JTWO's Incubator Project Brings You "Fandom"
Directed by Rich Owens
I love sports. I always have. And I’ve always had a borderline unhealthy emotional connection to the teams I root for. Why? I have a couple theories. Thus, this seemed like a logical question to explore in a film. The only problem? How could I possibly explore sports fandom in sufficient detail in only a few minutes? And what happens if I don’t actually come to a satisfactory conclusion? Well, it’s in those moments of maddening indecision that it’s most important to be decisive. So I went for it.
While I have some directing experience, I’ve never been so responsible for every facet of making a film. From being behind the camera, to planning a shoot, to editing, color correcting, interviewing and writing…it was all on me to ensure the final product was up to standard. I’m very thankful for the help I had along the way from my fellow interns and the crew here at JTWO, but the sheer control I had over the direction of the project was both enthralling and terrifying. Let’s call it ‘territhralling’.
I find it hard to like anything I’ve done after tinkering with it for 40+ hours and thinking about it every possible hour (yeah, I saw it in my sleep) but I’m proud of the final product. It tells a complete story that I sincerely hope people are able to connect with.
I learned more than I possibly could have hoped for working on this project over the past couple weeks. While I’d love to go back and do this film again—incorporating several critical lessons learned—that’s what the next project is for, right?
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Brings you "Lost in Fear"
Directed by Greg Fry
In most creative situations, one of the toughest parts for me is developing the first steps of an idea. This project was no exception. I struggled for nearly a week, unable to think of a plan that I was happy with. As my time was running short, I finally came upon the idea of creating a action based commercial. My plan was to tell a story about a man conquering his fear with the help of an energy drink.
When I arrived on location I felt fairly confident in my ability to shoot good looking video, but when it came to telling a story through that video… that was a different story. I got all the shots I needed in about three hours and packed up for the day. Now, it was time for editing. I quickly laid all my clips out but began to realize that I failed to bring a true cinematic element to the video. Most of my shots looked the same and one didn’t stand out or seperate itself from another. I attempted to trim the video in order to get to the point faster but even then, I don’t think a great story was ever achieved.
Looking back on the project, I was very pleased with how the sound design and color grading turned out. Having never used Davinci Resolve before, I was excited to work and be somewhat successful with a new program. I wish I would have planned out my shot choices just a bit more, not only to create the more cinematic shots… but also to tell a more engaging story. Overall, I liked my project, but with some more planning ahead of time I think it could have been exactly what I imagined.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Brings You "Mirror"
Directed by Adam Nitzberg
For this project I wanted to challenge myself but at the same time I didn’t want to overextend myself. I wanted to do something that would test my skills as a director while being realistic in regards to the short timeline and lack of budget. I had heard too many horror back at school of ambitious directors overextending themselves and the product coming out sloppy. The main factors that people were overzealous with, I realized, were having too many actors, too many locations, and/or making their films too long.
Project Breakdown
So, I decided to push forward with an idea that I had been juggling with for a while, a microshort, a film under one minute in length. This would allow me to focus on telling an effective story in a concise amount of time. I chose the genre of horror because I thought that would be the most effective for the length and it would allow me to explore an unsettling concept. Mirrors and reflections stuck out to me because they are something we deal with every day so the horror of them is not foreign like a monster isolated to one specific patch of wilderness or a ghost that haunts one particular house. Nearly everyone looks at themselves in a mirror at least once a day. My goal was to make those people wonder about the face they saw looking back.
Logistically, this tested my all of my skills do the inherent difficulty of the concept. I used Maria’s (one of the other interns) apartment and covered the wall mounted mirror with green screen. She then had to mimic all of her actions exactly the same twice, as would the camera operator. Then, in post-production, the two shots would be composited to give the illusion of it being a real mirror. Directing this proved to be quite a challenge.
