We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shannon Walden a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Shannon, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
I have been very lucky in my career as a producer to work on many fun and interesting projects. I have worked with talented actors, and traveled to amazing countries, but the projects that mean the most to me are the ones where I get to be creative. One project that has been the most special for me though was producing and directing a music video for my band, He Said’s song “Topanga”. It was exciting to combine my two passions of producing and music into one space. I really enjoyed coming up with the concept and bringing to life my own vision. On most productions, I am working for someone else, so the vision isn’t solely mine but with my music video I got to make all the creative decisions. I got to work with the director of photography on how I wanted the framing style to match the music and how I wanted the colors and lighting to be. I got to pull from music videos that inspired me and that I loved. I was also free to be completely myself creatively and as out there and goofy as I wanted to be. So, when I brought up the idea of “let’s have kids play the adults at a birthday party”, I wasn’t laughed at or brushed off, we got to explore the idea and flesh it out. I think it paid off as well and made for a very original and fun music video. Additionally, because I was the one producing, I got to bring on my amazingly talented friends as my crew. It was a fun day on set where we all got to work together doing the things we love. The music video was a true reflection of who I am artistically and it’s something I can be very proud of.
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 back background and context?
I am Shannon Walden; I am a producer and lead vocalist of the band He Said. I started “working” in the film industry at the age of nine. When I was very young, I wanted to be an actor, so I was constantly going to auditions and trying to book roles wherever I could. An opportunity came up where I was going to tap dance on a local variety TV show. When I showed up to the studio, I was mesmerized by all the behind-the-scenes happening around me. Someone at the studio saw that I was interested and mentioned there was an after-school program for kids to learn about video production. From there, I was hooked! I spent every extra minute I had in that TV studio, after school, on school vacation. Once I showed up even though there was a blizzard happening since I was the only kid who showed up, we spent the afternoon creating a show where I filmed it and directed it, and I was the talent. My time spent in the studio showed me how creative I could be and express myself through video production. From there, I was lucky to go to a high school that had a two-year intensive TV program. Through the program, I was given my first professional opportunities like directing a live interview with Hilary Clinton, producing an educational series for Channel One, and launching a new local station for NH. I also produced an episodic drama series in my free time. I then went to Hofstra University where I majored in TV and Film production. Since then, I have lived in Los Angeles and New York and have worked all over the world on all types of projects. I am currently a producer at the commercial agency Laundry Service in New York and continue to produce my own projects. I just completed a short documentary film with director Sean J. Daly on the epidemic of mass shootings in America called “American Suicide: The Path To Mass Shootings” which will be entering film festivals this year.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Art is so integral to the human experience and I think it is sometimes an afterthought, especially in today’s society. In this age of social media, consumerism, and accessibility to plastic surgery there is an unsaid trend that strips away people’s uniqueness and is pushing society to fit one mold. To combat this, we as a society need to support and celebrate people being and looking unique. We need to share stories about courageous and out-of-the-box characters. We should be rewarding people for thinking and being different. I also think that funding needs to be put back into the arts in schools. Art keeps kids off the streets, it teaches them how to deal with different emotions, how to interact with other people, and how to love, laugh, and cry. Art is so important to a child’s development that it’s not the place we should pull funding from. Lastly, I think we need to make it the norm to learn new skills later in life. There is a weird stigma that after you have finished schooling you can’t learn anything new unless it will advance your career, especially not an art form. As an adult, I started taking voice lessons again, started learning how to write music for the first time, and created a band at the age of 30. Doing this completely changed my life for the better and if I had listened to the people telling me I was “too old” I would have never discovered that. Society should be encouraging adults to try new things like painting and dancing, not discouraging them. A shift like this could make the world a better place for so many.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I gained a large following on TikTok by accident, which at this point is cliche to say but is true. I posted a drama series I made in high school, and it went viral. This experience was eye-opening to me on many levels. When I started gaining more popularity, I started posting more videos of myself and going live at least once a week. I started to feel a lot of pressure to keep up with the algorithm. I was putting myself on camera more and more and it wasn’t something I loved doing. I created a new drama series and when I started posting that I was glued to my phone. I was constantly refreshing, finding better hashtags, and looking up how to beat the algorithm, it was all-consuming. It made me lose sight of what I like doing, creating videos. I have worked for many companies that rely on the algorithms on all platforms to work in their favor. There are strategies on how to do better with each algorithm. Some methods work and some don’t. All that information is easily accessible through Google and a little research. What I think is actually important to know is that you need to love what you are creating if you want to maintain a career on social media. It is a draining job and if you are constantly chasing an audience you will never make it. However, if you have a passion for what you do you will be okay when you don’t have an audience watching or a video “flops”, because that will happen. If you are consistent enough, the right audience will find you because of your passion and that’s the audience you want, the ones that will stick with you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://walden-productions.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/hesaidband
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeSaidBand/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-walden-84a10716b/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeSaidBand
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hesaidband/featured
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@hesaid_shannon
Image Credits
Andrew Allen