“Whether it’s 4K or 1080P, a story is a story. So just go out there and tell a story, you have no excuse.” – Tristan Pope

If there ever was a person that could do it all, it’s Tristan Pope. You can ask ten different people about him and get ten different answers – all related to art in some way. He’s an Emmy-Award winning director, photographer, performer, dancer, and one of the most passionate people that I’ve ever met. In this in-depth interview, he discusses how he chose what to do with his life, tips on getting a professional quality iPhone film and much, much more. 

BG: Was photography and filmmaking your first love?

I love a lot of things and I make sure that I wake up every day and I do at least one of them. I love performing, dancing, directing, video games… it really just depends on the day.

BG: What got you started in Tristan Pope Photography?

I wanted to combine all of the skills and passions that I have into one company. And I wanted to do it for myself without having to work for someone else. I wanted to create and design the company from the ground up so that it could be something that I was always passionate about and so I could always wake up and be happy about going to work.

BG: Before you had all of your experience and knowledge, how did you get some of your first gigs as a photographer?

My mom asked me to take some home movies [laughs]. That’s how I started out, just shooting home movies around the house. Then, I got hired at Blizzard Entertainment. We used to do a lot of events and at some point I had to shoot an Ozzy Osbourne concert. There were only two photographers allowed to shoot on the stage at any time and I was one of them! It was really intense [laughs]. I also got to co-direct the “Make Love, Not Warcraft” South Park episode with them, which later won an Emmy. It was surreal.

“I always think of being a photographer and director as being a therapist, except a lot harder, because you have to get to know the person in about thirty minutes.” 

BG: What kind of struggles did you have to overcome to continue shooting paid gigs?

The biggest struggle I had was after I had left Blizzard Entertainment to build Tristan Pope Photography. I didn’t know that TPP was what I was going to start. I directed a theater show, movie and a magazine shoot, did some photography and dance shoots… and at the end of all of that I thought that there would be this magical light bulb that would go off on the top of my head telling me to “do this, go for this one thing.” And it didn’t! I loved everything, and I couldn’t figure out a way to do it all at once, while also finding a way to survive.

I went through about a year of a little depression where I didn’t have many jobs or know what was going on. Luckily, I had saved up when I was working at Blizzard and I was fine financially, but I just couldn’t figure out what the f–k I wanted to do with my life [laughs]. After I started shooting photography, I didn’t like the whole “agency gig” scene as much. And I enjoyed shooting dance much more, because I felt like the dancers were something that I related to a lot more – because I had been a dancer myself.

When I shoot with dancers, it’s kind of like being in the green room of a theater: just enjoying your time, instantly making great connections and working together to not only get the perfect shot, but to get to know the person. It’s much easier to get to know someone when you’ve had the experiences yourself. I always think of being a photographer and director as being a therapist, except a lot harder, because you have to get to know the person in about thirty minutes when they’re getting their makeup done… and then you have to go and make sure that so many different pieces come together for the perfect shot.

BG: It struck a huge chord with me when you touched on having so many different loves and not knowing which one to pursue. What helps you stay focused on what you want to do with your life?

I had gone to a seminar that I had to record, and the guy was talking about the qualities of being a successful producer. He said that you have to wake up every day and know that being a producer is the one and only thing that you have to do for the rest of your life. You have to breathe, sleep, and eat as a producer. And I thought, “That must be nice [laughs]!” I’ve never felt that way about any one thing. So I took what he said and modified it to work with my life.

Every day I wake up and make sure that I’m doing at least one thing that I love. It could be shooting a commercial, shooting on an iPhone, designing a website, etc. They’re all intertwined with my skill set, and what I’ve come to enjoy – I just find different ways to apply them to make money and make it so that Tristan Pope Photography is actually a business.

BG: What’s in your pipeline for mobile filmmaking?

I’m still making dance films with phones and I’ve been working with a lot of companies that want to do short-scale online commercials. Being able to bring fast paced social media content to the industry is huge right now. People can’t wait for you to shoot, edit, touch-up, and ship. They want it on snapchat as soon as you’re shooting it.

Some [companies] actually prefer the iPhone over a DSLR!

BG: What compelled you to shoot the “Romance In New York” narrative on an iPhone?

I thought to myself, “There’s finally a piece of technology that’s small enough to produce something that was actually as intimate as the ideas I had in my head. I have DSLR’s… I’ve shot on RED’s… you name it I’ve shot on it. I had the idea of Romance In NYC for seven years, jotting down notes from past relationships, family events, and different things like that. But they were just snippets and I wanted to show a relationship throughout the day – for a full day – and every time I envisioned it, I thought about cops coming in and stopping me from shooting in the store, etc. and lighting that I just didn’t have and couldn’t afford.

As soon as I saw the first little clip from Dancers Of New York – the clip with one of the dancers walking away literally into the sunset – no joke – and her hair made this beautiful silhouette and the sun was a gorgeous orange. I thought to myself, “Holy crap, I have the perfect camera in my hands! I can shoot this movie on my phone [laughs]!”

