We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tori Layne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tori, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Iron Owl Films was a name selected out of a long brainstorming list in an attempt to convey both how I want to run a film set, and how I want to approach the company’s stories. Primarily, I was drawn to the feeling the combination of “iron” and “owl” gave me. Iron, for strength, stability, and resilience. Owls symbolize a wide-eyed curiosity toward the world. The freedom of flight comes to mind, the adventure of exploration and the worthwhile process of gaining wisdom. Owls, in general, are beautiful birds. Past waxing lyrical about metaphorical meanings, the name Iron Owl allows for some really cool merch opportunities.
Tori, 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?
I have been a storyteller since before I knew how to write. My parents, bless them, would type out my stories on old boxy Windows computers as I paced back and forth, proclaiming my tales mostly about kittens in some capacity. I was a kid with many interests, including high-intensity sports, and I initially wanted to combine my athletic and creative worlds to become a sports news broadcaster. In high school, I built our schools’ broadcast program, but eventually lost interest in journalism at around the same time that I watched the behind the scenes of Lord of the Rings. Or rather, all ten hours of the behind the scenes packages of the trilogy. I was fascinated by all the various departments, by such a massive group of people gathering to tell one epic story. Moreso, I was captivated by all the details, the thousands of small moments that formed a story so big and yet so personal. How does an on-set leader communicate clearly in the midst of so much… stuff? Yet that series did it, and effectively. It was in watching those “how it was made” videos that I knew I wanted to be a film director.
So, the path became clear. I went to college, and after an Achilles tear effectively ended my collegiate track and field career, focused in on storytelling and discovered my love for travel. Not walking for several months will generally give you a desire to go as far as you can. I found opportunities to study abroad during two summers, first to New Zealand where I had my first lessons in film directing from John Callen (“Oin” in The Hobbit trilogy), and then to South Korea, where I studied Korean popular media and culture. These experiences expanded my view of the world – or maybe I just got addicted to travel. When stepping into the film industry proper, the constant movement to other cities for new gigs suited me just fine. I spent a couple years building my script supervision career, traveling up and down the US east coast, as well as out to the LA and up north as far as Michigan, before finally landing in Atlanta. Script supervision formed both an excellent skill to offer others, as well as an access pass to the “room where it happens.” Through script supervising, I have been blessed to learn from other directors and producers on how to make a movie.
In the meantime, I was putting that learning into practice. Call it impatience, call it ambition, but I figured I should be making more than just my senior thesis short film. I filmed three other short films during my first years in the industry, exploring different genres and coining the name for my production company brand: Iron Owl Films. In 2020, I directed, wrote, and produced my first feature-length film, a family dramedy called Imagined. That experience was like the difference between running a 5K and a marathon, with a first-hand trial run of the filmmaking culture I wanted to build. The feature film is now out on Amazon, but I am proud of that project not for its distribution or even for its content. What I am most proud of is the simple fact that Imagined is complete. A completed project – endearingly imperfect as it is – is miles ahead of a perfect but incomplete project. During that grueling two-year post production process, I learned what it looked like to drive a project forward relentlessly, even if it was by myself at times.
That resilience, that stubborn can-do-it attitude, is what I bring with me to all of my projects. I have now directed and produced ten projects in total, with three more feature-length scripts ready to produce. Iron Owl Films’ most recent publicly-released short film, A Horse Called Possum, reached 67,000 views on YouTube, which I am quite proud of as a budding storyteller. Two more short films are in the film festival circuit, with a third nearly at the end of its post production period. I am fascinated by the craft of directing and building the skillset of effective communication. To me, after figuring out the essence of your scene and story, directing is all about communication. Communicate well, lead well, and your team will be making the same movie as you, which is the ultimate goal. I am addicted to those moments of authentic emotional connection, when things just “click” and the movie “magic” happens. Film forces me to be in the moment, and striving for those moments makes them all the more special. They form the backbone of why I want to communicate well, why I want to lead well, and why I want to keep telling stories.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
A lot of what I know about team-building, I learned from sports. First and foremost, people follow what they see more than what they hear, so leaders have the responsibility to lead by example. Second, leaders have to see the value of their teammates, not just as their specific role, but their personality: the giftings they bring that tie the whole team together, push them forward, inspire them, etc. Recognizing your own giftings as a leader – and especially where you are not so gifted – is hugely important here, because this area requires both confidence and selflessness. We need one another – we cannot and should not be doing everything by ourselves. Discerning where others are skilled and involving those skills in the decision-making process adds exponential amounts of value to your project and overall team.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Business resources like classes, mentorships, entrepreneurial workshops, etc. Filmmaking is a business, and I think that so many creatives are afraid of the numbers, because that’s not where we’re naturally drawn. We got into the film industry for the creative stuff, the fun stuff, and when faced with the fact that we have to make money in order to keep doing it… well, we need to be more business savvy. Learning the basics of entrepreneurial finance, learning the mindsets and language of how business people think and move in their industries, even if its not in the film industry, will help you by leaps and bounds. Those business people could be your next investors, after all, so understanding how to speak their language is a huge asset.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ironowlfilms.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ironowlfilms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ironowlfilms
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tori-layne-03ba41273/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ironowlfilms
Image Credits
Tori Layne
Iron Owl Films