Film Grad Discusses Tactics

He didn’t realize it until much later in life, but Ben Jumper can trace his passion for camera production work all the way back to his boyhood, even though he insists that it was just one of a million hobbies he enjoyed. For the longest time, the Los Angeles Film School alum never even thought to consider it as anything more than just one of his dozens of hobbies, let alone pursue making a career out of it. Back then, Ben was just a typical Maine teenager screwing around with his parents’ VHS video camera and making amateur skateboard videos for he and his friends to watch. Hobbies later took a backseat once Ben enlisted in the marines after high school and began serving around the world, including tours of duty in the Middle East. In a roundabout way, however, the military assignments awoke within Ben a long dormant itch for filmmaking. Inspired to document his experiences in Iraq, for the first time, Ben looked at his cameras not simply as toys, but as tools that could be used for a actual career.

After being discharged, Ben’s first step in his new career endeavor was enrolling at Los Angeles Film School, where instructors initially heaped praise at his eye for the camera. Despite a natural aptitude, however, Ben remarks how different his production training felt compared to his amateur days when the equipment and software at his disposal consisted of a shoulder mounted camcorder and iMovie. With state of the art equipment and more formal theory and structure of how you “should” shoot cameras in production, Ben was worried about what kind of success he’d enjoy if he couldn’t conform to some of the general filmmaking rules of thumbs that he was being taught in his classes. Though there was an adjustment, Ben acclimated and soon found himself breezing through the curriculum with high marks.

During his time in the Film program, Ben became acquainted with classmate Nick Barr. As the two bonded over their similar military backgrounds (Nick was a navy veteran), they both also realized a shared entrepreneurial desire to run their own production company. It wasn’t long before Ben and Nick partnered on a venture together to birth Rodger Wilco Productions. Heavily invested to make their business a success, Ben returned to enroll in the Entertainment Business program, so that he could learn as much about what would be needed to market and operate their company in the industry, while Nick focused on freelancing to maintain the duo’s active presence in production. In between classes, Ben would join his partner on whatever freelance gigs he could manage to squeeze into his schedule.  When Nick was brought aboard Marlon Wayan’s online comedy venture What The Funny, he was able to refer Ben for some of the production’s shoots. Then, just as production for What The Funny looked to be wrapping up, it was Ben who stumbled upon a Craigslist posting about an opportunity at Siren Studios and returned the favor by forwarding the post to his partner. Nick was hired on as Siren’s stage manager and once again was able to bring Ben aboard as a stage hand. Together, the two worked countless shoots for Siren, helping to set up commercials and music videos, including Nicki Minaj’s hit Anaconda video.

But while the exposure to regular and prominent industry work represented a huge boon to Ben and Nick’s careers, it also was a watershed reminder of their true goals. The duo knew that they would need to work their way up in the business when first starting out. But the grueling hours at Siren coupled with Ben’s school work made it difficult for the partners to build traction with their own projects and company outside of the studio. Boldly deciding to leave Siren, Ben and Nick refocused their efforts to grow and market their own company, and rebranded to form Unified Planet Productions.

The energy that Ben and Nick saved from working at Siren went full speed ahead at taking on as much freelance work as the two could find. In addition to shooting independent music videos and spec commercials, Ben formed his own side wedding videography business, called Better Half Productions. Ben and Nick also helped shoot live events for the Dare to C.A.R.E. foundation, a non-profit charity promoting vascular health that Ben was particularly proud to have worked with. For Ben, the accumulation of freelance work served two key purposes. Not only did he hope that positive client experiences would lead to word of mouth referrals and more subsequent work, but he also looked to use the money Unified Planet earned to reinvest in the company and purchase equipment and gear that could be used for future projects under the company banner. Ben bit the financial bullet to purchase his own camera drone for example. This fortuitously has led to burgeoning aerial videography work for real estate and resort companies. Then, on the strength of a personal contact that Nick had at MPI Research (a pharmaceutical think tank that focuses on clinical drug trials), Unified Planet was hired to shoot a virtual video tour of the MPI Michigan facility for their corporate promotion. The video was a hit and Ben notes that it has opened the door to an avenue of corporate and industrial videos that he had never even previously considered. In recognizing the potential of that untapped market of clients, Ben lists Unified Planet’s next big objective as hiring a business development partner who can reach out to various companies and organizations and inquire about future video opportunities. In applying the theories of what he learned in the Entertainment Business program, Ben also has planned a complete revamping of the Unified Planet website with sharper reels and video demos to better market and brand the types of services that the company can offer.

As Unified Planet looks toward its bright future and all the new avenues it is just about to explore, Ben has commented that he has never lost sight of his true motivation for moving into the industry: his hope to one day have the cache to shoot feature documentaries on places that he’s traveled. In addition to his time in Iraq, Ben took two months to backpack through Southeast Asia and has dreamt of documenting the culture of backpackers for a relatively unfamiliar American audience. A self-professed wandering nomad, Ben explains that unlike much of the rest of the world, Americans have yet to truly embrace the importance of experiencing extended periods in the unfamiliar surroundings of other countries and cultures. The emphasis of our culture’s focus on attaining a stable career serves as a disincentive for Americans to truly immerse themselves in a completely different culture for fear of falling behind in one’s career path and as such deprives them of the unique perspective that comes with open-ended traveling. Ben hopes that his future documentaries will help our culture to see that the personal growth we gain by seeing the world is just as important as our professional growth is.  The parallels between his life perspective and professional perspective are strikingly similar. Says Ben, “You shouldn’t be afraid to fail in this business, because you only grow when you fail. So go out there and fail everyday. I’m always excited when I fail, because that’s how you learn and get that much closer to knowing you’re doing it right.”

Learn more about Ben’s work here:

http://www.unifiedplanetproductions.com/
https://vimeo.com/unifiedplanetproductions

https://instagram.com/unifiedplanetprod/
https://www.facebook.com/unifiedplanetprod?fref=nf