“Stop hiding this powerful device that you have in your pocket because you think ‘No, put it away and pay attention.’ You can still pay attention, just grab those moments every time you can.” 

BG: How do you go about getting professional quality iPhone shots?

To be clear, I never went to film school, nor was I a film major. I graduated from a city college as an actor, but I also had the chance to direct theater while I was there and when I was at Blizzard [Entertainment] I got to go out on sets and edit intensively on the cinematics. So for this film, I employed the same techniques that I taught myself and was using for other work, which made the film look a lot better than what you would expect an iPhone film to look like. I don’t say this to boast, but I just think that it’s important for people to hear that they don’t have to follow every conventional road to make a film. Sometimes they just need a little know how and once again, a good story to tell!

When I shot the film, there weren’t nearly as many iPhone accessories as there are today [laughs]. So we went back to “Filmmaking 101,” where we used the same gear we’d use if we shot it on a DSLR and then we just went out and bought that equipment. I mainly used a Glidecam and GorillaPod that I wrapped it around my face.

We also shot with the highest frame-rate that we had. We wanted to make sure that the person watching it would have as much information from the scene as possible, because the film is shown in first-person. When we’re looking around in our lives, we’re processing information at a much higher rate than 60 frames per second – so the more frames that we can pump into the video, the more fluid the look is. We wanted a realistic home movie look so you could actually believe that you were there.

We also used the Movie Pro app to increase the bit-rate to 100MB per second for higher quality shots.

BG: What’s your favorite gear over and under $100

Moment lenses. They are just spectacular, they’re tiny and I’ve used them on so many things that I’ve worn out the threads on the mount. Very useful.

A quick digression: it wasn’t my plan to become an iPhone filmmaker. I think what drove me to it was the fact that I’m not a big “techie” guy. If you were to sit here and explain to me the ins and outs of DSLR camera, I would understand what you’re saying, but I don’t geek out over specs. I just like when things work [laughs].

When it came down to the iPhone is that while yes, I tinker with the specs and render it in on the computer, taking it with me ensures that even if everything that I brought with me – every single piece of equipment – were to break, I could still get the shot I need. I think that that is something important and people often forget.

I get asked all the time, “What’s best equipment for shooting a film on an iPhone,” – the best equipment is what’s relative to your story. If you don’t know what your story is yet, then you can’t know what the best equipment will be. There is no end all, be all equipment. There are things like the Beastgrip Pro which for me is most helpful when I have to shoot handheld or shaky cam because it really gives me the ability to grip the sh-t out of it and still get really smooth motion.

I didn’t choose to be an iPhone filmmaker; the iPhone chose me [laughs]. I know that sounds really stupid, but it just felt like the proper progression at the time. And who knows what gear will come out in the next 5, 10, or 20 years, but right now, mobile filmmaking is a completely freeing experience, even though it is somewhat limiting. I’ve been on sets where I’m asked what equipment I need, and I always tell them if it’s an iPhone shoot that I need two iPhones and I also use the new Sony AS7 II as a backup.

In some situations when shooting on an iPhone, I feel that it’s almost necessary to have a DSLR ready because the iPhone does have its limitations and you may think that it looks good now, but when you run it up the chain of command, I don’t want to get a call later on [laughs]. BG

To find out what Tristan is up to, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, his official site and to check out his newest project Dancers Of on Instagram, follow @dancers_of.

Tristan Pope has been using new technology to create art for years. Back in 2004, he was one of the pioneers of machinima. When he saw an opportunity to create a digital set from inside the internet multiplayer role-playing game, World of Warcraft (WoW), he began work on a series of WoW films. Then, he uploaded them to websites like FilePlanet. Tristan’s machinima films were downloaded over a million times in a pre-YouTube world. It was a big deal.

Soon after Tristan graduated college, the makers of WoW at Blizzard Entertainment called him and offered him a job directing films for the game. They gave him 24 hours to accept the offer.

“A story is a story whether you shoot in 4k or 1080p.”

The problem was, Tristan wasn’t sure that he wanted to direct.  He had dreamt of being an actor since he was young. In fact, when Tristan started college at City College of New York, he declared a major in acting his freshman year – even though the school advised first-year students to wait before declaring. “I’ve spoken to a lot of actors,” Tristan said, “and it turns out to be exactly the same thing. We all wanna declare acting right away. Acting is such a crazy thing to pursue, there’s nothing that can really talk you out of it.”

Tristan was sure he wanted to act. So sure, that when a director at NYU approached him and asked him to transfer after he’d spent a few years at CCNY, Tristan said no. NYU’s acting program didn’t allow students to actually get on stage until they’d been in the program for a few years, and Tristan didn’t want to wait.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of actors, and it turns out to be exactly the same thing. We all wanna declare acting right away…There’s nothing that can really talk you out of it.”

So he stayed enrolled at CCNY, and he acted. He enjoyed acting so much that he dreaded taking a directing 101 course that was required for the completion of his degree. “I put up a fight. I told my teacher, ‘what do I need this crap for?’ Eventually I was like, fine. But I’m gonna complain about it,” he said jokingly.

Tristan was surprised when he liked the class. Soon, he started to recognize “all of the little tricks” directors used on him to get results.

