The Final Cut
The Final Cut is a bold and insightful podcast exploring the latest in film and television. Hosted by Professor John Cook and filmmaker Charlotte Bjuren, each episode dives into new releases, classic gems, and the stories shaping screen culture today.
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The Final Cut
Strictly Curious: Jason Connell on Filmmaking, Podcasting & the Power of Story
Jason Connell's creative journey unfolds like a masterclass in artistic evolution. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma—where Francis Ford Coppola filmed The Outsiders and Rumblefish—Jason absorbed filmmaking magic from an early age through these seminal productions and repeated viewings of Jaws on HBO. These cinematic influences planted seeds that would later flourish across multiple media platforms.
His path to Los Angeles wasn't immediate. Working methodically through college and beyond, Jason taught himself editing, built confidence through small projects, and eventually made the significant move to California at age 32. The universe delivered a pivotal moment when he signed up as an extra on HBO's Six Feet Under, exposing him to the fascinating subculture of background actors. This experience sparked his first documentary, "Strictly Background," which took three years rather than his anticipated six months to complete, but became a festival darling that launched his filmmaking career.
Nine more documentaries followed, including "Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians." Simultaneously, Jason founded the United Film Festival, which expanded to multiple cities over its twelve-year run. This platform allowed him to honor cinema legends like John Landis and Vilmos Zsigmond, while showcasing independent films to appreciative audiences. When both documentary production and festival management began feeling unsustainable, Jason pivoted again—this time to podcasting.
His flagship show "Let's Talk Cobra Kai" exemplifies his talent for identifying opportunities and building communities around content. What began as a modest podcast about a YouTube Red series has become the number one Cobra Kai podcast, recently celebrating its 200th episode. This success spawned multiple additional podcasts under his Just Curious Media brand, including the rapidly growing "Good Thinking" positive affirmation series.
Throughout these transitions, Jason maintains core principles: find your tribe, maintain clear vision, create without delay, and adapt to changing circumstances. His most poignant revelation? Learning to be kinder to himself after years of intense self-pressure and comparison to others' timelines of success. His story serves as a roadmap for creative professionals navigating today's rapidly evolving media landscape.
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Hot lights fade the curtains rise, new stories waiting behind our eyes. Charlotte and John with the final say.
Speaker 1:Breaking down the screens in their own way.
Speaker 2:This is the final cut, where the real reviews ignite. Welcome everybody to the Final Cut, the latest in our in-depth look at film and TV. And today we're excited because we're joined by a guest who's based right in the heart of Hollywood at the moment. Hence you can see the Hollywood signs behind us fake background, can see the, the hollywood signs behind us fake background. And this guy's jason connell, who's worn many hats. Actually he's a filmmaker, storyteller and now podcasting pioneer.
Speaker 2:Jason began his creative journey in tulsa, oklahoma, where he's from, and then, you know, slowly within his career, made his way to los Angeles, where he started to gain a reputation for himself through documentary films that spotlight the lives and stories that maybe other people overlook. Voice to perhaps the real unsung heroes of Hollywood. The background actor, or as we like to call them today, at least in the UK, supporting actors, the SAs, and later Jason went on to produce Holy Rollers, the true story of card counting Christians, blending faith, statistics and subculture Interesting. But today Jason is the founder of Just Curious Media, a company that's really making a reputation for itself and producing some standout podcasts, including podcasts on true crime and also, perhaps most notably, let's Talk Cobra Kai, which has established itself as the number one most popular podcast based around discussion of the hit Netflix show, so we're really excited to talk with Jason today and to explore his journey. So welcome to the Final Cut, jason.
Speaker 1:It's a pleasure to be here with you both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, real pleasure for us to talk to you. So can I kick off and take you right back to the very beginning in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Because I was particularly interested to read from your background that you actually saw Francis Ford Coppola at work when he shot in the early 1980s two seminal films from that period of his oeuvre, the Outsiders and Rumblefish. Now that must have been a heck of an influence on you. So maybe take us through those early years in Tulsa and how you think it affected your career.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a huge moment. Now I was a kid so my father was a big movie buff and he spoke highly of Francis Ford Coppola and we owned a restaurant like a health food restaurant, which was so not Tulsa, oklahoma at the time. It was more like a California-type restaurant. But the crew and I think Coppola as well would come into the restaurant and eat there sometimes. So my dad would come home, my mother would come home, they both worked there, we owned it and they would talk about it.
