Meet Jared Vineyard

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jared Vineyard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jared, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

“I’m waiting to be inspired,” a talented hobbyist told me years ago. I befriended the young woman after reading three intriguing short stories she’d written. But months turned into years without her completing another single story. For the hobbyist, writing is something fun to do when you’re feeling it. For a writer, it’s work; inspiration be damned. Waiting to feel it isn’t an option. And a crazy work ethic is essential in order to succeed in a creative field.

I grew up in Flint, MI, and always knew nothing would be handed to me. When I wanted something, I went to work. In high school, I got the opportunity to tour England in a choir. But my parents couldn’t pay for the trip, and the thousands of dollars it would cost was impossibly more than I’d ever seen in my life. My folks wanted their house painted. Hiring professionals was too much at that time, and my folks both suffer from, if not vertigo, a severe fear of heights. They couldn’t get on ladders and the roof to paint the house themselves. So I made a deal that turned my hands, old clothes, shoes, and – yes – the house blue (my dad’s choice, not mine). That was a couple hundred bucks but nowhere near what I needed for the trip. So I also got a job, worked after school and on weekends, and saved everything I made for England.

Not only did I travel farther away from Flint than my parents had ever been, but I gained the tangible experience that with hard work, impossible goals were achievable. That knowledge and work ethic made it possible for me to do things like produce and direct my first full-length play while finishing my bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing or do writing, directing, and producing work on feature films while balancing family life with a wife and kids.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a writer, director, and producer for both the film and stage. What’s great about these endeavors is they are ultimate exercises in creativity and collaboration. Those also present great challenges. A director is only as good as his or her team, and a great script only results in a great movie or play if its well-crafted story is well-executed. There are many places in the process where things can go wrong – and as a producer you will have to have your fire extinguisher ready for when the fires of things-gone-wrong happen, but I love it when a story comes together!

There’s nothing like sitting in a theatre with a laughing or moved audience enjoying a production of yours and your fellow collaborators. It’s exhilarating but also comes with sizable nerves. I’ve experienced this many times with plays I’ve written, directed, and produced. But the process of production is amazing too. Lining up shots and watching actors you’ve long watched on screen, like Tara Reid and Lou Ferrigno, performing the scenes you wrote is surreal. But that doesn’t happen without a great deal of hard work.

Of the projects I’m currently working on, the one I’m most excited about is called Loaded Deck. It’s a crime thriller that turns the romantic comedy on its head about an undercover cop who falls in love with the woman he’s supposed to take down. But when their heist goes wrong and suspicion turns on him, he’s got to prove someone else on the crew is the real snitch, or she’s going to kill him. The case is already coming together with name actors like Kevin Sorbo (HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS), Daniel Baldwin (ATTACK OF THE 50 FT WOMAN), and Natalie Burns (EXPENDABLES 3).

I’m always open to screenwriting, directing, or producing work on projects others are developing, as well as script doctoring.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Patience, patience, and patience.

People look at the entertainment business like it’s the lottery. Write one good script or make one good movie, and – JACKPOT! – you’re rich. If you want to get rich, while it’s possible in this business, go into something else. Writing and filmmaking are slow-building careers. Most “screenwriters” I’ve met over the years never saw anything they’d written made. Most “producers” had produced nothing. When I was first married, I would often jokingly tell my wife, “Don’t worry; we’ll be rich by then.” The problem was, at first, she didn’t know I was joking. I don’t say that anymore. Through patience and hard work, I’ve gotten to the point of having written, directed, and produced feature films and full-length plays. It doesn’t happen right away. And you generally have to start small and work your way up to bigger and better things. Most people give up and leave L.A. before the small things even happen. While some may have never succeeded, if some had been able to wait it out longer, they would have seen their work onscreen.

Patience has to go beyond continuing to work until things finally start happening. When things do happen, patience is a must. I’ve seen, even worked with, directors and producers who have no patience. They will yell and scream at people over seemingly nothing. You have to have patience to work with people like that and keep your cool while dealing with all the incredible egos that exist in Hollywood. But you have to have the patience to handle setbacks, problems, and delays that happen on set to avoid becoming one of those screamers yourself.

Everyone is born with a certain amount of patience. Some clearly more than others, but no one is perfectly patient. Luckily, patience is like a muscle. It can be grown through exercise. Holding your tongue when you really want to say something is like doing chin-ups. Delaying the gratification of doing things you want are bench presses. Shoot, writing a screenplay, where you lock yourself in a room away from distractions for hours, day after day until the thing is done, in and of itself is like squats on steroids.

There’s a lot of pressure in the entertainment business, but I think taking on the mindset of “I get to do something very few other people get to do” helps me appreciate the moment, even if the moment is chaotic and difficult. Also, with few exceptions for extreme stunts or props that require extra care, there’s little risk of someone really getting hurt or dying if things don’t go exactly right. We’re making a movie, not doing open-heart surgery. Problems come up. They can be fixed without having to explain to a family what happened to their father. Breathe. You’re all right. Now get to work on what needs done.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I’m always looking for people to collaborate with. Collaboration is the name of the game in the entertainment industry. I want to work with people who are skilled, work hard, and are easy to work with. Though that doesn’t mean yes-men. I want to know if there’s a better way to do something.

There are people I’ve hired on to projects that I call anytime I have a new one. Sometimes, you get the bonus of those collaborative co-workers becoming good friends. For example, I hired an editor/DIT named Ethan Jones for a movie called Dr. Quarantine, starring Tara Reid, that I wrote, co-produced, and was 1st Assistant Director on. I’ve since brought Ethan on to a couple other projects, and we’ve become close friends. When he one day gets hitched, I’ll probably be standing in his wedding.

Ideally, when looking for people to collaborate with, I want to find folks with strengths and skills in areas I don’t have. Or who are good at hard-to-do things. Are you a good sales person? Able to raise finances? I definitely want to work with you (as does every independent filmmaker). Have you honed a particular craft in filmmaking? Specialized technicians, hit me up.

The easiest place to find me is on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-vineyard/

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.loadeddeckmovie.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-vineyard/