Aristotle Torres, a NY-based film director and a part-time DJ, discusses his career path, inspirations and goals.
I’m pretty sure you’ve seen Aristotle Torres’ work. A New York based film and video director as well as part-time DJ, Torres has made a name for himself in the industry, when while still in college he became J. Cole‘s first manager.
Since college times his career skyrocketed and Aristotle now owns By Any Means Co., under which he runs all of his productions. He directed music videos for rap legends like Nas, Fabolous, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes. Now, music videos are behind him and Torres has moved on to independent work and directing films. His latest production is a short film, Story 2 Tell, inspired by Notorious B.I.G.’s “I Got A Story To Tell.”
Aside from directing, Aristotle Torres is a DJ by the name of DJ J.Abrams and participates in various symposiums and panel discussions inspiring the youth to work hard and never give up on their dreams.
In July edition of The Kraft, we spoke about the beginnings of his career, his inspirations and goals as well as how he manages to fit all his interests into a busy schedule.
After having worked with legends like Nas and Fabolous you moved on to more independent projects such as you new short film Story 2 Tell. Why is that?
Aristotle: I came to the industry creating content for artists like Fab, Nas, Busta [Rhymes] and you know that was great but to me true artistry and true success is having autonomy, and be able, for me anyway, to conceptualize stories and see them through. When you work with artists, however great it is, you’re also making a product to promote an artist. The artist has a certain demographic and a way things need to look and feel to promote to their fan base. Whereas when you make independent work, it’s solely an extension of your creativity and your brain power. So, as I evolved as an artist this just felt more compelling and exciting to me.
Can you reflect on Story 2 Tell? When I watched it, I enjoyed it, but it ended so quickly.
Aristotle: So the reason why story to tell was concise is just that for me short stories should do that for you. Short stories should leave you wanting more. I think when you watch a feature film, you know, you wanna leave the theatre full. You wanna build conflict, build resolve, build character development and work within three acts and a longer form. When you’re in short form you should leave the theatre or when you’re done watching saying “damn, I wonder what happens next.” And for me that’s what makes a good short film.
Can you tell us about the beginning of your career?
Aristotle: So, my career creating content and visual arts started of off circumstance, really. I was going to St. John’s University and I met a young man by the name of Jermaine, who ended up being J. Cole. And, you know, we were just young kids grinding, trying to make an impression on the world. And what I understood at a very early age, and J. Cole as well, was that the music was only half the battle. You know, it was everything that accompanied the music it what makes the real, full artist. So, working with him we were just forced to create content and I found myself really comfortable in that space and it just kinda grew from there.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Aristotle: I found my inspiration in a lot of different places. I try to dedicate at least an hour a day to just consuming visual content. You know, whether it is still imagery or moving imagery. You know, whether it’s Tumblr or Instagram or Vimeo or YouTube. I try to at a minimum dedicate an hour a day to just feeling my brain and curating a certain esthetic. And I think what makes a good artist or just a creative person is that you’re a lover of taste. So I say that my full time job is just curating my taste. So I find inspiration in a lot of different places. I’m fortunate enough to live in one of the most beautiful and inspiring cities in the world. So it might be something as simple as going on the Internet looking for inspiration or something as organic as waking to get a cup of coffee and see a mural, or I see an artist performing on a sidewalk that will spark an idea in me.
You curate an Instagram account @BAMinstagram that features a variety of pieces. Where do you find them all?
Aristotle: So I curate this page called BAMinstagram. It could totally be a waste of time, I don’t know. And the origin of BAMinstagram came from… I had a folder on my desktop called “Mspiration,” which, like I said I dedicate at least an hour a day to just filtering through images and imagery, and as I was doing that I started collecting these images and I had this folder on my that had at the time, that was maybe in 2011 or 2012, which had maybe 10,000 images. And what I would do is I would always refer to that folder before writing a treatment or writing a pitch. And it eventually got to a place where people close to me knew about this folder. And they would say “hey man, can I look at your Mspiration folder as I’m about to write this treatment or do this pitch.” The interns would always come to my office and say “Hey Aris, can I look at your folder?” And it became this inside thing within my inner circle and I eventually got to a place of growth where I wanted to share my inspiration and I wanted to share my insight. So on our first website, on ByAnyMeans.co I had a Mnspiration tab and I was just taking 3 to 5 images a day from my Mspiration folder and just adding them on this Tumblr. It actually got really popular, became one of the most popular things that we were doing. And you know, just the integration and the evolution of Instagram organically kind of transitioned to that. It eventually got to a place where I found great joy in curating this page. So I don’t know if there’s really like any circumstance that did it, it was just really organic, it was very close to me that my friends found inspiring and I wanted to share that with the world.
You work under By Any Means as well as Visualized By Aristotle. How do you differentiate between these two?
Aristotle: I started By Any Means in college with some friends in our dorm room. You know, By Any Means was always meant to be a platform, it was always meant to be an intermediary between really talented kids, really talented people, trying to reach a certain client or a certain eye that wouldn’t normally look where these talented people are. And I still feel that I’m an extension of that. I’m an artist that’s trying to reach a certain demographic or a certain eye that might normally not go to my website. So Visualized By Aristotle is just an extension of By Any Means. You know, maybe two years ago I wanted to do something for myself, and even though I was the head of By Any Means, it was always a collective, a reflection of people that I admired and I respected. Everything we did went through certain approval process between all these trusted people around me. Whereas, Visualized By Aristotle, to go back to my original point, is just an extension of autonomy, an extension of me having an idea and being fully from my heart and from my soul and kinda having this one thing in my life that didn’t go through this filter process. So, VXA is just an extension of By Any Means. Both still exist. By Any Means produces my videos and my movies. So it’s just one big family, you know.
