Life & Work with Josiah Bradley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josiah Bradley.

Hi Josiah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’m a lover of creativity and storytelling who had a dream of being a novelist and Hollywood screenwriter. I grew up in PG County, Maryland with a strong love of story and read a lot as a kid. Comic books, Sunday funnies, picture books, novels, I loved them all. I even published a novel with my dad in 2015 called Noteworthy Tribute. In high school my best friend shared with me his dream to be a film director and actor and how cool it would be if I wrote screenplays. I’d never heard of them before and from there, I developed a deeper love for television and movies.

When I really set my mind to it I’m an ambitious self-starter. My three brothers and I were homeschooled by my mom. In college, her focus was education and from there she took a job in D.C. at a specialized school for students with emotional challenges. She loved working with her friends while customizing learning to individual kids which inspired her to one day take her own children’s education into her own hands. With the support of my dad, she did just that.

I’ve traveled a little bit too. Road trips to Virginia Beach (where Noteworthy Tribute is based) and the Midwest for family reunions. One such reunion was a cruise to the Bahamas that I’ll never forget. And I’ve even hopped a plane to Mexico for a week with my dad and scaled the Mayan pyramids of Chitzan Itza.

As my love of TV and film grew, I learned more about web series and experienced the Indie-film world. While studying film at Towson University I found time to work on projects with friends, like a superhero-themed web series, both 72 and 48-Hour Film Challenges, and a feature length senior thesis film. I also created a docu-series showcasing the various student-run organizations that the university had to offer to help incoming students find their tribe. On my way out of Towson U, I even got the chance to work on the Netflix show House of Cards a couple of times, once as a background extra as well as a production assistant.

I moved to Los Angeles in January 2019 and since then, I’ve created amazing memories working as a production assistant with some of the most talented people I’ve ever met on productions like Insecure, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Blackish just to name a few.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are always challenges, and the ones that stand out the most were in school, early job frustrations, setbacks to publishing my novel, and health scares on the road trip to Los Angeles.

I almost didn’t graduate high school because homeschooling wasn’t as structured in the 90s as it might be today. And I daydreamed a lot and was easily distracted. On my last school review, I remembered feeling ashamed that I was behind. I didn’t want it to reflect badly on my mom or the teachers from my organization. So, I got focused, which I carried into community college.

I passed high school but still had trouble with math and spent a lot of time in remedial classes. I even failed a couple of them twice. But then a family friend tutored me. I learned to study and better recognize formulas and I eventually earned my Associates Degree.

Then at university my grandfather died suddenly, which was a punch in the gut. He’d never see any of my future films. He’d never read the book that my Dad and I wrote. He’d never see my nieces and nephew, better yet my own kids. But I didn’t quit, even though I wanted to. Filmmaking didn’t seem so important anymore, but I knew he’d want me to finish what I started and not use his death as an excuse to pack it up. So, when it felt like I was going to fail my screenwriting class I fought against the panic. I got inspired to write the script backwards, and you know what? It worked and I aced the class. I got my Bachelor’s, and I still even use that writing method to this day.

In the workforce, I’ve faced challenges too. I’m thankful I left my first job in high school to go study film. I was valuable at my job, but it was going nowhere, and I spent so much time there I barely had time to look for other jobs. Sometimes I think I’d still be there to this day if I hadn’t switched gears. Better to at least be good at your job for everyone’s benefit than at your own expense.

And I was laid off from my videography job at the University of Maryland. It was fun, even though the team was small, but it was new, and we had a lot of ideas. But unfortunately, it wasn’t sustainable. It really hurt at the time because it was my first video and film job since college, and in Maryland the film industry is excruciatingly small. But it did open things up for me to move with my family to Los Angeles. Nothing was holding me back. I wouldn’t find work for the first ten months in LA mind you, but I was launched out now.

The film industry isn’t just what you know, it’s who you know. And some of my friends and family didn’t understand that, so that was hard on my mental state. My own dad would later admit that he didn’t really understand how my industry worked. There was no clear-cut path to landing gigs. Sure, network equals net worth, which he did understand, but if the network doesn’t have work for you, you’ve got to find another way. I wasn’t even getting interviews for retail jobs of which I’d had six years of experience! For the first ten months, I did manage to work on a couple of commercials, but the few interviews I got were all a bust, and I began to wonder if I’d made a mistake. I knew that even though I had the safety net of living with my family, it would still be tough. But I didn’t know it would be this tough. Add to that my dad being furloughed and our main source of income drying up since my mom was retired, and things started to get tense.

