Se7en Questions with Filmmaker
Sam Mason–Bell
Who are some of the artists or some of the works
that inspired you to get started in your field? Of today’s current artists, who do you draw inspiration from?
Robert Rodriguez always inspired me as a filmmaker. From reading his book Rebel Without a Crew and seeing how he could produce for so much with so little money, gave me hope of having a career.
What have thus far been some of the negatives of being an indie artist in your field?
From working 48-hour film challenges, where you have to produce a short film within 48-hours from scratch, we picked up the habit of having skeleton crews who’s members take on several roles (such as editing, producing, directing, acting, etc.). Budgetary constraints have also led to us having to fit within others’ busy schedules. All put together make it very challenging to produce the way we’d like, but we persevere.
What have thus far been the positives of being an indie artist in your field?
Working with people in a similar situation who are not always highly educated, represented by agents or privileged. People who just wanna create, whether they are actors, directors or producers. I can work from home and have contacts and friends from the indie community across the world.
What have been your favourite completed projects to work on up to this point? Can you tell us a little bit about them?
Trash Arts has produced various features and short films, but from our web series, my biggest pride is The Making Of. The Making of is a mockumentary comedy series currently on StreamNowTV. It follows the awkward ups and downs of a working class group of filmmakers.
From the features side, The Drug Tours on Versusmedia a one-take, two-cameras mockumentary dark comedy feature, and the horror feature Lonely Hearts.
What projects are you currently working on or have planned for the near future?
At this point we are preparing for The Making Of Season 3, coming out next month on StreamNowTV. We also have another horror film in post production, Millennial Killer. Also more horror anthologies and features coming out via Troma. The ongoing comedy series Right Here Right Now is also currently out on Versusmedia.
Where do you see yourself in a few years and what would it take for you to consider your career a success?
For me success is built within legacy, working and building a scene from Trash Arts, helping others with their goals as well. I’d like to simply to be more secure from building Trash Arts in a few years, but I understand all too well that it takes a lot of work, which is all we focus on.
If you couldn’t do this anymore, what career path do you think you would have followed and why?
Luckily Trash Arts does events, so I’d probably do more of that, but I am lucky to live in a time where you can make films at any moment if you so choose!
