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<\/a><\/p>\n1. How did you get into filmmaking?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Jonathan:<\/b> Well, I got into filmmaking when I was in undergrad. Completely left field for me as I was originally wanting to go into law. I was going to be an entertainment lawyer, and that’s what my undergraduate major was. It was in pre-law, and also political science with a minor in dance. Along my journey, I had a job on campus where I worked in the media department and I was trained on studio camera equipment, lighting, editing for clients, and different live events on campus.<\/p>\n
After the first year of working there, I noticed there was a lot of equipment not being utilized and I wanted to take advantage of that. So, I started making my own content. I started doing little spec commercials and then did music video remakes. From that point on, I picked up momentum and started getting more recognition on campus. I was soon coined the nickname \u201cJR The Supastar\u201d on campus because of my artistry and productions.<\/p>\n
My mentor Michael Mimms, who was also my employer at the time, gave me the challenge of creating a film. I already had a background in writing short stories from middle school so I was a pretty strong and confident writer, but I had never written a script prior.<\/p>\n
When I completed my first feature script, I let a few of my co-workers, who are indie filmmakers, read it and give me advice on it. That turned into my first feature which is Slasher, available for streaming on Reveel now.<\/a><\/p>\n Slasher took off for me. The feature scored praise and recognition from various film festivals and audience members during public screenings. This reinforced belief within myself as an artist and that I could really pursue this creative journey. And so I decided to proceed with my creative journey in LA. I applied to film school and by the grace of God got accepted into Loyola Marymount University.<\/p>\n Jonathan:<\/b> I’ve grown a lot from Slasher<\/a> to Man Down<\/a>. Just the scope of the film. One thing everybody pays attention to is the look of your film. I\u2019m a visual storyteller and during my time in film school, a few of my earlier projects didn’t allow dialogue. I had to learn how to tell a story without speaking and I feel like that is very important. Now with my current projects, if a scene doesn’t need any dialogue, I\u2019m not going to write it. We\u2019re going to express it instead with emotion, body language, or visual imagery.<\/p>\n I was growing on all fronts as a filmmaker. In between undergrad and grad school, I was a substitute teacher. I taught school for about three years. And in that time, I learned how to speak and be very patient in that journey dealing with children. I discovered that I had a keen skill for leadership and dealing with my students aided in my passion for working with actors.<\/p>\n I began singing, dancing, and acting at the age of 4. I would eventually shift from being talent in the foreground to transitioning behind the scenes. I feel like I got to control the board more creatively.<\/p>\n In my earlier days as a guerrilla filmmaker, I was doing everything. I was DPing and directing simultaneously. I just didn\u2019t know the difference. Once I went to film school, I started learning that each of these is a separate role. And that\u2019s one thing you don\u2019t know a lot of the time when you\u2019re starting. Since film school, I discovered that I enjoy directing more but if I had to put it in order, it would be director, writer, and producer.<\/p>\n Jonathan: <\/b>As a creative in Louisville, Kentucky, opportunities weren\u2019t available like how they are now. Being a creative was a distant dream, especially for a young black boy. People would say, \u201cThat\u2019s a one in a million chance. You live here. They\u2019re out there and no one\u2019s gonna come here to discover you.\u201d I was always told, \u201cNo one\u2019s gonna come here and find you. You gotta go out and make yourself available.\u201d So, I put that into my creative journey.<\/p>\n Once I graduated high school, I originally didn\u2019t plan to go to college. I just wanted to be a musical artist. I was a singer and dancer. I wanted to be like Chris Brown, Ginuwine, and Usher. One of those types of artists who sing, dance, and put out creative music videos but that dream wasn\u2019t taking off for me.<\/p>\n In my high school years, I started getting into debate clubs and politics. At the time, Hurricane Katrina was happening and such. So, a lot of conversations on race and relations were happening in the classroom. I started becoming an advocate because I saw people around me that called themselves friends and allies, whose words and actions didn’t match being a friend and ally.