Meet Bryant Griffin

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bryant Griffin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bryant below.

Bryant, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

Being the only one in the room is the story of my late teen to adult life. Unfortunately as a person of color, this is the case for pretty much everyone, especially in certain professions and levels of management. What helps me is to not assume that people are out to get your or sabotage your career. I think you can really go into a downward spiral if you feel like your every move is being watched or if you have to constantly look over your shoulder. I think you will find that people genuinely care and want to help you grow. Of course people have unconscious bias, but try not to dwell on those occurrences when they do happen. The more you dwell on those situations, the more power you give the negative energy.
The other piece of advice I would give is to distribute your loyalty. I find that I’m extremely loyal to people that give me an opportunity. Sometimes those people move on to further their careers or seek new opportunities and when that happens, I find that I spent so much time under them, that no one else was aware of what I was capable of leaving me without advocates. So I would say that you should always take opportunities to spread your time with multiple mentors so that you’re not putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a filmmaker with a production company and a visual effects company. I’ve been in film and television for 20 years. I got my start at Lucasfilm back in 2004 and worked there for 12 years on some of the biggest blockbusters of the last 20 years. In transitioning to become a writer director, my goal has been to tell genre stories with people of color at the center of the narratives. I feel that what is exciting about that it a diverse cast of characters and specifically protagonists adds variations to the specifics of the stories you’re telling. So that’s what I’m really excited about. Placing people that look like me at the center of these fantastical stories and making sure that they are three dimensional characters with layers and not stereotypes or tropes.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

One quality will seem to contradict a later quality on this list, but for the first one I would say humility. When starting out especially, I think that’s an important quality to display. When you approach more senior people in a humble way, letting them know that you appreciate the work that they’ve done in the past and how it has allowed you to take things to the next level, that makes them more likely to mentor you which is invaluable in the entertainment industry.
The second is just work ethic. Early on in my career I was a machine. I would work 6 days a week, morning to night, not because I was asked to but because I loved the craft. When you’re really doing something that you love, you just want to do it 24×7 and I was extremely lucky in that I landed a dream job early on at Lucasfilm. I never wanted to go home.
The third quality is the one that I think some people may think conflicts with the first and that’s confidence. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. I know when I’m good at something and when I’m not (maybe that’s a fourth quality – being honest about where you stand against your peers). When someone was a better artist, I knew it – it helped me to set the bar of where I needed to be, and when I knew my work was better than someone else’s work when I had been passed over for opportunities, I knew that my work was good and I wasn’t going to let this closed door stop me.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m always looking for partners to collaborate with. Moreso on the business side. As I’ve said before, I know what I’m good at and I know what I’m not good at. My bread and butter is he creative work. That’s what excites me and gets me up in the morning. I’m not as good with the business side of things. One has to acknowledge that to be great at business, you need to spend as much time focusing on that as I do on the art. I can’t do both, so I’m always looking for people that love numbers, that get excited about pursuing clients, making deals, growing companies, finding financing. Those are the partners I’m looking for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.directedbybryant.com/
• Instagram: @smilez94
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryant-griffin-00a1324/

Image Credits

Zheyu Liang
Ivy Liao
Mel Khan
A. Ferrer