As an adult, being a creative there’s always this guilty feeling that you’re still just trying to play with your crayons, your colouring book and your scrapbook,” explains director Kevin Morosky. “With this project I was granted absolute freedom to pull out all my favourite colours, all my favourite little bits and pieces, throw them in the pot and say, ‘This is what I made and I’m proud of it.’ It’s just been an amazing experience.”
Kevin has shot film and taken photos for The Fader, Dazed & Confused and Vice (among others) and worked with Lil’ Simz, NYC legend Ricky Powell and even Beyoncé. But every commission has come with its own constraints – that is until Converse selected him to make his short film Meet Me In The Future Later for their Made By You project.
Meet Me In The Future Later is one of the offshoots of Converse’s Made By You project, launched to celebrate a creative sense of self-expression. Kevin also shared his own Chuck Taylors (below), which are just one of the many examples thrown up by the project that shows how creative people around the globe have used the sneaker as a blank canvas to throw down their own personally customised expressions of self.
“The biggest challenge believe it or not was actually reminding myself that I was allowed to do what I wanted,” Kevin explains. He admits at first it was hard to get his head around the sense of free self-expression at the heart of the Converse Made By You project. “I think I had no choice but to look at the idea that you’re going to make mistakes along the way, regardless of what you do. It could be photography, illustration, music, anything.”
Or in this case, love. Released from the usual pressures (Converse didn’t even see the completed film until its London premiere), Kevin chose to create a deeply personal film – but also to experiment. For his male romantic leads, he took the unusual decision to cast two unknown guys off the street and kept them apart before the entire shoot. The film’s ending is autobiographical and references Kevin’s own life journey – but at the same universal, while maintaining a rawness and honesty.
“I loved that opportunity to be me and find out what I can do,” Kevin explains. “That’s how the story and the concept came about, I thought it was important to show people that not everything’s plain sailing. As long as you get there in the end – however long it takes.”
Converse’s Made by You project. Get involved with the hashtags #MadeByYou and #ChuckTaylor.
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