Directing was a very different experience for me. I’ve always only captured people with a camera and didn’t interfere with what they’d naturally be doing. Kind of like a fly on the wall. The extent of my directing/staging during a shoot was positioning someone for an interview shot. So I felt really annoying and pushy telling people what to do this time. Pretty much every shot besides the found footage was staged. I planned everything as well as thought of more shots on the spot, I positioned my friend exactly how I wanted her, and told my crew what I wanted them to do with the camera. I even did Sierra’s hair and makeup. After I saw the footage on the monitor, I couldn’t wait to get editing. It was so incredibly beautiful (Shoutout to the best crew ever).
I think in that regard I mostly succeeded. I did make a couple mistakes that proved to be costly and caused me to abandon the original ending and to trim more off of the film than I originally intended. I think it is certainly not the best film I have done but it is without a doubt the most I have ever learned in a single project.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Brings you "Barre None"
Directed by Maria Cantu
When I started planning for my intern project, I was initially going to go with a non-profit organization. I have a natural interest in non-profit work, so I thought it was inevitable that my project would be sort of like a promotional video for a local organization. But, that didn’t happen at all… and I’m glad.
Project Breakdown
I reached out to three non-profits. One responded, another didn’t, and the last one got back to me too late. I had to get creative because I was supposed to film the following week and I didn’t have time to. So I thought, “Ok, who do I know personally that can be a super reliable back-up plan and who has some kind of interesting story?” The first person to pop in my mind was my best friend, Sierra. I’ve known her almost my entire life, which I figured would make the production process smoother working with someone that I know so well. I liked that I was still sticking with nonfiction, but diverging from my original plan. It would challenge me more, but this is why I wanted to intern for JTwo in the first place.
I pitched my idea. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous because I was so confident in the story. I had a story structure all worked out from start to finish, a list of a bunch of aesthetic idea, location options, as well as the “who, what, when, where, why, and how”. Justin seemed to like it and he gave me some great ideas to add. He suggested to have Maria, JTwo’s director of photography, come along and test out their new RED camera (Uhhhh… hell yeah) since my video would have a lot of movement. I decided I would direct and edit, and Maria, along with my fellow interns, Greg and Adam, would work the camera. This ended up working out beautifully. I was so grateful for their help during the shoot and having someone on site that was more experienced than I was.
Directing was a very different experience for me. I’ve always only captured people with a camera and didn’t interfere with what they’d naturally be doing. Kind of like a fly on the wall. The extent of my directing/staging during a shoot was positioning someone for an interview shot. So I felt really annoying and pushy telling people what to do this time. Pretty much every shot besides the found footage was staged. I planned everything as well as thought of more shots on the spot, I positioned my friend exactly how I wanted her, and told my crew what I wanted them to do with the camera. I even did Sierra’s hair and makeup. After I saw the footage on the monitor, I couldn’t wait to get editing. It was so incredibly beautiful (Shoutout to the best crew ever).
Editing was one of the biggest challenges. I wanted this to be the greatest thing I’ve ever done, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to make that a reality. I ran into some issues, both technical and with the interview. My friend was nervous about saying the wrong thing, in fear that it would have a negative effect on her career. So, I had to respect her concerns and make them a priority, I had to exceed my own personal standards, and I had to prove myself to JTwo that I deserve to be here. The pressure was on.
I showed Justin my first cut and he liked it for the most part. He told me the middle to end started to drag, but I knew that was coming. I made a second cut… still not quite there. By my third cut, I did it. The fast-paced montage gave the video a much needed energy boost. Justin thought it was a really strong piece in the end.
I needed one more persons opinion before I could say I succeeded. I showed Sierra the video hoping it catered enough to her concerns, while also exceeding her expectations. Turns out, she was speechless. She said it brought her and her mother to tears. I’ve never been more proud of myself. Nothing satisfies me more than a positive reaction from my audience, whoever that may be. My family and friends have all had a similar reaction to the video. That’s the reason I chose to stick with this industry in the first place. I love making people feel connected with each other and sparking inspiration or some kind of emotion. That’s what it’s all about.
