made me want to pick up on some work ethics that they had. That’s the only reason why I’m doing what I’m doing today. So, if I could get anyone that’s watching my videos or looking at my photos to feel the same way about whatever they’re trying to do, that would be my goal.
Q: That’s great to hear the honesty behind that. I feel like there’s an unspoken pressure that as a filmmaker you have to at some point transition to making short films. But, it’s nice to hear that you’re planning on sticking to what you’re doing.
Q: Do you see yourself continuing with this path of skate, surf, and lifestyle content, or do you ever think about going into any other genres?
Michael: That’s always been the goal. I’m working on a ton of stuff that’s going to come out soon.
Michael: I’ve thought about short film or fiction because that’s where a lot of people go with filmmaking. You write a screenplay with dialogue and go shoot it. But, for me, film comes from such a different place that it feels hard to think about doing it like that. Like I said, I do “cinema vérité” style work which just doesn’t cross paths with that at all. So because of that, I’d say for now I’m not thinking of going into other genres. That being said, in the surf and skate world, it’s really hard to make money off of your films. So, if you want to make work in that genre, you have to take that into consideration. You most likely have to do surf and skate work on the side and pick up something else to make money. That’s what I’m doing right now. You can take the money and be comfortable and then make skate and surf work on the side.
14 — (renewal)
Q: Really? Sounds interesting. What’s the future looking like for you? Michael: I have plans to create my own website that is basically the projects I was doing at What Youth but just myself doing them. It’s not going to make me any money, but in my free time I’ll reach out to people and work on this project. I have three or four videos shot, and I’m working on lining up some more. Once I have a solid body of work, I’m going to announce it officially and talk about it. The reason for starting this project was that I wanted a place where I could do stuff, have complete creative control, and do something start to finish on my own. The project will have its own Instagram and website, allowing the content to have a platform where it can live on its own without the pressure to compete with extraneous posts, like can happen on websites that need to do daily stories or videos.
