{"id":15180,"date":"2017-09-01T14:32:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T18:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/?p=15180"},"modified":"2023-12-19T13:32:56","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T18:32:56","slug":"filmmaker-tommy-oliver-message-aspiring-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/filmmaker-tommy-oliver-message-aspiring-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"Filmmaker Tommy Oliver Has a Message for Aspiring Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tommy Oliver<\/strong> <\/span>does not sit idle. That was a key message communicated during the wide-ranging conversation Samsung hosted on August 28th with the inexhaustible writer-director-producer at Samsung 837<\/a> in New York, during the fourth and final session of Samsung\u2019s 2nd annual Summer Discovery Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sitting down with Jeff Pohlman, VP of Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility, the Los Angeles-based Oliver \u2013 whose docuseries about marriage, \u2018Black Love\u2019, premiered this week on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network \u2013 reflected on his burgeoning career and offered invaluable advice to aspiring creatives. \u201cThe single biggest difference in success is not talent, who you know, or ability… It\u2019s about hard work,\u201d Oliver commented<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Recounting how his own self-reliance and work ethic developed while growing up in Philadelphia, Oliver was candid about his struggles as the child of a crack-addicted mother and an absent father. He referred to books as his mentors and found inspiration learning about luminaries like Bill Gates during the hour-long bus rides to school. Movies like American History X and Boyz n the Hood also resonated with him because the stories they portrayed \u201cactually had the ability to change the way you think about something,\u201d Oliver explained<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Between the riveting details he shared about his journey as a creative professional, from running a production company as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University, to earning his first break early in his career with the film \u2018Kinyarwanda\u2019 \u2013 a drama set during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide — that garnered numerous accolades, the audience got an intimate glimpse at the makings of Oliver\u2019s hard-earned success story.<\/p>\n

\"Tommy<\/a>

Tommy Oliver spoke candidly to the audience about his life lessons during the final Samsung Summer Discovery Series at Samsung 837 in NYC.<\/p><\/div>\n

Yet it was his brushes with failure that struck a chord. Oliver\u2019s first major directing project, 1982 \u2013 story about a family fighting to stay together against the backdrop of the nation\u2019s war on drugs \u2013 nearly flopped before getting off the ground, as he\u2019d failed to secure a single investor a mere four weeks before filming was set to begin. Oliver went on to explain that experience taught him a lesson on ambition and dedication.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf what you\u2019re reaching for doesn\u2019t exceed your grasp, that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Oliver explained.<\/strong> While he eventually completed the film, its subsequent rejection from Sundance inspired him to work even harder. \u201cI recut every single frame of that movie \u2013 for months,\u201d he recalled.<\/strong> \u201cIf something doesn\u2019t work, I\u2019m looking at me: What could I have done better?\u201d<\/p>\n

With various projects in the pipeline, including two movies, a mini-series, and a multi-part true-crime documentary series, the 32-year-old is busier than ever. How does he juggle it all? \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be a reason not to do the things we want to do, so it\u2019s about figuring out how to do it,\u201d he told the audience<\/strong>. \u201cIf you\u2019re waiting for permission, you\u2019re never going to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier than it\u2019s ever been to make a movie, short, or to write something,\u201d Oliver went on<\/strong>. \u201cYou can do it for free, or for cheap, you can do it on your phone. So there\u2019s no excuse not to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tommy Oliver does not sit idle. That was a key message communicated during the wide-ranging conversation Samsung hosted on August 28th with the inexhaustible writer-director-producer at Samsung 837 in New York, during the fourth and final session of Samsung\u2019s 2nd annual Summer Discovery Series. Sitting down with Jeff Pohlman, VP of Corporate Communications and Social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29719,17571],"tags":[24213,720,890,5991],"blue-badge":[],"class_list":["post-15180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate","category-corporate-workforce","tag-life-at-samsung","tag-samsung-837","tag-samsung-culture","tag-summer-discovery-series"],"acf":{"turn_off_retargeting":false},"fimg_mobile_url":"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/14150909\/samsung837-Tommy-Oliver2.png","fimg_url":"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/14150909\/samsung837-Tommy-Oliver2.png","primary_category":{"term_id":29719,"name":"Corporate","slug":"corporate","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":29719,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1032,"filter":"raw","term_link":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/category\/corporate\/","term_path":"corporate"},"badge":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15180"},{"taxonomy":"blue-badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blue-badge?post=15180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}