MY INTERVIEW WITH BRAD EVERETT YOUNG
Hi Brad and thank you for joining us on the Spiel!
Hey there! Thank you so much! Totally honored and appreciate your support for the Dream Loud campaign more than I can even say!
I am so impressed with your photography. What made you become a photographer?
http://dreamloudofficial.com/
I grew up with the arts. It was the original obsession for me. I was always drawing and painting. It became my primary focus through all of my school years. I was so excited to get to that class and create things. It was a great escape. No matter what was going on the world it was all forgotten during that time. It ultimately was what inspired me to go to school. So when I learned how many of the schools were dropping / losing the art & music programs due to budget cuts it broke my heart. I knew I had to do something but didn't know what. Should I start a blog, write an article or fight each school individually? Everything I thought of just wasn't enough and was too much to take on by myself. So, I figured what better way to get the word out than to enlist all my actor friends that I've known over the years living in LA and their friends to help. By myself I knew it'd be hard to get attention to tell people about the schools losing the programs, but if I photographed my friends in the over the top shoots I loved to do as an advertising campaign I could get them to the website where they'd learn about what was going on. I focused on my friends on daytime soaps first because I knew many parents watched them who had kids in schools, and many of them weren't aware what was going on with the art & music programs in their kids schools. Parents don't go to PTA meetings the way they used to, so I was hoping learning about the issue would encourage them to do just that. Slowly it's happening. I'm getting messages from parents telling me they attended their kid's PTA meeting just in time as they were about to drop the programs. Others had already suffered the loss and they were able to get the programs reinstated or were fighting to get them back. I get tagged in pics of kids with the Dream Loud logo written on their hand saying their parents got their art classes back or they gave them paint supplies or put them in piano lessons. It's meant the world, and has encouraged me to keep going and make the campaign as big as I can till everyone knows about it and takes part.
Thank you! Again! I seem to say that a lot! I always try and remember that 'Kindness Is Timeless,' so, I'm always saying Thank You! It's a crazy business we work in, but I always try and take time let people know I'm grateful.
So glad you and others are enjoying what I'm doing for the Dream Loud campaign. It's meant the world to be able to give back to the arts & to receive such support for it. I've been obsessed with photography since I was a young kiddo. Whether I was getting yelled at by my parents for using up all the polaroid film running around the house taking pics, or going through dozens of rolls of film photography was always there. When I'm 900 years old I wanna be able to look through pictures and reflect on everything. In college working on the college magazine & paper took that obsession to a whole new level. The crazy ideas for shoots just rushed in and I couldn't shoot enough. I'd have these insane ideas and friends would look at me like I was equally as insane when I would ask them to be part. lol But then we'd take the pics and we'd all step back and say 'oh shit!' I loved that it was something that I loved doing so much that could get such an over the top reaction. :) Upon moving to LA I continued photography in the beginning taking pics at premieres and events, but soon after acting took over and there wasn't enough time in the day for it all. Over the years I've enjoyed acting and everything involved in it very much, but I missed photography so much. I still took so many pics, but not the way I used to. When I got the idea for the Dream Loud campaign it gave me just cause to jump back into photography full force and it's been the most creatively fulfilled I've felt in a long time. It's felt like I reopened every window and door in the house again.
Tell us about the Dream Loud campaign.
I grew up with the arts. It was the original obsession for me. I was always drawing and painting. It became my primary focus through all of my school years. I was so excited to get to that class and create things. It was a great escape. No matter what was going on the world it was all forgotten during that time. It ultimately was what inspired me to go to school. So when I learned how many of the schools were dropping / losing the art & music programs due to budget cuts it broke my heart. I knew I had to do something but didn't know what. Should I start a blog, write an article or fight each school individually? Everything I thought of just wasn't enough and was too much to take on by myself. So, I figured what better way to get the word out than to enlist all my actor friends that I've known over the years living in LA and their friends to help. By myself I knew it'd be hard to get attention to tell people about the schools losing the programs, but if I photographed my friends in the over the top shoots I loved to do as an advertising campaign I could get them to the website where they'd learn about what was going on. I focused on my friends on daytime soaps first because I knew many parents watched them who had kids in schools, and many of them weren't aware what was going on with the art & music programs in their kids schools. Parents don't go to PTA meetings the way they used to, so I was hoping learning about the issue would encourage them to do just that. Slowly it's happening. I'm getting messages from parents telling me they attended their kid's PTA meeting just in time as they were about to drop the programs. Others had already suffered the loss and they were able to get the programs reinstated or were fighting to get them back. I get tagged in pics of kids with the Dream Loud logo written on their hand saying their parents got their art classes back or they gave them paint supplies or put them in piano lessons. It's meant the world, and has encouraged me to keep going and make the campaign as big as I can till everyone knows about it and takes part.
I'm not Superman and I can't save the world, but I do want the next generation to know that art & creativity is more than taking pics on their iphones for instagram. That's fun and all, but there's so much more. It's going to be a journey, but it's worth it. Art & Music classes do more than just teach art & music. They teach the brain to think outside the box, to be creative, to want to get out there and want to do / see / experience things. Art & music inspires so much, and I want the next generation to have access to that inspiration and do great things with it.
Any photo session stand out in particular?
They've all been amazing and left lasting impressions. They're not your typical photo shoots, so there's a lot of crazy experiences that come along with them. As we're doing these over the top set ups we're laughing and carrying on. It's so much fun. Humor and laughter is the most important things to me on a daily basis. Being able to laugh as we're shooting stuff adds a whole other level to it all and makes it even more worth it. You have to laugh every day. It's mandatory in my book.
I LOVE to put people in elements that they're not used to or take pics they've never taken before. I love creating a set up that allows the viewer to wonder what the heck is going on. I want the viewer to be challenged, to used their creativity to complete the story or to imagine what is going on in the picture. I want those double takes. At this point everything has been done. It's hard to really shock anyone anymore, but I enjoy trying and it's fun to go along for the ride with great friends! :)
What do you do when you are not behind the camera?
Gosh, so much, but there's never enough time in the day. I'm still an actor #1. That's always been my original passion. I filmed a pilot for HBO last fall that wasn't originally picked up, and they've just approached us again to re shoot it, so I'm very excited about that. Which means I have to get myself back in the gym. I can't hide behind the camera anymore. lol I've been able to be part of some phenomenal projects as an actor. Been able to meet so many people, experience things that seem so surreal, that many people would think are just crazy. It's definitely an insane business to work in, and I look forward to it every single day. It's always different. When I'm not doing all this I'm totally a movie / tv fanatic. Nothing like escaping the world for a few minutes and getting wrapped up in a great film or tv show. Have great friends, and that's what it's all about too. Love spending time with as many as I can and well, laughing. :)
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Thank You from the bottom of my heart Brad!! All the Best to you!!
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