Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Jesse Randall of JR Vision Films Is Helping To Change Our World
Have realistic expectations. I’m all about dreaming big and being ambitious, but there must be practical paths to achieve these goals. There’s a fine line between optimism and delusion. I’m saying this as someone who has been in recovery for magical thinking for many years. I truly believe it’s possible to manifest your goals, but you have to be practical about achieving them and want things for the right reasons. When I first started practicing manifesting things, I struggled to achieve my goals because I was too busy focusing on the results and wanting too many things at once. It wasn’t until I crashed and burned many times, and started aiming for more obtainable goals, that I truly started manifesting the things I wanted into my life. Once I achieved a smaller goal, I’d manifest a larger goal until I eventually achieved what I wanted. Dreams won’t become a reality until you accept where you are in the present moment to create a viable path based on the resources available to you.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Jesse Randall. Jesse is a queer filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer with films streaming on over twenty-five platforms including Plex TV, Cineverse, and more. Jesse’s most recent film about the homeless crisis in Los Angeles, Spare Change, will be available on streaming soon. Jesse is also a Film Acquisitions and Festival director for Echelon Studios, an independent film distribution company.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
I’ve been independently producing low-budget film projects for a decade. I was frustrated by the lack of interesting LGBTQIA+ stories in the media and dedicated my filmmaking career to projects featuring queer characters that didn’t focus on “coming out” or trauma induced by living in a hetero-normative society. After my films received over twenty-five licensing deals, I’ve found myself working in film acquisitions and as a film festival director. I recently helped launch the Mometu College Short Film Festival, a festival that focuses on educating college filmmakers about navigating the film festival circuit. We’re launching the Echelon Studios International Film Festival in July 2023. This festival focuses on finding independent filmmakers licensing and distribution opportunities and educating them about the process of distribution. I’m still a filmmaker in the process of developing my first feature film, but I’m getting more experience on the business side of film. Being a filmmaker is essentially a freelance job in perpetuity. I wanted more stability using the decade of film knowledge I’ve gained. I also got experience working in the Acquisitions & Co-Productions department at Lionsgate in the summer of 2023 after (finally) finishing my degree. It gave me my first real taste of the big leagues in the entertainment industry and now I can’t turn back. I still want to support independent filmmakers, but I want to cross the bridge between mainstream film projects and independent film work in my career.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
After my digital series, The Safety Plan, and my earlier films got my first major licensing deal, I embarked on a new project that I thought was going to launch my film career into the stratosphere. Not only did the project not take off, but the person I made the mistake of going into business with tried to publicly sabotage the project and my career by making false claims (that I have significant proof to counterclaim with receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots, etc.) over an interview at a film festival that the executive director made crystal clear was only for the director because the film festival itself focuses on directors. I was so angry at myself for investing two years of my life on this project for no pay, as most low-budget independent film content is an investment. I should’ve recognized the signs that I was working with a narcissist along the way, but I didn’t. Despite this drama, I was determined to find the film a licensing deal. Not only did I find a licensing deal for the nightmare film, but I gained over a dozen new licensing deals for The Safety Plan. I now have over twenty-five licensing deals for all my work in total. This process also taught me about licensing & acquisitions, which led to opportunities working at Lionsgate, the Producers Guild, Gamechanger Films, and becoming the Acquisitions & Film Festival Director of Echelon Studios. This horrible experience resulted in many great things in my life. For me, this is proof that sometimes the worst experience in our lives can be reshaped into something beneficial as long as you’re being true to your word and an honest person. People who do dumb things usually wind up telling on themselves.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
I’m enjoying passing along the knowledge I’ve learned to up-and-coming filmmakers. As the director for both the Mometu College Short Film Festival and the Echelon Studios International Film Festival, I’ve had the opportunity to arrange for industry panels where guests from the entertainment industry share their knowledge with the filmmakers. The panels are very educational for everyone, including me. Independently producing projects can be a catastrophe at times, and there’s so much you can’t prepare for no matter how hard you try. I’m happy to have an outlet to pass along what I’ve learned as a filmmaker, and learn from the filmmakers at the festival by hearing about their journeys as well.
