Meet Udon Guild

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

Udon, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I believe my resilience stems from constantly being told as a creator that my dreams were not feasible, and the world does make that true sometimes. The arts are REALLY expensive, and the ‘ticket’ that tells you that you “made it” is so difficult to achieve (that being said success is defined in the eye of the beholder and is different for everyone). However having the ability “to create” is free. I have this innate desire to make things all the time and sometimes I lose myself in it so much, I forget to think about it practically; That specifically is what bogs me down sometimes. Despite that, I think the reason why I don’t stop creating or give up my ambition is because I simply cannot stop. A dream will stay a dream if you do nothing about it, and it dies when you stop chasing it. AND more importantly, a dream becomes an attainable goal when you believe in it and make it something tangible. I want to believe in my personal heroes who state time and time again that ‘never giving up’ is the key. Therefore, believing that I too can make it all possible.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Fatima Warraich and I am the Co-founder of Udon Guild Productions. I am now a graduate from the University of Wisconsin Madison in the Bachelor of Fine Arts. As a visual and musical creator, I take a proactive approach in multiple different art forms inspired by ideas that keep floating in my brain. My main focus is within character design and illustration centering around comics, however, I have a need to stretch my abilities, and have tendency to jump right into projects that I want to bring to life. So, before I graduated, the Udon Guild and I created a short film to explore my passion in storytelling through the camera lens. I am not afraid to admit that I came into this project with nothing but enthusiasm. To be honest, with no background or experience in film, I was not sure where to begin, but as they say in the arts, “network!” I continued to talk about my idea with classmates and friends who found the story of the film interesting. Who would have thought that just ‘trying’ would eventually lead to writing a screenplay, gathering a cast and crew, and fundraising money to get the equipment required to make this happen. Looking back even now, it is still a whirlwind.

This project expanded more than I had expected, and though I am proud of this accomplishment, at the same time, I want to admit that I struggled. I struggled with leadership, managing tasks, and even staying fully optimistic at points. But I had to learn how to delegate tasks effectively while upholding my want for open collaboration, and I had to adapt to a whole new writing format with different rules of story-telling. The reason. If ind it so important to talk about the difficulties is because without them, I do not believe that my vision would have come to life as it had. Udon Guild is a entity in which I wanted a fresh perspective to stories and ideas; a place to strive for open creativity. Thats where I think the success lies. As an update, we are currently in post production: editing and revising footage, and hope to submit to film festivals soon! Follow us on instagram to see our journey and updates!

Our short film is called ‘Experiences Of Love.’ It focuses on trying to understand love as concept. Love has been celebrated, boxed, criticized, and misconstrued over and over again. Our goal was to pose the question, if we humanize it, would that make it easier to understand? I am excited to share the story of our personified character “Love” following different human journeys to better understand themselves, and help others open their minds about what love could be.

Through the making of this film and my continuous desire to create, I have become a more aware and knowledgeable artist. Outside of the Udon Guild, I have many other projects that I am excited about: stories that I hope I can share one day, but that will be another time!

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?

I believe my three most impactful qualities or skills would be persistence, passion, and adaptability. Looking back, I have learned very quickly not everything will go my way. You cannot plan for every single thing, and though that may suck, those are the key moments that really bring out if you are capable, reliable, and committed. Without a learning curve and the mistakes that I made along the way, I do not think I would have learned as much as I did. I know. It sounds cliche. But, the reality is the arts are very competitive and unpredictable. It is so hard to want to create something that is totally yours when you are surrounded by so many other amazing creatives who just seem so beyond your reach. It is very easy to lose yourself, when you want recognition for the things you create, and the harsh truth is that we also need that recognition in order to create a feasible career for ourselves within the field. Balancing the creative act and trying to keep up with society is very hard. Resilience and passion were, and still are, a necessary component for why I have survived this long in the first place. Additionally, I also believe it is always a good idea to take breather to reset yourself every once in a while. Setbacks no matter what you are doing is inevitable, and people tend to take that negatively, however, I think constantly pushing forward all the time can make you lose yourself and what you initially wanted. If you are a person who wants to go into the arts in any degree or field, it is essential to be open minded to the people around you, to be clear with yourself and others on what you exactly want to accomplish, and to give yourself breaks to recuperate. Going hard is good, but I suggest sometimes taking a break can also help you find your way forward again! And, If you are wondering how to begin? People are not born with these qualities, they are forged over time through constant discipline. Its a change in mindset!

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

When I get overwhelmed I tend to go into a spiral if I am being honest. How I battle it though, is all about going back to a place of re-grounding. It’s about taking a step back from however far I am within a project to ask myself the logical question: what can I do right now that is not going to stress me out more? Sometimes it is just taking a break, sometimes it’s resetting and starting over, and sometimes you have no choice but to power through. For example, when I am working on an illustration, I want to be finished after one full session of drawing, but that is most likely not going to be the case. If I keep looking at my work for hours on end, despite my fatigue and spiraling brain, I will shut down. That is usually how I know when I need to step away for a break. Another example is this short film the Udon Guild worked so hard on. There were many times when I was conflicted, not sure what to expect, but I would take every night to reset. I would make a plan moving forward because I knew we could not stop halfway on the filming schedule that we had. For projects on a strict deadline, it is super important, especially when you are working with collaborators, to communicate the bumps together. This way you can collectively overcome and face the obstacles rather than taking everything upon yourself. I also love breathing practices and watching comedy shows as a great way to relieve stress!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/udonguildproductions/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/ZDSqF48tYPga1SUb/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@UdonGuild

Image Credits

Anna Janke

Emily Johnson

Yasmin Trammell

Shloka Mohanty