ISSUE 1.3.0
CREATE / DIE
contents:
forward by grady mcdonnell
interview with visual artist arie champney
joke of the month by grady mcdonnell
Create or die.
For some reason this phrase has been stuck in my head for the past few months. Looking back on my life, maybe it has always been stuck in my head. I’ve been making videos since I was in elementary school. My earliest memory of video creation was when I tried to recreate the intro of Star Trek (2009) in Lego stop motion. It was terrible. But when I clicked through the photos on my dad’s old camera, it lit a spark in me that still hasn’t gone out.
I also tried making Minecraft videos. I put a camera in front of my dad’s old PC and filmed many, many videos. I remember being so confident that they would go viral that I started thanking my viewers and subscribers for all their support in the series.
I never posted a single one.
I did however post a lot of other things online. Many of these things I am not very proud of, but some of them still fill me with joy. From short films to web series, music, podcasts and gaming videos, I have been endlessly creating for as long as I have been alive. For most of my life, it has been something that I have never put thought into. It was more like breathing; like it just happened. However, as my brain reaches the end of its development, I have put much more thought into it! While I have been desperately trying to clear my internet footprint of the cringe of my past, I have also been putting a lot of thought into what I will make next.
There are so many ideas rushing through my head everyday that are filtered through a plethora of insecurities. Is this project better than the last? Will anybody care about this? Will this ever be anything more than an endless money pit? Will this become another project I cringe at as I grow old, and then I have to desperately try to erase it from the internet, but I forgot my login or password to my account, so I have to contact customer support and explain: Yes, I do own this account. I just made it like five years ago and don’t remember the password… Yeah. Yeah, I want to reset the password… I don’t have a back up email—No, I don’t have the backup email, that’s why I’m on the phone with you right now… Yeah, I’ll hold.
The answer to all of these questions is quite simple, the only thing that matters is the art exists. Make it real. Make it happen. Create or die, and I personally have no intention on dying anytime soon!
Grady
VISUAL ARTIST ARIE CHAMPNEY WANTS YOU TO CALL YOUR MOM BACK
Photograph courtesy of Prinaè Pillay
…is a young Chicago-based visual artist with an already enormous talent for spearheading experimental short films. Champney’s latest narrative work, Homecoming, premiered at CineYouth’s “(Dis) Embodied” program on April 25.
Now he’s meeting with us to discuss everything from internet footprints to manifestation and spiritualism.
We met with Champney at a diner in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. It was awfully late for an hour-long interview, just before 11:00 PM—some wicked scheduling on the part of the Shoplifters (actually, just Max). Champney came ready to walk us through the beginnings of his career.
I knew for a while I wanted to make movies, almost subconsciously, before I knew what I wanted to "do." I only knew I didn't want a "regular office job.”
Champney leans forward from his booth, as if to let us in on a secret.
My dream job when I was younger was like being a stay-at-home dad or, like, a GameStop employee.
Luckily for us, Champney found a calling in the arts. He began primarily with video editing at a young age, having grown up watching YouTubers like Casey Neistat.
YouTube was instrumental in starting Champney's artistic journey. He was online for "a [brief] point in time where there was still artistry in YouTube."
I remember getting super into trailer editing. He lights up about the YouTube Movies platform. I'd sit and watch trailers all day.
One of my biggest influences is this Doctor Strangelove trailer from the 60s, which was edited just so insanely. The way it plays—almost everything I've done circles back to it.
Champney tells us he wasn't always aware of what he was putting out there as an artist. For a long time, his video and film work was instinctual—now he's interested in being thoughtful.
GRADY: It's about being aware of your internet footprint. Exactly. Especially nowadays and in the near future, the majority of people that I'll meet or get work from... the first thing they're going to see is an Instagram.
Much of his work is contained in what are traditionally informal spaces, such as his personal Instagram page, which boasts incredible experimental work.
Photograph courtesy of Prinaè Pillay
Photograph courtesy of Prinaè Pillay
I still want it to be a casual thing, because there's people who only post [stills of their film] from this, that, and the third--I don't know! I like the little in-between moments too. That’s the most fascinating to me: the camera tests.
MAX: I look at your Instagram and it's almost like a trailer, or a sizzle reel. Yeah, yeah, yeah! I do like variety.
When I was in high school, I did the videography for football. I would do the whole Instagram carousel, photos and video back to back. I'm used to that kind of stuff—there's a benefit and a downside to getting used to the junk food of the internet.
While it equipped him with the skills he'd need to elevate his own craft, overexposure made social media as business a mind-numbing endeavor for Champney.
I think doing it [for high school sports media] kind of took the shine off of what slowly became this film-influencer thing that I'm just not fucking with. I don't like the people who talk about @shittyrigs all day.
