We were lucky to catch up with Omar McClinton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Omar, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
That’s a very good question. Even though it’s very simple and straight to the point, you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to answer properly, but I’m going to try.
Most producers that have been around as long as I have always shared a common goal of being associated with a film that’s meaningful enough to change someone’s life after they’ve seen it. However, new producers getting into the industry may see things differently. They want to be associated with a film that makes a lot of money and accolades. I can’t blame them for that. Who wouldn’t?
Once you have enough credits and your phone rings somewhat regularly (and you get a little older) you change your perspective of how and in what projects you spend your time. No secret that the stress of this job puts you in an early grave.
Producers spend so much time, energy, and attention on each project that we do. No one wants to make a flop, but it’s about quality and not box office quantity. When I look back on all of the films, I’ve participated in, the first one that comes to mind that I can say it was an honor to work on was a film called “A Chance in the World”. It’s a true story of a man named Steve Pemberton and his life in the foster care system. Here’s an example of how telling his story meant so much to me. I was in the process of moving across country. I was literally buying snacks for the family and putting gas in the moving truck when I got the call to be a part of this film. I read the script during breaks to sleep and eat. Got to the destination, unloaded the truck, then two days later took a flight back to the city I’d just left to crew up and help produce this film. If this were not a “meaningful project” I would not have made the sacrifices to be a part of it. I think any producer, in my shoes, would have done the same thing, if and when an opportunity like this comes along, for the right project.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up in Chicago IL in the early 70s. My father was not around, and my mother was just a teenager. She did the best she could while trying to raise me with a job that only paid her a teenager’s salary. The only thing we could afford to do, beside watching TV for free back in those days, was to go to the movies. Back then you could see a double or even triple feature for about $3.50 cents. We could never afford candy, but popcorn and a drink was only about $2 dollars. So, for around $10, my mother could take me out to the movies all day and hopefully distraction me from the neighborhood that we lived in. We went every weekend. This was one of the biggest influences on me. It helped me decide on what I wanted to do with my life from that very age.
When other kids in my school wanted to be lawyers, police officers and fireman I wanted to be Bruce Lee and Fred Williamson. Jim Brown and Jim Kelly. Sydney Poitier and “Shaft”. Be as cool as “James Bond”. Be as funny as Richard Pryor and make the ladies faint like Billy Dee Williams. So fast forward to my teenage years I became an actor. Fully expecting to portray the characters I’d seen on screen; I quickly realized the casting directors did not see me the way I saw myself. My first audition was for a gang banger. My second audition was for a gang banger. My third audition, I’m sure you’ve already guessed it, a gang banger. I’d never seen Fred Williamson, Jim Brown or Jim Kelly as a gang banger so why do they keep wanting me to be one. So out of necessity, I became a writer. The goal was to write scripts for myself and create characters that I would want to play. I fell in love with writing, even more so than acting. However, as a writer it’s very difficult to give your script to someone else for them to interpret the way they want to. That’s not an easy thing to trust somebody with. This is how I got into directing. You can’t direct with no crew. Once you have a crew you need money. This is how I got into producing.
I worked three jobs, two during the week and one on the weekend. I saved up the money, took six of my closest friends, taught them the various positions of a film crew, then we went out and shot our own independent film. While shooting the film a gentleman from Universal Studios heard about my determination and asked to see the film. I still have no idea how a guy from LA, heard about me and my film in Chicago. We were still in the process of filming and it was only at what’s called a workprint stage. He wanted to see it anyway. I showed it to him, and he loved it. He told me that he was leading a new film division and gathering minority film makers to do their own projects with a decent budget and professional talent. I thought my dreams were about to come true. My film wasn’t finished, I wanted to finish it for film festivals, and he assured me that the money would be well spent in other areas. So, I moved to LA with an incomplete film, work print only. Spent my money on lawyer fees and living on my uncle’s couch. Days turned into weeks, weeks months and then Universal was sold to another company that had no interest in investing in unproven, undiscovered talent. I’d spent all of my money at this point and only had an incomplete film to show for it. I was broke, not just in finance but in spirit. The guy form universal felt so bad for me that he got me a job in the Universal mail room. I ended up delivering mail to the office that would have been mine just a few months earlier. It was either use this as an excuse as to why my life sucks or turn it around and start over.
