{"id":55537,"date":"2025-11-29T13:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55537\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T13:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T13:43:09","slug":"this-young-filmmaker-transforms-staten-island-parks-into-a-gritty-fictional-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55537\/","title":{"rendered":"This young filmmaker transforms Staten Island parks into a gritty fictional world"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, NY — When asked what type of cinematic shot would encompass all of Staten Island, Brandon Paradise, 21, took a moment to answer. <\/p>\n

Paradise, a young filmmaker from Prince\u2019s Bay, grew up observing and idolizing Staten Island\u2019s diversity of people and environments. The perfect shot to encompass all that the island has to offer would be a challenge, but not one he hasn\u2019t thought about before. <\/p>\n

After all, has hundreds of ideas he is ready to explore through film. <\/p>\n

The Staten Island native is on the verge of graduating from New York University\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts with an undergraduate fine arts degree through their film and television program and is making his mark as an up-and-coming creator. While pursuing his degree, Paradise has had the opportunity to direct six films, and has played behind the scenes roles in dozens more, learning the key aspects of filmmaking. Now, he has returned home to work on his final thesis film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Never-Ending Revenge\u201d explores an anti-war message through the lens of human nature\u2019s tendency toward revenge and the ongoing cycle of violence. <\/p>\n

\"StatenBrandon Paradise’s “The Never-Ending Revenge” utilized local parks to create fictional tribal world, showcasing the borough’s cinematic potential.Courtesy of Tristian Zhu<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to paint a picture of how war only creates more war,\u201d Paradise said. \u201cThis idea that war brings an end to war is not necessarily truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film is an alternate history, featuring two fictional tribes distinguished by black and gray masks. The production required extensive coordination with costume designers, production designers and prop makers to create a believable and dangerous world.<\/p>\n

\"StatenBrandon Paradise’s “The Never-Ending Revenge” utilized local parks to create fictional tribal world, showcasing the borough’s cinematic potential.Courtesy of Tristian Zhu<\/p>\n

The lengthy production took advantage of Staten Island\u2019s varied landscapes and parks, including High Rock, Clove Lakes and Mount Loretto, which Paradise cited for their cinematic potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the parks, we have the nature, but we also have the grit and the dirt. So I think it\u2019s something about the diversity of people and the diversity of the environment,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce you get deep enough into the park, you\u2019re in another world.\u201d <\/p>\n

The project, which wrapped earlier this fall, represents a full-circle moment for the young director, who traced the film\u2019s origins to reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque during his time at Staten Island Academy. The book became Paradise\u2019s first exposure to anti-war storytelling that would shape his own film years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was one of my first ideas for film that I ever had,\u201d he said. \u201cIt grew with me as I learned more about storytelling, writing, directing, editing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Paradise has been making short stop-motion movies with his toys since he was a kid, he cites Mark Weissman, Staten Island Academy\u2019s Chairman of Theatre and Art, as an important influence in his decision to go into filmmaking. \u201cHe was the first direct inspiration of a director, someone who directs performance,\u201d he said. \u201cThe most valuable thing was just being able to sit there and watch him direct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven back then, his focus and creative energy set him apart,\u201d Weissman said about his former student in a statement. \u201cYou could tell he wasn\u2019t just dreaming about making films, he was already living it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"StatenBrandon Paradise’s “The Never-Ending Revenge” utilized local parks to create fictional tribal world, showcasing the borough’s cinematic potential.Courtesy of Tristian Zhu<\/p>\n

Although he has years of experience under his belt now, production for this film presented significant challenges for Paradise. The crew, which was made entirely of NYU students, endured 12-hour shooting days and worked through cold, rain, mud and heat. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not one person that was on the set that didn\u2019t say this is the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Paradise said.<\/p>\n

Despite the demanding conditions, he was able to focus heavily on visual storytelling, which he learned to utilize in order to communicate a movie\u2019s message without dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you mute the movie, will the audience be able to understand this movie the same way is a very important thing,\u201d the filmmaker explained.<\/p>\n

Paradise is in the process of editing \u201cThe Never-Ending Revenge\u201d now, with plans for it to be ready for viewers in the spring. With graduation on the horizon, he hopes this is just the start of his career in film. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot more ideas that I want to get out. Most of them are short film ideas, but I know I got to make that feature eventually,\u201d he joked. \u201cI\u2019m always learning. The craft is never learned. No one is a master of this. So I\u2019m always learning how to better myself.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"StatenBrandon Paradise’s “The Never-Ending Revenge” utilized local parks to create fictional tribal world, showcasing the borough’s cinematic potential.Courtesy of Tristian Zhu<\/p>\n

He plans to come back to Staten Island to film \u201cWasteland,\u201d another story he has been constructing in his mind for the past few years. <\/p>\n

He hopes through these projects and his success, other creatives will begin to see Staten Island as a place for the arts. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like one thing is that there aren\u2019t many local Staten Island artists, at least that I know about, and I wish that that was different,\u201d Paradise said. \u201cStaten Island can be such a place of expression and artistic creativity, and we have the stories for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For young Staten Island creatives like himself, he offered encouragement: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to put yourself and what you\u2019re doing out there, no matter what stage you\u2019re at. As an artist you\u2019re the harshest critic of yourself, and you might not like your work, but I promise you, it\u2019s better than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paradise also promises that he will, eventually, get that cinematic shot to summarize Staten Island. <\/p>\n

” I love something with the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. I feel like we give the ferries too much credit. Everyone knows about the ferry, but the Verrazano, there\u2019s something beautiful about it,\u201c he explained. \u201dThere is something there and I\u2019m going to do this shot.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, NY — When asked what type of cinematic shot would encompass all of Staten Island, Brandon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-55537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}