We recently connected with Phil Korz and have shared our conversation below.
Phil , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Resilience is important – especially in an industry of rejection and constant NOs. You have to be willing to come back time and time again because one time it may be a yes. Fortune favors the prepared and
you need to be ready to go at any point. You never know when your next opportunity will pop up but you also don’t know what kind of curve balls life will throw your way. Being grateful for each opportunity and even more grateful for the hardship is where I get my resilience from and I how I learn and grow. The times in life when you need to pivot is exact time you still need to trust that everything is happening in your favor. Even the setbacks are helping build more resilience and tenacity, so it’s important to still be grateful and handle everything with passion and grace.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I believe we have to create our own opportunities to be successful in life. Especially in the entertainment industry. My standup career had taken off. I was doing comedy tours across the country, shooting comedy specials, and producing comedy festivals on the west coast. In a world where content is king, I knew I still wasn’t doing enough to make a name for myself. My career started to shift into acting and Philm production. I’ve always admired Comedians like Jim Carey and Robin Williams because not only did they change the comedy world, they did the same for movies as well. I started background acting, performing live theater and making movies. The once stand up Jock is now a full on theater AV nerd. Memorable TV roles like the Lead Detective on a Discovery Channel show were presenting themselves regularly. Acting opportunities were incredible, but I started falling in love with the whole process of philm making through story telling. By striving to build clout on my reputation, I finally get asked to help produce and co star in a movie now on Amazon Prime, “Ripples of Water.” After the major release, I continued to carve through my own version of philm school. My production friend from New York, Josh Pangborn, then asks if I could direct a comedic webseries for YouTube. From acting to producing to Directing, I never knew this would even be a part of my journey. I was spending time in Arizona when Josh asked me and it was the perfect place to shoot this show. I am captivated by the magnificent beauty of Arizona and I also wanted to get as many Arizona Comedians involved in this project. We would all be a part of something that could help push all of our names in a different way, complimenting our standup or, it could be a disaster that we all look back and laugh at later. Mind you I had no philm equipment and no car. Not to mention, my current scattered hotel living situation. Just me, my phone, luggage (full of only props), and an Osmo. My friend Emily picks me up from my hotel for lunch, confused of why I had so many bags of props and what I was doing scouring the desert. I explained that I couldn’t leave Arizona until I shot this web-series. I had planned on booking the Actors, shooting as fast and efficiently as I could, and it would be a piece of cake. I learned early on how naive I was about this new career path I decided to follow on a whim. I had learned so much from the movie and TV sets I was on, but man is philm making tough. There is a reason great movies have such long credit lists. Everyone’s involvement becomes key to creating beautiful art. That was learned in hindsight, however, because I was trying to do everything on my own. Emily sees the foolishness of my plan and hands me her car keys and said that I can keep the car so I can finish this production. Beyond awestruck, hope fills my soul and I had faith that I was going to accomplish my goals. Still, I knew I needed more help. I connected with Michael Fox, the coolest philm maker I have ever met. We had planned on shooting the next scene from the webseries in a junk yard and I remember he arrives on set looking so cool in his souped up car, woman by his side, ripped jeans, while holding his custom camera that looked like he just raided from Paramount. I had my Sound Engineer, Cameraman, and Actors all in a cinematic junkyard. That was the first day that I felt like my production efforts were paying off and it finally felt like a legit set. My original plan of a few weeks had already turned into months of shooting. I wanted this project to be as professional and cinematic as possible and my team was committed to helping me finish the project. Finally after exploring every abandoned ghost town, multiple reshoots, and many months later, we were done shooting. I return “Ole Blue” back to Emily and I accepted I did all I could do in the time allotted. I was heading to New York for a long term background gig and it was time to focus on the next project. Before I leave, Michael suggests letting him build me a custom camera like his. He convinces me that having a legit camera will help me get more attention. The day I am leaving Arizona, Michael shows me “Daisy” my new toy. He hands the camera to me and Michael, this philm legend in my eyes says, “This camera will change your life forever” and it sure enough did. Headed to the airport with barely enough money for a bagel, I didn’t have enough money to pay for my bags and I am in full panic. Fortunately, the odds were in my favor because a special someone just so happened to land in the same airport and her friend