaningful. Right now my most meaningful project is my screenplay Summer With Scarlett. I have been working on this idea since 2018, and every draft seeing positive changes that make the story even more powerful in my eyes. It’s been a long process writing the story, but the journey doesn’t stop there as I fully intend to bring the story to life as a feature film, one way or another. Stay tuned for more updates!

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 background and context?

I’ve always been obsessed with films, but it wasn’t until I took a film class in high school that I realized that’s what I wanted to do with my life. Since then I’ve been actively working on perfecting my craft and trying to learn all I can. In the past few years, I’ve also gotten into photography and painting. I enjoy doing this cause creating a film project takes a lot of time so it’s nice to have other creative outlets that can be done quicker. Below are some links to my work.

http://www.landoncoats.com/motel
https://www.landoncoats.com/photography

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

Right now I am actively working on getting my screenplay “Summer With Scarlett” produced into a feature film. This is a script I am very proud of.

Synopsis: Scarlett a grunge obsessed teenager finds herself lost in the crowd after graduating high school and not knowing what she wants to do with her life. When she meets Katie she starts to discover who she is,

“Summer With Scarlett” started as a short film I wrote a few years back. The idea was loosely inspired by my abrupt move from Texas to California during my senior year of high school. I want to portray the emotions and confusion that came with growing up. When I finished writing the short, I didn’t feel it had what it needed to make it spark, so I set it aside until late 2018 when I was finally able to give the story what it needed.

The idea is to give this a very “in the moment” feeling. That’s why Avery Ramirez (the director of photography) and I have the goal of shooting it on Super 16MM film to give it a more grungy aesthetic. There is beauty in imperfection and it’s much easier to appreciate that beauty in retrospect. The look of Super 16MM helps portray that feeling with its subtle grain yet vibrant shine.

Right now we are building a “fanbase” by promoting the idea on Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram, and it’s actually building up steam. Nothing huge yet, but a handful of people have messaged the accounts and commented saying how they are excited about the film.

https://www.landoncoats.com/summer-with-scarlett

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was given the opportunity to fly out to Los Angeles and direct a music video for Jalyn Hall recently. This is such a big step forward in my career and I wanted to share the story with all of you! In this video, I will talk about the journey from pre-production, filming, and post-production and some of the challenges I faced along the way.

This came about because a few years ago I had the opportunity to direct a pilot called “Dropouts” and for better or worse it was a massive learning experience. On that project, I met Jaclyn Suria casting director and producer who was very supportive of me during some of the trials of the production. She recently teamed up with Michelle and Malcom Harvest of BTMR and reached out to me saying she needed a director for a music video. Since we had worked together before and became friends through the experience she trusted me enough to offer me the job, which was a big win for me!

The Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS8kEtDeN3E
Behind the scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuVWmwWRyp8&t=40s

Contact Info:

• Website: www.landoncoats.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coatsmagoats/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiq2fXWZMO6sffPfEXCLFDA/featured

Image Credits
n/a