Meet Tyler Purcell | Professional Filmmaker and Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tyler Purcell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tyler, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
We started our business during a time where colleges were dumping film programs left and right. The writing was on the wall and we wanted to do something about it. Working with local labs and resellers, we were able to acquire equipment at low cost and our students were able to benefit.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As a professional creative, I find myself telling true stories. There is nothing better than taking a wild story you heard on the radio or from a friend and turning it into a project. A lot of times, my focus is on documentary filmmaking because it’s more raw, it’s also easier to build the story through real visuals, interviews/narration and music. I find making short documentaries to be my favorite art form because not every story deserves a feature. I like to make bite sized art, something you can consume fast, maybe learn something along the way, tell your friends and move on with your day. I always think of the audience first, by studying them, learning what they want and making stuff they’ll watch. Where this may seem like a compromise, I find the greater eyes you get on your content, the more people watch, which is the whole point.

For everyone in our industry, the challenge has always been money. It’s why I started my school, why we run a scanning business, why we rent cameras and provide post services, it’s all to make money for our projects. I started Celluloid Dreaming in 2015 and it was a success from day one, but financially we didn’t really get moving until 2021. We’ve officially started a new company called Narrow Gauge Films, as a way to facilitate our finances better. This way funds coming in to help produce our shows, can go into a dedicated bank account rather than being with all the educational stuff we do.

The biggest lesson I learned is perseverance. I personally struggle with that. I like immediate results and it’s just not possible with filmmaking or building a business around filmmakers like we have. It takes time to get word of mouth out there and also do some projects people really like. I don’t think we’re “there” yet, we have a long way to go, but we’re getting close. Moving from Los Angeles to the Denver region, is a big step and we’ll see how it pans out in the future. We’re hoping big fish in a small pond may help us grow a bit more. Los Angeles is overflowing with people like us.

I work in a very old fashioned way, we shoot a lot of our shows on film, both motion picture and stills. With our own scanner and excellent lab connections, we can turn around shows very quickly and low cost to the customer. This allows us to get jobs on film, that many people can’t. It also allows us to deliver a different looking image to our competitors. Suddenly, you aren’t stuck to the same digital look, what we shoot looks entirely different. We also have
a very unique team. Not only can I wear a lot of hats, but my partner is a very good photographer and assistant. So I can shoot moving image and he can shoot stills at the same time, which is great for marketing/commercial work, where you want both. It’s rare to have someone so close in your life who shares a lot of the same interests and Narrow Gauge films is a combination of our hard work.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Funny enough, we’ve spent more time in Durango than anywhere else honestly. It’s kind of our home base for some productions. Of course we’d take anyone on the Durango and Silverton train first, that’s always the best way to see things. We’d drive up to Molas pass on the way to Silverton and visit some of the abandoned ruins up in Red Mountain. For food, nothing better than the Himalayan Kitchen, gosh that place is the best in town. For breakfast, Durango Bagel always and nothing better than taking long walks along the Animas river walk in the evening. We love sitting on the swinging bridge as the sun sets as well. Even in fall/winter, it’s such a lovely place to be. We’ve met so many great people in Durango, mainly because it’s a tourist town, but they’ve all been so excited about our films we’ve shot there. Every time I run into someone with my camera, we talk for at least a few minutes, sometimes its hard to even get work done due to all the people wondering what we’re doing. It’s a unique place that deserves all the attention we hope our film will give it.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Honestly and it may sound kinda lame, but my dad was my biggest influence. His curiosity rubbed off on me and he was a very good photographer as well. I learned so much from so many over the years, but without that very early push into this industry, I’d probably have little to no interest.

Website: http://www.narrowgaugefilms.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tye1138/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tye1138

Youtube: https://vimeo.com/showcase/9793540