Guillermo Arcaya

Motion Pictures & Television / BFA

I’m Guillermo Arcaya. I first fell in love with storytelling as a young boy growing up in Caracas, Venezuela. When I was nine years old, I would spend my school days writing short stories about the goings-on in my town. Growing up in a country where the socio-political climate was in constant upheaval, I found comfort in movie theaters.

Movies took me away from the troubles I saw all around me. They sometimes took me to the troubles of others in faraway places, which, at times, cast a calming perspective on my own. Stanley Kubrick´s A Clockwork Orange, immediately springs to mind: the scene of the friends punching one another for mere sport

Kubrick’s oeuvre and those of countless others opened my eyes to the powerful tool filmmakers had at their fingertips: the ability to tell a story and to change people's perspectives. Sitting in the darkened movie theater well after the end credits had scrolled through, unable to move, was the defining moment of life. I knew what I wanted, what I needed to do for the rest of my life.

I feel really fortunate to have my own personal critic and film nerd in my family: my grandmother. She steeped me in film history, guided me to ones I should watch if I truly wanted to become a filmmaker.

She constantly complains about how films nowadays rely too much on trends and technology, rather than deep and meaningful character-driven stories that have the power to evoke deep emotions. That’s the reason why my work is heavily influenced by films from the '30s, '40s, and '50s.

I used to be a musician, which made me become really interested in music videos, as a format where I could also combine narrative storytelling with the visual freedom to break time and space that filmgoers often find too challenging.

The passion I felt as kid in South America grew even stronger while pursuing my BFA in film directing at Academy of Art University. That passion has also led me into a freelancing career in the film industry working for BBC, Snippies, Canal Futura in Brazil, to name a few.

My desire for growing in this hyper-competitive business was the impetus in my forming Trickshot Productions, an independent film company based in the Bay Area that specializes in creating short narrative and documentary films, and music videos.

I have an idea: let´s make something remarkable together.

Gracias totales!

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