Meet David A. Vargas | Producer, Director and Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with David A. Vargas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David A., what role has risk played in your life or career?
I once heard someone say that if you never ask a person for their help their answer will 100% of the time be “no” – obviously because you never even approached them. If you do ask for that favor you’ve just increased your odds of getting a “yes” by 50%. This is how I’ve viewed risk-taking in my life. Deciding not to try something new will always result in not creating positive change. On the other hand, the new and exciting things that have occurred in my life have always come after finding the bravery to walk directly into the unknown.

I’ve been making decisions like this since I was a teen, from dating my girlfriend who eventually became my wife, or like going to film school which eventually led me to starting my own business almost 20 years ago. Decisions like moving to California where I built a new incredible network of friends and where I have started a family, and most recently deciding to take a chance in the world of animation which has completely redefined my career in all sorts of unexpected and amazing ways.

Those, and countless more, were decisions that were terrifying. They were riddled by uncertainty. Doubt. Plagued at the time by the frightening question of “What if?” Has every move I made been perfect? No, of course not. But every decision has taught me something new about myself, and the risker ones have taught me even more. All were inflection points in my life that have led me on a journey of becoming the best version of myself, all while still striving to reach my fullest potential as a husband, father, friend, businessman and artist.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
On my first day of film school at Full Sail University in 2005 an instructor walked into the classroom and asked, “Who here wants to be a director?” Everyone raised their hands. They asked us the same question a year later as we were getting ready to graduate. Only a handful of us, including myself, raised our hands again. To be an effective director you have to spend less time wanting people to call you a director, and more time learning what a director actually does – craft performance. That’s it. It’s like molding clay with your hands. You start with a ball of clay (your actor), and you work with them in tandem as you shape, spin and bend, build and rebuild, until you find the performance that transcends a single moment into truth for that character and for your audience.

Yes, having the ability to confidently navigate an entire cast and crew through your confident vision is crucial. Sure, having your “sick shots” planned and rehearsed with your DP is part of it too. But if you don’t spend enough time focusing on how to translate the text in your screenplay into honest and impactful performance, then you’re not doing the single most important thing that a director is tasked with. It’s taken me years of traveling through different sectors of the entertainment industry to finally understand and accept the true definition of the directing role. Here’s that journey in a nutshell…

After working my way through film school as a freelance PA and staff PA for the Universal Studios Production Group in Orlando, I moved back to Miami to really start my creative journey. I began by creating my own production company, Penilican Pictures, in 2007. Just like any kid with a camera who is trying to make money would do, I started shooting weddings. I got good at those. Really good. I booked more weddings. People at those weddings worked for companies that needed videos, then they started calling me. Weddings turned into commercials and promotional work for events and social media. Those opportunities fine-tuned my senses as a documentarian as I learned how to effectively interview people and tell emotional and impactful stories through the information I was able to pull from them. As that path grew into becoming one of the specialties of my company’s brand, directing music videos and working as a traveling DP for a medical docu-series on PBS also crept into my production capabilities. Somewhere in between all of that I worked my way up as a trailer and promotions editor at HBO Latin America in Miami. That turned into more DP work where I covered every single HBO premiere between LA and New York for the next 10 years, including the Emmys and Golden Globes. Through that work I had the good fortune of meeting many of my creative idols like Steven Spielberg and Larry David. As I traveled through this merry-go-round of diverse experiences, I started to realize that I was becoming a well rounded filmmaker that could execute several forms of production because of my broad range of skills sets.

In 2014 I decided to bring myself back to a goal that I felt was left behind, direct a feature film. I went on to complete a successful Kickstarter campaign with my writing and business partner, Javier Mayol, and crowdfunded on Kickstarter over $40K to produce “Love and Hostages.” After winning several film festivals and getting me an unforgettable one-on-one meeting with the late romcom icon Garry Marshall, my first feature film acquired worldwide distribution in 2016 and can now be viewed on most streaming platforms.

The itch to continue my writing and directing journey was followed shortly after by a web series that hit Facebook by storm called, “Hialeah: a Comedy Series.” This was a true passion project where again I teamed up with Javier and an old high school friend/actor, Melissa Carcache. For under $5k we produced 6 episodes of a web series that many praised as the revival of the famous 70’s sitcom, “Qué Pasa, USA?” We garnered over 30K fans on social media from all over the world in less than a week, while also having lots of success in the festival circuit. We are still in search of a development deal that would allow us to expand on the success of this proof-of-concept show.

