TAMPA, Fla. — Going to the movies is different for Fletcher Barnes now.

It’s different looking up at the big screen when it’s your movie. Fletcher is a filmmaker and creative director at Blue Marble, a company committed to spreading love through visuals.

What You Need To Know

  •  Fletcher Barnes was a slot receiver for the Plant High Panthers.

  •  He went on to play football at Tulane University.

  •  Now he travels the world as a filmmaker.

Fletcher’s latest project, Beyond the Beat, debuted at the Gasparilla Film Festival. A very fitting setting for this former Plant High School football player.

After Plant, Fletcher played football at Tulane University in New Orleans. That’s where his creative juices really began to flow and what led to this moment - the premiere of his film about three best friends in war torn Uganda using creative arts to heal and spread love.

In high school, Fletcher was more often in front of the camera than behind it. He was a receiver in the Panthers high powered offense.

Fletcher hasn’t watched his Plant football highlights in nearly a decade. He can’t help but see them in a different light now. And also, he can’t help but wonder how he would have edited them differently.

“I would go back and make it really sick,” he said.

Those glory days seem even more glorious now thanks to perspective.

“You don’t really realize how special is it until it’s gone,” Fletcher said.

It was more than football. There were life lessons Fletcher was absorbing on that football field that carried over into his filmmaking.

“Resilience. Like never giving up,” he said. “I think being a shorter slot receiver you just learn how to get up.”

Being a filmmaker has knocked Fletcher down often. But he keeps getting back up. His latest project was years in the making.

And then finally it was time to let it go. And let it be seen.

“As every creative knows you have to just put it out there and allow the project, allow the creative to go live beyond you,” Fletcher said.