How Tamara Monzonsillo became a Successful Filmmaker

How and when you decided to become a filmmaker?

It wasn’t always clear to me that I wanted to be a filmmaker, of course I always loved movies, but I thought I wanted to be a badass lawyer.

I got the results of PSU (Chile’s  LSAT) and they were excellent so I could have gotten into any law school here in my country, but I freaked out because I realized that I didn’t want any of that. I wanted things that were associated to be a lawyer, like respect and embody the definition of success, but I didn’t truly love it.

So I just manned up (Tamara laughs) and I told my parents that I wanted to be a Filmmaker, my father didn’t care, he is a huge movie fan, so he was happy with my decision. My mother on the other hand was very angry; she had made a lot of plans that involved me winning lawsuits against evil corporations.

I justified my decision saying: “If I am good at doing things I hate there’s a chance that I can succeed doing the things I do love”. So I just did it.

I think I did pretty well, I have made movies, short films, documentaries and now I have my own business, an audiovisual production company. Life is great.

How would you describe what you do?

I make movies, short films, documentaries. For instance, right now I am working in the pre-production of long feature comedy to be made this year; I am very excited about it. People are going to love it.

I also work with business owners and companies. We offer everything for a business to have a corporate image. Logo design, webpage design, commercials, documentaries, etc.

I am an entrepreneur so I really understand what others are facing when starting their businesses or trying to expand them.

What is the best thing about being a successful entrepreneur besides the money?

I truly believe in entrepreneurship.

I believe that the market is based on respect and in the voluntary cooperation of individuals. No exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.

So I think when we have a business we are doing a great thing for society, and that makes me proud. We are creating value.

Where you see yourself and your business in 3 to 5 years?

I want to expand, to make my business grow bigger.  I want to make a huge impact!

I want to give to people what they want; I want to listen to them.

If you could leave our readers with one last piece of business advice, what would it be?

It’s important to follow your heart and passion but you also need to listen to your customers.

You should give people what they want instead of what you think they should want.  I believe people are smart, so they know what they need.

We can try to persuade that something may be better for them, but at the end it is their decision not ours.

Some entrepreneurs may think this is obvious and it is, but the people that work in the creative field not always understand it. Some of them want to make bizarre movies nobody wants to watch and somehow think we should finance them because they are blessed artists. Then they complain the world isn’t fair.

In conclusion: I think you should work hard, follow your passion and listen to people, they know what they need.