Charlotte filmmaker turned his childhood movie-making dreams into reality

Asa Kryst’s interest in telling stories began at a young age in Charlotte. Before anyone opened presents on Christmas day, his parents required Kryst and his five siblings to present the story of the birth of Jesus through a play or song.

One year, Kryst recorded footage on his mom’s Nikon D3200 and stayed up all night editing on Windows Movie Maker. As he got older, he created story boards and wrote scripts for the videos.

Fast-forward a few years — through high school, college and even a few years of playing professional soccer — and you’ll find Kryst, now 27, back to his childhood love, using video and photos to tell a story. In 2018, he started Blue Method Films. By last year, he had added commercial video work to his portfolio, producing promotional videos for major corporate clients. Now, he’s shooting his first feature-length documentary.

And this summer Amazon licensed one of his photos for eight billboards in Los Angeles.

Charlotte-area roots

Kryst grew up in Charlotte and moved to Fort Mill, S.C., during high school. He played soccer at the University of South Carolina and graduated in 2015 with a degree in management and marketing. Following college, he played soccer for Charlotte Independence in 2016 and for the Australian team Bendigo City Football Club in 2017.

When Kryst’s career as a professional soccer player took a turn after an injury, he thought about how to transfer the passion he showed for soccer into something else, he said.

“I was looking at different career options and I thought to myself, ‘What do I do unprompted?’ “ said Kryst. “’What do I spend a lot of time doing without anyone telling me to do it?’ That’s when I remembered the all-nighters spent shooting and editing these videos for our Christmas plays. I really liked doing that. I decided to pursue it as a career.”

His first paid gig came from a friend of a friend who needed a videographer for their wedding in 2018. Kryst spent two weeks watching videos on YouTube to learn different shooting techniques on the same camera he used as a kid for the Christmas videos. That job led to more weddings.

Kryst formed Blue Method Films at the end of 2018.

He started building his brand by attending wedding workshops and connecting with wedding vendors. Last year, he added commercial work to his repertoire by producing promotional videos and testimonials in studios or on location for companies such as Rockbox Fitness and Urban Skin RX.

Rockbox Fitness, with eight studios in the Charlotte region, hired Kryst for projects involving sales and franchise development videos. He’s able to evoke emotion by asking questions and choosing the right angles, said Carole Harris, local studio and digital marketing manager for Rockbox Fitness.

Becoming a storyteller

Kryst describes himself as a visual storyteller. He uses photos and video to tell a story.

“Whenever I am doing my more creative work, I really look to capture more than just an image,” he said. “I look to capture atmosphere. I don’t look for these grandiose hero shots. I try to pay attention to small details whether it’s the wind blowing over a flag or birds chirping or leaves blowing.”

Most recently, Kryst’s image of two hands interlocked with fists in the air was featured in Amazon’s 35-day billboard campaign across Los Angeles.

The photo, called “Hands of Unity,” was taken at a June 4 protest in front of the Charlotte Transportation Center. Someone from Amazon saw the photo on social media and contacted Kryst about licensing the image for more than eight billboards.

Capturing emotion

On June 2, Kryst shot three to four hours of video at Charlotte’s Blackout Tuesday protests.

He recorded people showing anger, hurt and sadness through messages written on flags and handmade signs on cardboard and poster board. He noticed how some showed support by handing out masks, protein bars and water.

“It was overwhelming seeing how many people were there,” he said. “The first thing that caught my eye was the diverse group of people. It wasn’t just Black people marching for Black Lives Matter.”

By the next day, Kryst released a 60-second video, “We Stand Together” on his Instagram page. He featured the signs he’d seen during the protest, including statements about George Floyd who died in May while in police custody, messages about being hurt, about silence and coming together.

“I was trying to capture a lot of emotion,” Kryst said. “Instead of shooting large crowds of people, I tried to focus on different people’s reactions and how they were feeling that day, at the protest and what they had on their heart and what they were out there protesting for.”

The video concludes with audio from Charlotte entrepreneur and author Joshua Proby saying, “We won today, guys.”

“I used the signs people were holding up to tell a story in the video,” Kryst said. “It was a positive day in a dark situation.”

Stepping stones

Kryst’s next challenge is creating his first feature-length documentary about Proby.

The film will chronicle Proby’s life: being molested as a child, serving 12 years in prison for armed robbery and authoring 19 self-help books, including “The 30-Day Journey from Prison to Spiritual Peace.”

“Asa is a hard worker,” Proby said. “He’s a grinder and a visionary. He believes in his craft and that makes him special.”

The film is a passion project for Kryst. He hopes to finish by the end of the year and schedule a viewing for family and friends. He plans to submit the documentary to film festivals and possibly Amazon and Netflix.

“Weddings were a steppingstone,” Kryst said. “The commercial stuff is a stepping stone. I’d like to do a couple of documentaries and shorts as stepping stones. Since I was 5, I’ve wanted to be a movie director.”

‘Hands of Unity’

Asa Kryst is donating the profits from his ‘Hands of Unity’ photograph to Heal Charlotte, a community empowerment and youth advocacy nonprofit. Details: bluemethodfilms.com

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This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 1:06 PM.