

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Jawn aka “Director Steve” and Dani Condon.
Steve and Dani, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
STEVE: Since I was about four years old, there were two jobs I wanted and two humans I wanted to be. Steven Spielberg and David Lee Roth. However, being a director was always first. I remember watching the making of Empire Strikes Back and my young mind was blown. Growing up where I did (in a small labor town in Philadelphia) especially in the 80s, people would look at me like I had two heads when I told them “I wanted to make movies when I grow up”. I went to career day in 2nd grade as a director. I found a magazine with Spielberg’s photo from set and I copied his outfit. I made a slate board, a bullhorn, a script and storyboards. Not one kid understood what I was or even what a film director was. I felt like such an outcast, but at the same time, felt like I was on the perfect path to greatness. By 6th grade, at a time where even cheap cameras were expensive and a cell phone (yet alone a camera on a cell phone) didn’t exist, my parents bought me a PXL 2000. It was video camera that used tape cassettes to capture video. This beauty would become my campion and helped me create many, many horror films (which are hopefully never found). By 7th grade, I was in a rock band Kolor Mary Green and my Spielberg-Roth dreams were setting sail.
DANI: I’ve always had a love for movies, especially romance films (the good and the cheesy). As an English major, I began having such a passion for storytelling. Steve and I went to the same high-school but didn’t really get to know each other until after we finished college. When we met again, he was in the midst of finishing a script he wanted to direct. It was romance film, fun, very Cusack and I loved it. I told him you have to do this. And we did. It brought me into the film world and once you’re in it, there’s no turning back.
STEVE: Dani and I were married for a few months when I met Marc Platt (producer Wicked, LaLa Land, Drive). I was doing a documentary for The University of Penn. The subject matter was their alumni and Marc was one of my interviews. I had just completed my own documentary called The Borough and was hustling the Philly film scene, but it was feeling stale. Marc gave me his email and a month after that I was in LA on a trip and reached out to him. He was cool enough to let me stop by and there I was walking through Back to the Future’s town square on the Universal lot. SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER! Marc offered me an internship that fall and Dani and I jumped on it. We sold our house in Philly and celebrated our first wedding anniversary on the road to our new home in LA.
DANI: Right when we got to LA, a Philly contact of mine had told me to check out Benarroch Productions. I emailed the owner Chris Benarroch and by chance she needed a producer position filled immediately. I began handling the production of film premieres and festival events. It helped me develop so many skill sets that I was able to bring to the table as head producer when we launched The 10:10 Creative.
STEVE: Dani and I have always been hustlers, it’s part of our Philly upbringing and that hustle paid when we got to LA. We both got to dive right into jobs that would teach us, inspire us and motivate us more than ever to make the dream of having our film production company a realty. Right before we headed out to LA, we had pitched CMT a Nashville based TV concept called “Little Hollywood”. After of months of back and forth, they passed on the show, but we couldn’t stop believing in it. We decided to film the pilot for Little Hollywood independently and use it as a pitch piece. Once again, LA magic happened. While I was attending LA Shorts Fest, I ended up meeting the Creative Director of The Nashville Film Festival. He loved the idea of Little Hollywood, placed us in the festival and created a panel for us called The Evolution of a TV Pilot (and threw us a great party). We gained momentum and started screening Little Hollywood all over the US, including my favorite screening here in LA at the House of Blues Sunset (RIP).
DANI: The Nashville screening really broke things open for us. We had met singer-songwriters Shawn Lacy and Hobby Weiss in Music City and they allowed us to use their music in Little Hollywood, free of charge. In return Steve began directing music videos for them. These videos caught the eyes of country singer Phil Vassar who would soon hire us to create music videos and content for his new album. We would soon meet Old Dominion through the Vassar camp and the snowball effect began to happen.