<\/p>\n Jonathan: <\/b>The role I found that I just didn\u2019t gel with was 1st AC. It just makes me nervous because pulling focus is not easy. I needed time to figure out pulling focus and then people are not patient, so they get mad, have attitudes, and say sarcastic things to you, kind of heckling you a little bit. It just makes me a little uncomfortable because this is not something I mastered right off the bat and people are making you feel like you\u2019re not good enough. So, that role makes me feel uncomfortable, but everything else, I feel confident enough to perform.<\/p>\n Jonathan: <\/b>I’m all about raw, real emotion. I was taught early on in school to make things authentic. Things translate better on screen when they’re authentic. I want things to come from a real place, even if it’s not your experience as the character.<\/p>\n I practice different methods of being trained as a director. One of my favorites is substitution. I like to have my actors do substitution, which means finding something that is triggering to get you to a certain emotion or feeling and then starting from there.I do those exercises even in the casting room. I just have conversations and pull out uncomfortable things from their lives or from something. And I kind of go off if they’re willing to be open about it or share or how comfortable they are. If they’re not comfortable with emotion, then drama is not for them. Because you have to really sell that, especially if you have to cry. That’s hard and not everybody can cry on cue. There are a lot of actors that are trained to cry on cue because they can go there, they know what their substitution is, but as a director, it’s my job to bring out the best performance in you.<\/p>\n So, just making sure people are willing to go there, if that makes sense. That they are courageous, they are unapologetic, they are not scared to play with certain things or to do certain things, in the realm of the story. Performance is what I’m looking for, not somebody who’s just pretty. Because modeling is a whole different industry.<\/p>\n Jonathan:<\/b> Music is definitely a great influence. A lot of times, ideas are influenced by what I listen to. I know I have a film on Reveel called Breathe.<\/a> I was listening to an artist named August Alsina, one of his songs called Song Cry is an emotional song about dealing with trauma and thinking about suicide as a Black male. That is something that’s hard. That’s really heavy in our community and it’s not really talked about.<\/p>\n That song just took me to places that I wasn’t even aware of listening to it. The way the music arrangement flowed and even how his pain was just in the song raw, it made me cry. I definitely tap into spaces like that to get inspired during writing. Music really influences a lot of my work. And then in Post Production, you have a score that adds to it, retooling that emotion that you captured while you made this in a different way.<\/p>\n Image taken from the short film Man Down’<\/p><\/div>\n Jonathan: <\/b>One of the films that inspired me to tell this story was The Hate U Give. Once again told from the victim\u2019s perspective, but there was a character in there that rapper\/actor Common played. Common plays Carlos, a black cop who happens to be more of a B-character to the story. The film was such an interesting story because Carlos, who is Lisa’s (Regina Hall) brother and uncle to Starr (Amandla Stenberg). So they have a conflict with the police shooting of Starr’s childhood friend Khalil (Algee Smith) and the gang violence in the neighborhood. It\u2019s two opposite ends. Carlos is trying the best he can to stay neutral but also wants to protect his family. That was something that was so interesting and I wanted to tap into it from a different vantage point. I feel like there are enough stories telling the story of the victim.<\/p>\n I was also impacted by the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. The character of Jerome Davis is a reflection of that same medium of a person in my story and that was actually the first character I wrote when I was developing Man Down. Jerome was first and then I kind of built around him with who the cops were, what their relationships were, and then built out from there.<\/p>\n It\u2019s such an important story to tell with a haunting twist of something following you. Or just the guilt of murdering someone who is your skin folk. Someone you see yourself in and not being an ally to the community.