Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Miguel Garzón Martínez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Miguel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

I met Sarah Ceballos in October of 2022 at a Film Festival in New York City. She is an actress that, like many other artists in our industry, has a different job that allow her to sustain her passion. But lately she was feeling that acting was slowly being pushed to the back of her priorities list and she was ready to change that by taking proactive steps, such as attending more acting classes and exploring the idea of producing her own content. That is when I came in to the picture. As a writer and director, one of my main focus is to nurture this kind of collaboration with actors who are looking to expand their portfolio and that for one reason or another are not getting cast in many roles. The narrative now is that actors shouldn’t wait until someone else decides they are right for a role, but they should create their own role, tailor-made to showcase their interests and strengths. The next challenge becomes to produce this project and make it a reality.

There are countless cases of success stories that follow this pattern, from the classic example of Brit Marling with “Sound of My Voice” to Jason Sudeikis with “Ted Lasso”. My approach to working with an actor is then to figure out two very complicated questions: who are they as a person (ie, what is their brand)? And what are their main acting skills that we should showcase (ie, do they have good comedic timing? Or is it drama what will best showcase their talent?) Luckily for me, Sarah is very self-aware and she was very clear about the story she wanted to tell, which is a deeply personal tale of overcoming loss and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Given the fact that she already had something in mind, we decided to write the script together and to not shy away from the autobiographical aspects of the story. Our short film is called “Hero” and it follows a woman who struggles with alcohol abuse, which is getting in the way of achieving her dreams of pursuing acting. As the story progresses, we learn that the root of her struggle is trauma: her father passed away and her inability to process this in a healthy way led her to drinking.

Sarah and I collaborated very closely during several months to make sure the script reflected the key aspects of her story that we wanted to highlight, but also that would be a strong piece in its own right. During that time, she assembled a production team that would support us during the Pre-Production and Fundraising process: Pete Dorton and Susanne McDonald. Making any type of film is a collaborative effort, and we had a marvelous team that had our back during every step of the way. Thanks to that, we were able to shoot and edit a high quality product that was completed for relatively low costs; and yet it is a very special piece of art that not only has something to say about dealing with grief, asking for help and overcoming obstacles, but that also showcases the talents of Sarah as an actress, writer and producer. We are starting the festival circuit and we are thrilled to share our work with an audience. I am honored to have been a par of this process.

Miguel, 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 am an award-winning writer and director with a strong passion for philosophy, movies and travel. I always felt a deep love for telling stories and currently my main focus is to work with actors who are interested in developing their own projects. Some fun facts about me: I have a cat named Penelope, I have two Masters Degrees (one in Philosophy and one in Filmmaking) and I currently live in New York City.

Some of my notorious work includes the feature film “The Broken Legacy”, and short films such as “Hero”, “The Long Commute” and “Lou”. For more information about my work, you can visit www.miguelgarzonmar.com

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best way for me to meet new clients is definitely attending film festivals. It is an interesting cycle for all productions, which normally end their run being showcased at film festivals where other filmmakers are also in attendance, perhaps to share their own work or perhaps to meet new people. Since filmmaking is such a collaborative business, this is a great opportunity to connect with all kinds of professionals, including fellow directors, but also actors, producers, writers, and even music composers, or other crew members such as directors of photography.

A lot of my most successful projects in the past few years have come to fruition thanks to key people that I have met at film festivals, and the reason for me to attend the festival in the first place was to showcase some of my work. I think that’s how most things happen: the more you work the more you will attract collaborators that will in turn create more work for you.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Working in the arts can be very challenging; normally you have to put in a lot of hours, a lot of efforts and this will not always get you instant gratification. If the main motivation to get into this type of business is to make money, then you will surely be disappointed. So why do we do it? In my experience, there is a large component of seeing art as something that cannot be rationalized or contained. A lot of the times I find myself doing something creative with total disregard for what happens afterwards, meaning that I am not particularly concerned if it will make money or if it will have mass appeal. I am just concerned with telling the best story I can in a way that makes sense to me and that fulfills my vision; there is also a large component of feeling the need to get that vision, or those images, out of your head. The reward for artists here is the process itself.

Sometimes people get into the filmmaking world craving some kind of glamour, but in reality there is very little of that in the process of making films. On the other hand, there is a very large satisfaction in putting a team together and solving problems every day of the production in order to take a story from a piece of paper to a screen.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.miguelgarzonmar.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/MiguelGarzonMar
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MiguelGarzonMar
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguel-garz%C3%B3n-mart%C3%ADnez-3768a39a/

Image Credits
All photos: Lea Pfändler Poster: Pavel Shatu