Thomas Leisten Schneider

Kiss & Kill

1) What was your first professionally directed work and when was it?
My first professional work as a director was a short film called “Tiebreaker” that I made in 2014. It tells the story of a father and a son fixing details of their relationship while playing a tiebreaker at tennis.

2) How did you get into directing? 
I’ve always loved films, I started watching a lot of them early on because my dad had a video store when I was a kid. I studied theater and advertising and started working as an actor for a few years. I then moved to the US to go to film school and started making short films.

3) What is your most recent project? 
My most recent project is a feature film script called Wet reckless that I’m developing right now.

4) What is the best part of being a director? 
When you see an idea you had one day becoming alive and real.

5) What is the worst part of being a director? 
You need to learn to be patient and not freak out when things take more time than you would want them to.

6) What is your current career focus: commercials & branded content, TV, movies? Do you plan to specialize in a particular genre—comedy, drama, visual effects, etc.? 
On one hand commercials and branded content because it’s a format where you can experiment and learn a lot about the craft. On the other hand, I’m developing my first feature film “Wet reckless”. I’m mostly writing and directing comedies.

7) Have you a mentor and if so, who is that person (or persons) and what has been the lesson learned from that mentoring which resonates with you?
I don’t have a mentor but I’ve learned a lot through interning and working on set with different directors. Also I got the chance to meet a few really good producers along the way that helped me grow and improve.

8) Who is your favorite director and why? 
I love Jim Jarmusch, Alexander Payne, Noah Baumbach, Mike Mills, Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Jonze….They are all very inspiring.

9) What is your favorite movie? Your favorite television/online program? Your favorite commercial or branded content? 
It’s too hard to pick just one, there are so many great ones. I’ll pick just one of those great ones for right now : “The squid and the whale” by Noah Baumbach, “Fargo” the TV show and “The world’s biggest asshole” campaign for Donate Life was fantastic.

10) Tell us about your background (i.e. where did you grow up? Past jobs?)
I was born and raised in Paris, France. I studied theater and advertising and started working as an actor on theater projects. After a few years, I moved to the US to study film. In the meantime, I started working on set as a production assistant. After that I started directing short films and commercials and branded content.

Contact

http://www.kissandkill.tv/

Simon Wallon 
Managing Director/Executive Producer
Kiss & Kill
contact via email

http://www.kissandkill.tv