“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” 
– Walt Disney

This is the way of the trade when it comes to young filmmaker Shant Salkhorian, who passionately follows his dream of becoming a great filmmaker with a voice that cannot be suppressed. To exist is to follow one's dreams; in this case, making films until the dark end sets in. To embark on a quest to find the right story, and see it through to completion. The friends you make along the way, the hidden characters waiting to be uncovered, finding the perfect end to your passion project.

​Shant has tackled hardships and obstacles, but none will ever be insurmountable. Whether that be long nights interning at Warner Bros, or climbing the ranks of the uber hard programs at the American Film Institute. The visionary who's won numerous awards for his past efforts sits down with me to tackle some questions and decisions about his freshly budding career.
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Gearing up to do this interview, I realized I knew nothing about Shant and what he’d done up till now. Therefore, I cyber stalked him as a professional interviewer should, and I found a great deal of interesting things about the man. He’s worked all over town! He’s always on set and adding professional BTS pictures to his website, his band is featured on Itunes and Spotify, and he has spoken to numerous celebrities in the film world!

So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself.
"Sure! I was born and raised here in Hollywood and I went to Clark Magnet high school; that's kind of where I discovered cinematography, through a special cinematography class. I really fell in love with that class. We had this thing called enrichment everyday, where the last hour of school you could choose to go to whichever class you want to get extra tutoring or some sort of help, and so I’d always be in the cinematography class filming something or editing something. And from there I came to Woodbury University which had a brand new film program that really seemed like the right fit. It felt more family oriented and close so I came here.

Many of my instructors we’re AFI alumni, as you know Sam, Xiao, George, so on and so forth. So whenever I heard them talk, I had no idea what they were on about so I thought, 'Hm, maybe I should go to AFI and learn this stuff y’know?' So, I went to AFI, studied producing; before that I was kind of focusing on directing, I still am but at the time it was more like I knew how to make a movie but I didn't know how to get a movie made.

I wanted to learn more about that. AFI was incredible, and I graduated from there. I would say the most inspiring thing to make me do filmmaking, was Charlie Chaplin."
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"Growing up I didn’t have a ton of toys like everyone, but what I did have were these VHS tapes of old Chaplin films and I thought he was like magic because he could make people laugh and cry without saying a single word."

What is your greatest accomplishment up to date? 
​"I met Quentin Tarantino. It was the first day of AFI, we had this huge theater reserved at arclight for the students. Our dean at the time basically was best friends with Tarantino, and he invited him over to screen Reservoir Dogs at the time. He had a Q. and A. afterwards and I accidently bumped into him in the theater. The dean introduced us and yeah that was really cool, I don’t know if that's an accomplishment though *chuckles.* But my thesis film from Woodbury. We made it for almost no money and a lot of favors. My family did craftie, catered, we used my best friend's house, and pretty much the entire crew was volunteering.

​It was a great process though. We did everything professionally. Compared to what we did at AFI, it was really standard and professional; and it went on to win all sorts of awards. It won both The Socal film festival and The L.A. film festival; and those are just two of many. I just applied like why not, and it was very unexpected. It could have very well been the last movie I ever made, thank god it wasn’t. That was a big accomplishment and who knew I could make a movie in 2-3 weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be making my first feature soon."

Leaving Woodbury, what was your first course of action, and what actually happened? 
"Graduating Woodbury I knew I still wanted to continue my education; I don’t think I learned everything I needed to know about filmmaking. I had a good understanding of the basics and some good practice, but I thought it would be great to have hands on experience and the number one place everyone recommended was AFI. So I went over there to get hands on experience but it’s literally bootcamp. The first week you’re there you’re making like 3 movies. It’s not like, here's a camera; go film something, no the process is the real process of movie making, so it takes a lot of little things. But, I applied to AFI, I also applied to USC at the time just in case. Once I got the news that I got into AFI, I went over there and again, it was like boot camp. The first year there I made 6 short films. I produced 6 short films, wrote 2 of them, and yeah that's pretty much what happened after Woodbury. I knew I wanted to know more and practice more, especially in a real life scenario which is what they do over at that school. It’s very much by the book, and industry standard."

Who shaped you most in getting to where you are today? 
"Growing up, I didn’t have my father around really, I never had that male figure I would say, but my family was always there. I have 2 older sisters. I mean if you’ve seen any of my movies, they’re always somewhere in the background, helping with craftie or set design or something of that nature. My mom is always on set making sure everyone has a cup of coffee. But, I think if anything it was always more about movies. It was like characters and actors in movies; it was like you know what, these people made it and they didn’t need much help. It was one of those things, can you achieve the impossible? I don’t know if I’ve done that yet, but that's what it was."

In the next ten years, obviously you said you wanted to make your first feature film, but even more so beyond that, what do you want to become? 
"My number one goal would be to continue making movies because without movies, I think I’d be very depressed. I’d probably commit suicide one day *chuckles.* I can’t imagine doing anything else. I mean I do play music, I have a band called Midnight City and we’re on Itunes and all that, but movies are everything. I’ve learned so much more from movies than I have from actual life, as weird as that sounds. You know, movies can teach you to be loyal, a good  friend, a good boyfriend, or whatever you want to call it, so I think they’re very valuable in life. So I’m going to continue to make movies no matter what, and my next step is to make my first feature.

​I’d love if people enjoyed the movies I made but I’m not so concerned about that. It’s more about, I wouldn’t want to make a movie if I didn’t have anything to say. It should be more about an experience you went through or a feeling you had, something you want to express, something you want to get out of your system, and you think you have something to offer to the cinema world that hasn’t been done before. I think it’s that. You have to figure out if you have something to offer in the industry, and as long as I do, I’m going to continue to make movies no matter what."

After speaking to Shant about many things in front of the camera, we called cut and things got a little more casual. We walked around, took some pictures, and oddly enough, continued the conversation off the record. He told us of the many mistakes he saw and experienced when it came to the filmmaking process. His many encounters on the sets of the Ellen Degeneres Show and Nolan's own Dunkirk, blew my mind. Not only did I learn a little more about his life, but he also gave us some advice regarding education, filmmaking, and maintaining connections. 

Although the interview was only two hours long, I feel as if I walked away with enough information to fill an entire class. I'm excited to see where Shant winds up, because I know his future is bright and only getting brighter. ​​​

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