Jayson Johnson is a prolific filmmaker who grew up in a household where his creativity in the fine arts and storytelling was encouraged. Like every other kid back then, he watched a lot of television and read comic books. And to help him find a career in this world, he took all the prerequisite courses in college. However, to truly pursue his dreams, he had to move from Chicago where he worked as a bill collector to San Francisco in hopes he can get his foot in the door! Even though this decision was mostly influenced by his girlfriend at the time, there must have been a part of him wanting to connect to the artistic collective that lived in the City by the Bay.
That’s because she wasn’t fully supportive of his dreams. And what he did to prove to himself that he can do it (than show this lady off) is a story in itself! “My first job was at Francis Ford Coppola Winery, which ultimately gave me a chance to eventually work with him on some creative writing,” revealed Johnson.
Although he fibbed his way through the interview process, he was hired and started as a wind steward. But ultimately, this role wasn’t for him and human resources shuffled him around, and he did other work. He wouldn’t meet his boss until eight months later.
“I had no idea I’d be directly working with him,” continued Jayson, “He was one of my favourite film directors. Here’s this guy that I grew up watching The Godfather and Apocalypse Now–I didn’t connect the dots that you could be a filmmaker and a business entrepreneur at the same time.”
Coppola knew there was something special about this guy. They worked together as part of a travelling roadshow to promote the wine (he was the prop master). After the show Wine, Daydreams and Memories finished its tour, Coppola asked Johnson, “So do you want to be famous?” The moment was unexpected. It was a surreal time for this young man. “I didn’t know what to say. I thought that the answer that he wanted to hear was, ‘yes.’ So I said that, and he had this look of disappointment that I’ll never forget,” said Johnson.
After taking on a few other jobs for the company that included behind-the-scenes work for Coppola’s film festival and even working on a few short films under his guidance, he knew he had to get more practical experience. “So I left. I took a job at Napa Valley College as a teacher’s assistant. It was part time, and it allowed me to go on film gigs as an actor. It allowed me access to their computer lab where I would just pour myself into learning Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Apple Motion and so on.
“I’m still learning the ropes. I feel like in life, you I really never stop learning; it took me three years before I was ready and confident to go to a studio and ask for a job,” said Johnson.
He went to Indigo films and gave that elevator pitch. One of the staff there gave him that chance, and she offered the position of an associate director for a project they were making for Discovery. And from that one big break to another, he kept on giving his all, being that yes man and by the time he believed he could go solo, he said he still had a lot more to learn. He even freelanced as a location scout and said it was tough not to step on toes. He knew that not everyone would accept him.
One of his early short films that he wanted to get right is Redress (YouTube link). What this tale looks at is how a Caucasian family man deals with losing his wife and daughter to an African-American drunk driver. Just how he’s reacting is to be expected. But ultimately, will he be compelled to make the deal with the devil or do something else to deal with his grief? The way it ends will have people talking.
This work was financed through crowdfunding, and with $22,000 as a budget, he hired a full film crew and have some money left to get it screened at film festivals. This piece got a fair amount of positive press due to how it dealt with racism. “That’s always something prevalent here in the United States and probably even in the western society, and we thought about reverse engineering what goes on,” said Johnson.
The response to this piece was positive, “And at that point I said, wow, this is really a positive step forward; I have a career in film!” said Johnson.
When he thinks back about that former girlfriend, he said that even now, those words she said still hurt. As for whether he’s taken some of that angst and turned that into stories to show others how to heal, he doesn’t think that’s the case. Instead, what he loves about the process is to focus on the human drama that goes on in not so normal circumstances. Perhaps that’s how T.H.O.T. (YouTube link) developed. It concerns men at a barbershop in San Francisco’s Fillmore District saying odd things about a girl, whom Kev is getting ready to go on a date with. But he’s not sure after all the gossip he’s hearing.
While some of this filmmaker’s works are appropriately themed for Black History Month (and others not), sometimes the stories he’s crafted show what he feels the need to address. When he’s often focussed on offering his take on what hyperrealism should look like on a cinematic canvas, sometimes a break is needed.
For example, All Who Are Weary (YouTube link) puts characters looking upon their lives while staring at some modern artwork strewn about the Bay. “It’s more of an experimental film,” admitted Johnson. “It’s about a gambling addict who has to tell his girlfriend that he has a problem. And his girlfriend is someone who suffers from anthropomorphism, which is someone that has a fetish for talking to inanimate objects.”
And on the opposite end of the spectrum is Black Rodgers: Love from the 80s (YouTube link). He said, “I had this Jheri curl wig from a Halloween party and I listened to this song called ‘Black Buck Rogers’ by Mac Dre. I simply said to my friends, ‘Let’s make like this 80s blaxploitation film; the cameraman was a janitor who worked at college, and the actresses were trainers from the gym–we honestly did not know what we’re doing.’”
Other works include Rebel Child, a short he was courted to help produce. It’s a silent film about a young child that becomes radicalized and recruited to be a suicide bomber. It’s a really heavy subject to tackle. Juan Davis directed this film, and it played at 20 festivals worldwide in 2015. This work helped Jaysen consider what kinds of films he likes to make.
As for producing movies he’s not as into, like the horror film, Evil Lurks, that he has credit on, he was challenged. He and Aaron Hawkins are old high school buddies and its tough to turn a pal down. Thankfully, Johnson is open to play in the sandbox, and explore other genres in his upcoming projects. There’s three in the works.
One is titled Counterfeit Cabernet. It’s about a winemaker who gets in trouble with a gangster, and he makes fake wine to settle the debt. In Roger, it’s all about a computer programmer sentenced to take care of a goldfish implanted with a GPS chip for 30 days! To reveal the build-up is a spoiler. Skateboard Bandit concerns a guy who robs banks with nothing but the said transportation. The motive is to take care of his ailing daughter.
Another work is Pruno, where it’s status is actually unknown. This work on this talent’s IMDB profile was put in when ideas were being tossed around, and the synopsis suggests it may be autobiographical. “I don’t know why that’s on there,” laughed Jaysen, “But it’s a comedy about a moonshiner who moves to Napa Valley, determined to make the world’s best wine. It’s an underdog kind of story, where we see a guy from the backwoods of West Virginia in California.”
“What I came to learn [about this wine industry] is that it’s filled with a lot of perseverance. From growing these grapes to finally ultimately getting them into the bottle, there’s a lot of work; there’s a lot of lore that people don’t know–and what I have in mind makes for a very sweet story, pardoning the pun.”
And for him to become a filmmaker after being in this trade for so long, what he’s learned is certainly transferable. It taught him how to stay strong. As for advice to others struggling for recognition in this media entertainment industry, indie or not, he said, “Don’t be too hard on yourself when things don’t go right. The idea is to always be willing to get back up–to get back into the game and keep pushing yourself.”
To see the catalogue of films Jayson
Johnson produced are available to view on YouTube,
under his company name, Strike Five Films.
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