Meet Zach Salazar of Sky Nine Productions in Greater Houston

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Salazar.

Zach, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My film roots date way back to a time I can barely remember, meaning young. Very young. I’ve always been fascinated by the world of filmmaking and the cinematic arts. As a kid, I would project myself into these imaginary worlds and live vicariously through the people on screen, dreaming of creating the same type of art someday. I grew up loving big blockbuster films such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, E.T., Jaws, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future, to name a few, and ever since then, I’ve always envisioned myself behind the camera creating an imaginary universe for actors and audiences to explore.

I didn’t start taking film too seriously until about 2013 when I started making random short films and various videos with friends on our iPhones. Yeah, they were terrible, but it was the overall process of creating something and the fun we had that mattered to me. So I started doing it more and eventually wrote out my first ever feature film script called “The Curse of Jamie Miller.” About early 2014 I tried to pull together a cast and crew to make my movie, and that’s when I started meeting other people in the Houston film community who shared the same desire.

After a couple of months, I realized I was too inexperienced to make a feature film the way I wanted, so I scaled back and focused on studying the craft, growing my talents and career by making a few short films just to get my feet wet. Fast forward five years later and I’ve directed eight short films with more on the way, and have begun the process of getting my new feature film “Guerrero” off the ground.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think there’s always struggles in filmmaking. Nobody has a perfect road. But that’s the beauty of it because with all the trials and tribulations I’ve come across in the short time I’ve been doing this, I’ve learned so much on what not to do and how to tackle certain things. I’m constantly learning every day from my past mistakes, whether it be from human errors or just overall constructive criticism, I take it all to heart and apply it to my next project.

Other struggles I have faced have been budget-related, which is sometimes a common theme in independent film, unfortunately. It can really dampen your spirits at times, not having the ability to create what you have in your head to your fullest potential, but sometimes you can catch a break or come across the right people who understand the struggle and want to help out, knowing you’d do the same for them. Networking will get you a long way in this business.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Sky Nine Productions story. Tell us more about the business.
My production company is Sky Nine Productions, and we specialize in just narrative film-related projects at the moment. I toyed with the idea of producing videos for professional businesses but wanted to focus on narrative films to help us grow as a film company. With a handful of credits under our belt now, the professional business venture is a topic I’m heavily reconsidering.

I’m most proud of the overall growth we’ve accomplished. And not to sound egotistical, but when I say “we”, I mean “me”. Sky Nine Productions is just me at the moment. Perhaps one day, I can have a crew under me, but for now, I’ve always been the lone wolf, working quietly in the shadows. I think just this year I’ve finally reached a point where I can comfortably show my work around and be confident in the content we’ve created, not just because my older projects were bad, but I have a nasty habit of being too hard on myself and didn’t think the others could hold up. But the best thing about my older projects is that I learned so much from doing them that helped shaped me into the filmmaker I am today, and it’s a process I think will continue each time I step behind a lens.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I’d like to think with the digital era and new-age social media craze, the industry can continue to thrive and only get bigger. With most films shooting on digital these days, many more young and independent artists can now have a chance to make films. It’s as easy as picking up and camera and finding your niche, as opposed to the old days, where it was next to impossible to make a movie with actual film. Another way I think social media will help the industry is more and more films and local artists are being recognized through social media apps, which in turn introduces them to new opportunities and experiences.

Marketing as well. Marketing and self-promotion has grown substantially. With social media being what it is now, anybody can make a film, design a poster or some artwork and then share it all over social media to help promote themselves. Social media has its dark areas, but I think overall, it will help the film industry grow in the years to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.facebook.com/SkyNineProductions
• Phone: (281) 703-1592
• Email: zachsalazarfilms@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/zachsalazarfilms
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/zachsalazarfilms
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheZachSalazar
• Other: https://zachsalazar.myportfolio.com/

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