Meet: Ivan Thomas

Ivan Thomas - DETV

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Ivan Thomas, founder of DETV, on gaining perspective, directing the Running Man, and swooping down on Market from 400 feet above…

“Let me tell you, man, I’ve been doing this for three years. Self taught, hung around some awesome guys, learned from them. And the day we shot that Running Man video [with the Wilmington Police] was so refreshing and so surprising to me, that little old me who had an idea to make Wilmington better just with a camera … and now the police are shutting down Market Street so I can shoot and direct a Running Man video that will go viral. It was totally amazing that I was able to do this for my city. It became so real, so fast. Wow. It was a rush.

“When I see Wilmington through my drone, it looks like a totally different city. It’s beautiful. Everybody sees Wilmington for what it is, but the visionaries get to see what it’s going to be, what it has the potential to be. And when you’re looking at it from three hundred, four hundred feet up โ€ฆ it doesn’t look like the same area we live, we work and we play in. 

“I told my friend the other night that I’m going to start shooting at nighttime in Wilmington, to get the ambiance and the beauty of banks and the buildings. That’s my next project.

“That’s my thing, to show our city from different perspectives. From the perspective of the banker, the artsy creative, the homeless guy โ€ฆ different perspectives. And I think if people see Wilmington in a different way from whence they came up, they would appreciate it better.”