•  Who is Tyler Leyva?

I’m a director that loves emotionally resonant characters and visuals. Retro cinema is a huge inspiration behind how I frame everything. I love the style of films from the 1970s and 1980s particularly. It’s really about texture and restraint, rather than “cosplay”. 

I actually became interested filmmaking through stop motion work. Using figures to understand blocking and staging was very important in developing my filmmaking style.

•  Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

There is no one “moment”, I’ve always loved movies. However, when my parents took me to the movies for the first time at 3 years old to see Cars (2006), I was cheering on lightning McQueen as little me stood up in the movie theater chair. 

•  Tell us about your project “After Dark”.

“After Dark” is a short film about a vampire mob boss who hunts down his brother’s killer, all while the rest of the mafia family plots his downfall. 

This film is both a thriller and comedy. What makes the film work is both genres complement each other instead of distract. I’m interested in how visuals and music shape identity and I certainly played with this idea throughout the film. Taking characters that could easily be incredibly dislikable and making them likeable was a fun challenge when writing the script. I really let the characters do the talking and try not to interfere with them even though I’m their architect. The reason they could’ve been dislikable is because of their status and nature. A vampire mafia family. Standing above everyone and everything. Instead of making them too distant to connect with, I put them at the heart of the film by following the boss. However, the caveat is that the character, “Ezekiel”, secretly doesn’t want to be in charge of the mafia family and wants to live life on his own terms.

•  Which Director inspires you the most?

Martin Scorsese inspires me most, but another favorite would be Paul Thomas Anderson. The way Scorsese uses camera movement and editing to emphasize character moments is incredible. The music choices are amazing as well, they’re always motivated and intentional just as every other aspect of Scorsese’s filmmaking.

•  What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

I dislike how divided everyone is nowadays. We can disagree but still be kind. Cinema certainly had that power to both unify and divide which is scary, but also quite empowering if the right people are behind and in front of the camera.

•  How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

I don’t know but I imagine cinema and the filmmakers that curate it will evolve constantly until then and beyond.

•  What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

My impression of WILD FILMMAKER is that is a high profile magazine that is useful for indie filmmakers to get their work seen and voice heard.