Being a visual artist, what do you think about Snapchat?
Aristotle: I really love Snapchat, I think it’s really cool. I love any place that allows a person to be creative without having to spend money. That’s one of my favorite things about social media. I think there’s a lot of bad things about social media, but one of the most positive is it allows, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter has allowed young creative talented people who normally wouldn’t have an opportunity to showcase talent. That’s what I love the most about Snapchat. And I know some people who are innovating the platform. And not just using it to take photos and videos, they’re really telling short stories or find great ways to transition throughout their day. You know, so I love Snapchat. I think it’s cool, I think any place that you can sit and think of an idea, and conceptualize it and refine it and put it out to the world, where you don’t have to have a budget or an overhead in order to do it, I think it’s a huge blessing.
Aside from visual media, you work as a DJ. How do these two correlate?
Aristotle: Visual media and DJ-ing is for me just one hodge-podge. I think it’s just an extension of me being an artist. You know, I think that somewhere along the way from like the 70s and the 80s when a lot of more influential artists coming from New York, who were all multimedia artists, something got lost along the way where the people ahead of that generation or even a part of that generation kinda tried to convince my generation that you have to just focus on one thing. And I do think that there’s a lot of benefit to doing that, but I’m also very inspired by the ability to wake up one morning and decide to be a DJ and not have to ask anyone to do that or not have to feel like I’m giving up on another dream that I had. I feel like it’s all an extension to the next thing. I think that video and sonix are a marriage. If you watch a film without a sound on it it’s a completely different experience. You know, so for me, having a knowledge of sound but also having a knowledge of film is just like a perfect marriage. So I’m very inspired by both.
So is there no one path that gives you more satisfaction?
Aristotle: I think I get a different satisfaction from each. You know, when I make film, that’s my characters, my conflict, my resolve. But when I play music, I’m finding a way to marry two songs that I love, but I didn’t create those songs. So there’s a unique and original extension of myself in doing that, but film is probably a little bit more fulfilling only because it’s completely from my heart.
Who do you consider your idols and role models?
Aristotle: I have a lot of inspirations. As far as forefathers I love Gaudi, I love Frida, I love Frank Lloyd Wright, I love [George] Condo, I love Herring, Warhol. I love those guys because set a precedence for my generation. But I also love modern day artists. I love Shark Toof, I love J.J. Abrams, I love Tarantino, I love Retna. I love so many artists, I mean, I’m so inspired by where we are as a collective of artists. I think we’re once again outputting the amount of creativity and originality that kind of set the precedence for us. I’m really exciting by what’s going on. I think, DSLR cameras, iPhones and just the ability to create content with low overhead is allowing some really amazing talent to come out nowadays. So, I find inspiration everyday, there’s so many amazing artists out there. Some of which have millions of followers and are selling great art or just kids who are doing things in their house. There’s just a lot of good stuff out there, you just have to search for it.
How do you coordinate being an artist, DJ, and doing charity work?
Aristotle: I’m fortunate enough to do a lot of symposiums and speak at schools and universities. How do I manage all that? I have a great team of people around me who help me stay organized. So as far as organizing it all, I’m very fortunate and blessed to just have a good team of people who work me. But the reason I do it, is that it’s very important to me to inspire the youth and inspire the generations after me to do things the right way. Even though I think DSLR cameras have been a huge benefit, I also think it kind of oversaturated the market and has made it just a little bit too easy to with auto functioning to just pick up a camera and say you’re a photographer or a director or a storyteller. So it’s important to me that I inspire the youth to do things the right way: to have a shot list, to have a storyboard, to have a treatment, to have a one-sheet, to have a deck. So that way we can compete with the kids who might get out of college and get that great advertising job because of the school they went to or the family they come from. You know, there’s a lot of talented kids, who might not have that opportunity, but if they know how to do it the right way they might have that opportunity. So it’s very important for me inspire and also let kids know that I didn’t have an easy path. I just worked really hard. And if you work really hard, you can have a similar success, or even more success. It comes from not making excuses, it comes from doing things the right way, from owning your craft. So it’s important to me to let the youth know that with hard work and strategy and owning your craft you can find success in the world.
Where do you see your career going next?
Aristotle: I don’t really know where my career is going next. I mean, I know I wanna make films. That’s my ultimate goals. When I’m 50 or 60 years old I wanna write and tell stories, and direct stories. But there’s a lot of things that inspire me. I love writing, I hope to write a book one day. I hope to go back to studying architecture. I hope to paint more. For me, true success is being able to do what you want, when you want, with who you want. I hope that I’m successful enough to cultivate a world where I can have my art studio, next to my library, next to my photo studio, next to my office where I’m writing and pitching films. I can’t say finitely, but I think that’s really beautiful. I think what I’m focusing on now is building a legacy, and building a repertoire and a portfolio that shows that I care about everything I do, no matter what it is. So, if I wake up tomorrow and I’m inspired to become a fisherman, I can do that, you know. And I would do it as well as I can do it. So, yeah, my only goal is to stay inspired, keep inspiring people around me and keep creating content to add to the conversation. That’s really my goal.
