Today, we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Roman.
Jordan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hi! I’m Jordan Roman, and I’m a film writer, director, and producer. I originally hail from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and after completing my film degree at Elon University in North Carolina, I moved to LA to pursue feature film directing, which has been my passion since high school.
As a high schooler, I took a video class that transformed my life and rooted a deep love for filmmaking and the production process and every facet of it. I used to write, direct, and act in comedy sketches that I shot with my friends, and this is how I learned how to shoot and edit in the first place.
After making a short neo-noir film that I made in my hometown of Colorado Springs, using all of my friends as actors and crew, I quickly realized that the communal aspect of filmmaking was something I loved and having the end product that I could watch with everyone was the most validating component of the work.
Since moving to Los Angeles eight years ago, I have written and directed a wide variety of short films, music videos, and spec commercials, but I have always found myself at home directing dramas and horror films. The last eight years have been the best training ground in terms of scaling up the complexity of the shoot’s ambition of visual ideas and learning the craft of filmmaking from every angle.
I’m now developing Cuddle Buddies as a feature film, which is set to be my feature debut as a writer and director, and I couldn’t be more excited to continue telling this story. The conversation around human touch, vulnerability, and intimacy, or the lack thereof, is one that I feel is absolutely essential and is a uniquely human narrative.
I feel that exploring the human condition through the lens of vulnerability or its absence is what sets my work apart and is often the focus of the themes I’m continuously exploring in my own life, but through all of my work in turn. I genuinely love people, and making films is my way of meeting these new characters in ways I might not otherwise get to. Meeting new crew, actors, and collaborators is one of the most rewarding aspects of filmmaking.
If there is anything that I want people to know about me as an artist and as a person, it is that in everything I do, I truly aim to be genuine.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a pretty difficult road to embark on a film directing career. Perhaps the most tumultuous aspect of pursuing this career is not necessarily creating films or generating ideas or stories but navigating the incredibly competitive and uncertain terrain that is the industry side of filmmaking.
The market is ever-changing in terms of what films get greenlit and whether topics and genres are popular or not, and this vacillates all of the time. Specifically, the last few years with both the Writer and Actor strikes and Covid, it has been an even more difficult road of contraction and layoffs within the industry, but I believe this will always be inherently a part of what we do, and it’s more about building a sustainable and financially stable life as an artist, especially when the industry is shut down.
This even led me to create my own YouTube channel to discuss important topics about how to make films and share the information I wish I had learned in Film School so that, hopefully, the next generation of filmmakers can use this wisdom to help their careers in such an incredibly difficult industry to break into, with so much gatekeeping.
The one thing that drives me more than anything on this creative journey is the will to overcome hardship. Put another way, the resolve to face difficulties and conquer them anyway. I learned early on that a career in filmmaking is an incredibly arduous path and one littered with obstacles and barriers to prevent you from creating at the caliber you aspire to.
As I’ve made films throughout my time in LA, what I’ve learned is that any problem has a solution. It’s just about how much you care to solve it. Filmmaking is all about problem-solving, and upon every completion of a project, it inspires confidence within you that compels you to continue seeking out the goals that scare you.
In a career that’s built on risk, I’ve found that embracing it and seeking it out will lead to an exponentially higher rate of growth. Without risk, there is no growth, and without growth, there’s no reward. In many ways, my filmmaking career has acted as a mirror to my personal life that runs parallel, and the confidence and overcoming of adversity within my career have elegantly translated into the same desire to overcome the hardship within my own life.
In this way, I think my driving mission has informed and enhanced my life in the most holistic sense.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in narrative filmmaking as a writer and director, and specifically, my niche is character dramas and psychological horror films.
I would say I am known for telling stories that center on protagonists grappling with their own sense of identity, vulnerability, and intimacy, or lack thereof. I’m curious about the human component of people and in exploring the inner psyche, and my films often ask the question, “What makes us uniquely human?”
I think my interest in combining the surreal and experimental visual styles of filmmaking with early 2000s-inspired character dramas and filmmaking techniques is what sets me apart and has become my unique brand as a writer and director.
I’m the most proud of my short film Cuddle Buddies, a short I wrote, directed, edited, and produced about a single mother who works as a professional cuddler for a living. The amount I learned making this short was more than I could ever articulate and by far the most challenging thing I have ever completed.
As a result, I’m incredibly proud of how it turned out, but I’m even more proud of the discussion it generated when I screened it at festivals and locally around Los Angeles.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why.
Integrity. Above all, including the art, it is important to make it with integrity and respect for other people, especially actors or crew members who are collaborators in making the film happen.
I’ve never understood artists who create films or artistic pieces that stress the need for compassion, empathy, equity, and inclusion, and then, in real life, they practice none of these traits as a person. To me, it always rendered the art more disingenuous, and I couldn’t rectify that they weren’t living what they preached in their work.
That could just be the way that I view art and artists, but to me, it became especially important to uphold the values I was examining in my own work. For example, if I am making a film about compassion and vulnerability, then I had better lead the set with those same traits as a director and be in a position of leadership.
I’ve seen it firsthand, working for a director who abused his power for the worst, and all too often, we hear those stories about directors, actors, producers, etc., who are awful to work with. My mission was never to become that way, no matter how much success I achieved.
Personal character and integrity matter more to me than making any film ever will, and this only becomes more important as I get older.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ominousentertainment.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joro719/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JORO420
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanroman/
- Twitter: https://x.com/JORO44
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jordanroman4444