was picking her up. I handed my bag o props to her and said goodbye to all my belongings and to Arizona. The only thing I needed was this new custom camera that would proceed the adventures to come. I arrive to New York City at five am with only the clothes on my back and Daisy safely guarded. My call time for the shoot was 7:30am and I arrive to set as a background actor with a camera similar looking to the cameras they were using on the Apple TV show we were working on. Everyone thought I was crew and I road that wave. I slither my way into holding where I knew we would be waiting for hours to be used. In holding, everyone was sitting at individual desks with their heads down on their phones, until they got a glimpse of Daisy. Heads turned and followed me to where I chose to sit down. I sat right in the middle of sixty background actors and waited for the other starving artist like myself to be intrigued by this camera. Sure enough the actors surrounded me and wondered why I brought this camera to set. I said, “This room is filled with Actors, Comedians, performers, and Artists alike. Why are we down on our phones all day when we could be producing our own content? The actors were more than thrilled to participate in the fun. Day after day of being on set, we creatively shot short movies, sketches, and practiced a bunch of improv while Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway did the real acting. Our group, on the other hand, was growing and we were accomplishing more out of our day than just doing crosses in hopes to be seen blurry for a few seconds on national television. One day we were shooting a “dirty cop” themed short when the PA announces that we were wrapped for the day. None of us got used in the actual production that day but we still created. My team still got paid on someone else’s set for simply having fun and creating together. I knew that we created something epic and it was time do produce a feature movie with the my new iconic superstar friends. One of the improv scenes that the Actors did on set was about a championship boxer who’s best friend is pleading that he throw his next fight. The actors did such an amazing job creating a deep story line in a few minutes and I knew that we could expand this idea. Perfidy is born. Perfidy meaning deception is a story about a struggling boxer trying to provide for his family and gets threatened and tortured to ensure that he is willing throw his next fight. Anthony Correa and Javi Rosado became my reliable companions on this cinematic misadventure. 10 days of parading around the city, troubleshooting, and philming an epic boxing tale. The only thing missing now was a name for our newly founded production company. Synergy PHilm Co was decided because we are a team that believes we can work together and build unity while building everyone’s careers as well. Since, Synergy Philm Co has produced a horror movie “The Farmhouse” and is working on the next Horror “Pea Patch” as well as the action drama “Tactical Fleet” in preproduction. My brand is bringing people together. I am most excited to give people opportunities to shine in their own talents and creativity. The goal is to to be the opportunity that fellow creators need and want to be apart of. 2024 will be a year of awesome releases that I am hoping will help my career flourish while helping others flourish as well!
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?
Evolution I went from performing standup to acting to philm making to writing to directing. The ability to pivot flawlessly is a very important quality to embrace. If you are not willing to evolve opportunities can pass by.
Willingness to try anything and take advantage of every opportunity is key.
You never know who you will meet and you never know what doors could be opened as a result.
Confidence
Having the ability to sell anything and the belief that you can do anything is a valuable piece to the puzzle. Confidence is the ability to embrace who you are whether it’s silly or serious and not care what other people think about you. Believing in yourself and putting in the work even against all odds creates unparalleled confidence to accomplish your goals
Connectivity
We are meant to connect with each other on this planet. Everything is our lives is designed to bring us closer together. There is so much power in collaborative effort. Having the understanding that we are all living with our own levels of understanding of what life is and we are all trying our best will create better more fulfilling relationships. You realize that this life is not meant to do alone and working together can change the course of your path to greatness.
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 am always willing to collaborate. There is still so much learn in each aspect of this industry. Make up artists, sound engineers, color graders, photographers, halberd, actors, directs, editors, performers, creators, and of course stand up comedians, are the people I want to collaborate with. We can all contribute to our successes together. It is important to learn as much as I can from the people I work with because learning these skills are invaluable to all of our success.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Instagram.com/philkorz
- Facebook: Facebook.com/philkorzcom
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-korz-304510109?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: Twitter.com/philkorz
- Youtube: YouTube.com/philkorz
- Other: IMDb:/philkorz
Image Credits
Cal Green
