We recently connected with Micah Williams Kelly and have shared our conversation below.
Micah, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic comes from my parents. They got married in the 1980s. At that time, there was still a lot of social stigma surrounding mixed-race couples, with my father being black and my mom white. Neither of their parents attended their wedding. Today, I can imagine how they must have felt, like it was them against the world. But in childhood, all I saw was a cohesive team. I watched them raise a family of six and build a profitable business from the ground up. I’ve seen them overcome enormous obstacles and barriers through empathy. They had each other’s backs no matter what, which I think drove both of their successes. It’s a drive I feel now within my own marriage.
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 a filmmaker and 3D artist. My latest film, “Cross”, is currently on its festival run. It recently screened at the Pasadena International Film Festival where it got a lot of love. I’m grateful that the my film’s gotten to have an extended life, and I’ve learned a lot. The thing that sets me apart from other video directors is that I can also create 3D animations. I love working with cameras and actors, but there’s also something really satisfying about using a computer to create moving images with total freedom. It’s a skillset that I’m really excited about integrating into my live-action work.
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?
The number one most consistent piece of advice I hear from creatives is to always keep making stuff. Again, when I ask the people who are actually doing the jobs that I want to do, their advice is to always keep creating your own work. That’s something to pay attention to because when I ask people who do not work in the jobs that I want to do, their advice is usually something different. Knowing who to take advice from is a skill in itself. The third most consistent lesson I’ve learned through experience is to always keep meeting people. It really is a relationships business, and I’ve found the best way to meet people is to keep making stuff. Things started changing for the better once I embraced this cycle.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I’d love to connect with other artists, like-minded or not. As mentioned, I’m really excited about using more 3D in my live-action projects. It has a lot of cool uses for music videos and live-event screens. The sky really is the limit. I recently saw the new LED-animated basketball court for the NBAs ’24 All-Star events and I was blown away. If you have a video or cinematic project in mind, feel free to reach me through my website. I look forward to meeting you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://micahwilliamskelly.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/micahwkelly/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/micah-williams-kelly-53929276
Image Credits
Sean Carline
