Joston Ramon Theney: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker

“When You Don’t Know What To Do, Just Keeping Moving Forward” — It’s easy to become stagnate in the face of doubt or feeling overwhelmed. The key is to understand that you may not know what to do, but you must do something. Warren Buffet said it best, you only have to be right 51% of the time to be successful. Just keep moving forward.

As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Joston Ramon Theney.

Born and raised in Atlanta, GA, Joston Ramon Theney spent much of his childhood either holed up in neighborhood cinemas enjoying the films of ’80s and ‘90s mainstays James Cameron, and Steven Spielberg, or huddled in front of a television enjoying such VHS classics as Fright Night, Friday the 13th and countless other pulse-pounding genre faves. This early introduction to movies laid the foundation for Joston’s understanding, and future creation, of high concept entertainment.

A published author at the age of 16, Joston began his career in the arts with “Dead is Red”, a short story adaptation of the lauded Stephen Crane novel “The Red Badge of Courage.” This award-winning effort earned Joston an agent who in turn procured him to work on the pilot for WB’s “Young Americans” directed by John Singleton. It was there that he was encouraged by an industry veteran in Singleton to pursue a career in screenwriting and directing.

While learning the craft of screenwriting and directing, Joston was influenced by the works of Wong Kar Wai, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Jean-PIerre Jeunet, and those influences are ever-present in his most recent film WANTON WANT and the upcoming MUNE AND THE STARRS.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series!

Thank you for having me!

Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?

Sure. I was born and raised in Atlanta, GA. Grew up in the inner city with a love of 80’s genre films that kept me in movie theaters and out of trouble. As a kid, I don’t think I ever knew what I wanted to do when I grew up, but I was always creating stories. Every time I left the movie theater, I’d sit down and write sequels — in prose because I didn’t know anything about screenplays — or I would draw my own comics that would serve as continuations to the movies or shows I’d seen. My favorite was the one I created for The A-Team.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

The first nudge I received down the path of creative writing was probably provided by my 11th grade English teacher Dr. McCallum. I can’t remember the exact writing exercise we were assigned that day, but it was a stream-of-consciousness type thing, and she took a liking to what I’d done. And she nurtured whatever talent was there and insisted I enter a national writing contest that I eventually won for my short story adaptation of “Red Badge of Courage” titled “Dead Is Red.” That win earned me a Building A Better Georgia award, and my story was published at the age of 16. From there, I was offered writing assignments in the local film scene and eventually landed work with trailblazing filmmaker John Singleton on the television pilot for the WB’s “Young Americans.”

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?

It wasn’t very funny at the time, but we had a real-life slasher movie moment on the set of my film AXEMAN AT CUTTER’S CREEK. We’d shot late night and into the morning with actress Elissa Dowling, and me and the crew just basically slept wherever we landed. I was awake first to check the footage transfer, so to paint this picture, we’re in the town of Angelus Oaks, CA. And Angelus Oaks considers Big Bear, CA residents “city folk.” There’s absolutely no cellphone reception anywhere. So, anyway, I’m checking the hard drives when I hear footsteps in the hall. And I know, from making coffee earlier, I’m the only person awake. Where I am downstairs, it’s huge, and a bit like a maze — the place we were shooting in was like a gazillionaire’s idea of a rustic cabin. Here I am, creeping around each room and peeking in, and it feels to me like every room I walk into, whoever it is, has just stepped out of. Like I’m just missing them. And then I hear the sound of them creaking up the staircase. So, I run for the stairs and see the door at the top of the case closing. I run up and into the kitchen. Elissa opens her bedroom door and finds me in the hall, and she knows something’s wrong. I’m like, ‘go back in the room and lock the door’; she was probably already back inside before I could finish the sentence. She’d clearly survive a horror flick longer than me. There’s this bang on the side door as someone exits, and I’m running after them. I’m chasing them off the porch, into the tall grass, and down this massive hill until I lose them on this little dirt road that leads back to civilization. A few minutes later, I’m back at the cabin, and the little rotary phone they have in the kitchen rings — it’s the property owner. She tells me that her husband was just chased off the property by some lunatic fitting my description. He’d entered the property, unaware that we hadn’t checked out yet.

Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?

Easy. Close-up magicians. Fascinating skillsets and great conversationalists! I’ve had the pleasure of being invited to the Magic Castle multiple times, and I immediately head to the close-up magicians. Once had a guy present an unopened deck of cards. Let me open them while we chatted about my films. I selected a card, showed it to everyone. His assistant marked it while he was turned around. I shuffled the cards, couldn’t find mine anymore. He opened another new deck of cards, and it was in there. The guy never touched my card until then. Blew my mind.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Get up more times than you get knocked down.” Getting knocked down in life is inevitable; sometimes, it’s a blow to your body, your heart, or your soul. But no matter how bad it hurts or how hard you hit the ground, you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, put your game face on and get back to work. And if, at any point, the person advising you says it’s okay to give up, find a new advisor.