Which people in history inspire you the most? Why?
I’m most inspired by people who were ahead of their time and got a lot of backlash for going against the grain. I’m not revolutionary by any means, or that ahead of my time for that matter, but I always have sought projects that initially got a lot of resistance. I specifically set out to make something I wasn’t seeing in queer cinema, but I certainly was inspired by many hetero-normative popular films and television series. There’s a lot of politics around getting LGBTQIA+ content made, and queer media is often the least well performing out of all the historically underrepresented demographics. That presents a lot of challenges as a queer filmmaker. Anytime I get resistance for a project, I try to keep those in history who initially got a lot of backlash for their work and then it was eventually accepted or normalized. I hope a variety of queer media becomes more normalized soon. I think there’s room for a wide range of queer stories to all succeed and appeal to a vast spectrum of audiences.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
In addition to expanding LGBTQIA+ representation in the media with my work, I’m currently the director of two film festivals, the Mometu College Short Film Festival and the Echelon Studios International Film Festival. The Mometu College Short Film Festival focuses on providing student filmmakers with their first film festival experience. Besides giving them a platform to screen their films on Mometu, a new AVOD platform, the filmmakers of the official selections get to attend educational panels with established people within the entertainment industry. The finalists also film a promotional interview that serves as professional training to pitch and talk about their work in a professional setting. The five finalists interviewed in the Mometu College Short Film Festival mentioned during their interviews what a beneficial experience the festival was that helped prepare them for the film festival circuit. We also provided the five finalists with cash prizes, distribution offers, and the winner of the overall Best Picture winner got a new camera! With the Echelon Studios International Film Festival, our goal is to provide distribution opportunities for independent filmmakers from all over the world. It took me many years and many films until I got my first licensing deal, and we want to help alleviate that stress for rising independent filmmakers, particularly filmmakers from historically underserved communities. There are a lot of predatory independent distributors and aggregator services out there. Sadly, I’ve been mixed up with a few of them. The Echelon Studios International Film Festival aims to educate independent filmmakers about distribution to help them avoid the mistakes that many filmmakers, including myself, have made at times.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
Growing up extremely far away from the entertainment industry in a rural town near the mountains of North Carolina, I was constantly disparaged from pursuing my goal of becoming a filmmaker. A prominent aspect of working-class Southern culture when growing up was a general acceptance of defeat, at least within my family lineage. Both sides of my family that I’m now estranged from are stuck in their ways, miserable, and defeated by their circumstances. I felt like I had nothing to lose if I was destined to be as historically miserable as my relatives. Despite over a decade of struggles and occasionally living in poverty, I’m so glad I went for it. The best revenge is living your best life, and I’m glad I went against the grain to pursue it.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
All the student filmmakers from the Mometu College Short Film Festival have been extremely grateful for the experience, but especially the five finalists. We were able to provide them with their first major film festival experience, and they appreciated the experience from the festival itself to the interviews we filmed with them, providing their first experience with being interviewed for the media. We want the festival to be a training camp of sorts for student filmmakers, and we definitely accomplished this goal for our launch.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
1. Encourage student filmmakers to keep making films! I think one of the biggest misconceptions about film school is that students are constantly cranking out films. I found that a lot of film students only create projects in their classes and don’t always create a lot of films outside of that. I know that’s not the case for everybody, but I found that to be the case going back to school at California State University, Northridge to finally finish my degree.
2. Donate to the festival! We’ve registered for nonprofit status and a donation is tax deductible. Film Festivals aren’t “get rich quick” schemes, and if anyone thinks they are, you’re in for a rude awakening. Film Festivals take a lot of time to become established. Donating to the film festival ensures that we can continue operating and provide resources to student filmmakers.
