Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Tim Carr

We recently had the chance to connect with Tim Carr and have shared our conversation below.

Tim, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
All of those things are needed, but at different times.

Intelligence is GREAT when you’re at trivia night. Energy is great when you need that lift in a long day.

But for me it’s always integrity. Doing the right thing, making others feel special. With all due respect to all the smart people and the energetic people out there, but the people I always actually remember, even years later? Are the ones with integrity, the ones that did things with kindness.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I try. I always have. I try to make stories that people may like. I film TV shows, and I really try hard to make them good and enjoyable. I have filmed movies that I really tried to serve the material. I try and volunteer for different organizations, because I hope I can help.

I have a little film out right now and it’s called “M.O.W.” it’s about a day in the life of a guy volunteering with the Meals on Wheels organization. It’s about getting some hungry people some food, and somehow, in this day and age, it’s not as easy as we’d like that to be. I have been in New York City with it,it’s playing in England right now, as we speak, and the screenings have been really great and I’m thankful for that. And we’re lucky enough to be able to add more screenings, and then it’ll be streaming into everyone’s homes and phones. I’m proud of this one.

There is also a screenplay I wrote that was a pretty big swing for me, it’s a little bit different from the stuff I normally do and it’s a little bit sadder. There’s a wonderful production company on the West Coast that’s interested in getting this very quirky, authentic little movie made. It’s nice when we can take a chance on something and it connects with others. I’m thankful that worked, because I’m doing another movie script, that’s currently in its first draft, and that’s also pretty far off brand for me. To do my research for this, I had a pretty length discussion with some real estate agents, that’s all I’ll say about it. So, these days, I may just fully embrace this more authentic “era” of myself.

Do these projects always work? No. But sometimes they do. But I always try really hard to do my best, and I always will.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
For a lot of my life, I took great pride on doing the most work that I can. It didn’t matter if the work made sense, or if I was already booked filming something else. I always, always, always made it work. I pushed myself pretty hard to make all of that work schedule-wise. I really just accepted every project. I’d blast through these really wonderful experiences at an insanely fast pace, I’d meet amazing people, I’d be in some incredible places, and immediately, be gone and on to the next “thing” whatever that opportunity may be.

Now, looking back, I see some of these projects, some were good, some missed the mark, but I stopped pushing myself to be doing “all of the things” and everywhere at once, I stopped trying to be everything to everyone. I now focus my energy at a decent, more normal pace. Taking more time, making sure I can harmonize work, but also my life a bit more. My family have really inspired that in me. They’d support me no matter what, but they are the ones that bring out the best in me. They inspire me to take my time and enjoy the journey and not have to be everywhere at once.

Not everyone needs a version of me that has been awake for 36 hours because I kept saying “yes” to projects. I take a deeper breath now, I try and make more deliberate choices on what the next project will be. Sometimes, I still may find myself double booked, but at least I’m a little more aware that I’m doing it.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
This is a good one. I grew up in a little area south of Philadelphia called Avondale. I never felt like anything I did was ever going to be good enough. So when I got out of Avondale, I took every single opportunity and lived my life at a pretty intense pace. “Can you be in New York tomorrow morning?” You bet. “How about DC by the end of the day?” Yes. “There is a function in Philadelphia, can you make that”. I wouldn’t miss it!

So much of that always felt like if I said no, that I’d never get those opportunities again, and so much of it, and even now in the film and TV world, we get “imposter syndrome” that feeling of “wait, there is no WAY that I’m as good as people think”.

But if I could say something to my younger self, I’d say “you’re doing fine, stop beating yourself up in life so much.”, and if I could say a few more things to my younger self, I’d also tell him to drink more water and try and get a little more sleep.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
I hear this one a lot lately, and that’s “is cinema dead”? I assure you, my friends, it is not.

But it’s changing.

Vertical films are a format that really gets a big audience these days. Vertical films are shorter, dramatic and there are a lot of “episodes/parts” to them. These films are specifically designed for mobile viewing. These are sort of like “serials” in the 1950’s and always ended with some sort of cliffhanger to keep watching. The industry IS taking notice of these because the Screen Actors Guild just did an agreement for them.

There are now more platforms for short films, those cinemetic stories that we can tell in 10 or 15 minutes. So when I sit down with an idea, sure I still write a 100 pages. But is there maybe a 10 page version of this too? Having films that get millions and millions of views WILL change how the industry views things, because we do need to go to where the audiences are.

But even with traditional movie watching, original movies are still performing really well, “Sinners” is a great example, directed by Ryan Coogler, and really anything Ryan Coogler does is worth watching. “Wicked For Good” is an existing story, meaning, just like superheroes, people already have an idea of what they’re walking into, but trust me I’ll bet MANY people are going to happily walk into “Wicked For Good”. A favorite TV show of mine is “Key and Peele”, and both of those guys continue to be really watchable. Keegan-Michael Key is on our screens all of the time, and Jordan Peele CONTINUES to do really interesting and authentic films. Cinema isn’t dead, it’s just changing. It’s trying to find where the audiences currently are, and what those audiences may like to enjoy watching.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
Speaking for me, and me only, I absolutely can go full strength without needing that “pat on the back”. But to be honest, those pats on the back can be nice. But every single day, I wake up and try to be at least 1% better than I was yesterday. Better at life? Better at work? Better as making coffee? Whatever. I just try and be better. Each day. I know I don’t need a pat on the back on this, because this is the first time I’m ever talking about it. I think I can be pretty aware about the bad things, maybe TOO aware, sometimes. But I also look for the good out there. I try to be a part of that “good” side. And any which way that I can, of course I’d love to improve. But I think maybe if I can keep going at making myself just 1% better every day and if I can keep trying to get myself on the “good” side of things, I think maybe we will all be okay.

Contact Info:

• Website: www. ParkingLotFilms.net
• Instagram: NotTimCarr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkinglotfilms