Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason & Blue.
Jason & Blue, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
We’ve both always been creative and storytellers. We did not grow up together but even as children we both were making up stories, acting them out, convincing our friends to act them out with us and eventually we got our hands on cameras and those stories became our first attempts at movies. We both decided we wanted to be film directors as teenagers and followed that path to Columbia College which is where met. You don’t need to go to film school to have a career in film/ video but it worked for us and we both graduated with unhindered ambitions to direct.
Realizing we needed a strong portfolio to make a living directing but wanting to work in the industry while that was built up, Jason began working in the camera department and eventually as a DP for various reality & travel shows and Blue began working in the production office for various TV shows & movies in town as well as the art department and eventually as a Production Designer for Ads and branded content. All the while we were directing together on sporadic jobs and personal projects when we could.
Eventually we had enough experience, and a portfolio that was strong, and made the jump into directing full time. We direct commercials and branded content and are currently producing and directing a feature length documentary in our spare time.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
We love stories and appreciate good imagery, we always make sure to not have one without the other. We make a living as commercial film directors and we love it. Commercials are like short cinematic movies and we’re constantly pushing to create memorable stories and beautiful images that flow with the brand’s message.
When we’re not making commercials we are making films. We’re currently in the final stages of production for a documentary called Dawn Dusk we’ve been working on for the past two years. The documentary is about a local leather bag designer and her shop, CHC. We tell the story of how she found her artistic voice through the process of forgiving her brother-in-law who murdered her sister. The doc showcases the incredible beauty that has come forth from her art and life, for instance, CHC now donates 10% of its time and income to a domestic violence shelter in Chicago called WINGS. We hope audiences will be moved deeply and know that light shines in the darkest places.
We are mainly narrative filmmakers (this documentary was a surprise to us). We love working with a narrative script, developing the characters, and working with actors to embody those characters. We are not experimental filmmakers. Our Ads and our passion projects are focused on people. Film is an opportunity for the audience to experience something outside of their day-to-day and if we’ve left the audience with an emotion, a thought, or a new perspective that they wouldn’t have otherwise had, then we think we’ve done our job as artists.
The stereotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
We never made a five year plan but somehow followed one to get to where we are today. The two things we followed were/are – even if you aren’t in the exact role or the job that you want, get into the industry doing something. Maybe it’s assisting the person you want to be, maybe you have to start by doing the grunt work of the job, whatever it is take a step toward the role you want to be in and work hard. Don’t get a job as a barista or nanny, get a job that puts you around the people who are “making it.” Then, in your free time, as much as you possibly can, work for free at the level you want to be at – whether that’s painting, making movies, acting, graphic design, interior design, etc. Create for yourself and for other people for free doing the thing you love and build your portfolio. Then as you are building your portfolio you’ll eventually be able to have that conversation with the people you’ve been doing paid work for where you can say, “Hey, here’s what I’m really passionate about, would you consider giving me a try in this role?”
That’s how we started directing. We approached the companies we were working for with the work we’d done on the side and said hey, we know you know us as this way, but would you consider hiring us as directors? It was a scary thing, but they said yes.
One more thought – don’t get distracted. When our goal was to direct full time, and we knew that was what we wanted over anything else, there were things that came our way that could have lead us down other paths that would have taken us longer to get to where we wanted to go. At one point, before we had made the jump, we were considering getting a studio space. It was a fun and exciting thing to consider and dream about, but the more we seriously thought about it we realized we were getting ahead of ourselves and instead focused all our energy into making the jump into directing. Only a couple months later we were able to make that jump.
Going back to creating for yourself – this is something we are still doing. Keep creating for yourself! Even when you go full time into the role you want it doesn’t mean you’ll always be able to create what you want. Keep creating for yourself and that will cause people to see what’s really inside you and they’ll eventually pay you for it. Like with our documentary, up until now we were making it entirely on our own money, then we applied for a grant and they saw we had something good and gave us that grant, and we hope to gain even more funding as we continue to work on it and eventually take it to festivals. And we know once it is finished that it will kinda be a statement of hey look what we can do, this is what’s inside of us, this is some of our potential.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can see our collected work on our website, or per piece wherever that commercial or video is airing. We also have an Instagram where you can follow us and see updates about our current work. That’s probably the best way to keep up with our process.
We will be releasing more about our documentary soon. Again, follow us on Instagram to see updates about that!
The best way you can support us and our work is to follow us and watch our work. When we start sharing our documentary, you can support us by coming to screenings and sharing about it.
Contact Info:
- Website: jasonandblue.com
- Email: jasonandblue@gmail.com
- Instagram: @jasonandblue
Image Credit:
All images are screen grabs from our work.
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