STEVE: We were suddenly producing music videos like crazy and we still are. We began dividing our time between Nashville and LA when we began working closely with Old Dominion. We were lucky to be their film team in that moment because they never wanted to do the typical country music video. So, we found ourselves making Back to the Future parodies, homages to Scott Pilgrim (a movie I interned on for pre-production) and the video I consider my lover letter to Los Angeles, Snapback.
DANI: Over the past eight years we’ve worked with major and indie labels creating music visuals for Old Dominion, Brett Young, Travis Meadows, Charles Kelley, Rachel Wammack, Gavin DeGraw, Christian Lopez, Mando Saenz, Shawn Lacy, Audra McLaughlin, Sean McConnell and have been nominated for four CMT Music Video Awards.
STEVE: In 2020, although we’re continuing to film and create music videos, we have shifted back into feature film mode and we’re currently in pre-production with our film BROKEN STARS.
Great, 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?
STEVE: We’ve been very lucky. Opportunities have found us at times, but you still have to hustle. Starting any business is tough and comes with a multitude of challenges. Staying current, making money, booking gigs, paying taxes, finding a great crew, evolving creatively, finding passion in the work. We’ve hit plenty of roadblocks climbing up this mountain (as everyone does), but we’ve watched Rocky (all of them except Rocky 5) plenty of times to know…”It’s not about how hard you can hit; It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
DANI: This work can require long hours. We have a family. So finding that balance is always tricky. But we just keep believing in one another. We know each other’s talents and push each other. There’s always going to be a music video that you don’t land or a project that loses funding. That doesn’t mean you just throw in the towel. You just have to believe that it’s just opening up another opportunity. (And it always does)
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The 10:10 Creative – what should we know?
DANI: Currently, we are known best for being a music video production company. When we began booking work in Nashville we set out to shake things up a bit in the country music video world. We wanted to leave the idea of cornfields and trucks behind and begin thinking outside of the box for these country artists. We’re from the East Coast which gives us a certain vibe and Los Angeles has also inspired our work in so many ways. The idea was simple. Let’s just start making music videos that would draw audiences who don’t even like country music. We want these videos to be fun and tell a more unique story.
STEVE: A project we’re very proud of is Old Dominion’s “No Such Thing as a Broken Heart”. We filmed for three days. 14 locations in two days. Green screens on day three. Our DP Derek Oxford was a beast on this shoot and our BFF/actor Tommy Germanovich was literally a Beast (he plays Sasquatch). The shoot was fun, intense and insanely challenging. I got to pull inspiration from INXS and A-Ha videos that I grew up on; as well as films like The Royal Tenenbaums and The Big Lebowski. But the slam dunk came once we hit post-production with our visual effects editor Garrett DeLozier. We gave the video a Scott Pilgrim vs The World treatment and it just gave the visual the coolest vibe imaginable. I got to meet and work with Edgar Wright when I interned at Marc Platt’s and he was the coolest guy in the world. I love his work and hope to cross paths again and who knows maybe he saw the music video, one can hope. ***There’s a story here about my first week as an intern and helping Edgar yank a SIM card out of the very first edition iPhone with a paper clip at Quentin Taratino’s house…but that can be for 10:10 The Sequel***
DANI: No Such Thing as a Broken Heart was nominated for CMT Best group video in 2018.
STEVE: I blame election interference for us not winning.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
STEVE: I say, just staying tough when it comes to pulling off these projects. Work hard, but also be kind to everyone around you. We got in this business to have fun and it always bothered me when I’d work onset or for project where everyone is treated like s*#t, I don’t get that.
DANI: I tell our kids all the time: BE A GOOD PERSON! Same goes for our cast and crew. Be good people. Let’s change the idea that film production means that we have to be nasty. We’re creating a culture with The 10:10 Creative, we’re a family who cares about each other and set out to inspire one another.
Contact Info:
- Website: the1010creative.com
- Instagram: @the1010creative
- Facebook: /1010creative
- Twitter: @the1010creative
Image Credit:
Pro Photos by: Rachel Tenpenny @brasspennyphotography; iPhone photos @the1010creative
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