RocketJump Film School: 1 Month Round-Up!

Hey all, it’s Lauren. For those who don’t know me yet, I’m heading the RocketJump Film School, which just launched a month ago on May 1st. You may have seen my cinematography work though, on shorts like Flower Warfare, Whose Plane Is It Anyway? and London Brawling.

For those of you who’ve already joined us as RJFS got going last month– 1.) we absolutely adore you and 2.) this will be just a quick check-in for how we think things are doing, and what we hope to start implementing as we go forward. For those of you who haven’t yet seen the Film School, hopefully this will be a good introduction!

 

Update Part 1: HECK YEAH IT FINALLY HAPPENED!! WE TOTALLY LAUNCHED!!!

As you can see above, we officially launched with our one-take video on the main RocketJump youtube channel, and made the official film school page public alongside it. RJFS had been bouncing between my and Freddie’s heads ever since I officially came full-time to RocketJump in 2013. We had a few push-backs and a frustrating summer where we had to test and re-do a bunch of things that weren’t working, but I am extremely excited that it’s finally here. And one of the main reasons for my excitement is all the amazing feedback and interaction we are receiving from you guys. All your concerns, suggestions, ideas– we read and consider all of them. Seriously. Even if we don’t have time to respond, we hear you. We want this school to be shaped by the people who are using it. More on that in a second.

 

Update Part 2: OH MY GOD I FINALLY HAVE A FULL TIME STAFF AND THEY ARE AWESOME LET ME INTRODUCE YOU

RJFS, when it first started was… well, me. And boy let me tell you, if it’s one thing we hope you learn from RJFS, it’s that YOU CANNOT MAKE MOVIES ALONE. And that holds true especially when it comes to RJFS.

Before RJFS, I was lucky enough to hire on Nathan Koepp as my editor for my Season 3 behind-the-scenes work, and then kept him on as we began developing the curriculum. Not only does Nathan give incredible attention to story and detail, but he immediately understood what I was going for with RJFS and edited together the very first tutorials and helped RJFS get onto its current path. And because Nathan was SO good at his job, he was promoted to Story Editor and shooter for our reality show with Hulu (RocketJump: The Show), where he is currently KILLING IT at everything he does. Another RJFS early bird that has jumped over to the reality show is our producer Ashim Ahuja, who produced the entire one-take video and was there to help me early on. He has been producing the HECK out of everything he touches. But seriously, RJFS would probably not have gotten very far without either of them, so while they are off in Reality Land, they both remain #TeamRJFS for life.

RJFS wouldn’t actually exist if not for Cherish Chen, who came on as our Creative Producer when we were still cobbling things together, and took the reins on getting us some much-needed sponsorship and equipment, while also stepping up as the person who makes sure we’re sailing toward the right point on the horizon. Cherish has been the perfect fit for RJFS. She is not only extremely creative, but has an exceptional talent for seeing the big, future picture and an uncanny ability to interpret my ideas for the film school before I can even articulate them into words. A lot of people tend to categorize producing into strictly finances and organization, but RocketJump Film School has Cherish’s unique thumbprint all over it.

I can also honestly say I am not sure what we would have done without our Director and editor, Joey Scoma. As Cherish and I were still building the RJFS curriculum, we were in desperate need of someone who could not only edit, but give creative direction for the videos we were planning. Once we convinced him to come on board, immediately Joey brought his own ideas, creativity and humor to the table. Joey brought insanely smart and creative structure and sense into both production and the edits with what looked like incredible ease, and I have never laughed harder when approving rough cuts and edits. I always wanted RJFS to have a unique, entertaining voice, and Joey is responsible for so, so much of that.

A major shout out to The Tech Daniels– our wicked brilliant team of Danny, Daniel and Daniel, who keep our servers alive and our website functioning. They have put in some very long hours with us, have responded to all of my inane, nit-picky emails, created an entire system to transcode footage, put up with my TOTALLY FUNNY JOKES at 3AM, and basically were responsible for making sure my dreams for RJFS actually came true, and I am eternally grateful.

And I have to especially thank Jamie Lukaszewski, our CFO, who fiercely had my back from the very first pitch I made to Freddie and Matt for RJFS, and then kept both me and RJFS alive during the long slog of turning RJFS from a nebulous idea into an actual, real plan.

It’s really hard not to list every single person who works here at RocketJump, because every person here has had a supportive hand in it. (Dez talking about practical effects??! Jimmy talking about acting?!!! Layne bestowing her all-knowing costume wisdom upon us?!!!) But in the interest of this not becoming a novel-length love letter, I will limit it to full-time RJFS staff. But seriously, all of RocketJump has helped us raise this weird little baby.

p.s. Kevin Senzaki knows what he did.

 

Update Part 3: The Future?!

The last month has been terrifying, gratifying, crazy tough, amazing, and most importantly, a huge learning curve. As we move forward we’re still learning how to find a balance between basic concepts and advanced techniques, how exactly to navigate and use sponsorships in ways that benefit our viewers as well as keeping the actual school funded, how to keep interaction up but still have time to make content, what works, what doesn’t work, etc etc. We are so eternally grateful for those of you who are along with us for the ride, encouraging us and giving us feedback and suggestions. This is an endless work in progress, and here are some answers to some common questions about the future.

1. Yes, we do plan to get into more advanced concepts and techniques. But we have to build a solid base of understanding first. If you feel like you’re too advanced for the current content, don’t worry. More stuff is along the way very soon. We want to keep it varied. Have suggestions? Liked something in particular? Chat with us in the forums!!!

2. Yes, as we have stated before, we will make sure our concepts translate across different software, programs and equipment. We want you to be able to make good videos and tell good stories no matter what you are using. The important thing is that you MAKE STUFF!

3. We will be releasing footage and sound libraries for you to play with in the upcoming months. We plan on making this a regular thing. We understand not all of you have access to things like 4K footage and quality sound libraries. So hey, we’re fixing that for you.

4. We totally read all your suggestions and requests in the forums. We have an ongoing spreadsheet of “Future Lesson Ideas” that we dump them all into. I think we have ideas for the next 10 years.

5. Yes we will have sponsors! And we will endeavor to be transparent and up front about them. Sponsorships are always tricky, because you have to try to make so many people happy. But trust us– we’ve paid very close attention to how sponsored videos are received and have been applying that to future videos. (And the great thing about trying out a bunch of different cameras, equipment and programs is we can test them out for you and start building a knowledge base.)

6. In-person workshops, camps and contests are definitely on our minds, but that is a longer-term goal. Right now we are focusing on making sure our videos don’t suck. But don’t worry. We’re planning some COOL STUFF.

7. We are planning more contests and hopefully a festival or two. We will make sure you hear about it. Oh yes.

As for future content, we still have a wealth of amazing people on the RocketJump Film School team that I will be showcasing as we go along. Costumes, writing, art, practical effects, VFX, you name it, we’re working on it. Dang, we have some cool friends.

 

Update Part 4: BUT I NEED TO SEE RJFS IN PERSON DANG IT

We don’t have the funds or manpower to start in-person workshops or a tour or anything… yet. But! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get notified of places we might pop up. Keep an eye out for us this year at San Diego Comic Con, Vidcon, and RTX!

 

With the most sincerest caps-lock-level excitement and gratitude and mushy feelings,

Lauren, Dean of RJFS