The Imagination of an Only Child

Nobody has a more active imagination than someone who grew up without siblings. Yes, maybe it’s true that we are inherently spoiled, bad at sharing, and require a minimum amount of time away from people to recharge. We are never credited with the ability to world build, which we’ve been doing practically our entire sentient life.

Growing up, my family had a basketball hoop in our driveway. While I played many sports throughout my youth and adolescent years, basketball was not exactly where my talents existed. Yet, I was out there many afternoons after school, shooting hoops until the sun went down or my hands went numb from the cold. Why? Because while my physical body was mindlessly dribbling and shooting, my imagination was creating universes and stories with a wide array of characters, plots, and subplots.

I was a weird kid, ok?

I would spend my time watching everything from Power Rangers, Pokemon, Digimon, and a variety of other animated Saturday morning cartoons. I would jump from couch to couch, fighting crime and protecting the world. And then I got older and teenagers are mean, so the thing that brought me joy and escapism suddenly turned into shame and a burden once it became clear that it was no longer “cool” to like these things. So my passion became private for a very long time.

The fantasy genre has been experiencing a resurgence over the last decade, to the point now where I have a lot to say and even more I hope to accomplish in my career as a filmmaker. Things I never thought possible are being produced by the biggest studios and streamers. Finally, we are seeing fantasy authors from all walks of life diversifying the genre and innovating cultural trends. This is all I’ve ever wanted. I no longer feel the shame and embarrassment about things that excite and inspire me. As I trudge through this phase of my career, I find myself torn in different directions: what I should do and what I want to do. It feels particularly important in the entertainment industry because branding is everything.

Fantasy is particularly difficult to do on a low budget, so how do we make it accessible for indie filmmakers and newcomers alike? Until that happens, here are the things I would like to put out into the universe: I would love to work in the Writer’s Room for a highly anticipated new fantasy series based on a best selling series. I would love to be cast as a beloved character and bring them to life on screen or stage. One day, I hope to bring my own fantasy worlds to life in the form of a novel, film, or television show. This is the genre I want to operate in. My imagination is one of my greatest assets as a creative, and I’d finally like to stop getting in my own way by thinking it’s unachievable.

Here, I will post my thoughts on all things fantasy. Maybe one day I’ll even post some of my ideas and concepts I’ve kept to myself for years…

Thanks for reading,

Zach