We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Vaughn Hernandez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Michael Vaughn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I risked leaving directing to become a filmmaker. Fall of 2017, I had passed my fifth year as a music and commercial director. I was coming off of a 40-video commercial campaign delivery with a turnaround of yesterday. As the email with the final cuts left my inbox, I had an epiphany: directing has had its many rewards up to that point, but a key element was missing and I found myself unfulfilled. I realized that, as a creative, my attraction to the industry was grounded in storytelling, characters, tone, and human messages. I found myself wanting to be more layered as opposed to becoming more stylized, abstract, or worse – becoming more “stock.” So, I considered transitioning to narrative work and took the risk.

After diving into the narrative pool, I found it was easier said that done: different producers, workflows, prerequisites. While there were some overlaps, it’s a completely different world. This led me to refocus from only directing into creating my own film from the ground up, from writing the first draft to editing the final cut.

In 2018, I was able to write, produce, edit, and officially complete “Worthy.” Though an extensive amount of work, I was able to repurpose much of what I knew from directing and, through my creative partner and a strong team, learn a lot of what I needed to improve on. Present day 2023: I’ve been able to work exclusively in narrative since and am currently prepping my debut feature film from a story that reflects the messages, culture, and depth that excites me.

Michael Vaughn, 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’m a filmmaker and director, with a primary focus on character-driven, morally challenging stories. After years of directing commissioned works, I am excited to be creating my own feature films that express the themes, culture, and representation that I’m passionate about.

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

In today’s age, media is education: documentaries, social norms through shows, social media, etc. Personally, I’m driven by the idea of morality. I’d like to normalize validating alternative perspectives, motivations, and cultures. As I create, I try to straddle the line between good and bad, as in the end, we are all people who are individually and collectively trying our best.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn overthinking. I had an ambitious project for a network where the turnaround was a tight deadline due to COVID-19. Due to the limitations of shooting during those times, we were forced to use creative solutions. The first couple days were a lot of unlearning and refreshing return to form as creatives. As we go through the industry we can get lost in deadlines, procuring work, keeping up with the changing landscapes, revisions, notes, and more. It’s easy to forget that we are artists and have to stay loose and creative in order to do our best work. For example: Instead of a packed restaurant, which may generally be considered a more traditional establishing shot, we reimagined as the first customers walking in. We had to, and got to, be more creative with our transitions. We played with creative cinematography and angles to create intimate moment in lieu of traditional two-shots. We eased off the overthinking in order to balance between taking the time to create the art and meet the deadlines.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://directorvaughn.com/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/directorvaughn
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/directorvaughn/
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/c/directorvaughn

Image Credits
Creative Duet Media