We were lucky to catch up with Shaun Piccinino recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shaun, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

This is a tough one to answer as I have several projects that are so meaningful to me for different reasons.

But one of those said projects was the true story of World War 2 pilot James Doolittle and the harrowing mission he and 79 other men flew with almost no hope of surviving. Spoiler alert 74 of the 80 men miraculously survived against all odds after everyone of their planes crashed.

I think why it’s so special to me is because we were telling a true story about real people who went through such intense and amazing journeys of survival. It’s a huge responsibility to take on and help tell these stories for current and future generations.

It was also just so meaningful to me because of all the amazing people involved. Lifelong friendships were created from the bonds of telling this story. Everyone from the creators to the producers to the cast and crew, it truly was a dream come true.

Lastly we also traveled the world filming this project. We filmed on World War 2 aircraft carriers, launched planes from that era, filmed chase scenes through bamboo Forrest’s and reacted crash landing in massive water tanks. I learn so much about filmmaking through this process but also learned a lot about the world myself as well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

From a very early age I started learning the art of telling stories by being on/behind stage for my father plays. He directed several every year.

Then at the ripe age of 11 or 12 my parents got me an early VHS Camcorder to experiment with. My story telling world opened up exponentially with that one tool. I did stop-motion animation films with toys, stared in and Re-created my favorite music videos of the 80’s. By 16 years old I started writing, directing & staring in commercials in my home town. I cut my teeth with editing, graphics & VFX from those small town ads.

Once I moved to Southern California my friends and I started making our first narrative live action short films. Our only teachers being the filmmakers we looked admired in, Lucas, Spielberg, Kurosawa, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and newer filmmakers at the time in Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. In our early 20’s we did everything from comedy shorts to action show pieces to Star Wars fan films.

After creating and completing our first feature film on a couple credit cards (around 10k all in) and a lot of determination we actually got world wide distribution for it. This sent us off to the races so to speak.

…But wait, not so fast! It’s not going to be that easy! The 2nd film I created and directed was a much better film then the first and won a bunch of awards in the festival circuit. But alas it was infinitely harder to get distribution for it. In the end it finally did get out there but no profits to be seen.

From there I was lucky enough to have several mentors take me under their wing and with their guidance and support I was able to continue to grow as a filmmaker. They helped shape me to be ready when the opportunities would arise.

Now I’m lucky enough to have several projects find homes with Netflix, Max, Amazon Prime, Lionsgate and more but there have been many failures or projects that never get off the ground in between those successes.

I don’t know if there is anything that could have sped up the process. I think we grow and learn at the pace we’re meant too and this the business of “overnight successes” that are at least 10 years in the making…

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Just like so many that have remained in this business it comes down to never giving up. The creatives that make it almost always have the same thing in common. They stuck it out as if they could do nothing else. It’s filmmaking or bust!

I’ve had so many rejections, and failures in this business and even a moment or two where I questioned if I should just move on. But then the drive in me to be a filmmaker always takes over, new ideas spring up and new ways to overcome the obstacles present themselves.

After my 2nd feature was successful in festivals but I couldn’t sell it to save my life I was disheartened. I had put so much energy and effort into creating it, I was crushed that I just couldn’t seem to get it out to the world. Eventually it did get a release but like many “indie” releases we didn’t have any publicity or advertising to help it get noticed. This was a moment where I questioned the path I was on. The funny thing is, several years later that very film and the story of how we made that film helped land me the largest project I had ever worked on to that point. It was a huge step up for me and it was in many ways thanks to that tiny indie film I had so much trouble getting distribution for.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is when your art, film, show, etc finds an audience and even just one person is effected in a positive way by it. That is literally everything.

Knowing you helped created something that had a positive effect is more rewarding than I can even describe.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.direct.me/directorshaun
• Instagram: @directorshaunpiccinino
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-piccinino-2060aa8
• Other: www.directorshaun.com

Image Credits
Gloria El-Achkar Viktoria Chernetski