3. Support independent filmmakers! The state of the mainstream theatrical market is already tough, but it’s even tougher for independent filmmakers these days. Streaming has simultaneously made independent filmmaking more accessible and harder to make a profit through low-paying revenue share royalties. Independent filmmaking is also not a “get rich quick” scheme because it takes a long time to make a profit from it, if at all. Countless independent films never find a distributor. Support independent filmmakers by watching their content on streaming platforms and attending film festivals.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
1. Have realistic expectations. I’m all about dreaming big and being ambitious, but there must be practical paths to achieve these goals. There’s a fine line between optimism and delusion. I’m saying this as someone who has been in recovery for magical thinking for many years. I truly believe it’s possible to manifest your goals, but you have to be practical about achieving them and want things for the right reasons. When I first started practicing manifesting things, I struggled to achieve my goals because I was too busy focusing on the results and wanting too many things at once. It wasn’t until I crashed and burned many times, and started aiming for more obtainable goals, that I truly started manifesting the things I wanted into my life. Once I achieved a smaller goal, I’d manifest a larger goal until I eventually achieved what I wanted. Dreams won’t become a reality until you accept where you are in the present moment to create a viable path based on the resources available to you.
2. Be careful who you work with. Sadly, the Entertainment Industry often brings out the absolute worst in people. Without sounding too sappy, people want to be in this industry so badly because of the inherently spiritual nature of storytelling. Whether it’s a mainstream film like Barbie or an art-house movie like Portrait of a Lady on Fire, storytelling has the capacity to reach people at all different levels, unlike any other medium. I truly believe that’s why people can be such vicious, desperate vultures in the film industry. The independent film world can especially be challenging because so many people haven’t taken the time to truly educate themselves about the process of filmmaking, and will sabotage whoever they need to get credit for work they didn’t do. It’s harder to get away with that in more established settings, like working at a major movie studio or production company, where it can quickly become apparent if you haven’t done your homework once you’re in the big leagues. I’m moving on from the independent film world for good and will only work in the big leagues from now on with my first feature film in development.
3. Don’t fake it until you make it. I’ve heard this phrase suggested to me all my life. While I have many flaws, I’m proud to say my massive imposter syndrome would never allow me to fake it until I made it. I felt like I could never get away with this, and I’m glad I accepted that. I’ve certainly taken the long route to get where I am, but I’d rather do it that way than con people into believing I’m qualified to do something. When I was finally finishing my degree, I did an internship at Lionsgate in the Acquisitions & Co-Productions department. It was hard being the oldest intern there at because sometimes I felt like was “behind” in life since the other interns were so young. It was reassuring that my department was really impressed with my knowledge of film and story structure while doing script coverage, and my eye for theatrical marketability. I felt like all the time I took to educate myself, going to film school twice, and independently producing films for over ten years finally paid off. Everyone is on their own journey. It’s not helpful to compare your journey to others because everyone has different circumstances.
4. Cutting corners costs you in the long run. Another terrible archetype you’ll find working in the Entertainment Industry is the person who is so desperate to become rich and famous as fast as possible that they don’t care about the quality or doing the work efficiently. In my early years, I’ve had moments like this, but they were usually because I was doing ten roles at once because the budgets were so low (writer, director, producer, editor, casting, craft services, production assistant, talent wrangler, etc.). The final product always suffers when you cut corners. The worst example of my corner-cutting was early in my career when I made a short film about my disastrous experience in a green card marriage. I knew I had a concept that was interesting because everyone I told the story to was fascinated, even those who didn’t think I was talented or would ever amount to something in the film world. However, I was in such a rush to get the film out that I submitted an extremely rough cut to over 100 festivals. A word of advice: never send a rough cut to a film festival. Not only was I rejected from all of them because film festivals don’t accept rough cuts, but I maxed out a credit card and spent a few thousand dollars paying submission fees for film festivals that took me years to pay back. The film eventually got into two film festivals, but the rest weren’t interested in watching it again because first impressions are everything. I’m sorry to say I still occasionally encounter people who want to cut corners, but I advocate as hard as I can for doing things the right way. Do things right the first time or don’t do it at all!
