Charlie Burt and Omar Parker have been a producing duo since 2015, making festival films, B movie horror favorites, and now online content. They’re most recent film Arena Wars is about to premiere in a few weeks distributed by Gravitas Ventures, and their online media brand Tumbleweed has gained millions of followers between platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Today we have a few questions to grill them with…
So what spurred on the new direction of online content?
Charlie: “We like money *laughs* but in all seriousness just the state of the industry. It’s pretty bleak out there and we were looking to make content that in this current economy fans could enjoy for free. Our digital content is easy, fun, quick, and free for all of our fans. ”
Omar: “Another thing to note is we had been working in online content before, this is just one of our larger dives into it. We had made projects like Captain’s Log during the pandemic and I had worked for larger YouTubers as a producer before taking on this new push.”
What would you say is the best advice you can give a new content creator?
Omar: “Uh… be true to yourself. Because you’ll spend a lot of time trying to please other people to grow your career, but you’ll never be truly exceptional until you’re doing what you love and are passionate about.”
Charlie: “Also find your niche. If you’re really into something, chances are on the internet a lot of other people are into that too. That’s your market, find them.”
You’ve recently hit over a million followers on Instagram, and over 400,000 on TikTok. Is there a secret to your explosive social media following?
Charlie: “I think our numbers can be deceptive sometimes because we work with lots of pop up type channels, but we’ve been building an online audience since our short films and through projects like Captain’s Log for the better part of a decade. So a lot of people will just find whatever new project we are working on.”
Omar: “Also be funny…”
You two are based out of Dallas, Texas and seem to have no intention of relocating. Any reason for Dallas specifically?
Omar: I mean we really like Dallas. We’ve never been ‘LA people’ as some would say, and Dallas has this great mix of city life and suburban life I think we are both enjoying.
Charlie: There are a lot of growing opportunities here in Texas too. AI is being developed here. A stock exchange is being developed here. A lot of large company campuses have moved here. It’s just a good place to do business right now.
So where did you take these photos? They are so funny!
Charlie: “They’re out at the Stockyards in Fort Worth. We wanted to embrace Texas with it. Also it’s an amazing area, a very fun place to spend time.”
Omar: “We also have been out in Fort Worth for a recent book launch we’re working on. We actually wrote a book of Haiku’s in partnership with a local pub in Fort Worth called The Rabbit Hole. So it seemed fitting for our newer projects.”
I’m sure we will all enjoy the book, and are looking forward to Arena Wars in a few weeks.
