We sat with film maker and musician, Clifford Coleman, about the release of his first short film, Aspiration.

Coleman calls Aspiration a transitional film. It covers college basketball player, Colton Burns, at a critical crossroads in his life. Coleman does his best to capture the plight of the unheralded collegiate athlete in this 11-minute story. “There’s a decision you’ve got to make, or a decision that gets made for you” explains Clifford. “Go play professional basketball or figure what else you like to do in life. A lot of those guys, they really don’t know what they’re good at outside of the sport they play, because that’s how they identify themselves.”

There authenticity in Coleman’s words. At a lean 6’ 4”, you can tell he’s no stranger to the game of basketball. His stature suggests he’s grabbed his fair share of rebounds and dunked more times than he can remember. It’s no surprise that he wrote a basketball story that felt so real, especially since he drew inspiration from those around him.

“I had stories that I had in mind for this particular story.” Cliff spoke on the stories of his older brother, and a few friends that took unique paths to college athletics. One of those people was Brandon Bradley, who stars in the movie as Colton Burns. Coleman stressed the importance of neorealism and having somebody who could relate to the script in the lead role. “Being able to get his story, him actually being the main character, being a third of that main character was heavy, it was huge, I think you can see it in his performance”.

In addition to writing, shooting, and directing Aspiration, Coleman also composed all of the film’s music, a unique twist for somebody already so heavily involved in the movie’s creation. He has an affinity for music, citing Miles Davis, Toro y Moi, and the Dungeon Family as influences. He’s also quick to admit the impact that anime has had on his style like Gundam Thunderbolt or Speed Grapher. Cliff expounded on how he meshed his skills and love from two distinct art forms:

“My first degree is in music, the music comes first for me. If the music ain’t right or if I don’t have an idea for a song or something, it’s probably not gonna roll that well, because I cut to the music. Most editors, most filmmakers, they do all the shooting then they hire someone to write the score or they find the music that will fit in these certain scenes. Me, I’ve already got it in my head, I’ve already made it and played it out, so I can cut it from there.”

Clifford was part of Soundcloud’s early wave, posting as early as 2011 under the alias “milkmanchrono”, a direct tribute to his favorite video game series. He’s amassed more than 1300 followers since then, with an array of new sounds. He started out with a desire to hear his music across different mediums, but he found it difficult to find placement for his tracks. He then decided to create his own opportunities while learning to shoot and edit the videos that would accompany his music. He credits Youtuber, Tpindell with being the first person to put a camera in his hands. He now boasts that he can be a one-stop shop, as he puts it, “I can shoot, I can make the music, I can really manipulate how the whole project is perceived”.

Clifford is currently waiting to see what comes from his submission of Aspiration to several film festivals. But just because his first film is out, it doesn’t mean that he’s not already thinking about his next project. “I’ve got a couple things in mind” says Coleman, “I went to Japan last year, shot a lot of pictures, shot a lot of video, did about four beats when I was there. I’m gonna put that into a solid project to showcase and make it a little episodic”.

Before long he was speaking of his goal to shoot three experimental films and getting “funky with the music”. That’s just how his mind works, he can already see and hear his next piece before we can even begin to imagine what it will be like. With Cliff’s knack for both film and music, we’ll certainly be seeing and hearing a lot more from him soon.