We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alron Phillips a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alron, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I can honestly say that my resilience and perseverance come from God. He created something within all of us that helps us endure and push forward regardless of the struggles and obstacles that may come our way. When things like that come up resilience happens naturally, because I practice it daily. It helps that I always lean on Him, so when obstacles come my way when I’m at my weakest, He is always there to guide me, strengthen me, and help me battle to push forward.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
When it comes to my film career, I would like to stay independent. I want to work with talent in Hollywood, but I want to just stay independent. I love creating amazing stories with deeper and more realistic tones, even if I do a superhero movie or a zombie flick, want my stories to be rich and beyond surface imagination. I want my independent films to have the high-quality look of big-budget Hollywood films. To be able to take people to different worlds, experience different lives, and walk in the shoes of different characters is my aim. I want my audience to feel as if they’re part of the movie, as if they’re in the films themselves, submerged into these characters and their lives. When it comes to my brand, I truly believe that great films can be made and be very successful without s*x or nudity, and with every film I make I will make sure that there is none included in my films. We can focus just on the story and the world these characters live in. Just great amazing films.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Be Professional – I have always strived to be expertly professional at all times even at the beginning of my career. Being unprofessional screams rookie and it breaks down relationships you could have if you would’ve just been professional. How you treat people, how you pay them, if you stay connected with cast and crew in between films, the conversations you have on set, how you talk to or treat the opposite s*x, paperwork and being prepared production day, how organized you are, etc. All of this reflects your professionalism. I say, drop the low-budget independent mindset and the student filmmaker mindset and start thinking like a Hollywood elite. If you won’t conduct yourself like that on a Steven Speilberg set then don’t do it on any set, no matter the level. It’s the same mantra as, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.”
Be a Sponge – You need to make sure you stay humble and learn from everyone around you. Always be a student of the industry. Always study the greats and the not-so-greats in order to improve and learn new ways to make a film.
Be Respectful – No matter what position you’re in you should always be respectful and thankful for everyone around you. You may be the director of the film but need to show love, respect, and appreciation for the grip, the PA, the crafty, and everyone else. Everyone is needed to make a film great, not just the above-the-line crew and talent. If you didn’t have those grips, then you would have to do everything yourself. Grips and PAs also have knowledge and a work ethic that you may not have. One thing you need to keep in mind is that grip or PA or whoever may be in that position on your set, but they may be the director or producer on the next film or their own and you could be in the position to need to work for them. Always treat people with kindness and respect, because you never know who you’re talking to.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I’m always looking to collaborate with like-minded filmmakers. I would love to connect with some investors to learn more about the investing side and what they’re looking for. To be able to partner with investors to get more of my films made and to be able to pay everyone their worth and get a high ROI is something that I am very interested in. I would love to connect with some EPs and partner with them on a lot of projects. Though I have a lot of scripts written under my own company, I would love to connect with some screenwriters and help bring their films to life. I want to be able to work and grow with different teams of cast and crew to build a network of like-minded individuals that I can continually rely on and that I love and trust. If anyone wants to talk partnership or collaboration with me, and I’m talking serious filmmakers (no games), I can be contacted through my website: www.nujurustudios.com, or through social media @nujurustudios on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nujurustudios.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nujurustudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NuJuRuStudios
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nujuru-studios/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFuRlFvm5eUsnN0yxFaXP5g
