We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Travis Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Travis below.
Travis, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about your multi-award winning short film, The Shores On Paradise: Remastered.
The Shores On Paradise: Remastered is a 5x award winning short film, that I filmed in November of 2021. Last year I was one of the senior broadcast engineers working with Court TV on broadcasting the murder trial of Ahmaud Arbery. During this time there were several protests, civil right speakers, and the eyes of the nation was focused on that trial. By November I had been working on broadcasting the trial for three months, and tension was heavy down in Brunswick, GA. Many times I would pass the father of Ahmaud Arbery, Marcus Arbery and I could see the pain in his eyes. I really wanted to say words of encouragement to him, but working with the leading network carrying the trial on TV I couldn’t. In these months I came up with the idea that at times we need to escape from our troubles and stresses of life, a place where there is no pain and suffering; our own paradise.
I filmed during golden hour when the sun rose and it was cold out. She did a great job and I got all the shots in. Initially it was released without voiceover, this was due to someone else was going to write and be the voice in the video, however they never did this task. I titled the video The Shores On Paradise and It was released in November 2021 with no voice over. The year 2022 came and around June I had a nice contract with Amazon Studios which sadly ended early, with some extra time on my hands I decided to write and add voiceover to Shores. There were some other tweaks made to the original as well and the new film was entitled: The Shores On Paradise: Remastered. I never intended to enter the film into any film festivals, only because I didn’t believe it was strong enough. However, someone from the San Francisco Shorts Film Festival saw it online and urged me to submit, I did and from there I got invites from around the world. As of October 2022 it has won 5 awards, 6 official selections, 1 semi finalist and has played in Rome, Florence, Paris, New York, and San Francisco. Currently as of October it will be going to compete in Mexico and Hollywood.
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 am a film director, broadcast technical manager and senior broadcast/video engineer and I work professionally in the film/tv industry, currently I have close to 300 live major TV productions under my belt. My work has expanded several of the major TV networks from ESPN, NFL Network, Bally Sports, Court TV, NBC, MTV, Univision, MLB Network, UFC, Telemundo, Yahoo! Sports, New England Patriots, ABC, FOX and many more.
How I got start well: I have always been into comic books, sci-fi, and fantasy stories and I wrote several of my own stories growing up. My love for cinema began when I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, it was then I wanted to turn my stories into movies. Through middle and high school, I wrote my own comic books and screenplays staying the course of wanting to make films. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in film production from Full Sail University in 2012 and I started off as an audiovisual technician. For six years, I did AV until I broke into the TV industry professionally with ESPN (Thanks Amy Miller) as a utility (grip) then I worked my way up. Eventually I became a video engineer then sr. video engineer, broadcast engineer, sr. broadcast engineer and now I am a broadcast technical manager.
Working as a film director I write/direct my own films brining the ideas and my vision to the screen. I plan on making mor shorts and a feature to the to the silver screen.
As a broadcast technical manager, I oversee the technical design, build, transmission, production and hiring of the technical crew for the major live professional TV productions from in studio, on location, stadiums, and sound stages. As a film director I get to bring my ideas and storytelling to the screen working with writers, actors, and amazing cameras.
What I specialize in is broadcast engineering, cinematography, virtual production, and directing.
The film/tv industry has not always been easy. A lot of people want to work in this industry but they don’t understand there is a lot that comes with it. Breaking in was hard, but once you are in you are in. I have traveled the last three years being on the road 170 days a year away from home in all kinds of weather conditions and also the hours are long. I am one of the few African-American engineers in the industry as there is not that many of us and also being 31; most of your engineers are much older. There have many been times I showed up for a show and people don’t even shake my hand or they think I’m the driver until they realized I am the engineer in charge over the whole show.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Yes I am not stopping util my films are major releases on the silver screen and streaming on major platforms!
What do you find most rewarding about being creative?
The ability to get all your ideas out of your head and see them in real life!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pro.imdb.com/title/tt22500522/?ref_=nm_ovrvw_cr_kf_1
- Instagram: director_of_productions
Image Credits
Property of Travis J Smith