What got me through those challenges was indeed network support and timing. Eventually, a friend called with a steady job opportunity on a talk show, which is where I worked up until the pandemic. But thanks to connections I made there, I’d find work on various television sets and meet talented and promising production assistants working their way up to being tomorrow’s best actors, writers, and directors. Even in the early days of the pandemic, I’m grateful that networks used the vast resources at their disposal to make these film sets as safe as possible so that we could tell these funny, moving, and action-packed stories. It still blows my mind how blessed I was to be able to work despite a global pandemic and I’m really thankful.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I was enthralled with books as a kid. One day, my dad put a stack of papers in my hand, his secret manuscript, and asked me to rewrite the novel with him. I could have cried. I had no idea that a novelist was living right under my own roof! So, in the summer of 2015, my dad and I self-published our novel, A Noteworthy Tribute. It follows two young friends navigating the highs and lows of getting a project off the ground, in their case a band formed in Virginia Beach. As the characters try to cut their first album and hold the band together, they experience young love, friendships are tested, and family secrets are revealed. I’ll always treasure the memories of interviews and travel while writing the book with my dad. The novel was also the inspiration for my first television pilot when I started taking more of an interest in TV writing.

I’m a filmmaker as well. I collaborated with my dad again on our comedy web series, ShaneequaPA in 2017. Often times my dad would have the germ of an idea and then we’d combine forces. He’d explain the raw story and I’d use my talents to focus and refine it in the writing and filming process. ShaneequaPA follows a workaholic with aspirations to be an actor when he befriends a wise-cracking, no-nonsense artificial intelligence. We made about 10 or 12 episodes and had a great time. I’m also the editor for the educational YouTube channel, Adaptivities2, which launched the same year. The channel produces content for families showcasing videos made up of adapted and creative games customized for children living with Special Needs.

I share a lot of these experiences in my new podcast, Josiah’s Voice, which I started at the start of the 2020 pandemic. My past writing experiences, the college docu-series, and making a podcast with my friends helped shape Josiah’s Voice into what it is today. In it I chronicle my development as a writer of fiction and screen, review my favorite pieces of pop culture, as well as interview other creatives on their journey to success who have insights to share. Thanks to this show, I’m seeing more for myself. I’m not just a writer or a filmmaker, but an overall storyteller and creative, and the possibilities are limitless. That’s what I’m most proud of, the fact that I am protean, I can grow and expand like water. The realization that I don’t have to be one thing or tell a story one way has been very liberating for me and I’m excited to create different things with amazing people.

Lastly, what sets me apart from others is my peaceful energy. Don’t get me wrong, set life and life in general and throw me for a loop just like anybody else. But a lot of friends and fellow creatives on and off set have told me that I bring a sense of peace and calm, and that’s invaluable when time is ticking and we’re losing daylight. Others have done that for me and so I’ve absorbed that energy over the years because as they say, you can’t put a price on peace of mind, no matter how crazy the film set gets. And this quality helps me gauge what jobs are for me and what aren’t. I’ve passed on a lot of jobs because I was burnt out but needed the money or it just wasn’t the right fit. And I used to feel bad for passing on things. But then when I remember my network, I’d feel excited to recommend someone in my place. It was bittersweet to say “No” at first, but the bitterness lasted a millisecond when the right name and face came to mind. The high I’d get off that same friend calling me back later thanking me for the referral made me forget all about what I may have lost, which was nothing. And these same people look out for me now as they move up in their careers. When one eats we all eat.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can support my work by subscribing to Adaptivites2 and ShaneequaPVA on YouTube. I welcome you to buy the book my dad and I wrote, Noteworthy Tribute, on Amazon. And last but not least, subscribe to my podcast, Josiah’s Voice, available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and wherever you download your podcasts. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy my work and take something good away from it.

Pricing:

• Noteworthy Tribute – $10.99

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://anchor.fm/josiahsvoicepod
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josiahsvoicepod/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josiahsvoicepod/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JosiahsVoicePod
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Adaptivities2
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8D2ZPNbxq1RRukGkGViHjQ