5. Be able to distinguish constructive criticism from someone being a hater. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but sometimes those opinions are grossly misinformed or biased. Everyone should be able to listen to constructive criticism without being defensive. You don’t have to take every note you’re given if you feel it isn’t relevant to your vision, but when people keep repeatedly giving you the same note, there’s something that needs improvement. However, there are always going to be people who try to tear down your idea simply because you took the initiative to create something and put yourself out there. I’m in a writer’s group led by a prominent Emmy-nominated producer of one of the biggest hits on Apple TV, and I encountered this issue in a workshop for my feature screenplay in development. Many amazing writers in the group were supportive of my work, gave valid criticism to elements that needed improvement, and provided excellent notes overall that drastically helped improve the script. There were a few writers in the workshop who hijacked the workshop to let me know how much they didn’t like the script, but only because they felt the film should be John Wick 5: LGBTQIA+ Edition. The other writers in the group barely got a word in because they kept rambling on about how it needed to be more violent, and my protagonist needed to become a killer. This was a completely different concept than what I wanted the film to be and the script I wrote. I couldn’t help noticing the people hijacking the workshop were all heterosexual straight guys. I find most “film bros” are immediately disinterested in the LGBTQIA+ stories I want to write, or “just don’t relate to those types of stories” as I’ve often been told directly by them. Considering the lack of LGBTQIA+ stories in media, I’ve been consuming stories that I “just don’t relate to” my entire life because there aren’t a lot of quality stories about people I only identify with that aren’t trauma porn. Isn’t experiencing someone else’s world that’s different from yours the purpose of storytelling? I had to distinguish the film bro notes from what was valid criticism to successfully rewrite the script. The script has gone through a massive overhaul thanks to all the great notes I got from the wonderful people in this writer’s group and ignoring the biased film bro notes. You’ll never stop getting notes from people throughout life, both professionally and personally, but once you learn to take the relevant notes, it’s easier to block out the biased ones.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
If you don’t make an effort to make change in the world, someone will attempt to change it for you, and you might not like the results. We live in an eternally complicated world. None of us asked to live in a world ruled by capitalism and greed, but here we are. All of us are capable of making desperate decisions for our survival under certain circumstances. Besides attempting to live in a more equitable society because it’s the right thing to do, everyone should make changes where they can because there’s always someone out there making decisions based on their own needs rather than what’s fair. Being passive is dangerous. Just because it doesn’t negatively impact you now, doesn’t mean it won’t affect you later. Make change where you can. The world is such a giant mess these days. There’s enormous pressure for everyone to be social media warriors speaking out on every single issue and have the solution to all the world’s problems in a perfectly worded press release. Everyone can’t be informed of every single issue, but be as informed as possible. Ignorance isn’t bliss.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
I’m always happy to collaborate with community organizers or local progressives running for office who value people over profits. Our government continues to fail us at a federal level. The solution is to help progressive candidates win local elections across the country to demand actual change from our federal government instead of constantly settling for less than the bare minimum.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.” George Orwell.
Living in a world ruled by capitalism, it’s easy to get caught up in the vicious cycle of survival and lose your humanity. People will take everything you’ve got without remorse, no matter how loyal you’ve been to them. Don’t be defeated by how terrible people can be. Don’t sacrifice your humanity to live in defense mode. It’s not worth it in the long run. Don’t tolerate crap from people, but don’t lose yourself in the process. Life shouldn’t be narrowed down to survival.
How can our readers follow you online?
Follow me on Instagram at @jrvisionfilms and my website at www.jrvisionfilms.com.
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Jesse Randall of JR Vision Films Is Helping… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.