Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey Newell
Hi Casey, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I wanted to be a screenwriter. Turns out I had no idea how to make a career out of screenwriting in Nashville, TN as a 19 year old. So I bought a camera and started learning to shoot. It took me about 3 years of working (mostly unpaid) in film to really have any sense of direction and continuity in my career and not just a slowly growing body of work and credits.
I now separate my video work into three main categories: narrative, social media, and corporate.
I’m not really sure how to encapsulate what has happened since I’ve started working in film, so I’m just going to share a few brief stories/bullet points from the last couple years.
– Shooting shoe commercials in my parents garage during the pandemic involving throwing cups of cold water in the air and definitely-not-on-purpose/completely-accidentally soaking my brother-in-law repeatedly
– Filming a super-spreader event (a scene from Seussical) during the heart of the pandemic (oops!)
– Making my first feature in four days with a cast and crew size of like five people. Spent about $1000 total on it. Yes, it’s still on the internet and it’s still cute, but no, you can’t have the link (:
– Telling a cast/crew of about 30 that I needed a break to run to the bathroom at 11:58pm on a Sunday night (I had a 1000 day Duolingo streak and hadn’t practiced my French that day!)
– Filming a feature in 2.5 days and a good portion of it actually turning out pretty good! (I showed up to the premiere in a hoodie. One of the actresses was wearing a fur coat)
– Catching a falling drone with my bare hands and getting all sliced up ): No, I did not cry, thank you for asking. I had failed to inform the drone op that the drone was close to hitting the side of a building (we had turned off the wall-sensor and my only job this shot was to watch for this). Good project overall, though!
– Producer tried to revoke my credit as sound recordist (little did she know I was a producer as well!) due to my casual and dismissive attitude (I have no idea what she was talking about (that’s a joke I 100% know what she’s talking about))
– Shooting my first sex scene where I was the POV of the person on the bottom. For some reason there were three people behind the bed with me and one of them (to this day I don’t know who) was holding my hand the whole time. Thank you, friend! The scene was part of a lesbian Jane Austen short film that is honestly still so hype.
– Making a director cry tears of joy by condensing the majority of a long scene’s shot-list into a one-take 🫶 It was less a stroke of genius and more me not feeling like working through that long a shortlist (same project: I rolled the camera and grabbed a take of a shot before anyone knew and it made it into the final)
– Running sound on a short when the DP asked me if I remembered Nagra recorders from the late 60s (I was born in 2001)
– Having a little week-long menty b leading up to the shooting of a short film about gay sex demons and very obnoxiously declaring that I was quitting film at the end of the shoot (I looked over the footage and it was the best thing I’d done and so I came out of my first retirement)
– Running sound on a football field for a drum corp championship. I didn’t know anything about drum corp at the championship level and the only thing I can say now is “wow. that’s a lot of drums”
– Asking someone to hold the boom pole and recorder for a minute and then leaving the set and never returning.
– Getting threatened with a solicitation lawsuit three times in the middle of nowhere TN while filming corporate BTS. My response: “don’t threaten to sue me. if you’re going to sue me, sue me.” I did not get sued (: but it did take me more than six months to get paid ):
– Debuting my inconsistent acting skills as a time traveling serial killer!
– Winning “Filmmaker of the Month” from a London-based publication (still not really sure about how this happened)
– Shooting about 40 short skit videos (many of which went viral) for a social media company with a target demographic of 40-70 year old conservative women
– Filming a short film for a screenwriter I met on Hinge that is now being shown in Zurich
– Driving 10 hours in a day on 1 hour of sleep to model in Statesboro during a tornado
– Starting a production company with a guy I met on Tinder (who could’ve guessed this went downhill quickly!)
– Thinking my career was going great due to several months of consistent work –> raising my day rate significantly –> turning down three job offers in one week that were each, individually the best job offers I’d ever received –> not receiving a single gig or offer for two months. gulp
– Continually trying to understand and internalize that productivity and self-worth are not the same things
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Throughout all of this, I’ve lived with my parents. I’ve had opportunities to move out but am currently prioritizing staying with them. Living with them and having that safety net and support has given me an insane amount of flexibility and freedom in my career.
What it doesn’t help at all is the ability to figure out what to do.
Everyone knows breaking into the film industry is hard (unless you’re related to someone which I am not). There are seemingly 8 trillion paths you can take to break in, all of which have super low odds of success. On a good day, I can keep my head down and not think about the future which allows me to focus on whatever work I have at hand. On a bad day, however, there’s a little thing called analysis paralysis. So many options. None of them seem really great. While my career has progressed, I’m not really sure this issue has gone away at all.
I think from an external perspective, the road has been smooth. One of my strongest career tactics I’ve developed is being able to have absolutely no idea what I’m doing and project absolute confidence and boredom. The flip side of this is that internally, I often have no idea what’s going on.
I’ve been fortunate to have a really supportive community around me that’s always ready to work on a new project or idea and also keeps me busy with the work of others.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
On one level, I love all things movies.
On another, I cannot sit through a 1.5hr (or godforbid 2.5hr) movie. I grew up with the internet/social media/etc. Within in the last couple years, I feel like I’ve reached a point where I’ve had enough technical filmmaking skill to pull of a more TikTok-paced kind of storytelling that feels very new and exciting personally. It’s fairly gen-z (think “Bodies Bodies Bodies”) and I’m currently wrapping up a short in this style.
I also work on other people’s projects a lot. To the extent that I can perceive myself accurately and am self-aware, I like to think that I am known for being technically skilled and driving people up a wall (but lovingly <3).
What’s next?
I’ve just finished the first draft of what I hope will be my next personal project (a short film). I’ve got soft plans for a bunch of projects and hard plans for a couple.
I’ve been doing a lot more social media work recently, including (as embarrassing as this is!) attempting to become an influencer.
My shortish term goal for the future is to take on projects I like, not just ones that pay. I haven’t always done this and still struggle with prioritizing it (but who doesn’t).
Contact Info:
- Email: caseyjnewell@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casey.newell/
