The “Artist of the week” segment builds upon the “Photographer of the week” series. This segment features artists beyond the industry of photography and touches on multiple disciplines to promote, inform and inspire SCAD students. This week, Kimberly Skye D’Silva, a second-year film and television student shares insight into her talent and current projects.
- When did you start your cinema journey and what does it mean to you?
I started around the age of 6 – 9. I’ve grown up on full TV and film sets. The reason behind that is that my direct family works in the industry, so I was brought into it at a really young age. I’d be around for every project, and I even got pulled out of school a few times to travel. However, the longest was a few months to come to America. That’s the point when I lived in Philadelphia, New York, so my parents can be a part of the Kurbaan film. Even if I wasn’t invited to be on the set of whatever my parents were doing, I’d recreate the entire setup of what I thought they were doing just to feel included. A great example is when I was five and my dad was doing an interview and didn’t invite me. So I set up a podcast in my room and told him when he was done that he’d have to interview me. I would even sometimes take his camera and vlog around the area. The interesting thing is that from that foundation, I went on to study film and acting for 7 years. That being said, I want to be a triple threat. So I learned to dance, sing and act.
2. Where do you attain your inspiration?
I get inspired by color a lot. When I come up with an idea I see it in color. Even for my film, I’ve been able to paint it down and see the colors before I am able to make it or even script it. Each color would represent a different character, a different plot, etc. To give more depth, I created a film called “Hausla,” which means “courage” in Hindi. For that film, the color palette was teal and orange. I saw those colors and I created “Hausla” through hues before making the scripts and storyboarding.
The second place I take inspiration from would be my personal life. I take a lot of inspiration from my POV and toss it into my films. With them, I’m selling myself to the masses, so I feel it’s important to have elements in my films that are just for me. That’s what fulfills my soul. It needs to have a personal touch on me. “Hausla” was about the LGBTQ+ community but the senior citizens. The community was heavily impacted back during the wars in India and the film was about being courageous, coming out to yourself, and being true to yourself. This is why I tackled cultural issues and religious issues in “Hausla.” The entire film was derived from my friends’ stories and the research I conducted. That film helped a lot of people come out and be their true selves.
3. What is your creative process like?
The toughest process for me is writing. It’s just because I am a perfectionist. But I realize that I’m better at bringing words to life than writing them down. I can see the whole film in my head, but there’s nothing better than a well-written story. Besides that, I especially work better at night. I’ll go to a rooftop where I can overlook the city, mainly the lights, and I’ll draw based on the colors that come through my mind. From there, I’ll do research on different unique characters through random ideas that come to me, such as a colorblind makeup artist or a mute worker. I really want to be able to create characters that people relate to so that they can feel like their voices become amplified.
The next step is doing everything myself. However, I see how rewarding it is when you hire people. So imagine them being a master in their own profession. I’ll give leadership but grant them creative direction. I do prefer to have more diversity in my films as well. I will go through the underrepresented to look for talent or characters to have as much inclusivity and open-mindedness behind the story.
I also hire people that I know can see my vision to the point where they can narrate it to me. They also have to be equally as excited. The other part is I don’t shoot without doing an acting workshop. It’s extremely important when I do heavy substance films with controversial topics to do workshops with the actors. We’ll have multiple table reads, and we’ll keep tweaking and tweaking till we get to a more perfect point in order to execute the film successfully.
4. What project(s) are you currently on?
I’m currently working on creating a tv series that I want to write and pitch to possibly sell to a bigger company. The two others I’m working on are short films, which will be a comedy and a drama. One is based on and inspired by the human library, a concept that exists in Denmark. The other is based on a real-life story. The main character has disguised themselves as a man for survival and has forgotten how to live her life as a woman. That woman’s name is Sisa.
5. What inspiration would you like to leave?
Do a lot of research! That’s how you realize what you really love. Once you find it, you won’t be able to stop.
Being too young is never an issue, don’t ever let any tell you that you can’t do it because you’re too young.
It’s ok to have a really weird method and process that doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
People of color can make it in Hollywood. That’s the reason why I invested the money into my film in order to come to SCAD.
To see more of D’Sliva’s work, visit her Instagram pages:
Check out D’Silva’s film “Hausla” below.
