Director Gino McKoy featured in Authority Magazine

Gino McKoy: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker

June 4th 2021

This article originally appeared in Authority Magazine and on Medium.com By Karina Michel Feld

If you don’t get your scripts made, be prepared to have it stolen if it lingers too long, my exec asst told me to tune into a famous tv series, and season 2 episode 2 was entirely my content taken from my script, down to the lines, nothing can prepare when you see your material on screen in front of the world.

Asa part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Gino McKoy.

A singer-songwriter, film director, producer and screenwriter, Gino McKoy was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and moved to Canada with his family at an early age. Canadian Director & Screenwriter Gino McKoy is releasing his upcoming Sci-fi Horror Thriller LUMINA, the very first sci-fi movie filmed entirely in Morocco. Starring Golden Globe nominee Eric Roberts, Ken Lawson and Eleanor Williams, LUMINA is bold and cerebral and distinctive from your standard alien movie fare.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?

Thanks for having me, it’s a pleasure. Where do I begin, I was born in Trinidad and Tobago and migrated to Halifax, Canada with both of my parents at the age of three. My first musical concert was in Halifax, believe it or not, it was Tina Turner, my parents couldn’t find a babysitter that night, so they convinced the ticket person to allow me in. We were in the front row and Tina looked down at me and smiled, I remembered her legs and my ears were buzzing after, I was around 4 years old at the time. I also come from an ethnically mixed musical family. Both sides were into music, sang, played instruments etc. We moved to Brampton, Ontario not too long after. A city outside of Toronto, a lot of artists and people in entertainment also originated from there. Michael Cera went to my high school also, Heart Lake Secondary. I played high school basketball and cricket while I was there. I sang a lot growing up, and eventually around that time while attending University of Toronto and living in Mississauga, I decided to do a demo to see if music labels were interested after I graduated university.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

Wow, well during my time working on my music demo, I walked into metalworks studios in Mississauga, one of the best in Canada and met a sound engineer there by the name of Nick Blagona. He heard my voice and said he wanted to work with me. I didn’t know who he was at the time so I checked on him and realized he worked with the police, cat Stevens, deep purple etc. And I love rock and alternative and that type of pop, so I said okay let’s work together. We decided on recording in LA, at ocean studios in Burbank instead of a studio in Miami which recorded a lot of Bob Marleys music.

I decided to give up my career in banking in Toronto and go full time into music, my love and my passion. My parents supported it and were also coming along for the crazy ride. Got out to LA and we did the album, after all, Nick said that I needed to move out to LA to really showcase my talent. SO we did, and my first few years was very tough, because the labels I had spoken to wanted to change my style of music but I didn’t. So I eventually came up with the idea to write my own movies and get it produced and put my music in it to break my music and get it the recognition I felt it deserved. And now we are here, with a lot of other unbelievable stories in between of course.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?

I think the most interesting story was when I shot Lumina my debut film, it was the first sci fi film ever shot in its entirety in Moroccan cinema history. Also the biggest and only sci Fi interior sets ever built in Moroccan cinema history. Keep in mind, some of the filmmakers I look up to, shot in Morocco, like Ridley and Tony Scott for example. The filmmakers of Morocco and Dune Films, our service producers made us aware of this since they only film sword and sandal, action and crime movies that needed deserts or a middle eastern backdrop but never Sci FI. LUMINA created history which was great to hear and a blessing.

I would also add in here, my first script LMI, was also one of the very few scripts that was not made but I had consulted with the FBI on it. There was an article written on that as well. The FBI only consults on very few films.

Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?

Sir Ben Kingsley, I was invited to his home in Beverly Hills, he had read my first ever script I wrote in Hollywood, LMI, female action movie in the vein of Bourne identity and Bond, that I wrote in about 2 weeks, surprisingly. He was attached to play the antagonist. SBK has such a commanding presence in the room, he sat next to me and said, “don’t change what you write because people tell you to, stick to what you believe in”. That always stayed with me…

John McTiernan (director of Predator, Die Hard), John Met us around the same time of my meeting with Ben. He had just gotten out of jail for wiretapping, the FBI caught him and he went away for a year I believe. He read LMI and loved it and came out for a weekend with his wife to meet me to discuss us potentially working together, at this point I wasn’t directing, I was mainly writing and producing. I admired his work and Predator is still one of my favorite movies of all time. Sadly, we had creative differences and John wasn’t ready at that time to go to a dark place, because my script was pretty dark in tone and I wasn’t willing to change that. Of course we decided we would stay in touch for future projects but it was great hearing John’s process and how he operates and directs and his creative process as a director.

Another great Legend I met is Christopher Plummer, a truly wonderful very talented Canadian actor who was also interested working with me on LMI and Lumina. Due to his age, traveling and COVID a lot of actors could not commit to projects in 2020, but he wished us well. He passed a week after LUMINA completed production. Christopher also supported our charity Kinder Krisis at our TIFF private event for LMI in Toronto. The stories and jokes he shared with me will never be forgotten but it can’t be shared , lol.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

God firstly, my parents and their eternal support and love, never die attitude, and our dear friend David Seychell who always believed in me and supported us with my music and film. David is a producer with us, and he helped us get our first film off. On his way to visit us before I travelled to Morocco, with his private plane, he had an accident where his plane crashed in the Colorado mountains, he almost died, a third of his body was burnt and he survived miraculously. Thank God, without those 4 above, I would not be here..

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Never give up… no matter how hard it is or how dark it gets, keep fighting. There was many that wanted me to give up, quit, forget about film and music but I refused to. If you have a dream, passion or goal, stay with it till the end. You have one life and seize your opportunities and take the risk. Don’t ever be afraid to take the risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I am very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

-We live in a diverse community in North America. The world is watching Hollywood and Hollywood wants the world to continue watching their movies and tv series. Greater revenues for investors, studios and filmmakers, diversity sells internationally believe it or not

Every ethnicity has a story that needs to be told, that’s important to be told and heard, seen, it’s a part of humanity’s progression to a better more accepting and welcoming world, one world

It will affect our culture in a positive way because unity means strength, kids growing up and seeing the diversity and acceptance will strengthen the US. The nation needs to come together to be stronger and film, tv has the power of uniting and breaking down barriers. A mixed culture means stronger relations internationally and also a stronger domestic film sector that becomes much more marketable to the world.