Reel Inspiration: Take 6 with Jon Connor

So this is the next installation of the Reel Inspiration series.I realized that I haven’t really said

much about who I am or what drives me.

My name is Jon Connor. I directed my first “film” in 7^th Grade.

It was for a school project on Robin Hood.

Most kids wrote a report or made a diorama. Remember those things?

Screw Avatar and a $400 million budget.

A shoebox and an imagination was all you needed back then for 3-D.

When making this “film” I was on a very tight budget. I was 12.

 I had no money, a cheap handy cam, and no computer

capable of editing. I printed out all the titles and video taped them,

I edited it on my own version of A/B roll.

I plugged the camera into the VCR and used pause and record to

 cut out the crap as best I could.

We did have some epic special effects.

We lit the ends of arrows on fire and shot them into a house that was under construction,

 then cut to a close up of a house we built out of Popsicle sticks burning. Not sure why

 I thought my parents wouldn’t ask questions or be pissed about that, but I guess that

 was a good lesson to be learned. Anytime you try to get creative as a director

you have to answer to the “man”.

So that was it. I had the bug. Due to some setbacks like getting a “real job” when I was

14 as a busboy my career in this field went on hiatus.

In 1999, I enrolled in the Art Institute of Philadelphia for Video Production.

I learned a lot about a variety of topics: art, history of film, color theory, lighting,

 script writing, and worked my way up from their A/B roll suite to the Avid one.

 I shot 16mm film, Beta Max and DVC Pro. I saved up my money while working my

way through college and bought two 3 CCD Sony cameras with wide-angle lenses.

Someone broke into my dorm roomand stole them a week later. I was devastated.

I left college frustrated and disappointed. It seemed like everything I had

worked for was all for naught.

I bounced around for a while and worked a variety of odd jobs: I was a PECO electric meter reader,

 a used car salesman, a landscaper, a manager of a cell phone store, I worked in demolition

for awhile, I waited tables, tended bar,even shined shoes at a country club. Everything you can think

 of that has nothing to do with what I wanted to be.

Or so I thought.

I eventually moved back in with an old roommate from college and we started a video production company.

We shot social events mainly and a few low budget music videos. It paid the bills.

Fast forward to today. Literally. Today.

As I sat down and began writing this I really didn’t know what the point was but it just dawned on me.

All that stuff that I did, that isn’t what I wanted to be: a filmmaker and a storyteller. All of it.

Some of the lowest points of my life. It’s fuel. It’s material.

They are my stories. There are a million of them.

So when someone says, or you think, “What can I do that’s original? It’s all been done.”

No it hasn’t. No one knows my story or perhaps yours. They haven’t been told yet.

So I guess when we are lacking in inspiration,

maybe the best source is ourselves. It’s a largely untapped resource.

The best part about it is no one can ever say you copied, or imitated.

This is not a list of the greatest movies ever. I tried to pick a few you may not have seen that I thought were excellent at telling a story that piqued my interest and demanded my attention.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels – This was Guy Ritchie’s directorial debut as far as I know.

He has been criticized since then by a lot of people who say all his movies look the same.

I don’t care about that. This movie is a perfect blend. Thisis storytelling how it’s supposed to be done.

The movie intertwines a castful of crazy characters and manages to keep building

tension and excitement throughout before it ends with a series of plot twists that I will not spoil here.

Just watch it. I thought the cinematography was excellent.

Editing spot on. Soundtrack was awesome.

Big Fish - Behind the grand visuals in this film there was an endearing tale. I liked the way

Tim Burton jumped back and forth from the past to present.

This film drew me in and kept my attention the entire time.

I also used to frequent a bar in West Chester, Pa. where the giant in this film was a

bouncer, before he passed away at way to young of an age. So I feel I have a personal

connection with this film as well.

Cool Hand Luke – This is a classic. Great use of symbolism. Growing up, Paul Newman was my hero, not because he made excellent salad dressing. Because I always saw him as “Cool Hand” Luke. I empathized with his character and to this day still root for him anytime I watch this film.

I guess I realized while writing this, that Content is King. You can have all the special effects in the world and I just am not that impressed. Tell an amazing story and you have me hooked.

You can follow me on twitter @jonconnorfilms

All photos courtesy of Gary Nevitt Jr.