ATLANTA — Tray Chaney, actor and recording artist, who is most popular for his roles in HBO’s "The Wire" and Bounce TV’s “Saints and Sinners” is now adding director under his belt.
He launched a production company over the summer, and started plugging away at his first project, “Truthless." It’s a short film that encompasses Chaney’s love for music and for gangster film classics like “Belly,” “Menace II Society” and “New Jack City."
The Georgia resident, inspired by the pandemic, traveled to northeast Florida to film the entire project in under 24 hours. Chaney revealed that he partnered up with PowellFul Productions, Klosa Productions, and Mars 3045 to make it all happen, and for the first time, his original music became the soundtrack to his own production umbrella Chaney Vision Entertainment.
“I just dropped an EP called 3X TRAYLOGY. The records sounded suspenseful, so I said why not create the soundtrack to my own project that has a lot in common with the music,” Chaney said. “It really just hit.”
Chaney stars as OG, the leader of the most-feared drug organization in northeast Florida. He must choose between love or loyalty to prevent the fall of his empire.
“‘Truthless’ is about a character called Omar Green, AKA O.G. He’s running an organization and money is not adding up,” Chaney said.
The story unravels with lies, deceit, and betrayal.
Chaney also joins cast members Mz Diamond Duval, Todd J. Phillips, Richard “Young RA” Brown, Leroy Gordon, Alexis Vicky Haywood, Karl Chevalier, Charlie Bravo, Nicholas Blu Reed, Loose Bills, Ebony Ebbz Earick, and Herb Robertson on screen for the action, but it’s the lesson he learned from the process of directing and production that comes fresh to mind.
“Producing and directing, I don’t take these jobs for granted, even down to craft services. I have to continue jumping out there,” Chaney said. “I watched the cast come in and out. I was the last one to leave the set.”
Chaney noted that navigating the film and production world is no easy feat, and there is no single answer to how the world is feeling.
“We don’t know what tomorrow is going to look like, we can’t let distractions and negativity affect us. We just got to try our best. Regardless of what happens,” he said.
“Truthless” is action-packed from start to finish, and easily lends itself to more installments in the form of a full feature or original series. Chaney said he created the projects for his fan base from “The Wire”.
“Actors we get told no so much, musicians get told no, too. It felt great to do it myself” Chaney said. “Truthless is going to resonate with people around the world. They want to see me do my thing independently. Let’s see what this guy can do on his own. I wanted to give them something that has every aspect to it in a short amount of time.
And for fans of the hit Georgia-filmed series “Saints & Sinners,” there is even more content coming from Swirl Films.
Chaney said season five of the series wrapped last summer, and a movie for the hit series also wrapped before the year ended.