Champney isn’t shooting misfires. Online filmmaking discourse has long been plagued by an imaginary notion that the most high fidelity camera produces the best image, or that the most expensive lighting rig produces the best visual. Artisans do that, not gear.
VISUAL ARTIST ARIE CHAMPNEY ON VIDEO EDITING AND FILM LANGUAGE:
MAX: I'm really interested in how you do transitions. It's just fun, bro. It's just a vibe.
He’s kidding! Champney begins to break down the technology for me; the language of Davinci Resolve's alpha mattes, luma mattes, the patterns, masks, and everything else under the sun. It’s abundantly clear that he knows this material better than most—certainly better than me.
But when it comes to what actually drives the decision making, maybe it really is "just a vibe." Some kind of second nature that I don’t have.
I view [these decisions] as jokes, kind of. I don't do comedy, but it's like a punchline. You can have two topics that kind of don't mean anything, and it becomes about how you bring those together.
That's how Homecoming came to me. I would just have shots come to mind or think "oh, this is a cool ass idea, I want to pursue it." The process of finding out how to make it is what [drives me to make it at all].
If I have half an idea I'll still shoot it, not cut it. And if it doesn't work well, then it doesn't work well.
VISUAL ARTIST ARIE CHAMPNEY ON MAINTAINING ARTISTIC INTEGRITY:
It's so important to make not good shit!
I really try to have confidence versus an ego. Confidence is based on an objective thing. I think there's a level of delusion that's needed, but I feel that people [get absurd when it can't be backed up].
You have to be very selfish, though.
VISUAL ARTIST ARIE CHAMPNEY ON HIS FELLOW INDIE FILMMAKERS:
I can tell some of you motherfuckers are setting up a camera angle for, like, 30 minutes, just for an Instagram story. But it’s like—you’ve not called your mom back in a week. We can’t be doing that.
Photograph courtesy of Prinaè Pillay
VISUAL ARTIST ARIE CHAMPNEY ON KARMIC ENERGY AND MANIFESTATION:
Everything kind of does happen for a reason. When you think good thoughts, good things come.
GRADY: I believe in manifesting too—not in the sense that I wished it, so it’s going to happen. Right, because it’s about action too.Yes! You have to believe it and say "Hey, I'm going to make this great." And that belief will help you make it, and making it will help you believe. It’s just a cycle.
But, it is so easy to chud-out and not do that shit. I do that shit all the time! I'll be so unproductive, it’s bad. But it comes in waves. I don’t think I’ve ever been the type of person to sit at a typewriter and think about it, I just go do it.
Photograph courtesy of Prinaè Pillay
VISUAL ARTIST ARIE CHAMPNEY ON OUR RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS:
MAX: Favorite color? It's usually blue, but today, since it's so warm out, I'll say a springtime green.
GRADY: What is your favorite movie? Fuck. You only get one. Right now, I'm gonna say All That Jazz (1979). Least favorite? Warfare (2025). Alex Garland in general. That's my least favorite anything. He’s British—but as a writer, he’s good. 28 Years Later (2025), that whole thing was fire.
MAX: Favorite season? Summer.
GRADY: Groundhog Day (1993) scenario. What would you do? Any scenario like that, I’m killing myself, I’m not gonna lie. Like, if I’m trapped on an island or something, I’m lasting a day before I just blow my shit off. But in Groundhog Day, you’d just wake up in the same day again! True, true, true. I would just act normal.
MAX: So for the survival island question, you’re just blowing your brains out? Yeah. Okay, then I’ll skip that. What are you listening to right now? A ton of Young Thug. I’ve been loving Young Thug. I’ve been fucking with a lot of Prince, that’s been really fun.
GRADY: What food could you not live without? Off the top of my head, snack-wise, Chex Mix. I fucking looooooove Chex Mix.
MAX: Just Chex Mix in general or are you doing a specific flavor? Oh, the bold, bro, the bold, the bold, the bold. And food-wise, lowkey, just rice.
MAX: Is there anything you wish we asked you, or anything you'd like to ask us? I want to ask you: where do y'all see yourselves in one year?
GRADY: I think this time next year, I’d like to be working on a feature. We’ve been writing one for the past couple months.
MAX: How about yourself? I think by then I'll hopefully be making another narrative project. And I want to travel somewhere for something that I made.
Champney will almost certainly achieve these goals. He premiered his latest narrative piece, Homecoming, at Chicago’s CineYouth Film Festival as part of the (Dis) Embodied screening block on April 25.
You can follow Champney to his next destination on Instagram, @ariechampney. We will update this page with relevant screening information for Homecoming when it is made public.
Photograph courtesy of Prinaè Pillay
Special thanks to the immensely talented Prinaè Pillay for providing SHOPLIFTED with her portraits of Arie Champney. We encourage you to follow Pillay’s other work on her Instagram, @washingtonp0st.
joke of the month