<\/p>\n Jonathan: <\/b>I\u2019ve been dealing with race throughout my entire life. I think that makes me different from a lot of people who are born and raised in California because I\u2019ve noticed a difference in black people on the west coast. Someone who\u2019s from the South, I\u2019m from Louisville, Kentucky, which is one of the first southern states and I was called the N-word at the age of seven by my next-door neighbor.<\/p>\n I learned quickly that I\u2019m black every day. Even to this day, once I step outside of my apartment, I know I\u2019m black. I know I can\u2019t act in certain ways or that\u2019s going to bring attention. And that the police are often weaponized against us if we \u201cget out of line\u201d.<\/p>\n A lot of times oppression is the lack of inclusion. That\u2019s why there are so many new initiatives and different programs I\u2019ve seen since 2020. Since that year, all my work started getting more traction. I feel like diversity is still just a checkbox right now. It\u2019s not really something that\u2019s being made permanent and anything that we do, from entertainment to jobs. Hopefully, in the next five to six years, it can be something that is permanent but right now, it\u2019s just trendy.<\/p>\n Jonathan: <\/b>I\u2019m a bit of a workaholic. When I moved to LA. I sacrificed a lot of my personal life. I used to be a person that liked watching too much TV. I had a whole itinerary of shows and programs to watch when I first came to campus. But my busy schedule saw otherwise.<\/p>\n The film school workload was very heavy. It took a lot of my time and that kind of stick-to-itiveness has stuck with me through this journey where I barely watch TV now. I have to make time for down time, me time, personal time to just not stress myself out. Then I divulge that into taking time out to watch TV or binge-watch shows. But then I feel like I\u2019m not doing enough and I\u2019ll go back to the laptop. Every time I finish a project, I\u2019m like, I\u2019m gonna take a break and then I never do. I\u2019m off to the next one or someone hits me up with a new idea.<\/p>\n Jonathan:<\/b> Art is life. Without art, I\u2019d be dead. I’m very connected to art. As an artist, it’s important that we reflect the times. Therefore, that’s a lot of my work. I do my social justice work, I use my platform to not just entertain, but to lighten, uplift and inspire. And that’s my responsibility. Whenever you have a platform, you do have a responsibility to the people.<\/p>\n Jonathan: <\/b>I\u2019ll give you three films that I got at my top. Jurassic Park is the first one. Because Steven Spielberg was so amazing at creating a classic moment. Just seeing the dinosaurs walk out on the field for the first time. When Ellie and Alan come out and see them. That was just such a moment for cinema and CGI technology. We had not seen that kind of technological advances in cinema ever before. Just to see that as a kid in the cinema was amazing. I\u2019ll never forget that experience. So that really touched me as a storyteller before I even knew I was gonna be one.<\/p>\n My second one would be Terminator Two: Judgment Day. That was amazing just to see. The Terminator turning into liquid metal and killing people. That was once again something we had really never seen before. It just kinda took your breath away, in a sense. It topped the first movie for sure.<\/p>\n My third film would be Kill Bill: Volume One. I love Quentin Tarantino. That\u2019s Spielberg, Cameron, and Tarantino. Some of the greats that I was inspired by.<\/p>\n2. You are a prolific filmmaker. How have you grown specifically as a director over time?<\/b><\/h4>\n
3. How did your background in law contribute to your career in the film industry?<\/b><\/h4>\n
4. You have worn many hats on film productions. Is there a role you struggle with?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n5. How do you approach casting and bringing out the best performances on set?<\/b><\/h4>\n
6. Music is a common element found in your films. How does music influence your creative process when coming up with ideas?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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<\/a>7. In your short film<\/b> Man Down<\/b><\/a>, why did you feel this story needed to be told from the perspective of a black police officer?<\/b><\/h4>\n
8. Race has been at the forefront of many conversations in Hollywood. How does race influence your POV as a storyteller?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n9. Creating so many films every year, how do you find the motivation and keep yourself from being burnt out?<\/b><\/h4>\n
10. You seem to be a man of many talents in singing, filmmaking, and dancing, so my question is what does art mean to you?<\/b><\/h4>\n
11. Here\u2019s a fun one. What are some of your favorite films and TV shows?<\/b><\/h4>\n
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