We recently connected with Jennifer A Davis and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jennifer A, 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 definitely learned this from my parents. Growing up, we sold craft supplies on the weekends at our local Swap Meet for many years, so that’s really where it all started for me. We had to learn customer service at a very young age, learn to take money and count change, etc. My parents made sure we were learning and helping from as far back as I can remember. When I was about 13-years-old, my mom started working in a warehouse for a coffee company and they were looking for part-time help for the Christmas season. The owners said my older brother and I could work a couple hours after school a couple days a week, so we did! We worked in this upstairs loft area with another woman making Christmas coffee gift packs, and getting our own paycheck was a lot of fun. We were treated, and expected to act like, a regular employee too. We couldn’t yell downstairs for mom or cop an attitude. My parents ingrained in us that it was a privilege to get to work and earn money being that young, so we really took that to heart. I’m very proud of the fact that we did such a good job, the owners asked us to come back for other busy times of the year. I ended up working there all the way through high school and my first couple years of college. In fact, it was a lot of times my second job while I was paying my way through school. If it hadn’t been for my parents teaching us those things when we were really young, we wouldn’t have had that opportunity, and I wouldn’t have risen quickly in different companies I’ve worked for as an adult if it weren’t for what I learned back then. They are the hardest working people I know.
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 have been a Writer and Director for over 10 years. It is undoubtedly my passion in life. I often say it’s the air I breathe, and I mean that. Long story short, I grew up in theater and choir from childhood into my teen years, also writing skits and plays for my church’s youth group and directing them. After going to school to pursue a music degree, everything in life just led me to find filmmaking. I fell in love with it and never looked back!
I love mystery films, that’s really my forte. I love the idea that something is seemingly okay, then something goes wrong, and now you have to figure out what it was, who did it, and why. I know it’s from growing up watching The Twilight Zone and reading Goosebumps novels. And don’t even get me started on Alfred Hitchcock! I love seeing those types of films, or the feeling of those films, on the screens today. I went to the DGA (Director’s Guild) with a friend back in 2017 to watch Sophia Coppola’s The Beguiled. I was in awe the entire film. When the lights came up and the curtains were drawn, my friend looked at me and said “that’s you”, as in, that’s me as a writer/director on the screen. That’s exactly how I felt. The feeling I had in that moment still motivates till this day.
The same thing happened when I saw A Quiet Place by John Krasinski. That one was, of course, a lot more suspenseful, but you almost forget that that movie is a horror film because it’s so much more than that. He creates such a great balance of emotion, a parent’s love for their children, mixed with the horrific way of life they have no choice but to live. I always think about films like that when I’m writing. My point of view is never the fear-factor, it’s wanting to create an emotional connection with the characters so when they do go through something traumatic, you feel for them.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Self-Confidence. Resilience. Adaptability. These are the first three things that come to my mind.
Believe and be confident in yourself. If you aren’t confident in yourself, no one else will be. If you know this is the right path for you, and you have a passion for it, then you already have everything that you need. There will be plenty of people who will try to talk you out of it, so don’t let yourself talk you out of it too.
Which brings us to Resilience. When you hear people say “you gotta have thick skin”, that doesn’t always mean you have to be tough because of industry professionals, we’re talking closer to home. There will be family members and friends who will call you crazy. Trust me, we have all been there. With anything that you do, you have to face rejection, criticism, and people just downright not believing in you. But if you stay the course, you keep moving forward, believe me, it’s absolutely worth it.
Lastly, you have to be adaptable to changes, which isn’t always a Creative’s strong-suit! The creative world is an ever-changing one. You’re going to get feedback that you may not like but it may be necessary. You need to be open to new ideas, approaches, and constructive criticism because it can really help you grow and evolve, not only as a filmmaker, but as a person. Our scripts and our films are our “babies”, and we have to learn to separate ourselves from the feedback and the (hopefully constructive) criticism and look at it with different eyes and also be okay if someone doesn’t like it. Take what is needed from the feedback, and throw the rest out.
I’ll end it with this advice I heard from a speech by Jim Carrey. He said, “I learned many great lessons from my father not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.” So believe in yourself, be resilient, and be willing to learn. You will become a better filmmaker, and a better person, because of it.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents are definitely my biggest fans. I honestly can say that I would not be doing this today if it weren’t for their belief in me and supporting my dream. My dad is like the silent partner that supports you from the wings, always wanting to know every story and every detail and wanting to watch all the footage and see pictures. And my mom is always on set with me. She fed my little crew when I first started because I didn’t have the money. She read every script and brought props and eventually became my production designer, just naturally. She even won a Festival award for Best Production design for my film “The Dinner Party” and I was just ecstatic for her! I went back to school to get my Bachelor’s in Cinema and Television Arts with an emphasis in Directing and Producing in 2017, and then I obtained my Master in Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting just last year in 2023, and I owe that hugely to their support.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://davisindependent.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davisindependentproductions
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DavisIndependentProductions
Image Credits
Jamie Minamide, Khoi Nguyen
