Film Courage: Why do you say to stop chasing your dreams?
Byron Q., Filmmaker: Okay, I think you're referring to a vlog that I made?
I think later in life I realized that the idea of chasing your dreams was something
that made me unhappy because you're always chasing after something and
if you don't achieve it then you feel you failed or you're not getting fulfillment
but what I realize at least for me is not about the achievement of some grand dream or making
a an incredible film or anything it's the process of making films being creative that's what made me
happy and that's why I started making films in the first place and I think halfway into that I lost
track of that because I started focusing more on the awards or what external factors were seeing me
as so I think when I made that video it was my way of telling myself to hey stop chasing after dreams
just start doing what you love and that was telling stories and being creative in whichever
way shape or form when did you stop chasing your dreams when did I stop chasing my dreams
see that that's a complex question because I don't think I ever stop chasing my dreams I think it's a
constant process of me trying to pull back from this idea of chasing after something
but there's always that aspect of it that's there
and so I can't really say I stopped chasing my dreams but I've started to try to
I guess live my dreams if you want to say it that way I want to live my dream and my dream
has changed my dream is not to be standing up on stage winning the oscars or anything
even though I fantasized about that when I was younger now it's more hey what can I do now
just to get creative fulfillment to be happy what in what I'm doing and as long as I'm doing that
then I'm living my dream already do you think there's some a danger in maybe what we've been
fed about reaching your goals and you can be a success and it puts too much pressure and maybe
it's actually deflating yeah definitely definitely I think just the society in general western
society the culture has so much focus on success and and what that is right most of the time we
associate that with materials material wealth making money or getting awards
and I think and I've seen this happen to a lot of people around me people I knew where they
get burnt out from chasing after these successes and outside validation and it's just not good for
mental health so yeah and you grew up around the tech industry correct so you probably
saw I mean who who wouldn't want to start the next whatever and and be ringing the bell at the nasdaq
and have everybody cheering you on yeah yeah I mean I grew up in Cupertino [California] so the
birthplace of Apple Computer, Steve Jobs went to a high school right next to my high school Homestead
and yeah I mean I saw that through the dot com boom all the way until until now
it's it's just not in my opinion it's not a great way to live so yeah what did success mean to
you when you were making your first feature film I think for me personally at that time
success at that point was what I had been fed my entire life which was make a lot of money
be a famous director that's what my idea of success was but when I made my first film
I didn't really have that goal of being successful so although my idea of success was something else
when I made that film it was really just to make that film and tell that story because
it was something very personal to me and it was something that I hadn't seen before in movies or
in the media really so that was my goal for that film so those two are separated and what
was that first film my first film was a movie called bang bang what was it about it's a it's a
thing of the Asian-American version of Boys in the Hood so it's an Asian gangster movie but not with
triads it's more about street gangs and it's about these two friends who one kid comes from a rich
family and the other kid is from a poor family but he's in the gang and the rich kid wants to
join the gang and be a part of that lifestyle whereas the the the gangster kid wants to get
out of that lifestyle and he wants to become a DJ and pursue creative path but their two paths
break apart their friendship and there's all this drama that happens along with that
and that was shot where oh we filmed that in San Diego okay but it was supposed to take
place in San Diego I didn't really wanted to have a specific place that it was taking place in but
it definitely has a west coast feel so a lot of people actually recognize the locations
and they're oh that's San Diego this is where I grew up but yeah yeah yeah it's always an
interesting mix of and I've seen that before especially if in the bay area there's a lot of
great wealth but you'll see the few people that actually maybe are almost ashamed of it and and
want that street life and then of course people that don't come from that always envy the opposite
so yeah it's an interesting interesting mix yeah what does success mean to you now success now
is really just about living a a peaceful life a happy life and not necessarily chasing after
wealth or material things and that has a lot to do with a few years ago I got introduced to Buddhism
and some of the ideas and philosophies behind that I went to meditation retreat and woke me up
a little bit in terms of what's actually important and what and what am I really doing in this world
so now it's really just about hey just keep your mind balanced and and do good things for other
people help other people as long as you're not putting anything bad into the world then you're
leading a good life was there a certain moment you don't have to go into personal details but where
you said i'd to find something in this world to hold on to that has more meaning than just
material value or how many views I get on whatever video yeah yeah definitely I think
for me I'm trying to pinpoint the exact time
I think like
there was a point where my third movie Las Vegas story when it came out and it didn't really
do that well it was pretty much a flop although I had thought that I
was gonna get this distribution deal and all this stuff and when it didn't happen
I think I went into a dark place and at this time I was also trying to
figure out some other things in my life I think this is when I was in my late 20’s
which I think for most people they do go through that transition of figuring out what they want
right but yeah at that point that's when I started really questioning is chasing after
success and and what is success for me and why am I doing that and and who am I a lot of these
questions and then that's what led me to search outside and I think I just picked up a random book
once and it was Deepak Chopra's what was it the Mind Body and Spirit and then yeah somehow it
spoke to me and then from there it was one step at a time got a little more into spiritual stuff.