Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron David Roberts.
San Diego native Aaron David Roberts has been working in the film industry since his pre-teen years as a PA/Grip on his father’s commercial production sets. After high school, Aaron started an ambitious multi-media company, Blue Vision Entertainment, focusing on discovering and promoting unknown and independent filmmakers, musicians, artists, and photographers.
He quickly learned many of his peers who found the company with him did not have the same drive and persistence as he did, and Blue Vision Entertainment focused on the one dimension of the company Aaron was running: film.
Aaron created the world of ‘The Cast Members’ in the spring of 2014. After an initial pilot completed that same year (under the name The Blackshirts), Aaron and the team decided they loved the concept, but needed to retool the show to make it a viable property to sell.
The Cast Members LLC. was created in June of 2015 in coordination with the shows newfound SAG New Media Status. Aaron headed up casting sessions for nearly a completely new cast from the original 2014 pilot. Aaron the wrote, directed and produced The Cast Members crowdfunding promotional material filmed in fall 2015.
After raising nearly $2,000 locally in the spring of 2016, Aaron and his three producing partners were able to pay off their loans for the initial pilot and start fresh for funding The Cast Members pilot episode.
Filming throughout Fall/Winter 2016, the pilot was completed in early 2017 and released in June of the same year to over 500,000 views and an audience of nearly 3,500 fans on Facebook.
Aaron used this momentum to propel his next project, Chartered.
For Chartered, Aaron was determined to put together a ‘Network Ready’ project, from scratch, as an unrepresented filmmaker in his early 20’s.
With a bit of luck, a fantastic script, and a bunch of local investors and filmmakers, Aaron completed production on Chartered in August of 2018, working with award-winning and veteran industry talent along the way.
Aaron, who turned only 25 at the start of 2019, is now entering the final stage of his journey as an independent filmmaker: the sale.
Has it been a smooth road?
Hardly! But then it wouldn’t have been near as fun, right? (Or so they tell me…)
As eluded to in my bio, the company originally started with 12 members and four department heads, which over the period of about a year slowly became five members and one department head (me) trying to keep the company alive, which essentially pivoted from “multi-media” to “production company.”
From there, I could write a book about the struggles of being a young, relatively poor, independent filmmaker.
Finding funding is nearly impossible, so “investing in myself” has been a big part of this, with previous projects taking me into small amounts of debt via credit cards/loans that I’d pay off before the next one.
But for Chartered, I went all out. We spent $30,000 cash assets for the show, and another $70,000 of free and/or deferred assets including equipment, crew, and actors working for free. Some of them giving up to two weeks of time.
So, while finding funding, crew, actors on a shoestring budget are… almost all a struggle.. the local film community has always been there to back me up.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Blue Vision Entertainment story. Tell us more about the business.
We are one of San Diego’s premiere scripted production companies, with the intention to advance into the rich corporate and commercial market this year (we dipped our foot in at the end of 2018 working with a local ad agency, Carling Communications).
I have been called the next “Kevin Smith of Television” and my early work, The Cast Members, which I am ‘best’ known for, resembled a lot of Kevin Smith’s Clerks or even early John Hughes movies.
I think what sets me/us apart from others is that we take chances.
One of my main goals since I started this company is to bring a strong film industry back to San Diego, mainly scripted work, but everything in general.
Having seen my Father thrive down here, winning daytime Emmys and other awards while running a production company in the mid-’90s until the recession in the mid-2000s, I know we can build back up to what we once were, and beyond.
I feel I have taken bigger leaps and more chances than some of my local contemporaries, who may very well be more talented as raw filmmakers, but I am trying to push the ball forward for something bigger.
I am 100% most proud of our latest project Chartered. It was the largest thing we have ever done by at least 10x the budget, working with actors who have won awards and some who I watched on TV regularly growing up (local actor Mark Christopher Lawrence). It took a lot of great people to bring the entire production together and is definitely something to be proud of.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
With Netflix investing supposedly nearly $15 billion in content this year, it seems that the growth of the scripted TV industry will continue.
It’s possible we hit a peak in the next few years… I know I don’t watch every single Netflix original. It’s kind of impossible.
But until we hit that peak, studio space in Los Angeles is said to be in higher demmand than ever before and with proper infrastructure, the perfect sister city barely over 100 miles away could become a thriving film industry again.
Contact Info:
- Website: bluevisionent.com
Image Credit:
Depending upon which image(s) you use, it’s either Vianca De La Parra, Zachary Szabo or Limbert Trinidad
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