The Result
The short film was a hit amongst student films this award season, taking home Best of Show in the 2019 Louix Awards and Best Cinematography in the 2019 Addy Awards.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Brings you "The Swing Dreamer"
"THE SWING DREAMER"
DIRECTED BY ALEX SIWIK
A film student attempts to complete a class assignment on Marilyn Monroe, but instead falls asleep, not realizing his hypnotic trance that lies ahead.
Project Breakdown
I will start off by saying my journey with this project was not necessarily the smoothest. Midway through shooting what was supposed to be a mini-documentary, I hit a bit of a wall. I realized that my vision for the project I pitched was not so clear after all, as I was no longer able to see where the piece was heading. After some heavy contemplation, I decided to put the documentary idea on the back burner and figure something else out.
I made it my goal to keep things simple but visually interesting. As someone who is more of a cinematographer than a writer or director, I did not want to fret with writing a script or having to direct actors too heavily. I also knew that I really loved the footage I already shot for my previous idea, so I decided to incorporate it into a fictional piece and shoot new footage to go along with it.
The film features a boy, Noah Lovas, in a sleep-dance trance with Marilyn Monroe (played by Kaylie Minzola). My background in music often leads me to make my projects very musically driven, so it was almost a no-brainer for me to make a dance piece. I have worked with Noah on dance projects in the past and we work great together. We constantly bounce ideas off of each other and make magical things happen, however, this time was a bit trickier than the rest. The only direction I gave Noah was, “Dance around with a broom in a drunken manner with your eyes shut.” Nevertheless, Noah handled it like a champ and killed it.
I focused heavily on lighting and the color grade with this piece. All of the Marilyn dream scenes were lit rather high-key, much like a fashion or beauty commercial. My inspiration for the color grade for these scenes comes from those old-time photo places you find on the boardwalk. The photos are edited to look very washed and with sepia coloring. For the nighttime dance scenes, I kept things contrasty, with the TV and moonlight being the only motivated sources of light. I feel that the overall contrast between both scenes worked to my advantage in keeping the piece interesting to watch.
Although my original idea for this project did not work out, I am still super satisfied with how things turned out. I certainly learned some things, too. If I could take away one thing from this project, it would be to always have a thorough vision in mind for every project you take on. See it from beginning to end before you even think about breaking the camera out.
Meet the Director
Alex is a senior at Temple University, where he studies Film & Media Arts with a concentration in Cinematography. During his college years, Alex gained production experience through shooting narrative shorts, music videos, and commercial content for local businesses. As a cinematographer, Alex believes that lighting is one of the most crucial elements in establishing a scene and enhancing what the director wants the viewer to feel. In his downtime, Alex enjoys playing music, skateboarding, and reading about new camera and lighting technology.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Presents "Plato's Closet"
Directed by Ian Schobel
I relish the rare opportunities to work on creative projects with absolute autonomy. Most of us interns are accustomed to developing our ideas in an academic setting, with lengthy rubrics that sometimes stifle our best ideas. JTwo’s intern project guidelines were barebones and direct: in more or less words, tell a kick-ass story, and keep it short.
Project Breakdown
From my study abroad film to a smorgasbord of videos for The Temple News, I’ve shot and edited most of my recent work through a documentarian/explanatory lens. It was time to break out of that groove and try working in fiction. I brainstormed for an hour or two and drafted a storyboard for my first pitch with Justin. My writing background betrayed me here; it lacked a concrete structure, and was just too ambitious given the two weeks I had to write, cast, direct, shoot, and edit. Putting words to paper, I’m not bound by anything but the limits of my imagination. So if I want to put a dozen on hang gliders above Dubai, it’s done. I just did it. That doesn’t exactly translate to film.
So when I left the office later that day (after pitching a completely different idea, which was also shot down) it gave me room to look at my project from a distance, and I decided I’d been approaching this the wrong way, focusing on the concept itself; instead, I should assemble the resources I’d have access to (mainly the actors and the setting) and build the idea from those pieces.
