We recently connected with Ted Omo and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ted thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Learning the craft of filmmaking isn’t linear. Making movies is the most collaborative creative process on earth. No one person can do everything by themselves.

It comes down to honing your skills in a few specific areas, doing your job there, and trusting others to do their jobs elsewhere. If you try to do everything, you can get overwhelmed quickly.

So, I’d say learning the craft, in my view, is trying everything and then focusing on whichever part of the process moves you the most. That could be cinematography, sound recording, lighting, editing, or the literal hundreds of other positions that contribute to a final product.

Whatever it is, work at it. Work at it every single day and build on what you already know. Take online classes, watch YouTube videos, get on set and watch how others work, and listen to people that have more experience. But most of all, hold yourself accountable. You don’t have to be perfect, but you know when you’re actively trying to improve and when you’re not. If you can get just 1% better each day, you’re making progress.

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

I’m a writer, producer, and director from Massachusetts. I’ve been working in the content creation and film space on a professional level for just over five years now. I can confidently say this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I can’t really say it was always the plan. I’m not going to lie and say that I always knew that making movies was what I wanted to do. If you asked younger versions of myself, at various stages, I would have told you I wanted to play major league baseball, or start a band, or write books.

But, I noticed when I started my undergrad. That was how present film and video had always been in my life, how I’d been learning my whole life.

Watching and rewatching films as a kid gave me an in-depth understanding of how they worked. Making short movies with my friends on my dad’s handheld Sony gave me perspective on how the creative process happens from beginning to end. And the reverence my family gave to a day at the movie theatre or a trip to Blockbuster put the medium on a pedestal that not much else could touch.

So, I started learning. During my undergrad, I took every class I thought would contribute to my writing and technical abilities. Videography, screenwriting, editing, human communications, and philosophy courses laid a foundation. I built on that foundation with a screenwriting MFA. I built a new understanding of the art form and learned how great artists of the medium do what they do.

Next, I sought to emulate that. But, I knew I wanted to have some financial security, so I first ensured I could find full-time work. I gravitated toward the industry, and I’ve been fortunate enough to maintain full-time jobs based on media creation. Jobs that allowed me to develop content and have pushed me to grow.

This crucial step has allowed me to finance and spend my free time working on other creative projects, where I’ve developed an understanding of the industry. Whether it’s been writing and producing my films or helping others to develop and produce theirs, I’ve learned as much as I could from the incredible people I’ve worked with.

Making movies is the most collaborative art in the world, and everyone has something to teach you. If you can be a sponge, you can learn. From the boom operator to the script supervisor, from the production designer to the key grip, each person on the set has a unique perspective on the process and has a skill set that contributes directly to the end product. Creating a good project is about finding the right people, trusting them to do their job, and putting them in the best position to succeed.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The way creative work is valued in society is interesting. Everyone consumes it, but not everyone understands how it works. That makes it hard to ask the general population to decide the best way to support a medium like film. It’s like telling a plumber, mechanic, or doctor what they need to do their job without any meaningful understanding of their process.

I think it’s more about asking what creatives can do to support other creatives rather than what society can do in general. From what I’ve seen, at least in an independent space, connecting with others and treating them with kindness and respect is the key to success. That’s where meaningful support and impact happen.

In my city of Boston and the Northeast region, I’ve seen grassroots Facebook pages and chat platforms contribute directly to people learning and getting jobs. Then, when you get on set, you learn from people, display your desire to succeed through effort and collaboration, and maybe most importantly, talk to everyone and develop relationships.

Finding like-minded people who want to grow their skills and understanding is what perpetuates and expands the ecosystem of creatives.

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

For me, every part of the creative process is rewarding. Finding the seed of an idea, developing the idea, building a team, planning a project, putting it into production, distilling its essence in post-production, and then sharing it.

Every step is rewarding. But, if I had to choose, I would say working with others is my favorite part of the process. Whether it’s getting notes on a script and talking about the story, listening to a director of photography share their vision for how a scene might happen, or having an assistant director tell you exactly how a schedule should work. Whether it’s listening to actors express ideas on set about how to improve a scene, a script supervisor spotting something you missed, the sound department telling you why you need to hold, or G&E explaining why this 12×12 frame is where it is. Whether it’s the editor you’re working with bringing a fresh perspective on how a cut is coming together, VFX spotting something you might want to get rid of or improve, or a colorist bringing the entire aesthetic of your film to life, it’s ALL important, and it’s ALL fun.

Making movies is a labor of love. Finding the right people may take time, but if you continue to work hard, you’ll attract them. Those people you collaborate with become a film family. If you treat them with respect and trust, your project will probably turn out pretty great.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @tedo_film
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091851129439
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-omo-703b67186/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4VrEPFGedL9HP9NqR99ww

Image Credits
Scott Mullaley Nick Doyle Madeline Gravelle Andrew Allen