Daily Inspiration: Meet Rob Bowen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rob Bowen.

Hi Rob, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My story is that I have been a storyteller since I was kid. I have been writing in some form or fashion, be it short stories, poetry, stage plays or screenplays as I have grown in both my person and my artistic voice. For a while, I was really leaning towards wanting to be an actor, and was even on an acting scholarship my first time around in college. Doing plays and acting for the stage, which is where I met my wife. Then I got the opportunity to act in my first short film, made by a professor from the University of Memphis, Mike Schmidt, called Normal to Oily. And I absolutely fell in love with the form. Acting for the screen allowed for such subtlety and intimacy.

My focus shifted, and I even started writing scripts over plays, with an eye firmly fixed on the subtler art. After years of not getting to do anything with my writing, nor having anymore acting opportunities align after we relocated to Colorado in 2006, my wife and I attended a VIP screening of The Devil’s Carnival in 2012 when they toured the film around the U.S. bringing the indie cinematic event to Denver. During a talk that Director Darren Lynn Bousman gave about the industry and wanting to make projects he was passionate about, he expressed to all of us who were present and interested in making films, to stop waiting for someone else to give you permission and “just fucking do it!”

Less than two months later, I was rolling camera on my very first short film. No longer waiting for someone else to take my words and make them come alive off the page, I decided to teach myself how to shoot and edit my scripts, and make those stories on my terms and for our newly minted brand, Whatsabudget Films. Now 13 years later, I have a body of work that includes over 70 short films, and a feature film I made while in my undergrad at UCCS, having returned to school once again to study film analytics and film theory through the Visual and Performing Arts department. Collaborating with dozens and dozens of amazingly talented artists, so often time and time again, on our projects, building a unique and prolific film family here in the Springs.

All dedicated and passionate about telling stories and highlighting how much talent and natural beauty we have here in the region.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Let’s say you are just starting off on this journey to make your own stories your way, and the day you are set to start filming your very first short film in your apartment in Manitou Springs, a wildfire breaks out close by and you are evacuated from your home. And then, after getting back in and things settling, you finally shoot the film! Only to find that the borrowed gear you used wasn’t reliable, and you end up having to reshoot the entire film over again. You might start to think the universe is trying to tell you something. But you might also be determinedly stubborn and defiant, so you flip the universe the bird, childishly plug your ears with your pointers, and tell it that you cannot hear what it’s saying. Thus goes the origin story of Whatsabudget Films.

So, yes, there have been some bumps right from the jump. But you know, things rarely, if ever, go to plan. And indie film is all about adapting and overcoming, and finding those creative ways to keep things moving along and the story being told. So I did. And I find that having a passion for what you’re doing, really makes it all bearable when things aren’t so smooth.

But we are a no-budget outfit, barely supported by two struggling artists (myself and my wife), who just want to tell stories and entertain people with some other passionate artists from the area. So the struggle is real. And it is not always easy to keep things going and new productions on the horizon, but we keep managing. With lots of support and help from our friends and families who all believe in what we are doing and seem to want to keep the cameras rolling with us!

And we consistently have new people come up to us and want to be a part of what we are doing here, so our family keeps growing. Which keeps me inspired to write new projects to bring them all on to. And that just makes it feel like, even with the struggles, we are obviously doing something right.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As one does tend to do in this game that we call indie film, I wear a lot of different hats. Especially when I began, almost as all of my own crew, I got used to being a writer, director, producer, and editor for my shorts. And sometimes an actor when the occasion called for it, and if I couldn’t find someone else available to step into a particular role. At this point, writing and directing, especially for no budget projects would probably be what I would call my specialty. I really had to hone my writing skills to be able to tell (at least what I considered to be) interesting stories where so much of the weight of the project would have to be carried by the actors. I wanted to be able to tell stories rich with human drama and comedy, not effects driven spectacles, but the more subtle tales. And with over 70 shorts in our oeuvre, I think we’ve managed to find that workable sweet spot well. For that reason, I have often been referred to, by my friends in the local scene, as the most prolific filmmaker in Colorado.

I get a lot of compliments on my writing too. And being a lover of good dialogue, and knowing that I write differently than how people actually speak, I’m always proud when people highlight either of those elements in our films. Everything has a bit more of a poetic flair, owing no doubt to my decades of penning poetry (which I still do to this day). And I have had others try to get me to change that, but I have stuck to my voice and remained true to my pen. Also points that I am proud of. One of my former mentors in the Film Studies program, Dr. Robert von Dassanowsky, used to refer to my style as poetic realism, and I feel like my dialogue plays heavy into that world building. And so I also think that is part of what sets me apart.

But as I reflect on it, I would say, what I am most proud of, after all these years, is how often so many of the same people want to come back and work on our projects time and again. That just makes me feel fulfilled as an artist.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
In sixth grade we were forced to be in the Science Fair at my elementary school in El Paso, Texas. No choice. So I decided I would film my experiment, a recreation of Galileo’s storied gravity experiment where he dropped two objects of different masses and weights off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to see which would fall faster. I did it up like only a true ham would, like a short documentary (complete with soundtrack and closing credits). It was so cheesy and fun. But it really foreshadowed a trajectory I would find myself on still all these decades later. Visual storytelling with humor where I would sometimes be called upon to perform myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://whatsabudget.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robebowen/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatsabudget

Image Credits
Alex Fahl
Travis Eckland