First: the talent. That was easy: it had to be AK and Liam, two of my closest friends. They’ve been best friends since high school, and they’re goofballs of the highest magnitude. I was pretty confident that if I experimented with a particular hypothetical scenario involving the two of them, they’d be down to play the roles, they’d respect me as director, and since their characters were largely based on their true selves/relationship, only minor character adjustments were required to fit them to my narrative. Next, the set: two years ago, when we were still in the dorms, AK and Liam roomed with a kid named Nick. We’ve all remained friends, and he now lives with two other guys in this kick-ass apartment (with adjustable mood lighting). The pieces now in place, I set to work on the script and shot list. We shot both scenes in one day, morning first, then night scene later. In the story, the scenes are reversed. AK and Liam took it in stride, though, and delivered a great performance. It took a few days to cut everything together, design a horror movie soundscape, play with levels, find the right music, color correct, and so on and so forth; and overall, I’m extremely pleased with the final cut of my first piece of fiction filmmaking (s/o to Alex for the super helpful C100 walkthrough).
Meet the Director
Ian is a writer and filmmaker. He lives by a simple creed: learn the basics and find your own way. He aims to work internationally, write short story collections, and one day–teach.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Brings you "Up On Mic"
Directed by Daniel Foster
After years of doing stand up comedy, Erin Dohony has become a popular stand up comedian in the Philadelphia area. While shooting this documentary, I was able to capture her creative process, along with the inner workings of open mics.
Project Breakdown
For my Jtwo project I wanted to try something different and chose to do a documentary project on stand up comedy. The idea of using the format was enticing to me, because I had predominantly on worked on narrative short films. I knew immediately that I wanted to try something new and give the doc my own spin and trademarks in order to make it different and unique.
After pitching the idea to JTWOS Creative Director, Justin Jarrett with my idea, he was supportive but concerned that my project did not have enough meaning to it and would just be a by the numbers documentary with talking head. I took this criticism to heart and tried to find ways of using my shooting style and narrative approaches in order to make the film stand out.
I spent the next few weeks in pre-production, storyboarding, writing, and collaborating with my subject in order to ensure the project was both personal and insightful. I had my subject answer her questions prior to filming and used what she wrote to map out a storyline for the piece. I found music, tested out gear, found visual references, and worked hard to ensure that I was entering filming completely ready.
Luckily, I was able to find a few inspirations on Vimeo and youtube. Vimeo was highly influential in how I would approach the documentary format, while youtube had numerous clips and videos from films that had a similar surrealist approach.
With pre-production done, I rushed off to film Erins weekly standup at ortlieb’s. My goal was to explore the inner workings of stand up from the creative process of telling a joke, to the mindset comedians have on stage. I opened the doc with a surrealist approach. I created a soundscape prior and had Erin record her breakdown of telling a joke. I was very proud of the opening, because it set up the documentary well and had a throwback feel to early stand up. The art of stand up has always fascinated me, so the opportunity to explore it was incredibly exciting.
I recording Erin doing a few sets, then moved on to her talking head. This was one of the biggest stresses for me, because I didn’t want it to be a simple by the numbers talking head. While in pre production, i decided to use one of my favorite trademarks and have the subject talk directly to the camera. I feel talking directly to the camera creates a more personal experience and further developed a fly on the wall feel for the doc.
After filming completed, I moved on to editing. The edit started out fine, with much of my prior layout working well with what was recorded, but as I continued I soon realized it was taking on a much different feel. Erin had a lot of information that I struggled to fit into the three minute time limit. A Lot of the talking head dragged and felt unnecessary. I soon felt a little lost in my footage and struggled to find a way of getting the project into shape. After taking a long step back however, I remembered why I wanted to do this project in the first place. What goes through a comedians head on stage? How do you get a group of strangers to laugh? These questions were what I wanted to explore and soon retooled the doc to focus on those parts.
After editing for a few more days, I finished the project and couldn’t be more proud of it. It was fun trying out documentary, but also fun to see how easily a project can change from pre-production to filming. I wanted to try something new and couldn’t be more happy that I did. I now have my first documentary under my belt and am more motivated to try new storytelling techniques in the future with the medium.
