We were lucky to catch up with Alyse Kane Riley recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alyse, 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?
The best way to develop confidence and self esteem is to just accept yourself for who you are. It’s okay to want to grow your art, your mind, yourself in general, but don’t be too critical on yourself. Someone who is a perfectionist will never accept their own work, because they always want to be better and thus will never love yourself, or your work for what makes it truly unique. I gain confidence by knowing what I like. I have an eye for colors, tones, beautiful cinema, as well as ears for great stories and performances and that lets me trust myself. I love what I do and I do it well. It’s when I start second guessing myself that I know I need to walk away from something for a bit, take a break, get out in nature, do some yoga or be with family/friends and come back to it again when I’ve had time to trust myself.
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’m currently working on a few scripts at the moment. Some of my most personal work. I’m excited to see these characters and ideas come to life. I’m also slated for an upcoming feature film, and an episodic in between several music videos I’ve been shooting, so I’ve been staying very busy this summer. Recently my film “Footprints in the Dirt” premiered at LA Shorts, Oscar-qualifying Film Festival and it was breathtaking to watch on screen. Because I edited it, I purposely didn’t watch it after I wrapped post production, but after three months, watching it again in the theatre with my cast and crew was really beautiful. I got a bit emotional even. It’s been a while since I had seen one of my films in theatre, since Covid happened, so it was a very special experience.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Practice, practice, practice. Perseverance is the key in this industry. No one makes one film and is found overnight. I’ve gone months without work some years, I’ve been down in a creative rut, I’ve gotten 40 no’s on scripts that sit on the shelf for years until finally the right person sees them… but no one would ever know it because I stay practicing. Whether I’m taking a class, submitting to festivals, making shorts with my people, writing something new… I’m always working on my craft in one way or another. Being stagnant is the death of creativity, so just get out there and keep working. Even if you’re donating your time as a free PA, or doing a job you don’t normally do on set. Get out of your comfort zone and keep working because chances are you will learn something new that you can apply to your career.
Another important skill as a Director is knowing how to work with your Actors. Some directors understand it naturally, and others are more focused on having a pretty picture and the story suffers tremendously. Because I come from a photography background, cinematography is important to me, but over the years I have learned that nothing is more important than the Director working with their actors. A bad performance can be spotted a mile away. There are films shot on handicams and iPhones, that because of good performance still made millions of dollars, so just something to think about. I have so many tips and notes on working with actors, but it’s too much to write here so I guess I’ll leave that for another story later.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I’m always looking for great collaborators. I call them my soul tribe. Your soul tribe is the people you connect with on an artistic, creative level. It’s something you can’t explain of why you like working with them, but you feel it in your soul. You all have unique talents and expertise and come together to make something truly beautiful. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some amazing people through my journey, one by one adding them along the way to my soul tribe. Composers, editors, VFX artists, Cinematographers, Assistant Directors, MUAs, Production Designers…. all people I can trust to put the project first, which is very important because filmmaking is a team sport.
Currently, I’m specifically looking for rep to help my personal career grow. I have stepped back from producing and really focused throughout the last year of just being an independent writer/director, and wow what a difference I believe it made for me. Being able to focus on only the creative parts and hand over logistics to someone else is an amazing feeling. It freed up so much time to really dive into my role as a director and perfect what I believe I am best at. It would be great to do the same with clients. Although I love my clients, I would be happy to have the guidance of management to help me with that aspect of my career. Being a woman director it is hard enough to get in the room, so if I had rep that would help me take meetings and streamline my work projects, that would be a blessing!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alysekaneriley.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/alysekaneriley
- Other: IMDb: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm12391591/overview
