Sopland! more than just a brand
I recently discovered , and the opportunity to speak with the Kentucky native Tyler Sopland, an actor that is not only bringing smiles to people's faces in front of the camera but pushing a positive message through his clothing brand "Sopland"
The most beautiful thing i loved about "Sopland' wasn't the vibrant colors, or the throwback positive vibes, that we NEED back in today's darker times, but it was the beautiful message that equated with it. When i asked Tyler what the message and story behind the brand he told me this.
" the main wording i portray is “no signal” and this is because of a tweet I made a few years back that simply read “no signal”. I didn’t have signal in LA when i first moved here, and it took that tweet two hours to go through and post. I found that in those two hours, with no access to internet, I was better off than I am ever with internet and social media. Maybe if the world lost internet connection, just maybe, we would all be happier. I was happy and felt connected to the real world, and that is why my logo is a smiling face. When I don’t have my phone on, it allows me to better listen, comprehend, pay attention, and absorb things around me, and I don’t always have to check on something or post a selfie or anything like that. It’s simple and I prefer it."
when he told me that it really resonated a reminder to me how there is so much meaning to life than the internet screen we attach our eyes to.
BUT IT DOESN'T STOP THERE FOR TYLER! Tyler Sopland talents dont just end at being a positive designer. From age Tyler fell in what seems to be a destiny for a passion to act.
When i asked Tyler when he got his passion for acting he told me a story of prediction from his youth " What got me into acting? Well, when I was born my parents had this sheet where they wrote guesses on things i would achieve/like, and they both accidentally guessed what i would like."
as a child Tyler wanted to be an actor so his parents put him in local theater at the age of 7 and he continued through his whole elementary school and halfway through middle school. Then as he grew up he decided to take acting serious
I came across one of Tyler Sopland's pieces of work "Viralicity"
a short film, him and his team put together for 48 hour film.
When i came across the film i was blown away by the professionalism and the thrill of a tale i was taken on. A story about "two young Internet-savvy teenagers stumble upon a viral video that shows a ghost encounter and there adventure of getting more answers and curiosity". After watching the movie Tyler told me how he put the whole thing together in 2 days. I was already at a lost of words for the creation and now i was not only impressed but inspired by the amount of work these guys did in a 48 hour span.
Tyler told me about how during the creation of this project he only had 4 hours asleep.
Tyler later tells us more about the expirence saying "Viralicity was a super fun little gem I made last year. It was part of this national film festival called “48 Hour Film Project”, where you and a team sign up, and on a chosen date, they give you a genre, a prop, a line of dialogue, and a character name that has to be in your film. From that point on, you have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, and hand deliver your finished film. There are multiple groups to win prizes in during the screening and awards ceremonies. Unfortunately my film wasn’t in the top three so we couldn’t get nominated for awards such as BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, or BEST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK COMPOSITION. Those two things we would have swept out the other films. But the process of making the film was, actually, smooth. I had an amazing team behind me working hard during those two days."
There you have it a hard working, multi-talented, positive artist with a positive message. Tyler's final advice for the aspiring artist out there that are anything like him is this
"Find consistency and do not be afraid to experiment with things and make what YOU want to make. I have so many pieces that my friends do not care for that I absolutely love. Remember yourself in situations like these."
if you are interested in finding more of Tyler Sopland's work check these links out