Graduate Writes, Directs and Stars in Latest Project “Violators” — Guest Blog by Andrew Di Pardo
Television, since the age of 10 I’ve always wanted to be a part of it in some way, shape or form. I would sit at home during Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights watching games with my dad when the thought occurred to me, to work in the entertainment industry. For several years afterwards, I thought about being a broadcaster but little did I know my hobby of screenwriting was where my passion truly lied. Whenever I was bored or just looking for something to do for fun, I’d come up with series ideas although I never thought it would lead anywhere until one day it did… In December 2012, I decided that a career in broadcasting isn’t what I truly wanted. I wanted to be a director/ screenwriter. I took the next steps to making that happen, I made a short film. For the next six months as I finished high school I continued to pursue my passion for filmmaking through the form of a hobby.
After high school, I found out about Toronto Film School. I thought to myself, ‘ if I want to make my passion more than just a hobby, going to that school would be the way to develop my skills even further to make that dream a reality’ and I did. The production classes in the early part of schooling taught me the basics of what I’d needed to improve the quality of my films. Adam Till’s screenwriting classes throughout the entirety of film school furthered my skills in the writing aspect which has helped me to this day. After I graduated from the Writing program at Toronto Film School in 2014, I spent another year in Toronto continuing to make my short films at a higher level than I did before. My final film in Toronto titled Deep Trouble (in which I directed) was my first film to make it into film festivals a year after its release in North Carolina.
In September 2015, I had the opportunity to move to the United States. Since my move to Greenville, South Carolina I have worked on several projects as a Director, Director Of Photography, Writer, Actor & producer. The first film I worked on as Director/Writer was my first short film in the USA titled UNDER THE GUN which in 2016 & 2017 has made it into two film festivals (one in South Carolina & one in Miami, Florida). UNDER THE GUN follows the Italian Mafia in LA, as they have a mole in their organization, but the mole is someone they least expect… At the MIAMI EPIC FILM FESTIVAL I was nominated for best director, unfortunately, I didn’t win.
Shortly after UNDER THE GUN wrapped, another opportunity came knocking. I was called to set in October 2016 to be the Director and be the Director of Photography for a southern Comedy feature film titled THE RUSH CHAIRMAN. This film although not my best film has been released on Itunes & Amazon and has plans to be released on Netflix sometime in the future.
My latest film in which I wrote, acted in and directed is titled, VIOLATORS. This film was co-written with Toronto Film School graduate, Gilbert Laberge. That film centres around the dangers of government surveillance in the USA, the pros and the cons. It’s a four-minute film, with a documentary style narrative that leaves you with many questions. VIOLATORS was submitted to only one festival for local exposure and it was accepted to the Reed Reels Film Festival in Greenville, SC.
Since graduation, my projects have continued to get more and more exposure as the quality and filmmaking improves from Film to Film… Although 16 of my 17 films (2 features & 15 Shorts) have been mainly in the action/drama genres, my next project will have a very different approach. The film I’m working on with FALLS PARK ENTERTAINMENT is a SC-FI/Romance short titled DECADES APART. The film’s focus is on time as two people contact each other from different decades… Its currently in Pre-Production with production to begin in 2018. Follow me on social media to keep up to date with my latest projects and my past short film which I mentioned are available on my website and on Youtube.
Andrew Di Pardo is a multi-talented filmmaker born in Toronto, Canada. Andrew is a graduate of the Writing for Film and Television program at Toronto Film School. Read more about Andrew here. Also, you can follow him on Instagram here.
