“Creativity is a process,” explained independent film producer, writer and actor Andrew Hunt, who spoke to Michelle Glickman’s film classes at TVT Community Day School recently. “You take things that are in existence and put them together in different and unique ways.”
Hunt, who has produced 15 feature films, including Close Range (2015), Pawn (2013) and Officer Down (2013), added, “It takes a lifetime to get good at playing an instrument or drawing. Filmmaking is much like that. You never reach the end. You’re always working on it.
He added, “It’s a journey to make things. Everything you do is a work in progress. It’s a process.”
.
Hunt emphasized the growth mindset and the sense of always being on a journey that one needs to be a filmmaker. He explained that some improvisation happens on the set, and a filmmaker has to be open to it.
“People elevate each other’s art,” he said. “We bounce around good ideas and learn from the feedback. That’s how I think.”
Hunt said that teamwork was the most important aspect of filmmaking. “There are a lot of moving parts, and they all depend on each other,” he explained. “We all come together, respect each other and respect each other’s creativity.”
He added that, while filmmaking appears to be a glamorous profession, it often entails 12- to 14-hour days. It includes a multi-stage process of development, pre-production, production, post-production and delivery.
Hunt, the son of game show producer Gary Hunt, who owned a post-production facility, decided in his late teens that he wanted to do acting and stand-up comedy. He went into producing to increase his income and now creates all kinds of content.
What drives Hunt is to “better myself and everyone around me, to make the world a better place.” He believes that he has still not hit his high point yet. “I’m just trying to get better every time I make a film and keep growing,” he concluded.