Meet the Director
Daniel Foster is an independent Philadelphia Filmmaker., with a passion in narrative/sketch comedy. I enjoy explore social issues through humor and creating a dialogue on topics such as race and politics. I hope to use my sense of humor in order to bring awareness to various social issues that are apart of our everyday life.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Presents "The Studio Life"
Created by Jake Price
Just another day at JTWO.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Presents "Relapse"
Directed by Jake Price
JTWO’s Incubator Project presents “Relapse”, highlighting the struggles for those battling with sobriety. Substance addiction doesn’t go away with sobriety. Recognize when you or a friend are still struggling with addiction, even if it’s a different substance.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.
JTWO's Incubator Project Presents "One Day at a Time"
Written & Directed by Valerie Genzano
A young female tries to keep it together while dealing with her college finals and her mother’s cancer diagnosis from 100 miles away.
Project Breakdown
Nora Ephron, an intern, and a project assignment walk into a blog.
My first week at JTwo felt a little rough for me. I was a little rusty while going through JTwo-U, made some mistakes, and learned things that were totally new to me. I was the last intern to start this summer, so I had to catch up on meeting the others and had to get used to the workflow. Now, by the start of my fifth week, I have found my rhythm. Every morning I visit my favorite coffee shop, and I start the day bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I have officially started working on a few projects and am now finished the ever feared intern project.
This wasn’t an easy road for me. It took a few tries to get the idea right. When I told Justin I wanted to do a mini-doc, he said, “You and everyone else.” I explained that I didn’t know if I had it in me to do another narrative piece – well, it turns out I did. When thinking up ideas, I turned to my personal hero and creative inspiration, Nora Ephron. Ms. Ephron consistently wrote about ideas she was connected to or had lived through herself. Her greatest inspiration was true life. So, I sat down, and I wrote a few drafts of a narrative piece about my life. (Not my whole life, of course, that would be a really long, boring movie about someone drinking too much coffee and watching a lot of Twin Peaks.) The last month of this past semester, the end of my junior year of college, someone very close to me was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I go to school a hundred miles away from home, was in the middle of finals, and had no way out. It was one of the hardest times in my life and I wasn’t really sure how to cope.
And so, given this opportunity, I decided to make a movie about a girl trying to cope with her mom getting cancer during finals. Slightly on the nose, but it was an exploration for me of myself and of my situation. On top of ending up with a completed project, I’ve ended up with a better understanding of myself and saw what I was enduring through a different lens than I had seen it through before. The process of filming was difficult, but thankfully I had an amazing DP (@ Maria) and a wonderful actress, Jenna Lam. They really understood where I was coming from and each of them added so much to my first idea.
The second problem I had was that I was too tied to my idea. I ended up with around an hour of footage that I had to cut down to around 3 minutes. My first cut was around 6 minutes long, and after Justin gave me feedback, I bit the bullet and cut it down to around 3 minutes. It’s hard watching some of my favorite shots go, but I think everything turned out the way it was supposed to. I ended up with something that means a lot to me and that I am very proud of. I’m grateful JTwo gave me the opportunity to make this, because I know I wouldn’t have otherwise. I learned a lot and now I can move on with the new knowledge and understanding of creating and of myself.
Going forward with my internship here, I’m so excited to see what I have the chance to do. I’ve already started working on some assignments here and there, but mostly I’ll be excited to focus fully on doing what I can to help the company. Cheers to the next few months, I can’t wait to see what’s accomplished while I’m here. Until next time!
Meet the Director
Val is an undergrad at Towson University studying Film and Art History. Her focus in film is Producing and Assistant Directing and she has a love for creating experimental films as well as narrative shorts. In the next few years she hopes to attend grad school in Philadelphia and find work in the fields she loves.
This project was created as part of the JTWO [INC]ubator Project. A semester long internship program built from the ground up to give young filmmakers, content creators, and all around hungry for a challenge individuals a place to stretch their creative minds while preparing them for the road ahead.