Cool Cat: Philip DeRise
From NYU to CWU
story by Chayton Garcia, design by Zoey Ryan
There are two roads to success in the creative arts, according to Assistant Professor of Film Philip DeRise. One road is paying your rent with the practicing of your art. The other road is you get a day job and practice your art at night and on weekends.
DeRise has traveled both of these roads and says, “I don't know what road's better,” because each has its rationales and its challenges. DeRise says he always knew he wanted to be a teacher, but before joining the CWU department of theatre & film, he worked on production for films in Hollywood like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “13 Going on 30.” He then succeeded with corporate filmmaking for companies like Vox Media and Group Nine Media, while also being a professor for the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
He describes his nature as “restless.” DeRise has lived in New York for a long period of time, as well as in such far-flung locales as Astoria, London, Moscow, Singapore, Havana, Cuba, China and Colombia before relocating to Ellensburg. He was drawn in by nature. “To be near the mountains, to be near the Cascades was a huge piece to the puzzle,” he says.
Hollywood
In the early stages of his career, DeRise’s goal was simple: just get in. Starting out in the industry, it was about paying rent and securing the next job. "I got very lucky,” he says. “But it was just survival.”
There was no road map, just hustle. “You never knew if you were going to get hired on the next one," he explains. But after a few years, things began to shift. By his mid-twenties, his reputation had solidified enough that he was able to worry less about surviving. It was then that he was able to focus on more than just securing the next film. In the beginning, his work was primarily on the producer side, then he began to think “'How can I be creative?”
Corporate Media
DeRise found his stride in the world of commercials, documentaries and corporate work, but his passion remained centered on storytelling and focusing more on narrative-driven content than traditional corporate messaging.
The pace of the work was relentless—one production a week, with multiple projects rotating through at any given time. “So, every month, you would have four going and then over the course of the year, I was doing 40 to 50.”
For him, this kind of work provided the perfect balance: a stable income and the chance to do what he loved. "It’s the dream, I guess," he says, reflecting on the ability to work with talented teams and continuously refine his craft. Even with the challenges, the ability to experiment and try new things in each story was a key draw. "Each story is going to be another you can experiment with," he says.
The Future
DeRise’s latest project, “Bible Camp 2024,” which he describes as a “quirky, offbeat film,” made its debut at film festivals before finding a home on PBS. "Once you give broadcast rights, you disqualify yourself from festivals. So, we couldn't say no to PBS, but what we did was we hid the streaming from the publicity materials in order to continue to get into film festivals.” The film’s credits include DeRise as director.
“There's a misconception that great art needs to involve some sort of suffering, and this is a big thing among film schools. And my thesis or my point of view is that idea is false, and you can make very rich films and also make the experience as rich as the result. That's the goal, and it starts with the idea that it's possible. There's a world in which filmmaking was about students yelling at their actors to act more and to be more scared, be more scared, and to yell and yell and yell.”
But, he adds, “There are ways to get them to be scared that are not screaming at them. And so, my job and my word of wisdom is you can get everything that you want and make the piece of art that you want to make, and you can do it in a way that is ethical and that is positive and that is rewarding for everybody involved. That’s the dream.”
