Buddy Calvo

I come from a family of storytellers. Our family tree is made up of characters better suited for fiction than real life but this has served me well as I am able to draw from these experiences when working on my art. In 2003 I was working on a degree in business when I discovered Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew” and the rest is history. I began to write and have not stopped since and in 2005 I met my wife and together we created our production company Machina Cinema.

Machina Cinema started as production company for our creative narratives and from 2006 to present day we have produced numerous short films, music videos and feature films distributed by Walmart and Best Buy and streaming on Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. In 2012 I became a certified teacher and made my way into education, teaching high school film production at the San Antonio School for Inquiry and Creativity. In 2018 I left the classroom and created Machina Cinema Industrial, a separate production house that would focus on our growing list of commercial clients. Machina Cinema Industrial provides full service video production both regionally and nationally.

Post COVID, I have found a balance between commercial work and creative narratives and I am excited to do more with the ideas I’ve held onto for so long.

Artist Statement of Work

Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):

I believe in the idea of a great story and the never ending pursuit of creating your best work. On the surface this may seem obvious but it's much harder than it sounds be it in writing, filmmaking or any creative platform.

In filmmaking, creating a great film and telling an amazing story isn't easy and there are so many variables that can destroy a film. Too often technology takes center stage with modern day filmmaking and although it is important, technology is just a tool to serve the story. If the story is weak then nothing else matters. Now second to story is your characters and the actors you choose to portray them. If your characters aren't properly developed then it won't matter how great your story is because you don't have the characters to tell it.

I am not looking past or forgetting the crew and gear and funding but those elements are second in the grand scheme of things. This is a realization that I came to from making many mistakes on many productions and learning what is most important in a creative narrative.

I believe everyone has to find this out for themselves and I look forward to my next adventure in storytelling and the never-ending pursuit of creating my best work.