In order to eliminate a high turnover, the mailroom rule was that you had to stay in the mailroom for least one year. I was there one year and one day, before I got hired on my first job. I’ll speed this story along. I’d eventually worked as a production assistant on several film and tv projects. Got into visual effects because, back then, it was the new thing. I worked as a production assistant, then coordinator, I was hired to run the CGI department at Saban / 20th Century Fox and then I became co-owner of my own vfx company. This was great but not film. I ended up going back into film and tv production. Realized I knew nothing about accounting, then worked at ABC Studios in their post-production finance department. I oversaw 22 regular and pilot shows during that time! During all of this I’d gotten married and had a son. I had a chance to be a real father and raise a son the way I wanted to be raised. The truth is that I worked so much I’d become an absentee father myself. It doesn’t make a difference why you’re not there, to a kid, an absent father is an absent father. I wanted to stop that cycle. I moved my family back to Chicago. A semi-normal life, I figured I get a small job making commercials in a small production house. Enjoy my family. I wasn’t there a week before I was hired on several shows and the small production house, I wanted to work at was bought by a company with huge expansion on the agenda. I was head of production for a company that was starting a 24 hour internet streaming service of financial news with 8 hours of live programming every day. Yes, I did spend time with my son, I was just expecting more. After a few years of this my son decided, he was going to college in Florida. Well, I wasn’t finished being a father yet. I still wanted to see him every day, and I wasn’t ready to let him go. Yes, I did it again. I moved the entire family to Florida to be with him so he can go to school and come home to his family. I figured now I could semi retire, be a husband and a father to now three kids, and enjoy my life working at a small 2D animation studio producing commercials and music videos. The easy life.
Then Covid 19 hit. No one was doing live action shoots anymore. Everyone wanted animation. I suddenly became busier during this time then I’d ever been in my entire career. I still produce animation, but it’s now animation, live action, film and tv, under a more controlled environment.
I started my career in 1986. Looking back at it now from the year 2022 I can see a lot of accomplishments that I’ve made. Although I’m proud of those accomplishments, I can also see many missteps that I wish I had avoided. So, what I do now is use my years of contacts and connections, combined with the experience of TV, Film and everything else, and I’ve created the Various Artists independent Film Festival (VAiFF). This film festival not only helps content creators that are both young and old, whether starting out in the industry or getting back into it. It helps them get their project seen and acknowledged by industry professionals and we offer mentorship opportunities so people can advance their careers and avoid the pitfalls that I didn’t. I’m always looking to give back to as many people as possible. I’m a firm believer that my industry resume will not be engraved on my tombstone. It’s probably going to say something about a loving husband, loving father, blah blah blah. This nonprofit film festival is a creation that yes, I’m very proud of, but my greatest creation, that I’m most proud of are my kids. My beautiful daughters and my terrific son. I had to fight, go to extremes and sacrifices to get as much time with them as possible, and I’m so glad I did. Please understand, my goal for the festival and the mentorship that I provide the next generation of content creators is not to make them rich and famous. My goal for them is the same goal I had for me growing up in Chicago and that’s to do what they want to do for a living. Being rich and famous for it is not the end goal. Being happy, accomplishing your dream and having a fulfilled life is what’s important.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The biggest lesson I learned was the most time-consuming and painful one. I had dreams of going in and changing the world. “I do things differently because I know better”. I wanted to change things before I even really knew how or why things were done. I was ignorant. I was arrogant. I expected people to see me the way I saw myself and what they saw was another self-absorbed ‘Hollywood wannabe”. They saw this because that’s exactly what I was. I had to be broken, exhausted from always starting over. I would always take the long way around. Take the hard way instead of the smart way. I had to unlearn my arrogance and learn humility. I had to change the way I did things and finally admit before I can be a teacher, I need to be a student. Now, finally, after 36 years, I think I finally have something to share that can do some good for others.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is the fact that most of us can use both the left and right sides of our brains. Meaning we can see things in a certain light that others can’t. We can create something that didn’t exist before, that can change your life. Make you happy. Make you sad. Give you empathy for someone that you never thought you’d acknowledge or understand. Creative people can translate half of the word in a way the other half can understand. We use our talent to bring people together. Whether producers/directors or writers or singers or dancers. Comedians or actors. Where someone won’t listen, we can make you feel by showing you a perspective from the inside out. No other profession does this. Not everyone can do this. If you are a creative person, you were given a gift and a talent that you should never stop sharing. Other than sporting events, which also require a great deal of talent and perseverance, what other place than a movie theater, can strangers meet, laugh, cry, shriek in fear, and bond, become one for 2 hours, before going back to their separate lives? Creative people have a power that should be nurtured, not squandered, or ignored. Creative people should be encouraged, exalted, and empowered.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vaiff.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official_vaiff/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VAiFF
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omar-mcclinton-mcclinton-121739109/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCudHCgdiEFddUkxgAS-I6Lw
- Other: https://filmfreeway.com/VAiFF