We were lucky to catch up with Derek “DC” Talib recently and have shared our conversation below.
Derek “DC”, 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?
I believe we are all born special, there is something God gives us that should we develop it will set us apart from the pack. Sometimes it is a whisper in your ear telling you what to do or what you should develop and other times it is a loud thunderous shout. For me the road all led to film where I do screenwriting, directing and acting. When I was a child I had asthma so bad I could rarely get outside so television, movies, and comic books were my outside. I would watch television and wish I could be the marshal or the detective, then soon would think how the story would have been better “if only”. this or that happened. My mind was developing faster than my body.
As I got older and stronger my love for movies had grown as did my love of comic books and that method of story telling. Comic books were able to tell a story with very few words and each panel was like a storyboard used for movie making to this day. Comics taught how to be concise and keep the story moving. Each comic book artist was seemingly their own director of the story with utilizing interesting angles and serving as their own gaffers by creating dramatic lighting in each panel. Frank Miller’s ‘”Dark Knight” and his “Daredevil” stories changed the way comic books are done in my opinion. This love of comics and movies had me writing storylines and envisioning new heroes and stories.
While in college I needed some credits and jumped in some acting classes and took to it so easily I was asked to take it up as a major, but opted for art instead. I loved creating art in the written word or through pen and ink.
Upon graduation the real world hits you in the face with having to pay bills and pulls you out of the fantasy world you want to create. Unbeknownst to me this whole time I was being groomed to become who I am today. Having asthma made me want to work out and stay in shape and play sports, those sports and working out led me to bodybuilding and bodybuilding led me to meet my best friend and business partner Jose W. Byers. When we started training together I came to find out he wanted to be an actor. I talked to him about a story I was writing and he thought the idea was original and good so we set out to make that a film and make him the lead.
Before we could set out working on our own project we were offered an opportunity to work with a woman named Niccole Bowels, who wanted to tell her story, so we helped write, direct and act in her project called a child called Myrcle. Due to terrible circumstances that film project never was completed in post production, but it taught us how to direct and me how to write a script. Then we were cast in Captain America the Winter Soldier, and I am Wrath as well as other productions, which kept pushing back our pet project “St. Gabriel”. So our first film under our company i71Movies was Dark Iris, which was on Amazon Prime and is still on Tubi. Dark Iris was an award winning short I wrote and directed that was made into a feature film. This real world is always trying to drown your creativity like a swimmer grabbing onto you to take you underwater when you are trying to get to shore. It pulls you under and says you can’t do that, or you will have people telling you what you can’t do, simply because they can’t. Don’t let someone else poison your dreams with their limits. The dream you have are your own you don’t and won’t always have cheerleaders in your corner.
For me to keep the fires alive and creativity I stopped fighting reality and instead of letting it take me under I used it as fuel to get to shore. I changed my attitude from I have to pay bills and do my daily grind to everything I am doing extra, the writing, the editing the getting to bed at 1am and up at 5am is going to change my reality. I am fortunate that my wife Stephanie supports what I am trying to do and encourages my creativity. I have come to realize that you don’t have to ask permission to be yourself and what makes me me is my creativity and the love I have for people and animals. What makes me myself is my humanity and that is what I want to come across in my writing or acting. My partner Jose and I have taken a collection of people that are artist and believe in what we are doing and our vision for i71movies. We want to create a consortium for diverse creatives and place for investors to realize that indie film is the new Maverick of the film industry because it allows the freedom to develop the stories that are not always told with diverse people in front and behind the camera.
I71Movies is owned by Three African Americans and a woman in Rebekah Hart Franklin. All of us came together because of a shared vision of creating art and opportunity for original stories in the indie film world. I cannot be more proud of my team from our self taught make up artist in Sophia Rumora to our single mother that has served as our production assistant in Mary Petty. We have surrounded ourselves with creative independent and diverse people that all believe in what we are trying to build and what keeps my creativity alive is I have created a business and a world to play in where everyone finds peace and are able to be themselves. I have liberals, conservatives, black, white, Hispanics, gay, straight, and all faiths all working together for the same goal, creating something they can be proud of and getting a seat at the table and their voices heard. My team, My God, my family and my friends all help keep my creativity alive. Being creative does not just mean in art it also means in business and in finding ways to not quit, finding ways to believe when nobody else will.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
i71Movies is an independent film company out of Columbus Ohio. We have grown since 2014 to a place where we are having our studio built in Springfield right now and partnering with a company called the D.A.B.I.C.O initiative to create an opportunity zone funding structure for our investors. in our film and television projects. Our goal was to mitigate some of the risks in film investment. The film market has changed with the influx of streaming creating a marketplace for independent content. As audiences grow tiresome of sequel after sequel they are turning to original programming. As more streaming services are popping up there is a large gap in available original content that viewers want to see. There are markets that are yet untapped where shows like “The Chosen” have seized upon with their strong crowd funding campaign. We want to put together a producers consortium of executive producers and investors to create that content on a regular basis for streaming platforms and theater release.
There are scores of diverse story tellers from LGBTQ, African American, and Latino communities as well as others. Our goal is to tell good stories or documentaries falling into the drama, horror, reality, thriller, comedy, faith or holiday categories. We are in the process of casting for our next project Kingdom of Darkness, and in talks to get our film A Wicked Breed started in early 2024. We want to do 5-6 projects a year starting in 2024 and are creating the infrastructure to do it. We are looking for investors that want to grow the film community in Ohio and make Ohio a hub of film production like they have in Georgia.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
If you want to get into the highly expensive and challenging world of filmmaking. The first thing you need to do is find someone that shares your vision because you cannot do it alone. There are many undiscovered talented behind the scenes people make sure you are working with artists that care about their product and not just people looking for a paycheck. One bit of advice I would say too is ALWAYS get actors that can act, but more importantly actors that will promote the project after it is done. To me there is nothing dumber than an actor that does not promote a project they are in no matter if they like it or not their performance could have been good and they should bring it to light. Do not work with divas in an indie film world. Everyone needs to work together. Believe in your work because if you don’t why should anyone else. Do not compromise your story, create what you want to see because every story has been told it is your vision that makes it original.
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?
Having built a network of artist in front and behind the camera from Canada to all over the United States, what we are looking for now is investors that want to go on this journey with us. Who want to put money into our projects through our opportunity zone fund or directly into the specific projects. We are building a consortium of producers and executive producers to build and distribute content o streaming platforms or through theaters across the country. Personally I like visionaries because they understand big ideas and that there is a work ethic that has to accompany the vision and that money is needed to make a quality product.
Film is a multibillion dollar industry that we can bring to Ohio. My last film i employed 51 people to work on the project and worked with a diverse crew and artist in front and behind the camera. It creates jobs in an industry that is changing and growing. Getting investors to realize that this industry can bust wide open here is that challenge we have faced for years. We struggled to keep our company here and not move it to Atlanta, but we are committed to Ohio and working with our team we have assembled thus far. Making a film here is a lot less expensive than other cities and we just need our investors to walk with us on bringing something big here.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.i71movies.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/i71moviesllc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/i71movies
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dctalibi71movies/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1LwNsCfwmumiANS1Aw27sw
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6131392/
