How did the project come about and evolve?

I was drinking a LOT of coffee one day with a friend and thinking of people to make a short portrait of for my reel.
That seemed a bit silly, so we decided it should be a series.
We set some rules for the series and came up with a name and made the first three films a week later.
Since then, it’s been a case of making sure that the series grows even if I’m busy with other jobs.

And what were the rules?

The rules we set were:
The films have to be 90 seconds long.
They can’t be about the work itself.
They shouldn’t show finished work.
The title should be handwritten by the protagonist.

We’ve broken them all in some way or another, but they give the series a certain aesthetic and form that I really like.
It was important early on that I should enjoy making them, otherwise the series would have died pretty quickly…

What’s the criteria for choosing your subjects?

I have to like their work first of all. The series has a certain sense of curation, so it’s important that we feature people whose work is great.
I think if someone is doing something interesting and they are asked to talk about themselves, not the work, then it’s easier to get them to be open.

What have you learnt about the creative process since doing this project?

The creative process is always something unique and personal, so it’s hard to generalise about it.
But what I do find is that all the people I’ve met through the project are incredibly inspiring.
Everyone I’ve filmed with is deeply passionate about what they do and genuinely interested in other people’s work too. This openness and excitedness is always very appealing.

Do creative people have some things in common?

You can draw lots of similarities between different people we’ve covered, but you could never say that any two of them are alike.
They’re like snowflakes.

What else are you doing other than this project?

I’m finishing a feature length documentary about the photographer Saul Leiter which I’ve been working on over the past three years.
Hopefully it will be a rambling, funny and poignant film about a really unique and pioneering old man.
I’ve also recently moved to Moxie Pictures, so I’m working with them on my commercial work, which is incredibly exciting.

An exhibition of the series runs at London’s DreambagsJaguarshoes Film Gallery until March 31st. Tomas will be releasing a new film each week through the show.

Exhibition details:
Film Gallery
DreambagsJaguarshoes
Basement Bar
32 Kingsland Road
March 1 – 31, 2012
https://www.jaguarshoes.com/?p=11497

LINKS:

https://littlescrapsofpaper.co.uk/

Tomas is repped by Moxie Pictures