Meet Eric Toms

We recently connected with Eric Toms and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Creativity keeps me alive, because I have a hard time processing the world. It all moves so fast and changes so quickly. I’m not the type of person who reads a situation correctly the first time, but rather has to internalize it then try to make sense of it. I reorder the world in the form of a story. The characters I create walk through the landscape of my mind and by watching them I slowly begin to understand how I feel about big ideas, like the wage gap, or women’s rights, or voter fraud.

I wish I was smarter or faster, and although I try to learn as much as I can, I’m stuck with the processing power I was built with. However, age has taught me to be calm* and wait for my brain to catch up to my emotions. For me, being creative isn’t something that I do for fun, but rather a tool I use to help me navigate the world around me.

*I struggle with the being calm part as well

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Over the years I have realized that my great strength is community organization. I really enjoy getting creative people together and sharing their work. To that end I created THE NIGHT OF SHORTS NIGHT with my good friend, James Codeglia. Once a month for the past six years we have screened the work of short filmmakers in the Los Angeles area, completely free of charge. We’re so lucky to have the internet and to be able to share our work with anyone around the world, but the greatest teacher is a room full of strangers watching your film. They are the most honest when it comes to time, pacing, content and message. Creatives collect once a month at the Formosa Cafe and screen their work, hang out and get to know one another. Find us @nightofshortsnight and submit your work!

To reach filmmakers on a larger scale, I also produce the podcast MAKING MOVIES IS HARD, with hosts, Liz Manashil and Alrik Bursell. Each week we interview filmmakers, agents, managers, and financiers to help make sense of the ever-changing landscape of the film industry. Find us wherever you listen to podcasts.

With everything I learned from those around me, I felt it was time to make my own feature film. After years of misfires and false starts, I met Mark Duplass who gave me the advice to make a film for $1,000… so I did. After six years and a lot of favors, my first feature film, BAKERSFIELD NOIR, is complete and will be release later this year. It’s the story of a guy who lives in his mom’s basement, and witnesses his friend die in a drug deal. With no help from the police, he must navigate the seedy underworld, filled with sex workers, crooked televangelists and wise hobos all in the mean streets of Bakersfield. Follow me at @tomsfunny for screening dates.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities that have helped me the most throughout my career has been perseverance, courage and faith. You have to be willing to put yourself in situations where you’ll be the new person a lot! Which is often times the most scary thing. We want to be able to hang onto familiar situations or tasks where we know we’ll be okay, but that doesn’t promote growth or change. I’ve had to pitch projects to people who didn’t know me, nor were aware of my work. Those situations are very scary, but necessary to meet new colaborators.

You have to have faith in yourself and your projects. You have to believe in yourself, that your skill and intuition will garner the best results for your projects. Being creative, by its very definition, means that you are making something that has never been made before. There is no safety net and there is no one there to help you, because the only person who has seen this before is you! Will it be perfect? No! Will you make mistakes? Of course, but not every mistake is incorrect. When being creative you work, build, create, destroy, tear down, revise, write, draw, color and then start all over. That’s how you find the best results.

A feeling that many artists feel after creating a project is a deep sense of depression or sadness because you know that no matter how hard you work and no matter how happy or satified you are with your results you will have to do it again starting back at square one. We don’t create something once and declare ourselves masters of the craft. We work at a project, then create a new one, over and over. That is the reason the most successful creatives aren’t finding joy in the end result, but rather the whole process. There is a real romance to the beginning, middle and end of any project.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
When you’re a freelancer like most creatives, you can become overwhelmed very quickly. Especially in this day and age of ever demanding social media. We know that social media is a great way to get noticed in our field, but shooting videos for TikTok, posting photos for SnapChat or Instagram, and coming up with clever Tweets can eat into valuable time throughout your day. That is time when you could be creating your next project, working your day job, or spending time with your family.

When you’re a creative you are the CEO of your own company, and as my good friend Matt Roben once said, “If you look at all of the work you need to do, you’ll just shut down.” Which is why it is so important to recognize when you’re overwhelmed. Mental health has been in the spotlight for the past few years, and we’re all starting to realize just how important it is to take care of one’s own self.

Here’s a few strategies I use when I’m feeling overwhelmed.
1. BREAK IT DOWN – Every big task is just a series of smaller tasks strung together. If you want to make a feature film then take a second to break down all of the small things that need to take place before you get to opening night. Make lists and cross off each task as you go. EDITORS NOTE: Crossing items off a list could possibly be one of the MOST satisfying things, so make plenty of items!

2. BE PATIENT – When you have a new project that you’re excited about, be it a film, painting, or script, you can’t wait to birth it into the world. And sharing that idea with the world is so exciting, but remember to be patient and take your time. Each step is very valuable, like the spokes on a tire. If one is out of place or wasn’t given the care it deserved then the rest of the wheel will collapse.

3. TAKE BREAKS – The tech driven message of today is DO IT NOW! But real art and things worth making take time. If you’re moving too fast on a project then not only will you make mistakes, but you’ll burn yourself out as well. Yes, e need to meet deadlines, but taking a five minute walk to clear your head and step away from a project is worth its weight in gold.

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