Meet Mike Correll | Writer – Director – Producer – Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike Correll and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art comes in many forms and mediums, which can be challenging for a variety of reasons. It can be easy to get lost amidst the many formats that I enjoy, and difficult at times to determine which format will best suit a creative idea. Case in point: I may have a strong idea that could be explored in a narrative and literary format, but which could also be conveyed in a screenplay, so the challenge exists in knowing which way to express myself for the most effective outcome. Sometimes the decision is quite “cut and dried” as in the case of my documentary “Chet Zar: I Like to Paint Monsters”, which was released in 2016 by First Run Features. It was clear which format would be the most effective in both discovering and sharing the story of Chet Zar, but what was unclear was how to fund the effort. This required stepping into the unknown realm of crowdfunding, which was foreign territory to me in 2012. “Fake it until you make it” is a cliché phrase yet entirely apropos in this instance. I had no idea how to build or run a Kickstarter project, but what I did know was that without funding I would not be able to produce my documentary. I was passionate about my subject so I built a Kickstarter, despite my inexperience, and worked closely with Zar to market and advertise it to his built-in fan base. Marketing and advertising were also new to me, so this required expanding to incorporate a significant amount of new knowledge, which was inevitably applied in a classic “trial and error” scenario, yet also during a “live” crowdfunding campaign. This entire process was incredibly stressful but my diligence paid off when the project was successfully funded thirty days later. I would go on to do another successful Kickstarter for the same film two years later and, during the process, acquired a skill set that has served me in ways I never could have foreseen. In the ensuing years I have built and administrated eleven successful Kickstarter projects – three for myself and eight for other artists, all as a result of risking that initial step into the unknown. These efforts have also opened doors where I never expected them to exist, paving the way to a fruitful career in freelance writing, and a devoted fan base that collects my fine art and continues to fund my newest creative endeavors.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is an interesting question given my chosen lifestyle! My wife and I are full-time RV enthusiasts, and we live in a twenty-nine foot motorhome with our three dogs. We have traveled through thirty states in the past year and nine months, and have experienced an incredible array of places, people, foods, and cultures. One of the most signature places we have visited is Sulphur, Louisiana, where we were “adopted” by an extended family of self-proclaimed “Cajuns”. When you first step from your comfort bubble into this new environment all the sensory details are acutely apparent: the guttural sound of the toads, what locals call the Ouaouarons (pronounced wa-wa-ron), the crooning of some foreign night bird deep in a jungle of pine, palmetto, and cypress, the sweet scent of night blooming flowers mixing with the loamy, earthen banks of the bayou, Spanish moss draped like early Halloween decorations on the sagging arms of tree-giants, and the feel of thick, wet air filling your head and chest. During the ensuing week of orientation, which included local foods such as crawfish, jambalaya, and gumbo, as well as a driving tour with our park host Mr. Harry, we explored Sulphur and the surrounding areas, including Moss Bluff and Lake Charles. We came to discover a world rich with culture, history, and bayous. This flat, swampy territory is riddled with waterways, snaking like veins and arteries between forests filled with crooked cypress trees. Sulphur is home to a Cajun populace, and unlike its more well-known southeastern counterpart, New Orleans, which is predominantly Creole, it was originally settled by Acadians. These French-Canadian settlers were excommunicated during the “Great Expulsion” of the French and Indian War, and eventual colonized the Sulphur area. This is merely one example, but it would rate high on my list! For more about this incredible location check out my recent book release “Abandoned: Sulphur, Louisiana”.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My success is wholly due to the ever-present support of my wife Joy Correll, first and foremost. In addition, my parents Jim and Patti Correll are, and have always been, incredibly supportive of my path, albeit a path that is quite foreign to them. I also owe a great deal to my education through Fairhaven College at Western Washington University, namely professor Dan Larner, who provided much needed support in developing my custom degree “Imaginative Moviemaking”.