Today we’d like to introduce you to Jayson Johnson.
Hi Jayson, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My film journey started some years ago when my then-college girlfriend (now ex) and I made a bet whoever found the first noteworthy job the other would follow them to that location. I’m originally from the Chicagoland area so I very much wanted to stay in the Midwest but agreed to the terms with one caveat, I’ll move anywhere with the exception of California; I really don’t want to go there. We didn’t agree or shake on this but just kinda moved on without mentioning this stipulation any further. And with that, we got started. Over the next few months, I focused my search around the Chicagoland area but found nothing. Then, out of nowhere, my ex-girlfriend landed a job six-figure job that would pay to relocate us to The Napa Valley. I lost the bet and I knew it. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up so I reluctantly packed my things and headed out to Napa. Once I arrived, I sent out my resume to a job recruiter who contacted me that day for an interview. That was fast! It took months to get a reply in Chicago and now within two days, I had an interview lined up. The next day I went to the interview which happened to be Francis Ford Coppola winery.
Even though I knew nothing about Napa or the art of wine they hired me and soon after, I started as a wine steward. But after a few months into the job, I was called into the human resources, I thought I was in deep shit but they explained they liked me but felt I was terrible at presenting wine so they moved me to the marketing department which is where I got a chance to work with Mr. Coppola on his “Wine, Daydreams and Memories” roadshow as a propmaster. That experience took me across the country to fifteen different cities between LA to NY. When we returned Mr, Coppola asked me if I wanted to be famous? I didn’t understand why he asked me this so I kneejerk answered “yes”, to which he frowned and we never talked about this again. A few years later, I left Coppola after working at his film festival and producing a few small in-house film projects. I now wanted to be a filmmaker so started working on short films I found on Craigslist. I learned what I could from each project and eventually landed a job with Indigo Films who produced content for Discovery ID, Animal Planet, and National Geographic. There I honed my writing skills and grew my confidence to write, direct and produce my own content. I left Indigo Films in 2017 and made my first short film “Redress” shortly thereafter which went on to be selected in 18 film festivals. Since then, I’ve made six additional films which have gone on to appear in seventy-five film festivals globally, winning five times.
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?
No. My journey has been filled with many twists, turns, and hardships. Once I decided I wanted to become a filmmaker in 2011 it’s been a wild ride where I’ve moved over 40 times, been homeless on three separate occasions, been chased by the police, and on and on. Lol, I can see why many people give up on becoming a filmmaker because it is a difficult profession to choose but I feel if you really love something and it’s important enough to you, then you’ll do it despite the hardships, odds, or related struggles.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a filmmaker who writes, directs, and produces narrative film projects. To date, I’ve written/directed/produced nine short film projects that have appeared in over seventy-five film festivals globally. I also have worked on several noteworthy feature film projects such as “Sorry to Bother You”, “Blindspotting”, ABC’s miniseries “When We Rise” and many shows with Discovery ID, “I Almost Got Away With It”, “Wives With Knives”, “Bikinis & Boardwalks”, “Sex Sent Me to the Slammer”.
I think what sets me apart is a couple of things… the first being is I am in love with the process of making films! Before I even thought of becoming a director, I spent time working and learning each position in film production. I’ve swept the floors, balanced the books, found locations, and even cleaned the toilets but in each experience, think this is one of the reasons why I’ve had some success with my projects. In any given film project, there’s a lot of people from different backgrounds working with you so if you can relate with them and find common ground it just helps them to feel more involved and engaged in the project.
Secondly and probably more important is I’m very persistent. I’ve had so many ups and downs in my film journey and could and somedays think I should have thrown in the towel a long time ago, but I’ve come to realize that it’s not just me on this journey. You see when I started 11 years ago, I created a Facebook page called the Jayson Johnson Show with the goal of documenting my film journey. Whenever I get a new job, accolade, or bit of inspiration I post to the page and have a few followers who regularly check in. Some of the followers on that page have become aspirational filmmakers themselves so I not only owe it myself but I also owe it to them to carry on regardless of whether things are going well or not. At the end of the day, it’s faith that this will all work out in the end and I’m grateful I have fans and God for that push.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I think this is a very exciting time in the film industry. Technology has played an incredible part in moving the industry forward with streaming, smaller cameras, etc… and in some respects backward (Lol, kids put the cellphones down). But moving forward, I can see films playing in the Metaverse and viewers becoming even more immersed in the film process with the purchasing of in film NFTs.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://jaysonjohnsonproducer.weebly.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strikefivefilms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jayson.johnson1/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuA1f5lDGEW08uCZZAfivjw
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3628445/
