Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Nwasike.
Hi Chelsea, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always had a difficult time answering the question, “What do you do?” because I’ve never really done just one thing. I’m a writer and filmmaker, but I’ve also worked as a creative director, designer, artist, and entrepreneur. And honestly for a long time, I thought I needed to choose one. Be one. Until eventually, I realized they were all just different expressions of the same thing. I am someone who loves telling stories.
I grew up across three continents, but Nigeria is truly home and has had an enormous influence on the way I see the world. England, was where the remainder of my formative years were and I studied Media Production at Bournemouth University, before moving to Los Angeles to earn my master’s in Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy. My early experiences in the industry included working on Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, and over the years I went on to write and direct my own films while also building a career in creative direction.
But enough about me, I want to tell you about my current project! So a lot of my life and professional experiences led me to what I’m working on now, The Ones Before series. It began as a television series that I started developing about four years ago. I wanted to create the kind of epic fantasy world I loved getting lost in growing up, but through a lens that felt much closer to home. So the world draws from the histories, cultures, mythology, politics, belief systems, etc., of precolonial West Africa, mainly Nigeria.
The television pilot went on to become a Second Rounder at the Austin Film Festival, but I ultimately decided to develop The Ones Before as an original IP, beginning with a book series. Now, as the first book nears its first campaign launch, the world of The Ones Before has already attracted more than a million views, tens of thousands of saves, and over 500 people who have voluntarily sorted themselves into tribes that don’t technically exist yet! Can you believe it?!
If you’d like to follow the upcoming campaign so you can get your hands on the book, join the mailing list at www.theonesbefore.com. I give updates to folks on there!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I wish it were smooth I think one of the biggest challenges has simply been the scale of the vision compared to the size of the team… which, for a very long time, has mostly been me.
Building The Ones Before has meant learning that being a writer rarely means just writing these days. As an entrepreneur building this IP through my creative house, Our Ideas Loft, I’ve also had to become the graphic designer, content creator, web designer, social media manager, email marketer, researcher, project manager… and now, apparently, someone who knows far too much about shipping logistics to Australia.
There’s also the financial reality of building something like this independently. I have a very ambitious vision for what The Ones Before can become, but a big dream doesn’t magically come with an equally big budget. I’ve had to figure out what I can do myself, what I need to hire someone else to do, what needs to go, and what can wait.
I think the hardest part has been learning how to protect the creative part of myself while also becoming the person responsible for making the creative work viable. Those require completely different parts of my brain. Ironically, every problem has forced me to learn something I probably never would have learned otherwise, especially skills that have made me, I think, more capable of building the kind of career I actually want.
That’s also a big part of why I’m launching The Ones Before through Kickstarter. There comes a point where doing everything yourself stops being resourceful and starts limiting what the work can become. And also, I want the people who discovered this world early to have the opportunity to help bring its first book to life! The book exists because people asked for it. The campaign is my opportunity to finally say, “Okay. Here it is! Time to get it before everybody else does!”
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think the simplest way to describe what I do is that I build worlds. I’m really fascinated by what makes people ‘moved’ by an idea, or rather, a story.
I’m a writer and filmmaker by trade, but as a storyteller, I welcome whatever medium best serves that story. I started in film, which is still very much my first love, but over the years I’ve worked across directing, writing, creative & art direction, advertising, graphic design, and now publishing. And I think having all of those different creative muscles has really shaped the way I approach ideas.
The Ones Before is probably the clearest expression of that approach. It began as a television series, became a book series, and is now growing into a much larger world with its own cultures, histories, belief systems, tribes, symbols & symbolism, artwork, and all the juicy bits that make for great worldbuilding. With the cherry on top being the community forming around it. Which is also what I’m most proud of! That people have started interacting with that world before the first book is even available. I didn’t just want to write a fantasy story and put it into the world. I wanted to build a world people could actually participate in. So when hundreds of people voluntarily choose a fictional tribe or ask when they can finally read the story, it’s an affirmation that something is working. Cause you know, outside of actually knowing my craft, I’m pretty much going in blind.
I think what sets me apart is that I don’t really respect the boundaries between creative disciplines, haha. If an idea needs me to write, I’ll write. If it needs me to direct, design, perform, or sing for no apparent reason, I’ll do that too!
Stories can be more than something we consume. And I think that’s the work I’m most interested in doing for the rest of my career. How can I build really good stories that people genuinely care about and connect with, starting with me?
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I like how accessible the community feels here. It’s small enough that you can actually become part of it pretty quickly. You meet someone at one work event, run into them again at the USPS on 29, and before you know it, you’re tennis doubles partners. Coming from Los Angeles, where everything and everyone can feel so spread out, it’s very refreshing to build a community so effortlessly.
And what I like least is probably the other side of that same coin. It is small, haha. Sometimes I miss the aliveness of a bigger city. Every now and then, I wish Charlottesville could magically triple in size for a weekend night out, then shrink back down when I’m done, haha. The good thing is that, because the city sits well on the map, it’s easy to drive out of town to bigger cities when I get the itch.
Pricing:
- $10 for Exclusive Preview E-BOOK (https://www.theonesbefore.com/enter)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theonesbefore.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imthechelsea/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-nwasike-568b35116/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@meandmyimaginaryfriends
- Other: To Receive The Ones Before Exclusive Preview Book- https://www.theonesbefore.com/enter
