We were lucky to catch up with Tim Novotny recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tim, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

People often ask me if I learned my craft from going to film school. The answer I always give remains the same: “I never learned how to make a movie in a fancy film school with bureaucratic policies and expensive equipment, I learned how to make movies on the streets and in the dirt; financially broken and covered in stage blood.” This is an industry in which you never stop learning so long as you are open to improving yourself as an artist. I started at the lowest bidder with little to no resources and with each project, found new methods to improve the final product. If you are intelligent, structured and resourceful, you can make anything happen.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I established my film company (The Novotarian Syndicate LLC) in 2012 soon after I finished my first short film. I wanted to make films that would appeal to counterculture personalities like myself; films that had unique stories and controversial themes that were not part of the mainstream agenda. Another highlight of my work is the use of practical effects over CGI. What made motion pictures magical for me as a kid was the craftsmanship that went into creating effects to make what was seen on the screen almost indistinguishable from reality. Innovation and raw creativity is what I hope to bring audiences with a dose of dark aesthetics. The current project we have in production (The Mephistophiliac) is a perfect example of this. With the star and co-writer (Kevin Winstead) we believe that we’ve created the perfect story that looks at the insight of social conditioning, and how far one mans madness will go to try to destroy it. Like most of my other work The Mephistophiliac will feature the antagonist as the primary role of the film. It will create a divide among audiences that will have them either praising or loathing the character

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

I would say that the greatest pleasure in life for me is watching an idea from my mind manifest itself into reality. This kind of gratification is really the reason artists do what we do.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Being an artist is a compulsion, not a choice. Your brain is running constantly without end or mercy. It’s not a romantic state of being, it’s a swarm of locusts filling your head, and the only hope of stopping it from bursting is to vent them out with a project. Creativity has cost me relationships, a calm life, and ostracized me from most of the world. It’s caused me to torture myself by staying awake for days on end and pushing myself to the brink of physical collapse all to put that final touch on something so it’s as perfect as I can make it. The only way to deal with it is to embrace the condition and know that it can bring you piece of mind on some level, and find something real to ground you in reality.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tim_novotny_official
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NovotarianSyndicate
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NovotarianSynd
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCslqqQaMfQCwR3H7NZ7Mvnw