After Tristan worked on The Fantastics for CCNY, he realized he could direct. For Tristan, finding unique ways for actors to convey meaning and better understand the perspectives of their characters was one of his most important roles as a director. “I basically wanted to be a therapist, but I didn’t wanna go to med school,” he said. “You’re taking on everything that they [actors] have in their day. You’re trying to get them to be a character that they are not ready for.”

Tristan was divided. He’d spent his college career preparing to become an actor, but he’d developed an even greater passion for directing. It came down the pivotal 24-hour period – Blizzard Entertainment had offered him a job, but Tristan had received another call that same day – from an old director who offered him an opportunity to act. Tristan talked to his current director before he made his decision. “He said, ‘what are you enjoying right now?’ And I said, ‘directing,’ so I went to California and started my new job.”

His first project with Blizzard Entertainment was a South Park episode called, “Make Love Not Warcraft.” “We won an Emmy for that,” he said, nonchalantly. “We went down to South Park studios. I would sit down with Matt Stone and Trey Parker and we would talk about the show – what made sense in the game, what didn’t.”

Tristan spent four and a half years at Blizzard before technology started catching up with him. Eventually, the team at Blizzard found ways to automate the films he was making, which removed the interpersonal interaction that Tristan loved. Faced with another big decision, Tristan decided to leave the company. “I was going to pick up, and I was gonna start a business,” he said. “So I moved to New York.”

It was hard to start a photography business in New York. “You can make a plan, but at the end of the day you don’t really know where you’re gonna land,” Tristan said. He didn’t like jumping through hoops to photograph New York agency models.  “A young girl right off the boat holding onto the arm of a 60-year-old man in some shifty nightclub, was called ‘networking,’” he said. The environment associated with photography in New York made Tristan dislike his own craft, and he wanted to make a change. “When you have a plan and that plan is not going accordingly, it’s hard to change gears quickly,” he said.

The answer, he discovered, was working with dancers. He would go to ballets and shows to meet potential clients, and finally networking became something he enjoyed.

Tristan has mastered several different roles – though ironically, several have been off the stage. Though his career is in flux, he excels at everything he’s done. After founding Tristan Pope Photography, he would go on to stretch the boundaries of modern storytelling by creating the first short films shot on an iPhone 6. Tristan pays attention to what’s fulfilling him at the moment. “I was once told that if you can’t wake up and think you are doing what you love, it’s not the job for you,” he said. “Every day that thing, for me, might be different.”

“I would sit down with Matt Stone and Trey Parker and we would talk about the show – what made sense in the game, what didn’t.”

When he filmed Dancers of NYC, he recognized that the iPhone 6 had a slow motion setting. This made footage more interesting, he explained.  “Instead of capturing that perfect jump, frozen in time – to be able to show lead up and exit with that move…It was a new way of interacting.” Tristan got the iPhone 6 the day it came out, filmed 15-17 dancers for 3 days, and edited the footage on the 4th day. Since then, the film has won several awards, including the 2014-2015 Nikon Photo Contest. Following the film’s success, Tristan has since followed up with Dancers of Zurich.

“I was once told that if you can’t wake up and think you are doing what you love, it’s not the job for you. Every day that thing, for me, might be different.”

He said he never felt limited by the iPhone. “The image quality was extremely acceptable,” he said. “At times, I think it’s better than my Canon – minus the depth of field and what you would get with the $3,000 lens – but that [Dancers of NYC], inspired me to start the Kickstarter for Romance in NYC.”

Romance in NYC has been deemed “the first short film on an iPhone 6,” and it’s won an impressive amount of awards. It won at the 2015 New Media Film Festival in LA, the 2015 iPhone Film Festival, the 2015 International Movie Trailer Festival. It was also part of the official selection at the Madrid International Film Festival, the New Filmmakers of New York, and the International Mobil Film Festival.

“I was going to pick up, and I was gonna start a business. So I moved to New York.”

Tristan filmed the entire thing with an iPhone from the first person point of view. He worked with an indie-budget to produce the film, but said that he didn’t run into too many issues. Although, when filming the film’s restaurant scene, a lot of grain was introduced into the footage. “I was like, this is going to look  terrible,” he said. It turned out the the footage ended up looking like film grain, and Tristan said he was taken aback by the quality. 

“With any piece like this where you talk about mobile filmmaking, there’s gonna be a backlash. It’s like an argument of a foreign car vs an American, or Apple vs Android, or Mac and PC,” Tristan said. But what’s important, he stressed, is the story. “I believe it’s [the iPhone] is the best medium for telling people the stories that I want to tell. There’s this quote going around, that apparently I said but didn’t realize – ‘a story is a story whether you shoot  in 4k or 1080p.’”

Tristan plans to use whatever technology he can get his hands on to communicate meaning to his audience, and he says he’ll  continue to battle against conventionality, drabness, repetition, and rules.

Connect with Tristan at www.tristanpope.com

Or on Instagram: tristanpope

Interested in reading about other dance videographers like Tristan? Check out B-Boy ChazB from Glasgow, Scotland.

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