Today we’d like to introduce you to Jena Serbu.
Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you’d like.
I’ve had a creative journey that if one were to plot on a chart would resemble the life of a randomly hospitalized mental patient.
I grew up in, pre-internet, rural Pennsylvania until my fourteen-year-old curiosity propelled me out into the world. Too short sighted to look for a mentor, I wandered aimlessly about the country compiling a catalog of inglorious characters. By my late teens I found myself embroiled in a bad relationship with narcotics. Through the combined efforts of my brave mother and a William S. Burroughs look-alike I shed my dismal addiction, four months before my eighteenth birthday. It was the year Bill Clinton became president, LA would riot over the brutal beating of Rodney King and Barney was to become a purple television sensation.
In the summer of 1997 I made a movie called “Leftovers” with someone from the nefarious part of my former life. We sold everything we owned, shot on film in NYC. He produced and acted, I wrote and did a fair impersonation of directing. It would be my first great creative stumble and keeping true to my nature, I ran for the “hills.”
On the down side of the creative sine wave I chose a formal education in economics and signed up for the safety-net of 9 to 5 America. That decade of corporate toil would prove to be the most self-actualizing, creatively explosive years of my life (so far). Kevin Smith taught my generation to be brave and technology gave us the means. All we needed was hutzpah and heart. I’m from Philly. We may have the worst accent, but we’ve got heart and hutzpah for DAAAAYYYYSSS.
Together, with my creative family, we formed the Tina Yother’s Army and became a force of something nature-like, producing far beyond our means and knowledge. From an over-the-top feature, Eye of the Tiger; Thrill of the Fight (2009), starring Tamika Simpkins, Dana Michael and Mark A. Dahl, which we shot while living on the grounds of the Philadelphia Art Museum; to the relentlessly satirical fringe show, “Disaster the Musical,” starring Brea Bee performed in a DIY three story relief-style tent, a stone’s throw from the Kimmel Center.
From 2003-2012 the army produced something like ten stage plays/events, over twenty short films (a few travelled globally), a couple “features,” a handful of music videos and a weekly PBR sponsored Drunken Spelling Bee that got so out of hand, our kickass venue, Bob and Barbaras (A MUST PATRONIZE Philly DESTINATION), was ruthlessly harassed by the city and had to shut down for a month.
And then Corporate America and I broke up, and the army set down their weapons.
I landed my first real entertainment industry job in the art department on Amish Mafia circa 2012. I learned what a production designer was. Yes, I had no idea that job existed, that’s how ridiculously inbred the army’s bubble had been. It was the year Facebook went public, changing our lives forever. Sandy destroyed the Jersey Shore and Obama became President.
In the buggy-filled farmland of Pennsylvania I met Hunter Ryan and then later the next year, his brother David Ryan. By 2005 we were shooting SMARTASS, starring Joey King, Ronen Rubinstein, Trevante Rhodes, and Yvette Nicole Brown. I had written the screenplay years before when a producer read another work of mine (or rather didn’t read it) and told me to write what I know… so I wrote about the night someone sold me in my sleep when I was fifteen.
I am beyond grateful to have gotten the chance to work with the incredibly talented team of people involved in the production. All of the crew came on board thanks to Amy Jarvela and the cast thanks to the indomitable, Matthew Lessall. I am infinitely proud of the film. It’s been a magnificent lesson on the craft and art of storytelling.
In 2019 I joined Sharon “Rocky” Roggio to help write and share the story of 1946: The mistranslation that shifted culture, a documentary about the first time the word homosexual entered the bible. More than ever, in this era of Trump supporters, conspiracy theories and Covid deniers we need the voice of truth. Kathy Baldock and Ed Oxford break down the real, on this come to Jesus* (pun) story of how a few translators mistakenly turned homosexuality into a sin only 75 years ago. It is a must-see story of culture and politics as much as it is about religion.
In these ten seconds, I work predominantly as a production designer, creating worlds, pulling off the impossible and living in a dream of exhaustion where the highs are as equally exhilarating as the lows are necessarily uncomfortable. A fortunate career that affords me the ability to help others rise, as I rise.
With immeasurable luck I’ve built a wonderful life with a cadre of talented, hilarious and brilliant creators. I write in every available space, educating myself, pushing through my limitations and self-imposed boundaries; continually building toward my goal of becoming a show runner.
Surviving difficulty is what builds character. Building a world from the proverbial ashes of failure proves the character one’s created.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I think the biggest struggle for all of us, is us. The battle of me against me is not only the most difficult but the most consistent.
My Grandmother would carry her small Schnauzer, shuffling across the orange shag carpet of my childhood home, ignoring that other humans were in the room… and whine. We were all subject to her constant white-noise of high-pitched complaining. By age six, I had learned to ignore it. Now, as an adult, I call on that once refined skill to manage the anti-me voice inside my head. Some days it works and others I bite the bullet and rely on the cliché that “this too shall pass.”
The second biggest struggle I’ve found is the business of creativity. We don’t get to go big without it, but it is by far the most difficult part of the game.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Writer/Director and a Production Designer. I specialize in narrative storytelling, imaginary worlds and period pieces. As a writer, I focus on character journeys full of strangeness, beauty, anti-heroes and transformation. I understand the holistic collaborative nature of filmmaking. I have a background in business & risk solutions and delight in taking on the greatest of artistic challenges. I’m a writer and director as well as an artist with a full understanding of producing. I am an invaluable navigator of strange places and strange people.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I have a myriad of original projects at different stages and am currently looking for producers & co-writers.
I am a working Production Designer and am available to discuss representation.
IMDB LINK: Jena Serbu
Ongoing project: The Documentary, “1946”. We are moving into post-production and need additional financing & resources. The story is fascinating, enlightening and necessary.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: http://jenaserbu.com; serbuproductiondesign.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenaserbu
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1946themovie/
- Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/143946329
- Other: serbuproductiondesign.com
Image Credits
SAMUEL EMERSON
