Meet Kameryn Robinson

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kameryn Robinson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kameryn below.

Hi Kameryn, 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?

My name is Kameryn Robinson. I am a young creative from the DMV area. Working in the entertainment industry, I have come to learn there are many levels to creating art. I have worked on large sets with some well-known names but I have also worked on very small sets filled with passion and dreams. In the area I am in, I find that there are many people who want to get into the art of filmmaking, be it as the filmmaker or an actor, but we appear to be very disconnected from one another.

Those who are already doing their own thing independently are consistent with one another but those who are new don’t know how to find these local fellow creatives. This leads people to leaving and going to other major cities, such as Los Angeles or Atlanta, in hopes of being given a chance to do what they know they love. I have found the downside of that to be that a person becomes one of many in those situations and it can be very hard to maintain the passion you have for filmmaking when financial burden starts to creep on you in a land you’re new to.

That being said, I saw an opportunity! With the knowledge I have garnered on various sets, as well as working on both the east and west coast, I decided to take on the role of being the connector that brings creatives together in the DMV area. I’m also pushing to be different to the already existing filmmakers in the area by really encouraging artist independence and creativity. I want to raise the standard for the independent filmmaker and not have finances be a major reason as to why the products of an independent can’t have the feel of a major production company. I want to inspire individualism and ideas where a creative feels free to make the idea they thought of without having to bend and twist their stories to please a higher entity, hoping to get a chance at distribution. I want to take advantage of the tools we have, such as social media, to become our own champions, much like what is currently happening for independent artists in the music industry.

The first step I took in following this initiative was teaming up with other local filmmakers, K. DyRec Butler of RecFocus and Anthony Commodore of Commodore Independent Filmworks. In August of 2023, I wrote four scripts as episodes to a web series titled, ReAction. Using my experience, I went through the process of breaking the script down, as an assistant director would, and then casting from November to December. By the time January rolled around, we had started filming. Thanks to RecFocus, we were able to film on RED cameras, which are one of the top brands in the industry currently. Although our team was small (a crew of 5), we were able to get the job done! We have created a beautiful piece that not only pushes the quality standard of the area but it also appeals to an audience that hasn’t been the main focus in the past few years.

In the future, I hope to grow enough where I can also have an impact on young creatives who may still be in colleges local to the area. I want to be able to provide exposure to the film industry where they can see how actual pre-production happens, how a set runs, and how the flow of post-production operates from the editing room to the marketing plan. ReAction is just project number one of many.

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

I am the director, writer, and executive producer of a show titled, ReAction. It is a web series about three juniors in college who face different challenges that include sexuality, drugs, and family issues. Gearing it towards the young adults in their early twenties and supplying a perspective for the current world we live concerning the LGBTQ community has felt like a breath of fresh air in content. The series is releasing on the RecFocus | Films YouTube page and has already started dropping. The first episode came out Thursday, August 22nd at noon. Episodes shall drop weekly on Thursdays at noon. I am hoping to not only create a fanbase for the show but to also create a space where more untold stories can have a chance to shine away from the typical mainstream type of content. An IMDb page has also been created for the show to provide the cast credits for their resumes. If you’re interested in following me on this journey, please feel free to subscribe to the @recfocusfilms YouTube page and/or follow the show’s official Instagram page @reaction.series.

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?

I would say the three qualities that have been the most impactful in my journey are my resilience, my creativity, and my genuine care for others. I must start off by saying I would not be able to do anything I have done without the support of the people around me. The common saying is, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Aside from being creative to come up with stories people may be interested in, I have had to be resilient in order to get those stories told. I feel it is very easy to see a finished product when it comes to the film industry but no one really sees the grind and perseverance it took a filmmaker to get that product out to the world. Without resilience and the ability to adapt at every obstacle, it would be very hard to get anything done in this industry, unfortunately. A creative should always remind themselves that obstacles are guaranteed to come, no matter how much planning you do, but you are always in control of how you respond to those obstacles. The best stories can always reference a monkey wrench that had to be dealt with or a pivot that had to take place last minute. Do not be discouraged! Your only competition should be yourself and your next piece should always strive to be better than your last. That is the only “standard” you should hold yourself to. Outside of that, we cannot improve if we believe ourselves to already be perfect and without “failure,” in some way.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

There are two people I have to honor when it comes to my journey in the entertainment industry, my mother and my grandfather. Firstly, I would not be the person I am today had I not been provided the space to grow and become my own person by my mother. She has always pushed me to find what I am passionate about and to approach it with all of my effort. Even though there was a time, when I first expressed interest in the entertainment industry, that she didn’t fully see the vision I had for herself, it was the resilient and determined nature that she had raised me with that helped me to continue to pursue my passions. And, for the record, she has always been my biggest supporter despite personal understanding of how our career paths differ.

Now, I would be totally amiss to not give the biggest shout out to my grandfather for being the first person to put a camera in my hands at a very young age. He has always pushed my creative side. Thanks to him, I not only have a love for filmmaking but for music, building, painting, drawing, etc. Whenever I am asked for my favorite art form, I must say that I love all mediums!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reaction.series/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFGuwqVb3ATp_LwiKbOWi-A/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/kams_weird/