Today we’d like to introduce you to Phillip Banks.
Hi Phillip, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always had creative ideas, but I never considered myself creative until I realized everyone doesn’t think like I do. My passion for music has always been there, even as a kid, I can even remember my first CD was Bow wow’s, “Beware of Dog”. However, my passion for visual expression has been a journey within itself. I started modeling my freshman year of college at Texas State University, and although I have always been in love with fashion and expressing myself through clothes, walking my first fashion show was how I was introduced to a full creative production. I couldn’t dive full into it because I was an athlete, but I did what I could when I could. I really enjoyed every aspect of the production of creating a fashion show from the model selection, the clothes, the music to walk out to, the coordinating… I loved it all.
While being at one of the best party schools in Texas, my friends and I would find ourselves at these crazy parties. Somehow, I would always find my way to the aux and take the party to another level. One day, my friends advised me to order a DJ controller. At first, I was horrible. It was bad transitions; songs weren’t linked up, I was just a rookie trying to get it. After a month of obsessive practice, I DJ’d my first party for homecoming. I want to give a huge shoutout to my college roommate, Alex. He believed in me from the jump with my creative abilities.
After my second year at Texas State University, I transferred to Texas Tech University for athletic endeavors. That last summer of me being at Texas State, I hit the ground running with the modeling. One day, I asked a photographer that I work with a lot, “How much do you make a shoot?” He told me he makes two times what I do. That was all I needed to ignite the flame towards a creative path. Once I transferred to Tech, I changed my major over to fashion design. By the end of my second semester, I had to switch my major because it didn’t flow with my schedule as an athlete. However, Tech gave all their athletes iPads. I didn’t hang out with too many people, so I would find myself bored or sad that I’m not with my friends at Texas State. That saying, “some of the most creative ideas come from boredom” is very true. When I was in college, I had a lot of people following me on Snapchat, and the content that I would post received a lot of feedback. So, I started airing my own Snapchat show, every Wednesday night and realized that I had an audience once my views started increasing from 300 views to over 1,000 views. This sparked my interest into video creating and editing. I was able to combine my passion for fashion with my new skills of video editing and I would take a song that I liked, find a couple fits, record myself dancing to the videos, and post to my snap. They were what we would call “lookbooks” these days.
That following semester, I met a friend in the library. He introduced me to Adobe Creative Cloud, and I felt like I found a missing piece to my creative skill set. I was obsessed with the digital creative freedom I had, and I would literally spend hours in the library to study premiere pro. The amount of dedication I was willing to put in hour over hour is what solidified my passion for video production. Six years later, I have directed and edited music videos with musicians, written scripts, and produced podcasts, YouTube videos, fashion shows, as well as developing ads for restaurants, gym, and online businesses, just to name a few ventures.
I struggle to find a title for myself. I’m a creative to say the least, I direct, produce, edit a digital market, etc. My possibilities are endless.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not. There was a lot of self-conquest. When I was in college, it was hard to build an identity because of what I could and couldn’t do. Transferring schools has felt like the best and worst thing for me. Back then, it was horrible watching all my friends do everything that we use to do, just without me. However, the best thing it did was give me perspective of my creative abilities. Monetizing your creative talents can be a treacherous road. It can be hard telling yourself that you want to pursue a career that isn’t the norm. For example, you can go to school to be a doctor and be doctor when you graduate. When you go to school for certain creative endeavors, they don’t always play out as easy as that. I’ve never lacked confidence, but there was always an outside force with something negative to say. Graduating college in 2020, during the outbreak out of the pandemic, was horrible. No one was hiring interns, internships, I had, dropped everything. When I got back to Dallas, it was a true grind mode to get back on my creative inspiration. Ever since then, I haven’t stopped putting the work in. No matter the situation, no matter how I felt, I’ve stayed consistent.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am currently a Creative Director. One of my first full-production projects was in 2020. That was exciting. The whole process was a massive milestone for me. To execute all the stages of the project were most memorable.
Being able to work on the production process from start to finish has helped me tremendously.
My work inspiration can range from anything as same as a sound to as big as talking to a stranger.
There is inspiration around us everywhere. Sometimes, all we have to do is look up.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I define success by how long you are able to take care of your loved ones with the least amount of effort.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Phillipbvnks
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5HQ6FvGW6t_M1ZnQJGHUrw
