First set of filmmaker headshots in ages! Photos taken by @thisisleah in the living room of my apartment lol
600d + LightDome II + Half Frost
FX3 + Nikkor 1.4 from ~1980’s
2024 Pleasant Oak Productions show reel is ready!!! If you need commercial, branded or documentary content please don't hesitate to reach out! We have lots of wonderful people in our network and production gear in our cargo van.
In 2013, I sent this email to an old college professor of mine, two years after graduating. It detailed what working on an Emmy-winning scripted TV show was like.
In hindsight, it alluded to a few things:
1) The great contrast between making movies as a kid for fun and working with adults in a professional setting for pay.
2) The incredibly long hours of the Hollywood system. Back then network shows were doing 12-15 hours of manual labor a day, 5 days a week, 10 months a year. 22 episode seasons. Length of day has always been a point of contention in union contract negotiations, and for good reason. There’s no way in hell any human being can maintain good mental health if they’re asked to work that many hours with so little recovery time between shoot days.
3) While I loved storyboarding short films, I wasn’t a great fit as a camera assistant. Camera assisting and directing movies are very different skill sets, and what made me a good student filmmaker didn’t necessarily translate to assisting professionally. Deep down, I was miserable.
This makes me laugh looking back. Glad I found a path that was a better fit. I miss those people from those crews, from the bottom of the call sheet all the way to the top. I really want to work with them again. I’d love to get those crews home at a decent hour every night. Hopefully soon.
My two big takeaways from the ASC Masterclass this week:
1) Movies are powerful. However, they’re just movies and not worth losing your sense of self or loved ones over. Obsessing over career creates an undue level of stress on you and those close to you, which clouds thinking, causes physical harm to the body and places you in a survival mentality, which opens the door to a host of personal issues. In talking to the retired ASC members, it’s clear we’re all susceptible to this, and it isn’t worth the obsession in the end.
2) I like directing considerably more than shooting, but I haven’t fully admitted this until now. When I graduated from college in 2011, I started working as a union camera assistant on big shows. The Good Wife had a coveted Camera PA position open, so I jumped on it when it was offered to me. I noticed people rolled their eyes less at me less when I told them I was becoming a DP rather than a director, so I leaned into shooting instead. That’s a really bad reason to stop pursuing something you know you’re called to do. Denying myself in that way made me feel like a part of me I really loved was dying. It’s a feeling that’s persisted and gotten worse over time.
In 2017 I started shooting video content full time. It paid the bills well, and while I never felt it was my calling, I was good at it, so I stuck with DPing to this day.
I got to direct a scene in this week’s workshop and it became clear as day to me that I enjoy directing - interpreting story, collaborating with actors and finding shots with DPs - much more than shooting.
My next goal is to direct full time. It’ll be a process, and I don’t want to become so obsessive over this that I start falling dangerously out of balance. Patience and hard work in that direction is what’s next for me.
Thank you @the__asc , @matthewkerndp , @xoxobb and everyone else I spoke with this week for helping me realize this!
Hoping these notes are useful to others walking a similar path.
-Jon
#ascmasterclass
First afternoon of my pilgrimage to LA to attend the ASC Masterclass.
Haven’t been in California this long since I first got out of college. Very, very, very excited to be back.
I can’t thank @iatse and @icglocal600 enough for the experience I received working a union AC from 2012-2017.
There’s no way I would have had the opportunity to work as a video director / DP if it weren’t for my time in the union.
I’m trying my hardest to make it back to 600 as a DP and the DGA as a director. Until then, I’ll be supporting the unions from afar until the time comes to reunite with my film buds again.
Best of luck at the bargaining table!!!
#iasolidarity