Speaker 1:So we knew this was happening, the outsiders first and then Rumblefish, like a year later, the next year. So it was a bigger deal than I even realized as a kid. But it just kind of connected some dots for me, like oh wow, movie making and this is the guy that did. You know the Godfather, godfather, Part Two, the Conversation, you know Apocalypse Now. So that was starting to kind of you know, run around in my brain.
Speaker 1:Not to mention, I was very influenced by the movie Jaws and that was already running on HBO like around the clock and I was eight, nine years old watching it. Probably too much for a kid of my age, but I could recognize something about it. So those two things were just like huge. I'd never met coppola, but we would try to go on set or or you could like stand a block away, and it was just. I mean, look back at that cast, it was insane who they had for the outsiders everybody before they blew up, you know. So years later we, or the next year, we went and saw it in the theater and yeah, that just kind of cemented that moviemaking's a thing. But I never thought that I would be where I'm at now. I was just in awe of it all.
Speaker 2:What led you eventually away from Tulsa and to Los Angeles for what we might call the first third of your career as a documentary filmmaker.
Speaker 1:So it took a few decades, I think. In college I started to tinker with because you know, this was before there was digital editing, so linear editing. It was just so cumbersome. You had to know somebody, or they worked at a news station and they had access. So I was in college studying business and just someone had a camera and I grabbed it and started filming things and friends had access and we would put together little things that I was shooting on this linear editing bay and people would see it and they would say, hey, you've got a real eye here, you have some talent. And then that led me to the next thing. And the next thing.
Speaker 1:It was a slow progression, I'm not going to lie, but by the time I left college I really had the fever. I didn't know if I was going to make films, but I knew I wanted to make things. It could be skits for Saturday Night Live or whatever it was. I was going back. I left Tulsa. I went to a small well, I shouldn't say that I went to Oklahoma State, which is in a small city in Oklahoma. I went back to Tulsa, saved up money, bought my first editing suite it was like a Sony VAIO editing and really taught myself to edit and took that knowledge and started shooting things and started to get jobs, started freelancing.
Speaker 1:It was like everything I did took me to the next rung and I kept building confidence and confidence and I needed a lot of it because I thought there's no way I could compete in California. But as a series of those things happened and I made a short film that played at a festival and that was really opened my eyes to like, wow, I and like 500 people were there and they all loved the seven minute short that I did and I just thought, hey, I, I could do this. And so then I made the move, literally made that. You know, grapes of wrath, oklahoma to California move, thinking I'm going to do it. But I wasn't 20. I was like 32. And I paid my dues a lot. So that was the jump. Now I didn't know I'd been making documentaries and I can pause there, but that's what it took. It took a lot of things to get me to that point, to come here in 2004.
Speaker 3:So when you then arrived in los angeles and hollywood, did you did you start? So I'm really interested in your documentary strictly background and I and I watched some clips and so it just seems so fascinating. Did you yourself start? As an extra, was that was inspired or yeah, tell us a bit about the background behind the film. So the film is called documentary, is called strictly background yes, yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:I came out here. I was here for a month. I was on craigslist trying to edit things, shoot things, any freelance work I could stir up, because I knew nobody, I didn't know the industry, I just knew I had ambition and talent and a lot of drive. So I went on this ad and it was casting for my favorite show at the time, which was Six Feet Under. A great show on HBO Lasted like six seasons, I believe.
Speaker 1:Five or no, sorry, lasted five seasons and they were winding down season four as a finale and they needed some extras for an art show scene. So I like signed up, they called me and I went in and I got to. I would have paid them to let me watch them make my favorite show. And they put me in a scene and that kind of blew my mind Like wait a second, I'm in this scene now. And then I was meeting people that do this type of work, a background work for a living, and that was also like wait a second, this is a job you know, like a career path, and so anyway, the show wrapped and it was amazing thing, alan Ball was actually directing that episode. Who created the series, who did American Beauty and met some of the cast.
