Tishin Padilla began his film career in 1996 just after moving to Hollywood Avenue when he served as Director of Photography on the independent feature, "Spanish Harlem" and later, "Latin Lingo" in 1997. In 1998, Padilla, a barber with dreams of making films and one day taking a road trip across America changed careers after a spiritual awakening. He was hired at a local television station where he developed his camera skills as a sports cameraman for the only local Bronx news show at the time, "News 67". Camerawork was not enough for Padilla. He wanted to write, direct and edit, but the news show was cut in 1999 and all of the cameraman were told to find work elsewhere. Padilla, with little television experience, didn't have many options. While everyone else was moving on Padilla believed that God had plans for him there. He took a step of faith by prayerfully deciding to stick around. His faith paid off and he was offered an opportunity to learn how to edit and become a part-time editor at the same station. He soon became the editor of an Emmy nominated Cable show and other video projects that gave Padilla valuable hands on experience in editing, writing, shooting, producing and directing. He excelled as an editor and a year later was offered a full-time position as Staff Editor at the TV station.
Padilla's dreams were in film, but while he was making great strides in his television career he lacked film knowledge. After a mother figure named Jean Brooks encouraged him to, "invest in his talents", he decided to return to school for a film degree at Hunter College. His dream was to make films that would challenge people's belief or disbelief in God. He realized that Christian films tended to preach to audiences rather than tell a good story. He began developing a style of storytelling that would inspire challenge and entertain audiences without preaching a heavy handed bible message. He would later name this film style, "Neovangelistc". In 2000 Tishin enrolled in a Film Production 1class and shot his first short film, the silent, black and white version of, "All You Can Eat". This was the first Five Smooth Stones' film.
Computer illiterate, Tishin bought his first computer and a Canon GL1 camera in an attempt to teach himself how to edit video on a computer. He started a wedding video company named J and T Wedding Videos and taught himself computer based non linear editing with Adobe Premiere 6. The following year Padilla shot, wrote and directed, "The Map", a class project for a cinematography class at Hunter. Unable to raise the funds for the film to video transfer, "The Map" was put on the shelf.
At the television station Padilla continued making corporate videos and Public Service Announcements (PSA's). He created videos for organizations like R.A.I.N., YMCA, Monroe College, CUNY, and the Wildlife Conservation Society to name a few. Tishin became recognized among New York City organizations as a talented producer, director, editor and cameraman. He then learned Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and After Effects on his own and project after project was completed. He entered five videos into the Communicator Awards video festival and all five won. He used these wins to help negotiate another promotion to Senior Editor at the television station.
In 2002, his girlfriend accepted his proposal for marriage and the future looked promising. Tishin revisited, "All You Can Eat" adding dialogue and re-shooting it in color for his Film Production 2 class. The film was developed and the footage looked great. "All You Can Eat" was edited with Adobe Premiere on a PC and the total cost was under $1,000. It was sent off to the big festivals including Cannes, Aspen, and Sundance, but they all rejected the film.
In 2003, he graduated from Hunter with a B.A. in Film Production and decided to produce client based projects through Five Smooth Stones while still working full-time at the station. Later that summer Padilla's fiancé called off the wedding plans, but Tishin pressed on with Five Smooth Stones. In August, Five Smooth Stones took on its first client, Bonnie Gatling, the wife of Luther Gatling. Five Smooth Stones produced an electronic press kit and website for her gospel CD entitled, "The Best of Bonnie Gatling". Soon after, he received a call from a friend who had entered " All You Can Eat" into the Rhode Island Renaissance festival without Tishin's knowledge. "All You Can Eat" won Best Film Overall at the festival and Tishin was encouraged. He then entered the film into the God on Film Festival and the Fade Up Short Film Festival. "All You Can Eat" won Best Short Under Five Minutes at the God on Film Festival and won the first round of The Fade Up Festival beating films with bigger budgets and crews.
In 2004, Padilla set a personal goal to create his first feature length film and turn Five Smooth Stones into a successful production company. Movies were starting to all look the same to Padilla and he saw a need and an opportunity to create a film and style of filmmaking never done before. He even went as far as informing his boss that he would need to take a month off later in the year to shoot his full length feature film after he wrote it. In March of 2004 Padilla was promoted to Post Production Manager. By this time Padilla won seven Telly Awards and an ACM award for his work at the station bringing the total number of awards to thirteen not including the two film awards.
2004 proved to be the busiest year ever at the television station and Padilla had accumulated just under three hundred comp hours at work. It was common for him to work thirty hour shifts to complete projects by their deadline. He tried to take the comp time as it accumulated, but his workload prevented him from taking the time fast enough. In mid-October Padilla was forced to work a sixty hour shift and his boss kept pounding on the work. Padilla was placed on probation to be promoted to Director of Creative Services, but other employees unhappy with their working conditions brought in a union and a "war" began in the station. Long work hours and continued differences in opinion between Padilla and his boss created a difficult work environment for Padilla and in attempt to ease the tension Padilla requested three weeks vacation. Only two weeks were granted and Padilla realized that he wouldn't see his comp-time unless he took a stand. Two days into his vacation Padilla, on a whim, decided that he would take his dream vacation and drive across America. That vacation became a documentary. That documentary is, "The Adventures of Highwaychild. Hollywood to Hollywood to Hollywood to Hollywood."
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