I am very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Diversity in entertainment, in and of itself, is a mirror. We are a diverse nation, and to pretend otherwise, is well… it’s to pretend. As more and more groups begin to see themselves reflected honestly in the media we consume, it hopefully validates them and helps break through the fog of stereotyping cultures and gets us to a place of understanding one another better. But I think a conversation about inclusion is just as important, if not more so, as diversity.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

WANTON WANT is my most recent and exciting project. It stars Nicholas Brendon, from “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” fame. It also stars Phillip Andre Botello (THE ART OF SELF DEFENSE), Tuesday Knight (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER), Jackie Moore, Shoshana Wilder, and Nihilist Gelo. It’s a suspenseful drama about an affectless writer (Brendon) struggling to complete his magnum opus. He joins his wife (Moore) on a weekend getaway to relax and reset, and hopefully break through his writer’s block. But when his estranged friend Dan Mackie (Botello) and his alluring wife Pia (Wilder) crash the retreat, a tumultuous secret and perilous obsession will propel Douglas from his comfort zone and his writer’s block, onto a journey of self-discovery and definement. The film is scheduled for release on Amazon Video, GooglePlay, and YouTube Movies on September 28.

Which aspect of your work makes you most proud? Can you explain or give a story?

My freedom to be honest. So much of my previous work was made by a committee. That’s the way it is until you make the decision, and the sacrifices necessary, to finance your own art. Now, for better or for worse, I have the freedom to be honest in my work. To tell the stories, I want to tell, with the artists I want to tell them with. And my only limitation is my imagination.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. “If You’re Not Going All The Way, Why Go At All?” — I would always create a plan with exit strategies, believing it was the smart thing to do. It might’ve been, but once I stopped giving myself a way out or a Plan B, my successes started building up, and my career gained momentum. That strategy is not for the faint of heart, but neither is a career in the arts.

2. “The Only Person You Should Try To Beat Is The Person You Were Yesterday” — We often get so caught up in keeping up or doing better than our peers, but the true measure of your successes is learning, growing, and besting the person you were the day before.

3. “Only You Are In Charge Of Your Happiness” — So many people believe that once they have this thing or that person, their lives will have purpose or meaning, and they’ll ‘get’ happy. But true happiness comes from within. Knowing and loving ourselves and understanding our journey and what makes us happy at the core and nourishing that.

4. “Never Ruin A Good Today By Thinking About A Bad Yesterday” — Don’t dwell on your past misfortunes. Those who do can never fully appreciate the present or plan for the future.

5. “When You Don’t Know What To Do, Just Keeping Moving Forward” — It’s easy to become stagnate in the face of doubt or feeling overwhelmed. The key is to understand that you may not know what to do, but you must do something. Warren Buffet said it best, you only have to be right 51% of the time to be successful. Just keep moving forward.

When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?

For me, it’s my own artistic vision. I don’t rely on investors/financiers anymore; when I did, my work was often made by a committee trying to balance the needs of the story with that of mass audience appeal. I think many smart filmmakers today first find an audience and a niche and feed it content until they find another. That type of filmmaking just doesn’t wake me up in the middle of the night to write, you know? I have to find something that I’m obsessed with, that won’t let me rest until I finish it because that’s what gets you through the marathon of development, production, and distribution.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

The first job I ever had when I moved to Los Angeles was at a cellphone provider. And there was this unhoused gentleman that would come in from the rain or extreme sun on occasion or just to say hi. I’d chat him up about the phones, and we’d share a meal or whatnot. Then a few weeks or so go by without me seeing him. In he walks with a fresh haircut and suit. He’d been pulled into a program for unhoused men and women interested in job placement; they matched qualified applicants with companies in the area to find them meaningful employment. I’ve always wanted to start something like that on a larger scale and even team with the former unhoused workforce to reach those who may have greater difficulty making the transition.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)

Bernard Hopkins. Favorite living boxer, hands-down. He was never the fastest. He never hit the hardest. He wasn’t the biggest nor the strongest. But he always found a way to win. He’s just as headstrong as I am, and I’d love to sit across from him and hear his story.

How can our readers further follow you online?

You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram at @JostonRamonTheney.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Thank you so much for having me! Best and be well.