Jake Oleson
“My parents first met and graduated from Pratt Institute with BFA's in design, and they approached everyday life, including raising my brother and I in a very creative spirit. For instance, whenever my brother and I would have birthdays, instead of going to 'Chuck E Cheese's' or bowling they would turn our basement or our backyard yard, into some sort of incredible playground of the mind. One year they converted the backyard into a sea of blue vinyl water, with a large cut-out silhouette of a boat to fish from. Another year, they made the basement into a prehistoric-land board game, complete with sand, water, a cave and a 6ft dinosaur! They were just so amazing. Naturally, our house became this blank canvas for creativity.”
“Our house became a place of creativity for all of us. I would spend hours in the basement, creating "inventions" or up in our painting studio in the attic, oil painting with my Dad or composing little musical "compositions" on our piano in the family room But my favorite part was being able to create these elaborate experiences for my friends and family, and watching each of them interact with my creations. Our house was an easy place to create.”
“At that young age, I enjoyed creating these different experiences for people. The whole process of inventing new worlds and then bringing people into that world, and having them lose themselves in that space was fantastic. When I discovered the medium of film, it very much felt the same way so it was an easy transition for me. After awhile, I became intrigued with short form video content and how you can connect with a person in such a short period of time. I guess my interest in filmmaking actually reaches back to my time as a kid creating all of those crazy theatrical experiences in our home.”
“Pretty soon I got into shooting these absurd short movies with my friends and began posting them on YouTube. This was huge for me, because now random people I didn't know were able to experience these films. Even though they got a couple hundred hits at best, I got such a kick as a teenage kid that we had a platform where we could make films and then release them.”
“Between 13-15 years old, I spent most of my spare time making movies with my friends. Music videos, horror films, we became completely obsessed. After awhile, I started to take things a little more seriously, like doing the one week filmmaking course with New York Film Academy and this other 3-week film program called SOCAPA in Manhattan. I guess what really changed things was getting my first DSLR, which was a huge deal. I could finally create these beautiful looking images with little to no money at all. That was just so cool for me.”
“While I was in my junior year at high school, I managed to get an internship with Barbra Koppel, an amazing, Oscar award-winning documentary filmmaker. While I was interning at her production company, Cabin Creek Films, in Manhattan, they happened to be finishing the edit on ‘Running From Crazy’ which was a doc about the Hemingway family suicides.”
“I was only there for the summer doing transcribing work, but I was able to sit in on Barbara’s meetings with her team of editors. They had a 6 hour rough cut which they had to get down to 90mins. It was really cool to sit in on those types of meetings and listen to all of these seasoned editors and storytellers talk about what was important in the edit to carrying the story. I was even able to contribute my own input on the edit from time to time. I watched that whole process as it went from 6 hours long down to the final 90mins, which was an amazing experience for me.”
“My father died while I was very young, and for awhile, I wanted to do a film about him that documented the impact that he had on the people around him. I had always heard friends, family, and even casual acquaintances talk about him with great care and respect. My memories of him were fading, and I wanted to somehow grasp and document them. At the time, I was a senior in high school and I figured that this was my last chance to do a documentary like this about him, in the town, Short Hills, where he lived and raised his sons, and many knew him so well. I needed to do this before I went off to college.”
“Because I had always heard of what a great impact my father had had on all these people while he was alive, I wanted to do a film from the perspective of the people he touched. I was hoping that through my father's story, people would see something greater in their own personal relationships that they might not have seen before. It's funny because working on the film did that to me especially. I am so lucky to have the people I have in my life, I always knew it to an extent, but it brought things to a whole new level doing those interviews for the doc. So often we don’t think about how lucky we are to have the people we have around us, and sometimes, we take these things for granted. It shouldn't take losing these people to fully appreciate them.”
“Ultimately, I wanted capture him: as a designer, a little league coach, a son, a dad, a husband, a really good man. I wanted to spread my dad’s love and to keep his spirit alive through making this film. In the end, I managed to rediscover him as a person just at the time I was still trying to figure out who I was. Doing this film was a huge undertaking for me, but ultimately it sealed the deal on me wanting to become a filmmaker. The whole process had an affect on people that I could never have anticipated. In fact, the whole experience was life changing for me. Losing my father when I was only nine made it difficult to recall the details and the moments that others could remember very vividly.”
“One of the greatest things I personally got out of doing this film was this wonderful archive of interviews that goes for hours and hours and hours. Unfortunately they didn’t make it into the film, but I have all of those stories for the rest of my life. I really like having all of that material, so that in a few years I can go back to those takes and reconnect with my father anytime I want. This is the wonderful thing about film. Not only can it open up new perspectives about things, but it can preserve a life and memories in a way that no other artform can. It is just such a wonderful medium!”
“I originally wanted this project to preserve my father's memory, but the film grew into something much larger. It explores the moment of discovery that comes when other people talk about a person and how they contributed to their lives. In the end, the film ultimately shares my father's life in a way that is meaningful and interesting to people who have never met him. By putting his life into film he has influenced people that he never met from all over the world. This documentary went onto win the New York Life Award at the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and the New Talent Award at NFFTY 2012. It was such trip to be recognized as a filmmaker in my own right.”
“My father was a graphic designer and so I naturally have a love of design as well. My second internship before going to college was for a very cool graphic design studio. This was a really important part of my development as a visual artist. These guys really embraced my love for observational sketching and really saw it as a core to creative thinking and process. One of the coolest things this particular studio, is they would travel around the city and suburbs, just to sketch: figures, landscapes, everything. For example, we would go down to the shipyards at Staten Island and sketch the ships in charcoal onto these huge pieces of paper - and we could do that for hours at a time.”
“After working with those guys, and advance art studio classes at my high school, Millburn, I then started to do some freelance design of my own working on logos, album covers and that sort of thing. I was really inspired by both of my parents and how they could develop their own businesses and get paid to do something that they loved. It excited me that I could do the same thing and work directly with a client and see them get excited about the project too.”
“Since making those quirky films in my teens, I had always wanted to go to film school and pursue my passion for telling stories through film. I was so excited to start at NYU Tisch. When I got to NYU, and moved to the village, I just found it fantastic, but I was also very excited to have some substantial freelance directing, editing work for commercial projects.”
“I suddenly found myself working on these this exciting projects and it was challenging to stay focused in a traditional college setting, when I just loved being on set and directing my own commercials. My priorities started to change. Working on commercials for ad agencies was overwhelming, especially as I tried to be a full time college student in film simultaneously. Eventually, I made a decision to take a break from full time college studies, after completing my Freshman year, and see where my professional career would take me. Ultimately, I felt like I was learning more from working with different productions companies and directors, learning my craft on set, rather than in a traditional college setting. So far it has been a terrific experience and I am committed to make the most of my experiences, and build upon them, as I follow my passion for connecting with people through film."