We were lucky to catch up with Andrew and Adrian Nuno recently and have shared our conversation below.
Andrew and Adrian, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
This question is very near and dear to us since this was the central challenge that we had dealt with the past two years. In November 2021, we finally released our web series Border’d (which we created alongside Lauryn Lugo) to the world after we spent three years total producing it. From fundraising to shooting it to editing it and then promoting it, Border’d took up a giant chunk of our lives. After we released it, we decided to intentionally take a two year break from filmmaking. As much as we loved making Border’d, we realized we were burnt out and needed some time away from filmmaking. Many people feel that you have to keep creating in order to keep your creativity alive when we have found the exact opposite to be true. Sometimes you need to take a break from being creative in order to let creativity find you again.
During the two year break we took from filmmaking, we were able to reconnect with friends and experience new things and travel to places we had never been to before. All of these experiences not only recharged our creative batteries but also gave us ideas for new films to make. As a matter of fact, the idea for our next short film that we have in production (which is currently entitled Final Frame) came to us during our two-year break. We became fascinated by the line creatives tow between their professional aspirations and the connections they hold in life that we believe make life worth living: connections with friends, family, and significant others. This idea would have never come to us if we didn’t take a break. Thus, we believe strongly that the best way to keep your creativity alive is to take a break and sometimes let creativity find you.
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?
We are Andrew and Adrian Nuno and we are twin Latine filmmakers from Chicago, Illinois! We have been making films since we were 13 and to date have made five short films and a full season of a web series. With over twelve years of filmmaking experience, our work shines a light on underrepresented topics and communities. We directed and produced a short film on mental health entitled Little Things which achieved recognition from film festivals in Portugal, Ireland and took home the Grand Jury Prize at the Southern City Film Festival in Aiken, South Carolina. Our most recent project which we co-created with Lauryn Lugo, the Latine web series Border’d, premiered its first season in November 2021 on the Emmy-nominated platform Open Television and thus far has been the recipient of a Telly Award and has been selected to screen at Miami Web Fest, LA Latinx Film Fest, Melbourne WebFest, and the Official Latino Arts & Film Festival where it won Best Actress in an Episodic and Adrian was nominated for Best Actor in an Episodic. In January 2022, HipLatina named us two of “10 Latinx Filmmakers You Should Know About” and in December 2022 Andrew won his very first Emmy® for a show he produced with Lightswitch Video in collaboration with The Advocate entitled “Mardi Gras For All Y’all.” We love the filmmaking process and are constantly in awe of film’s ability to create empathy and introduce audiences to new perspectives. We hope to continue uplifting underrepresented topics and communities with the work we do and to keep entertaining audiences while giving them something to think about afterwards. We are currently producing an animated short film entitled Draft Paper and are in pre-production on our next short film, Final Frame.
For more info on us or future projects, check out www.nunotwins.co!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Persistence, flexibility, and learning how to make your own opportunities. As filmmakers, we feel these traits have been instrumental to our journey.
For anyone just starting on their respective journey, regardless of what area they want to go into, we would say half of the journey is just sticking with it. It can feel very intimidating at first to be new at something. We have been making films for over 14 years now and the first four years of that journey was a lot of trial and error. It was learning a lot of what works and what doesn’t. How to not just make a film but how to get it out there. And to, most importantly, not judge ourselves too harshly for making mistakes along the way. Learn from the mistakes and keep pushing forward with persistence to learn and improve.
Flexibility is also important because you need to be ready for what your journey may throw at you. Not even two weeks into filming the first season of our web series Border’d, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a nationwide lockdown. There was absolutely nothing that prepared us for the work we would need to do to keep the production not only on track through an uncertain number of months on lockdown but how to make the production safe for when we were allowed to return to production. Still, we managed to be nimble and worked together as a team alongside Lauryn and the rest of our production team and cast to find a way forward. An unforeseen challenge can be frustrating but it can be possible to overcome so long as you stay flexible.
Learning to make your own opportunities is also important for success. We won’t deny in any way, shape, or form the fact that luck is involved with wanting a career in the world of video, film, or TV. However, we have found that being creative and persistent in finding the ways to make our own projects has helped bring a whole string of opportunities our way. Learning how to create with what you have is not only imperative to getting your start as a filmmaker but it also creates a mindset of nimbleness that we believe is vital to growing as a filmmaker and being ready for challenges that may arise. Our first few films were made with little to no budget at all! And it was through making those films that we were able to step up and feel more prepared as the budgets got bigger. We were able to take what we learned and apply it to the next opportunity. With that being said, go easy on yourself with the first opportunities you create for yourself. Don’t think you have to play in the big leagues right away. Every opportunity you make for yourself, big or small, is a step that will take you where you want to go.
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?
Adrian and I are always looking for folks to possibly collaborate with! Whether that is us possibly coming onboard to produce or direct a film, having us edit your reel or trailer or podcast episode, have someone collaborate with us on our projects, or just a fellow artist to get to know and support, we’re always looking for more artists to get to know! Feel free to reach out via the form on our website www.nunotwins.co or feel free to DM us on Instagram at @andrewthenunotwin or @adrianthenunotwin!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nunotwins.co
- Instagram: @andrewthenunotwin or @adrianthenunotwin
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriannu%C3%B1o/ (Adrian)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-nuno/ (Andrew) - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nunotwins
