Daily Inspiration: Meet Jordan Brady

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Brady.

Hi Jordan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory. 
After years of stand-up comedy, I started directing a Saturday morning kids’ show on NBC called “Name Your Adventure” hosted by Mario Lopez and myself. As I moved into writing and directing promos and later feature films, one genre of filmmaking seemed to really take hold: commercial directing. 

Right after my first feature film, “Dill Scallion,” came out, HKM, a successful production company, signed me and cut a trailer to sell my skills. Luckily, the mockumentary boom in commercials around the turn of the millennia hit, and I was working non-stop. This is 25 years and 1300 spots ago. 

After being signed to a few great production companies run by terrific Executive Producers, I started a shop, Superlounge, with two great partners. We did a lot of fun business, and they taught me the business side, like getting my MBA in production. 

True Gentleman Industries, Inc., aka True Gent, is the culmination of 25 years making commercials, combined with the desire to produce with my wife, director Jeannette Godoy, my son, director/cinematographer Ben Brady, and my friend Exec Producer Kim Bradshaw, and we just signed the terrific wife/husband directing duo Morgan Bond and Nick Grisham. We also sponsor the “Respect The Process” podcast produced and edited by my son Jake Brady. We’re literally a boutique family business. 

We’ve been producing national commercials since 2018 but operating with zero fanfare. In 2023, True Gent came out of the closet singing and dancing! I’m super happy with the momentum making fun work with ad agencies, offering that national filmmaking polish with attentiveness and white glove experience. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I consider myself fortunate just to be asked to bid on any job. Always nice to be asked to the dance. Luckily, we bid on a few budget commercial shoots, but we’ve had to figure out a way to be even more nimble with small budgets. The expectations and level of production cannot suffer. Everything we do needs that level of premium polish. 

The biggest challenge is the erosion of the middle-class budget in filmed advertising. 

I love social media content and it’s been a fertile training ground for the next generation of filmmakers. In 2015, I founded Commercial Directing Film School. to teach filmmakers the ins and outs of working with advertising agencies and brands. It’s a very particular world, so we teach soft skills, career guidance and old fashion filmmaking voodoo. 

My film school has been a great way to introduce me to new talent. It’s how I met Morgan & Nick, the dynamic duo of commercial directing. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My specialty as a commercial director is comedy dialogue and the subgenre of comedy celebrity spokesperson. The sub-sub-genre of that would be comedy spots with celebrities talking to camera in front of cars. Phew! 

One theory I hold dearly is making comedy should be fun for the our actors, crew and agency/client folks. Another philosophy is “fix it in prep” because that’s where the work is done. The shoot itself is game day. 

I like to think I am to work with, but my reel has to do the heavy lifting. When collaborating with the advertising agency creative team, my mindset is that I’m the midwife helping bring a healthy baby into this cruel world. They and their clients are the expected parents. This approach means being brutally honest about what’s working and what’s not and always having the commercials’ best interest in mind. 

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Since the pandemic, I learned that prep, collaboration, and communication can be better attained through Zoom check-ins. Instead of email chains or waiting until the production team is all in one physical place, we can jump on a Zoom. 

I love to do check-ins with the agency team to just go over casting before our callbacks. To explain location choices, and key set design elements, for example. Talking for 10 minutes can save days of back and forth. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://truegent.tv/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truegentlemanindustries/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truegentleman/
• Other: https://commercialdirectingfilmschool.com/

Image Credits
Ben Brady
Patrick Reynolds
MK McGehee
Jeannette Godoy
MK McGehee