The Directors: Parker Schmidt

The exhilaration from growing up as a professional downhill skateboarder racing around the world at 100kph has brought an elevated sense of presence and emotion to Parker’s approach to work. Sprouting from the mountains of Boise, Idaho, to studying and getting the gears turning while studying in Berlin, Germany, has brought Parker to his latest home of Los Angeles, California, where he has found his people among film, surf, and pottery.

Parker’s approach in film is to take the every day to a higher plane. Through elevated imagery across VFX, metaphorical creations, and emotionally driven narratives is what makes Parker’s heart sing. Rather than capturing but creating by every tool at our disposal in filmmaking to articulate what’s unexplainable in our everyday lives.

Name: Parker Schmidt

Location: Los Angeles

Repped by/in: MOIRAI (U.K.), Equals Agency (Global Agent)

Awards:

Berlin Commercial Awards: Short List Passion Project ‘Best Cinematography’

Berlin Commercial Awards: Official Selection Passion Project ‘Best Direction’ 

Santa Monica International Film Awards: Best Sport Film

Mountain & Adventure Film Festival: Best Skateboard Film

Tokyo Shorts: Official Selection

Brussels International Film Festival: Official Selection

Portuguese Surf Film Festival: Official Selection

Sport Film Festival Rotterdam: Official Selection

Los Angeles Cinematography Awards: Official Selection

LBB> What elements of a script sets one apart from the other and what sort of scripts get you excited to shoot them?

Parker> When I notice the construction of a world and appreciation for emotional intimacy or elevating the everyday reality to reflect a sensation that the client's product/service provides to benefit those using it. This can be shown through certain verbiage in the script to more poignantly articulate what a viewer should be feeling at this moment - this is where I see myself stepping in to help elevate and realise these cues to their peak potential.

LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?

Parker> Being clear is more important than being clever. If the writing and visuals I’m including clearly articulate my approach to the script and the team involved can dig into the weeds of the execution, this creates a motivating and confident first step for me into the project.

LBB> If the script is for a brand that you're not familiar with/ don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?

Parker> I’m fortunate to have personal relationships with those who send me boards, so they know my personality beyond a creative. They understand my strengths and weaknesses and provide me boards that they know I’ll be able to approach authentically through their concepts or involve the complimentary visual languages that I gravitate towards. 

Regardless, I enjoy becoming obsessed over a topic, and as commercial projects are such short jolts of energy when I’m not entirely familiar with a brand and only have a couple of weeks to become fully enveloped,, which helps with my procrastination and attention span to get an understanding quickly and with haste.

LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?

Parker> My holy trinity involves my director of photography, editor, and myself. Involving my DP’s in the treatment process is a luxury I wish presented itself more. I’ve seen such an articulate approach from them when they understand the conceptual motivation for scenes early. This comes close to involving an editor who I discuss the film's story beats, music, and flow to ensure the storyboarding we’ve created will execute how we see in the pre-production process. If we’re able to have early discussions that reduce any unforeseen issues down the road, we’re able to focus more carefully on refining the visuals and edit rather than having to figure it out on the day.

LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?

Parker> As I stemmed from the world of action sports as a competitive downhill skateboarder, I’ll forever love active and moving subject matter. The circles of sports, outerwear, and automobiles seem to be a recent recurring genre as their themes can span many topics, and their creative possibilities are seemingly endless.

The creative I light up to are usually the scripts where I see agencies taking creative strides to execute meaningful concepts in a new way. This usually involves an elevation of reality and taking a more surrealist or fictional way of writing, performance, cinematography, or skewing any of the tools we have at our disposal in filmmaking to create rather than capture.

LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?

Parker> Thankfully out of recent memory and being very stringent on how I prep, most productions flow smoothly. Although I’d say that while shooting for a project in the south of France, even though we had all the proper permitting and road closures to shoot cars, some local police who have no patience for film crews were giving us a hard time. Some of our local French crew knew of these types of police officers and skewed our story to tell them we were just filming the birds and trees (whilst we had an ARRI LF mounted by gimbal on a car), which they seemed to buy, took a look at our permits and were on their way.

LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?

Parker> I’m always optimistic that everybody involved in a project is there to make the best film we can. Whenever I reply to a script, I’ll do what I can to push the creative as far as I can, anticipating that they’ll want to dial it back for numerous reasons - most times being their knowledge of knowing what they can sell to a client. But this is always a push and pull while learning what to fight for and others to let go if they won’t make such a difference in the end.

LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?

Parker> There’s hardly ever a common or reoccurring working process that’s shared throughout the industry. It’s very much a learn-as-you-go line of work that creates unavoidable canon events that we all must go through, as it’s the way to earn your stripes. I had the opportunity to participate in internships on the agency side which gave me so much insight into the smoke and mirrors of that side of the coin. I’m more than open to welcoming interns or apprentices, as I believe these opportunities are the ultimate way to have a transparent understanding of how different departments work. From sales to creative production, to post so, you’re to hopefully try a variety of disciplines and see what you gravitate towards most.

LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats - to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)? 

Parker> I’m obsessed with composition and using a complimentary ratio to accompany the best-suited format. I got my start doing photography which, when you’re focused on a single frame, the way you line it up should best be dialled in. When communicating with the agency on a project, I ensure that we know the desired ratios for a project and, most importantly, the hero film’s ratio. Just as creatives must be decisive in choosing their battles on concept and execution, so do those on the client and agency side with where they want to communicate their message. One idea and way of executing isn’t going to work absolutely everywhere, so knowing how you plan to say what you need to and where is crucial.

LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data-driven visuals etc)?

Parker> I’ve seen the excitement of these new ways of execution tend to overshadow concepts that don’t necessarily always ask for such bombastic visuals and visceral pictures. I prefer utilising these new tools with a sprinkle rather than a pour to elevate and bring these moments to an elevated plane. This excitement is common when a new frontier is discovered, and tools are hyped, where your immediate response is to try so many things simultaneously. But with time and refinding of what’s truly needed to execute an idea will bring a new zeitgeist incorporating these exciting advances of technology.

LBB> Which pieces of work do you feel really show off what you do best – and why?

Parker> 

Requiem

I had such a fun time developing the design of this film. It was my first time shooting on a cyc. I definitely underestimated the effort it’d take to design such a large white canvas, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I believe this short shows one side of the creative spectrum I enjoy working on for the experimental and higher reality approach.

Zero Velocity

Not only was this a dream project to work with Leica, the brand that gave me my first start in filmmaking, but also to marry them with a concept that tied in my passion for racing and cars. André was an absolute icon to work with; the crew involved were some of my dearest and most talented friends. This was my first go at proper VFX and hooked me on the world-building you can create between live action and CGI.

Ascension

This was an intimate piece to make and one that I’m so grateful for my friend and the film's talent, Emi Matsushima, for being so closely a part of its realisation. A combination of a dramatised autobiography about finding your place in the world with subject matters touching the outdoors and sports world is one I found myself approaching with my past experience as an athlete. 

Blistering cold five days in the desert during the winter, battling gale force winds, led this to be one of the more gruelling shoots I’ve been on but one that’s ended up resting near my heart.