We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Parker Bridges. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Parker below.

Alright, Parker thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Books! Loads and loads of books from lighting techniques to painting. The drama you can get just from shifting certain aspects of a scene has always heavily interested me. If I had to do it again I would spend much more time going straight to the most advanced voice in my field to learn from their techniques. Putting what you’ve learned into practice as quickly as possible has always been the fastest way for me to accelerate my growth.

A big obstacle in delving deeper into the craft was learning the technical aspects and nomenclature of the film set. Committing the fundamentals to memory made learning more advanced concepts a lot easier. It also made working with people, far more skilled than me, a breeze because I was no longer a liability; I became an asset.

Parker, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

At my core, I am a filmmaker. I’ve spent most of my life making art. I started with painting and comics after a brief departure into biochemistry at university in North Carolina. I worked with a small publication called Incubator Comics after my time at SCAD Atlanta, which led me to working as a storyboard artist. Inevitably, it seems, that drew me back to shooting videos on my own, I wanted a bit more control over the finished product.

Currently, outside of short films and corporate events, I am devoting my time to documentary and archival video work. The wonderful challenge of this style of work is the research, the ‘film’ for me is a framework to let the story rest. The ‘story’, in this instance, is already written. We sit down with families wanting to archive their loved ones in a way that plays out like a movie. I’ve been calling it the “Memento” service. It was born when my grandfather passed, and all of his stories with him

I believe the same can be said of most film or art, it’s a journey of discovery. The characters are already moving on their own. I’m no master by any stretch of the imagination, but I firmly believe in finding the figure hiding in marble.

At the end of day, I am a storyteller. In my field, as a director and cinematographer, my time is spent crafting a message that pulls the viewer in. It’s paramount to nearly anything else.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There are two books that have influenced how I am doing business. The first is “Your Next Five Moves” by Patrick Bet-David. This book started the process of flipping the switch in my brain from being ‘reactive’ to things that happen and instead anticipating how the world is going to change. It made positioning myself in new situations much simpler. He breaks down the art in a very digestible way. I couldn’t recommend that book enough to someone starting out. You’ll leave the book with growth tactics and a clarity on what you want for your work. I no longer look too far into the future, that book really helped me find a sweet spot for business planning so I am not paralyzed by having too many options.

The second is “The Artist Way”, it helped me get in touch with my creative process. It’s gotten incredibly simple to kickstart my creativity despite jumping back and forth from the creative to the business side of things. I used to experience burn out pretty regularly but now it feels like I am maximizing my energy in the right places. The exercises put forth in that book would absolutely help anyone that’s looking to deepen their relationship to the muse.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s getting to work in my passion for a living. Allowing the process to become my day to day, it sounds a bit esoteric but I’m sure so many people understand the feeling. I don’t always get to see audience’s reactions to what I create but the process, the discovery of my characters and working with actors is such an immense joy. When we wrap and all is said and done, seeing that story tied together and getting to be a part of the ‘we’ that made that happen, gives way to a deep sense of purpose for me.

The art is begging to be made, if I can help give it life and some real substance, there is not a lot that’s more rewarding to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.motemediastudios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motemediastudios/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parker-bridges-35a66b14a/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@motemediastudios