Hello I am Hector Pasillas. I was born and raised in Mexico, I received a vocational degree in electronic engineering and even though I knew from a young age that I had a lot of interest in film and everything that had to do with it, I began to work for local television companies but also in factories repairing broken computers, later one all my time was focused on film and television. I finally moved to the United States about 30 years ago and I immediately began working as a camera assistant for Hispanic TV news broadcast stations, so my prior knowledge of electronics helped me become a more versatile producer.
Why did you get into filmmaking
There was always this dream etched into my mind about making a movie that had many visual effects. Although coming to this country, my main goal was the to make it in the film industry I dedicated the majority of my time into television, I always found it easy to produce and edit material in Spanish. I filmed my first feature film almost 9 years ago, and a horror one too. At that point I decided to only use one setting for it to not only save time and money but also increase time efficiency, although many problems arose that cause the post production to be delayed until I had the opportunity to finally finish it in 2015 and in 2016 I am finally going to finish it, thank god.
What films have you made
“The Shadow in the Bed” is the only feature film I have produced and directed, although I did edit a film for an old friend of mine.
What is your idea of collaboration
The movie I am about to finish I wrote the script for it, I produced it, directed it, and was the cinematographer and now I’m in post-production I edited the whole thing, I am making all of the visual effects myself, do all the color correction, and also do the Final Audio. It is evident that there has hardly any collaboration, and I would rather not do everything myself next time. I am slowly putting together an elite team of trustworthy people to hopefully help me in my future endeavors to make two films per year.
How do you find the process of filmmaking as an indie filmmaker
When you do something you love it is no longer work it’s something that you’re doing that makes the hours and minutes fly pas and the days get shorter, this experience I am living right now. Over the past few months I’ve dedicated practically 100% of my time to being an Indie FilmMaker and I have full control of everything I do. All I need now is to make money off of my passion and when that happened I can finally be able to say that I am liv big off of my passion.
Describe your recent work – pre-production production and post production. Marketing too.
Pre-production is something you have to plan very intricately, your entire production depends on what you do plan. If your pre-production has details the rest of the project will be smooth sailing and the only problems you’d resolve are those that pop up along the way. Although, since this was my first film, I thought the planning I did do was enough, but oh how I was wrong. Now that I am in post-production I can firmly say that one of the biggest mistakes I made was that I always said “I’ll fix it post” most of the errors that have popped could’ve easily been fixed during production, but alas. I firmly believe that it is okay to make mistakes along the way, nobody’s perfect, but as long as you learn from them and know how to fix it later, practice makes the master.
What are your future goals
I just want to make a living off of making movies. At the moment I am learning more about the distribution of movies, last I was at AFM (American Film Market) in Santa Monica CA and due to that event I already have one hopeful distributor but I am still deciding whether or not to self distribute.
What does and indie filmmaker need in today’s world of filmmaking
First off, a filmmaker must decide if they’re making a movie to gain profits or because of art. Realistically speaking, you can’t make art and make money off of it, most of the time. Of course, wishful thinking I would like to earn so much money that I can just make movies, but at the start, that isn’t much of a possibility. Secondly, one has to increase the size of the audience by starting newsletter and increasing followers on social media like on Twitter and Facebook. When you’re developing your film you always have to keep in the back of your mind as to what sells. In my case horror and psychological thrillers and science-fiction sell pretty well, although if you are making a Drama, you 100% need a well known name because the chances of that film being sold are slim to none. Finally, the equipment you use to film, you’re not going to have the best camera out there, even if you have an iPhone point and shoot and invite your friends to star in it. Practice makes the master, as long as you don’t give up half way, anything is doable.
INTERVIEWS
more interviews
