Meet Mark Gasper

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

Hi Mark , we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Content Director & Independent Filmmaker

With over 400 programs directed across a wide spectrum of genres, formats, and mediums, I bring a dynamic and versatile approach to content creation. My work spans documentary, narrative, experimental, commercial, and educational formats—each tailored to specific communication goals and audiences.

As an Independent Filmmaker, I collaborate with and am affiliated to L’Nuage Neuf, NUMBER9INE, Kronograffic Pictures, and other production entities. My projects often blur the lines between art and social commentary, utilizing visual storytelling as a means to explore deeper psychological, cultural, and philosophical themes.

Whether working solo or in ensemble with multidisciplinary teams, my mission remains consistent: to craft bold, meaningful, and resonant media that transcends trends and invites reflection.

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?

Mark Gasper (Yankee-Oriel Co.):

At the core of everything I do is the belief that light, in all its forms, reveals truth—whether that light is cinematic, emotional, or metaphorical.

I’m the founder of The Yankee-Oriel Company, a multidisciplinary creative studio and independent production company devoted to stories that challenge convention, reframe perception, and excavate meaning. We move fluidly across genres—film, sound, installation, narrative short form, and even branded content—always prioritizing intentionality, aesthetic boldness, and psychological depth.

A Filmmaker at the Edge of Form

My own background is in avant-garde and neo-noir filmmaking, and I’m deeply invested in pushing the boundaries of cinematic language. Much of my work blurs the line between documentary and dreamscape—what I call “dimensional narratives”. Through collaborations with collectives like NUMBER9INE, L’Nuage Neuf, Di Ex Machinis, 9 Patrick di Santo and Case Trick, we’ve built a growing library of experimental works that have screened at festivals, in galleries, and most recently, as interactive urban projections in public spaces.

What Sets Us Apart

What makes the Yankee-Oriel ethos different is that we don’t chase trends—we create resonant experiences. Whether it’s a single ambient track, a 6-minute mini-opera, or a 90-minute feature, each piece is crafted with sound, light, and psychological texture to mirror the viewer’s own journey. We often say, “We don’t tell stories—we translate frequency.”

We are especially known for developing immersive audio-visual environments that deal with memory, time, and trauma. Some call it therapeutic art. Others call it ghost work. We just call it the work.

What’s New

There’s a lot happening right now that I’m excited about:

METRO9 Soundtrack – A genre-bending sonic experiment (dropping 12.3.24), in collaboration with Case Trick, O’LE, and DXM, to accompany our restored -more in line with the Thea von Harbou novel Metropolis (original by Austrian director Fritz Lang). It’s returned to the authors original descriptions via notebooks, renderings and set notes. Part opera, part electronica, part ambient manifesto.

Residency Launch in 2025 – We’re finalizing plans to open The Yankee-Oriel Residency, a retreat space in Northern Arizona for interdisciplinary artists, filmmakers, and researchers. It’s where theory meets dirt. Where noise meets silence. Where light re-enters the frame.

Ongoing Expansion – Our work is expanding into VR immersive installations, partnering with environmental and neurological researchers 9 Patrick di Santo and CR Reid to develop storytelling that helps re-pattern trauma through light and sound. This merges the artistic with the therapeutic, which has been a long-time interest of mine.

Final Word

Ultimately, I think people are starving for honesty, beauty, and surprise. We try to deliver all three. Yankee-Oriel is not just a production company or Film Center —it’s a conduit, a mirror, a frequency translator for this strange, miraculous human experience. And I’m just honored to be a part of it.

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?

Mark Gasper (Yankee-Oriel Co.):

1. Radical Curiosity

The most enduring quality in my journey has been a refusal to accept the world at face value. I was never satisfied with the obvious answer, the genre box, or the prewritten narrative. This radical curiosity—about sound, light, trauma, memory, history—has driven me to explore intersections that most people wouldn’t think to cross.

Advice:
Curiosity isn’t a personality trait; it’s a muscle. Treat every project like a portal. Read across disciplines. Sit with people you don’t understand. Watch films with no or minimal dialogue. Listen to silence. Ask: What is this trying to show me that words can’t?

2. Tolerance for Uncertainty

There were years I had no roadmap—just fragments, signals, or emotional truths that didn’t quite fit together. But I kept moving. Learning to sit in the ambiguity—to remain fluid without losing focus—has allowed some of my most authentic and impactful work to emerge.

Advice:
Don’t rush to resolution. Your early career isn’t about having the answers, it’s about building the right questions. Let contradiction be a studio assistant. Let discomfort be your collaborator. Trust that uncertainty isn’t the enemy—it’s the raw material of originality.

3. Collaborative Intuition

Every film, every soundscape, every exhibit I’ve helped build has been better because of the people I’ve worked with. But the skill isn’t just teamwork—it’s knowing when to hold space, when to push, when to let go, and when to pull something hidden out of someone else. That’s collaborative intuition.

Advice:
Treat your collaborators like co-authors, not tools. Listen without preparing your response. Learn the rhythm of a room. Observe energy. And most of all—leave space for the sacred surprise. That’s where the real work happens.

Final Thought:
If you’re just starting out, don’t waste time chasing someone else’s path. Build yours from instinct and scars. Protect your inner self. Let it evolve. And when the work feels real—don’t ask permission.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

Mark Gasper (Yankee-Oriel Co.):

That’s a question I don’t take it lightly—because in a way, I already live with that clock running. I’ve seen how fragile things are. How fast the reel unspools. And I’ve learned: time isn’t something you manage—it’s something you honor.

1. I’d finish the projects I am currently working on,.

There are certain stories and unfinished works that still need to come through me—films not yet shot, soundscapes half-heard, visions that haven’t been anchored. I’d devote my time to completing those—not as content, but as legacy —mapping this walk for others who have appreciated my work.

There are pieces I’ve only glimpsed in dreams. O’le’s Desert Opera, the underwater world of PORTAL BEYOND, the final field recordings from ESOPUS FOREST. These aren’t projects; they’re offerings and they need to live.

2. I’d mentor more than I publish.

If I had 10 years, I’d spend 4 of them just listening to the next generation of creators—those unpolished ones who think in spirals, not straight lines. I’d invite them into the labs and creative shelters where art can be make without permission. Where failure is honored and beauty is feral.

I’d give away every tool I know how to use. Every mistake I made. Every lesson it took too long to learn.

3. I’d walk more., with people.

There are forests I still need to hike. Baseball game to play and watch. Mountains that need my breath. Conversations that deserve firelight. Too much of life is rushed or recorded. I’d slow down even more and bring those close to me with me—not just collaborators, but as intimates.

Sometimes the best thing you can offer this world is presence without performance.

4. I’d prepare a goodbye that feels like a beginning.

In that final year, I’d create one last multi-sensory experience—a film, installation like 1985—that feels like a door opening, not closing. Something that says: “You’re not alone. You’re part of a story.”

And then I’d disappear like a final frame fading to white.

Final thought:
If I only had a decade, I wouldn’t shrink. I’d burn slow and bright and I’d leave behind not a monument…
…but a non narrative others could tune into when the silence gets too loud.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

NUMBER9INE, Yankee-Oriel Company, Charles Tracy Studio, Ephigy Limited Series.

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