Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim O’Donnell.
Tim, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was a painter getting my MFA degree at MassArt and got absolutely torn apart in a critique by Helen Miranda Wilson. I’m not kidding, there were several curse words thrown out and a lot of comparisons to unsavory things. She brought some students to tears. She’s an incredible woman and painter—and I admire her a ton. We had a one-on-one critique and she pushed me to open up and talk more about my process, which came from blurry photos I was taking. She kept pushing and I showed her a home movie I made. We watched that seven-minute film in silence and I was getting ready to be verbally beaten to a pulp. The film ended, and she turned to me and said “this is really hard for me to tell you right now, but you are a filmmaker and you just don’t know it yet.” Two years later, I left my teaching position to try this filmmaker thing. I’ve been lucky enough to start a boutique production company (Pixela Pictura) and we’ve been going seven years strong at this point.
We have a unique balance between commercial work and producing independent documentary films. We have clients we regularly work with and independent stories we weave in throughout the year. We love working with Life is Good, Wellesley College, Ranger Up, Boston University, Franciscan Children’s Hospital, and many more groups locally and globally. Our first film back in 2009, George: Wrestling with Resistance, is a 34-minute documentary that follows an inner city youth who used wrestling to help overcome obstacles and adversities and aired on PBS. Since then we have completed over 20 independent short documentaries and one feature length film, Not a War Story, which we screened recently at the Academy of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. This is the same place where they host the Oscars and it was an amazing achievement to be on the same stage as the iconic golden statues.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Honestly we’re crazy lucky to have found so many awesome clients that we love to work with regularly. But, as any entrepreneur or independent filmmaker will tell you its most definitely not easy and you’ve got to be creative in the way you approach things.
One interesting recent challenge was trying to figure out how to film Green Beret / UFC fighter Tim Kennedy jumping out a helicopter with only a rope attached from him to the copter (called fast-roping) for a spot with Gerber knifes. They hooked me to a cord and I was able to stand outside the helicopter – but they told me if I fell I would hit the side of the copter a few times. So as we went up into the clouds I pushed the camera to my chest and shot most of it without looking through the monitor so I could lean outside the copter. I’m not a huge heights guy so ya – we got the thing done – but don’t ask him if I yelled like a baby.
As a former wrestler we treat every project like an obstacle and figure out the things we can control and work as hard as possible to do what we can to accomplish what’s within our grasp. Dan Gable (the Michael Jordan of wrestling) once said “hard work solves everything” and we apply that to our projects. Wrestling is a funny sport like that – and I think it lends itself very well to filmmaking. It’s not a sport that takes a lot of natural talent – it relies on the will of the individual. It’s a time thing – the longer you spend in the wrestling room – the more you see success on the mat. I feel the very same way about film – you have to make a ton of bad films till you make a few decent ones. We’ve all endured thousands of hours of shooting, editing, and making films and we scaffold on that experience.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Pixela Pictura – what should we know?
Pixela Pictura a full service filmmaking boutique force of nature. We see video projects through all phases from conception to production all the way to post-production. Which basically means we can come up with the idea, shoot everything you need and also handle all the editing to complete a finished film. We specialize in storytelling and brand focused videos with a personal documentary approach.
We are proud to have work shown on ESPN, NBC, PBS, OutsideTV, CNN films, the Sundance Film Festival and events around the world. We absolutely love the Independent Film Festival of Boston and feel very lucky to have screened films there for the past 5 years.
We’re a little different in that we can scale up for bigger productions or work slim with a crew of just one. I think the continued work we do on the documentary side brings a lot of knowledge and creative experience to the commercial side. We also have a great record working with sensitive communities. We’ve filmed with families that have a child with a terminal illness, worked with countless veterans and some with missing limbs, filmed in the American Muslim population, followed a young boy with Autism for a year, as well as many other communities. We approach every story with the respect that there is a human being behind each one.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My wife, Allison Silva, is one of the collaborators at Pixela Pictura and an incredibly hard worker behind the scenes. She is the only reason I am successful in what I do and the reason we have a company at all. She writes treatments, comes up with big creative ideas, shoots, edits, handles the website and social and is an incredible story supervisor. We’re balancing our business with raising our new baby girl Dahlia Rose O’Donnell and absolutely loving it.
Filmmaker Jon Mercer is the hardest working human I know, and we feel incredibly lucky that he’s apart of the Pixela Pictura team. He’s thoughtful, consistent, and works on every side of films. I’ve personally gone all over the country with him and couldn’t think of a better friend to spend my time with. We’re currently co-directing the film Life without Basketball, the feature length documentary film about Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, the first American Muslim to play division 1 basketball while wearing hijab who was blocked from playing pro for 3 years. We recently cut a short about the controversial ruling FIBA Allow Hijab and partnered with Uninterrupted and CNN films. You can check it all out at www.LifeWithoutBball.com
I met military veteran Nick Palmisciano 10 years ago and have been making films with him every since. He’s a very close friend and we had the privilege of producing the feature length documentary Not a War Story together. Over the years we’ve created well over 100 web shorts and racked up over 10 million views with his company Ranger Up. He’s also a great break-dancer (as am I), but we’ve never danced off for the sake of our friendship. For more on the film go to www.NotaWarStory.com
I can’t think of anyone who’s face doesn’t light up when I ask, do you know Bill Anderson? He’s one of the most well known editors in the area and a huge mentor to many man many filmmakers. He’s such a good dude and has insight into everything film and life. He’s watched endless early renditions and given notes on pretty much every film I’ve ever made. We love Bill.
Contact Info:
- Address: Waltham, MA
- Website: www.PixelaPictura.com
- Phone: 603-438-9845
- Email: Tim@PixelaPictura.com
- Instagram: PixelaPictura
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pixelapictura/
- Twitter: @PixelaPictura
Image Credit:
Tim O’Donnell
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