As I continued to expand my production company into the commercial and adverting world producing content for the likes of Carnival Cruise line, Acqualina Resort and Spa, and most recently Jackson Health System in Miami, my career took another unexpected turn. My wife Maria and I transplanted to LA in 2017 so she could attend USC and pursue her goal of becoming a women’s health medical provider. While Maria muscled her way through PA school and then through an OBGYN residency, I sought to find my own footing through this life-altering change. And then my phone rang. I was referred by one of my long time mentors, Joe Menendez, to take on a side of the production industry that I felt I had no business being a part of… animation. Enter Mindshow…

Mindshow is an ambitious start-up tech company in downtown LA that I joined at the tail end of the pandemic. At this boutique animation studio we work with a proprietary tech that combines VR and motion capture to produce realtime animation using a game engine. I know, that’s a lot of fancy words. In essence I direct real people wearing spandex to act like cartoons, and then build an entire animated world around their performance. This includes set dec, prop puppeteering, cinematography, and more, all done in a 3D/VR environment. After 3 years of directing well over 400 minutes of animated content at Mindshow, I have now added animation director to my tool belt with enough confidence to take on a feature film if it was thrown at me tomorrow. It’s given me the opportunity to present our tech to industry leading companies like Netflix, Mattel, Disney, Apple, Lucas Films, ESPN and so many more. I had the opportunity in 2021 to direct my first Netflix special, which was a one-off episode of the popular kid’s show “Storybots: A Space Adventure.” Since then the company has focused on producing most of Mattel’s web series content for brands like Barbie, Monster High and Hot Wheels, which make my days at work like a fast rewind to childhood as I immerse myself into these worlds.

While redefining myself as an artist in the world of animation, I have continued to work with my Miami-based company producing and directing a docu-series called “Labors of Love” for the Jackson Health System that will air nationally on PBS this Fall. For 3 seasons I have documented with my Miami film crew the heroics of the nurses who work on the labor and delivery floor at Jackson Hospital. While capturing the miracle of life on camera in these deeply personal moments, this emotional series primarily focuses on the journeys these nurses go through as they guide their patients towards having happy and healthy deliveries. It goes without saying that I have officially drawn a connection between my career as a filmmaker and my wife’s as an OBGYN PA. I also believe that I couldn’t be better prepared to see our own child come into the world soon… you know because now I’m an expert at childbirth now too!

My latest passion project was a short film that I self-funded titled “Marry, Mary.” My motivation with this film was not only to demonstrate my polished skill as a narrative director in the comedy genre, but to also pay tribute to my late dad who passed away when I was 15. I considered this bizarre and comedic story to be a form of coping for myself, even though the premise is completely fiction. The film recently debuted to a raving audience at the 24th annual Beverly Hills Film Festival where it screened at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, CA.

So the initial question was “what makes me different?” The short answer is because I’ll try anything. I take risks, and try to find a positive outcome even when those decisions don’t go my way. I’d rather learn something than nothing at all. “Was it hard?” Well to quote Tom Hanks in “A League of Their Own,” “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
LA is a big place. Having grown up in Miami I thought I came from one of the most diverse melting pots in the world, but then I came here. When visitors come see us the itineraries we build mainly revolve around food and exploring the many senses that California has to offer. For example Asian cuisine. Living in the San Gabriel Valley has exposed us to stuff we never knew existed, so one our favorite things to do is introduce our Cuban Miami friends and family to REAL Asian food. Authentic ramen, dumplings, pho… these are not things readily available in my original neck of the woods. What a real breakfast burrito is supposed to taste like. A street taco. The list goes on.
We like to take people hiking, whale watching in Santa Barbara, brewery hopping anywhere in SoCal, to wine country if there’s time. I love where I came from. There’s no place like Miami, more specifically Hialeah, FL. But having the luxury of being 4-6 hours away by car from national parks or wine country, 2 hours from the desert, less than an hour from the beach, and minutes away from the most incredible gastronomical experiences in the world make LA like nowhere else.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It starts and ends with family, because they get the best and worst of you while you figure yourself out. My mom, Olga, never questioned my passion for filmmaking as a kid and encouraged me to pursue it when it was time for college. I can say with confidence that my creativity stems from her DNA. Expressing herself through storytelling while using wacky analogies, that always seem to make sense somehow, is a consistent and natural reflex for that woman.

My wife, Maria, is my biggest cheerleader and my harshest critic. She’s the first one to give me a green-light when I’m at the precipice of making an important decision in my life. She’s also the first one to tell me, without hesitation I might add, when something I made sucks. Her first reactions to any creative project I take on, good or bad, tell me everything I need to know before moving on to the next phase. That’s love. Her unwavering support always pushes me past my comfort zones and forces me to do better and be better.

My sister, Roxanne, was always a shining example for me of how hard work, patience and practicing your craft can take you wherever you want to go. As kids we watched NBC news in the morning during breakfast before going to school. Since then Roxy always proclaimed she wanted to be a news anchor when she grew up. Today she sits in the same anchor seat she dreamt of as a little girl, while transmitting the same inspiration she once received to those who watch her.

There are so many people who have crossed my path – from friends, teachers, colleagues, clients, mentors and other family members – that have helped me get to this point in my life. However, those three women are the pillars that always lift me up.

Website: https://DAVargas.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/da_varg/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-a-vargas-170aab24/

Image Credits
Eugenio Wilman, Alejandro Becerra, Alejandra Pombo, Jessica Campbell, Michael Jechort, David A. Vargas