Meet Paul-Anthony Anselmo

We were lucky to catch up with Paul-Anthony Anselmo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Paul-Anthony, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

I find that the best way to keep my creativity engaged is by both being present and embracing others art. When you disengage your mind from stress or wandering thoughts and begin to pay attention to your current situation, fairly consistently and with time you’ll start to have new ideas. There are so many distractions in our lives which can stagnate or deter our train of thought and having an uncluttered mind helps significantly for creativity. I also find that when I’m searching for new ideas, reviewing or discovering a good piece of art can lead to amazing and beautiful thoughts. Whether it be a new blockbuster hit, a classic piece of literature, or even a fantastic home cooked meal, they all can lead to emotions, concepts, and feelings that we as the audience can embrace and learn from.

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 professional Editor living in Los Angeles. I have been here in southern California since I graduated from San Jose State University. When the pandemic happened, I was worried that the filmmaking process would never be the same. So I began to teach myself how to animate. I then spent one year developing and another year and half creating my first feature film “Horror Tonight!”. It’s a late night horror/comedy anthology for everyone with many quirky, fun, and spooky characters throughout. I animated every frame and also do the voices for every character. It was going through the film festival circuit for a long time where it was accepted into both the Crown Point International Film Festival and Santa Monica Film Festival. Now I’m very excited to say that it finally is licensed and streaming online on multiple platforms! It’s very exciting and nerve-racking to have it out in the world but I hope it does well this Halloween season!

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?

Scheduling, self motivation, and film history I believe have most effected my journey as a filmmaker. While I was making my movie, I was also subsequently editing in order to pay the bills. Even when I had to work or if daily life necessities took up time in my day, I was determined to finish creating two shots for my movie per day. Somedays I would be able to do more than that, others less. If I wasn’t able to schedule and be consistent with “Horror Tonight!”, I never would have finished it. It takes time, dedication and patience to achieve anything in this life. Self motivation was also essential for me. Creating a feature length film is a daunting task that usually has multiple people pushing it forward to the finish line. I had friends, family, and colleagues who supported me and I’m very thankful for them being apart of my life. They made it a lot easier to push myself to bring my dream to fruition. If I was in an environment of negativity, it could have ruined the project, even if the environment was in my own head. I find it important to ignore doubtful people, places, and thoughts. Lastly, my love for film history I think was quintessential to my movie making experience. Knowing the career paths of directors I love like David Lynch and Robert Rodriguez made creating my movie that much easier because I knew it could be done. Both of these directors created their first movies around my age with little to no money, families to raise and almost no crew. I thought, “If they could do it, why couldn’t I?”

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

If I only had one decade left on this rock I would probably split my time up by spending half of it with loved ones and the other half working on another film or hopefully multiple films. I’m a very solitary person compared to most, however I do cherish the time I get to spend with the people I care about. The reason I would work on another movie or movies for the other half of my time would be because I have dedicated my life to movies and hope that even when I’m gone, someone will still be able to enjoy the work. When it comes to our short time in existence, I love the buddhist philosophy that we are all drops in a giant ocean. When a wave crashes into another, a single drop floating through the air is a representation of our lives starting and enduring. We don’t know when we will land back into the ocean, but its comforting knowing that we are all on a similar journey searching for purpose, love and peace.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-anthony-anselmo-990377162/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Tall-AnthonyToons
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36052143/