Meet Harry Waldman

We were lucky to catch up with Harry Waldman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Harry, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

-I have loved movies ever since I was just a few years old, but I was always someone who was a bit too “practical” when it came to my career, despite the fact that my dad has been a successful artist since I was young. I assumed that you were supposed to graduate college and then work at a job that you weren’t passionate about in order to pay the bills. The thought really depressed me, so I tried not to think about it too often and focused on my hobbies, which included watching movies, playing video games, sports, listening to music and hanging out with friends.

I studied business in college, which did ultimately teach me how to be a good leader as a film director/producer, but the content didn’t interest me much. I assumed that I would get some business marketing job out of college that I wouldn’t really be passionate about. I started to have fantasies about finding myself working a marketing gig on a film production during my junior year of college, and while the fantasy excited me, it also depressed me because it didn’t seem realistic considering my situation.

During the second semester of my senior year of college, a few weeks after watching “The Social Network”, which is one of my favorite films of all time, and which I believe had an influence on what I am writing below, I had a dream that I was going to a prestigious film school, taking various filmmaking courses, collaborating with other students to work on film projects, etc. Near the end of the dream, I met a psychic who told me that one of my closest friends (Inspired by Mark Zuckerberg stabbing Eduardo Saverin in the back) would steal my film idea, but despite this awful fact, I would become a successful filmmaker.

While I believe that I get along well with most people, I can be a vengeful person if I feel that I was wronged. What truly shocked me about this dream was that I was so excited about the prospect of being a successful filmmaker, that it completely overshadowed my distress over having my film idea stolen by my best friend.

Suddenly, I woke up, jumped out of my bed, grabbed my backpack and jacket and ran to the front door of my apartment, getting ready to go to one of my “film classes”. Then, I realized that it was 12:10 p.m. on a Saturday; that I had just been at a bar the previous night with friends; and that I wasn’t a film student at a prestigious film school, but a marketing student at a business school; and I would graduate college and find some job that I hated; and that would be the rest of my life…this was the single most depressing moment of my entire life.

I stared at my bedroom wall for about 20 minutes, and then a lightbulb popped on inside my head. I told myself, “So you finally figured out your passion as you are graduating college. That’s unfortunate, but you’re still only 21 years old. You have plenty of time”. I immediately came up with a plan for my filmmaking career. I would graduate college with my business marketing degree, and find a decent paying job in business after college during the day while pursuing my filmmaking career during the evenings and weekends. This plan launched the beginning of my exciting filmmaking career, from watching youtube videos on filmmaking and working as a production assistant on film sets while working in Insurance to pay the bills to being able to direct and produce my own films as my main passion, while working for a post-production company, handling video editing and video ingest.

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

My main passion is filmmaking, which I have been pursuing since my mid twenties. I tend to focus on dark, character driven psychological thrillers that are loosely based on personal experiences I have had throughout my life. While it is nice to receive recognition for my work, whether through reviews or film festival selections, awards, etc., the real satisfaction comes from the actual process of filmmaking.

Personally, editing is my favorite part of the filmmaking process, particularly the moment in which I have roughly cut together all of the footage required and everything appears to connect properly, as this is the moment that I start to truly believe that the film is ultimately going to work. Writing is a relatively close second for me. I particularly enjoy creating complex (and sometimes disturbed and seriously flawed) characters and try my hardest to give as many layers as possible to every single one of them, which I believe makes for a much more interesting narrative. Third may come as a surprise to you as I have met many filmmakers who are not too fond of this part of the filmmaking process, but I actually really enjoy holding auditions. Sure, it can be exhausting potentially having to witness 50 actors/actresses come in to audition before one seems to be the right fit, but I personally find the entire process to be fascinating, particularly at my callbacks, in which I have the talent read sides with each other, which allows for me to witness which actors/actresses have really strong chemistry and go from there.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

First of all, I think having good communication skills is very important. I have a business degree, and while I don’t care too much for the content in that particularly subject, my experience in that area really helped me develop my communication skills and learned how to act as professionally as possible. This has really helped me lead others as a film producer without a film background and large budget as my communication skills and level of professionalism has drawn others to my projects and ultimately allowed for them to trust me as a leader.

Second, I think it is vital for a storyteller to have a clear vision as to what specific story they are trying to tell. I do think that having vision is something a bit more instinctual. With that being said, as much preparation and planning as possible can definitely help a storyteller convey their narrative in case their vision isn’t initially quite as clear.

And last, (and I think this applies to most areas), having a non stop work ethic and drive to succeed is paramount. As a kid, I had a lot of trouble being motivated in school. I rarely paid attention in class and struggled with grades for a large portion of my childhood. I am definitely not someone who knows a lot about a little. I much more consider myself to be a specialist as there are just a handful of subjects that interest me, and those are the subjects that I am constantly thinking about, with filmmaking easily being at the top of my list. Since I breathe film all day and every day, it is pretty easy for me to spend the majority of my spare time pursuing filmmaking, since it is what I want to do the most.

Regarding advice for those starting on their journey, I think communication skills, professionalism and vision are all things that any individual can develop over time, whether through school, doing research on their own and getting out there, failing, learning from their mistakes and moving forward. As for the non stop work ethic, my advice is to think about what you enjoy to do the most in your spare time. Then try to find some channel that could lead to you working in that area that you are so passionate about. If you really enjoy doing something, chances are that you will work much harder at succeeding in that area, and overall, you will likely be a much happier person for it.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

I am a huge fan animated films and have begun to dabble in animation. My dad and I are currently storyboarding for a micro short animated film called “Slivered”, a horror comedy metaphor about not being able to find the right fit. While it has been a pleasure working with him and he is incredibly talented at drawing, our lack of experience in the animation field has led to many road bumps, and we are moving a lot slower than initially anticipated.

Even though I have some experience with live action filmmaking, it is so different from making an animated film that I feel like a total beginner in that area. In order to overcome this challenge, I am handling this film the same way that I handled stress with my previous films. I ran into this exact issue with my first short film, ‘Enter the Room” and my first feature film, “The Corridor Crossing” as I felt that I was jumping into the deep end of the pool with both of those projects.

In these situations, I take a deep breath, try not to be too hard on myself, and understand that I am newer to this process, I will bang my head against a wall, fail, learn from my mistakes, wash, rinse, repeat, etc. As we continue to go through the animated filmmaking process, my dad and I will likely continue to struggle, but will persevere, and the next time I make an animated film (I plan to make plenty more in the future), the process will be a little easier than the last time.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Jordan Sasticum

Konrad Proce

Lance Eliot Adams

Leni Irizarry

Justin Casterline

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