We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyle Dubiel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kyle, 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?
Creativity for me is somewhat of an engine that always keeps running inside me. I think it stems from my tendency for neuroticism: I’m constantly having thoughts, opinions, emotions, and stimuli fly in and out of my brain, forming connections, realizing patterns, and unlocking insights into myself and the world around me. To fuel the engine, I also consume a plethora of different kinds of art, largely literature, editorials, and movies.
One time, I was walking down the street with my fiancée and I spotted a man walking around with a ripped plastic bag and an entire (stupid) short film idea came to me just about why that man’s paper bag was ripped. After voicing this synopsis to my fiancée, her first response was, “How on Earth did you just think of that?” In the moment, I didn’t really have an answer, but now I think it’s a natural response to a brain constantly looking to make connections to ideas, inspiration, and opinions it continues to consume throughout my life.
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?
I am a filmmaker, videographer, and photographer based in Jersey City. A graduate of NYU: Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Film & TV Production program, I run a videography and photography business, specializing in weddings, corporate events, and commercials. Additionally, I worked as a photo assistant and set photographer for NBC’s Saturday Night Live for 4 seasons, where my published photography has appeared in myriad publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, Insider, Variety, PBS, and Rolling Stone.
As a writer and director, my debut short film ROMANCE FROM A DISTANCE was a success in its festival run, receiving international distribution deals and screening at festivals such as Golden Door International, Sedona International Film Festival, and NYU’s New Visions and Voices Film Festival, where it was an awards finalist. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, I wrote, shot, directed, and edited the award-winning mockumentary NETFIXER and its follow-up NEW HORIZONS with my family. More recently, my next short film BIRD HOURS, a sci-fi drama satirizing the world’s work-from-home and VR future is currently submitting for programming in the film festival circuit.
Finally, I have plans for more films! Next up, shooting at the end of February, is a comedy short called CAT CUSTODY about a couple arguing about who will keep their cats after their break up. CAT CUSTODY will be followed by LOVERS, a comedy short about a couple going to therapy after one of them realizes she doesn’t love the other anymore. I also am currently writing my first feature-length film.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three qualities and skills that were most impactful on my journey are the ability to perform under pressure, ambition, and creative problem solving.
First, filmmaking in all forms is a stressful endeavor. Each film is a collaboration between many people and processes often constrained by time and budget, which can produce a lot of pressure. In my professional life, whether it was photographing at SNL or shooting weddings, I am constantly battling the stress of making sure I get “the shot” since there is often only one opportunity to do so. Being able to maintain a cool head while doing quality work is of the utmost importance in my line of work.
Second, in order for me to have accomplished any of what I have and what I continue to strive to accomplish I needed to have a strong ambition. Like any field of art, “making it” is an extremely daunting task and by all accounts incredibly difficult. I am convinced that in order to “make it,” I need a lot of skill, a lot of drive, and a lot of luck. Without shooting for the moon, I wouldn’t be able to have opportunities in which I can get lucky.
Finally, a key skill for any artist, especially a filmmaker, is creative problem solving. Whether it’s a professional job or it’s my own film, inevitably something will go wrong. On set, it could be that we’re falling behind schedule or that the lighting is terrible. At a wedding, gosh, anything can happen–you can drop a lens in a lake, your flash can break, the bride breaks her ankle three days before. In order to persevere successfully through these challenges and obstacles is to creatively solve the problems as they arrive. For the film shoot running behind, perhaps it’s cutting unnecessary shots. For the wedding where you dropped your lens in a lake, you creatively use other lenses. I find that with restrictions, limitations, and obstacles, some of the greatest creative results can be achieved, as one is forced to push forward and get “the shot.”
My advice in order to develop or improve these skills and qualities is to welcome and cherish discomfort. Nothing great was built comfortably (this is not to say that greatness requires abuse and torture–it does not).
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
In terms of directing, the book that has made the largest impact on my development is certainly DIRECTING ACTORS by Judith Weston. The main takeaway I’ve gotten from it is that there is nothing more important than rehearsing a scene as it allows for the actors (and the director) to collaborate and truly find the “right” way to act each character in the scene.
In more general terms, probably MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY by Kurt Vonnegut. He’s probably my favorite fiction author, but his book of essays sharply satirizing and commenting on our humanity and world with a distinctly humanist lens is powerful and shapes a lot of my perspective on our world. An absolutely brilliant mind and human being.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dubielfilm.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/kyledubiel
Image Credits
Jazz Munitz Ari Isenberg