Speaker 1:And then months later it comes on HBO my family's freaking out that I'm in a scene in our mutual favorite show. And so I went on another gig and it was like a huge Martin Lawrence movie, two different movies, actually a lot like Love and Rebound. And that's when I said, okay, I'm going to make a documentary about this, because this subculture is amazing. And I was literally on set or in extras holding is what they call it and I told a buddy I go, I'm making a documentary about this and it's going to be called Strictly Background, and I'd never made a documentary and I didn't even know what I was doing. But I put my flag down and five months later I was in production of that movie. That took me three years to do. That I thought was only going to take me six months.
Speaker 2:Interesting, actually, that your documentary is coterminous with quite an amusing Ricky Gervais series from the same period called Extras. I just wondered how much the Ricky Gervais series has any relationship to what you saw and filmed in terms of your documentary.
Speaker 1:You know, we did come out first and I had a really good friend, my landlord. He became a good friend. He worked for the Hollywood Foreign Press and he bumped into Ricky Gervais because I was a tenant. My movie had already come out on DVD back in the day and he got a quote from Ricky Gervais about my show and we use that quote.
Speaker 1:So, I don't know if Gervais, you know, whatever, it was a lot. But people have ideas. Everyone's got those ideas. But I'm telling you it did open the door for our doc. It was like, hey, I heard of Ekster's Reconjure. It really was a connector that helped us get more publicity at the time and it did great at the festivals.
Speaker 1:But I didn't know anything. That first movie was like how long is it going to take? Like I said, it took three years, not six months, because editing took 13 months. I had no way of shape or form to understand that it was going to take that long. Then the festival circuit takes a long time. You submit, you wait and all of a sudden, once you start getting into festivals and I went to Cork, ireland, where my family's from, I went all over the States and once you start on the circuit, you're like gone and they're flying you there Like bam, bam, bam, bam bam. You're doing all these things like a roadshow and it blew my mind and really kind of validated me and that was it. I didn't need anything else. I was going to make more of them based on that experience and all different stories though it's never easy, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 3:But I'm always so proud of that first one because without it I don't even have a career out here. A film festival is interesting places to meet people, but how did you attract these? How did you choose? I mean, because you, you have chosen some kind of really interesting characters, but how did you find?
Speaker 1:them. So by at the time I'd seen a couple of really good documentaries. One was called Home Movie and the other one was called Cinerama, and Spellbound was also very good and very popular. But I really liked this ensemble piece where they would follow some of the interesting characters, I should say, off on their own little thing and then they would kind of bring them back in. And so I knew that I wanted to follow some interesting eclectic people trying to make it in Hollywood, and I also hoped I wouldn't have a hard time casting it. So I ran an ad. It was February 4th 2005. And I rented a place out on Melrose Avenue for all day, like 12 hours, and we had like hundreds of people show up who wanted to be in the movie. So it's a great place for a casting call in LA and the first. So when we got there like six in the morning, seven in the morning, there was one guy already there and we weren't even going to open for another hour and I was like what a character he is.
Speaker 1:And he did make it in the movie and he famously says in the movie our movie he says I'd rather be an hour early than a minute late for any job. Well, he was definitely an hour early and we hired him, jeffrey Gould. So I met so many people that day and I actually moved forward with 13 people but I whittled it down to 10. And then they were more older, interesting, they had some great stories and substance and some people are supporting in a more supportive role. And then I had to go get a casting agency or two just to kind of have that other voice. And then we had to sprinkle in movie clips and I had to get a lawyer to really protect ourselves on the better use you know the Fair Use Act and everything like that. But it was a process. If I'd known everything I knew before I started I may have rethought it, but I was in and I'm so, so grateful for making that film, and then you moved on to produce Holy Rollers, which combines card counting and Christians.
Speaker 3:Now that doesn't naturally go together.
Speaker 2:How did that all come together?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So after Strictly it's funny I never directed again. I did nine other docs, but I was just producing, but really hands-on because I was also running a film festival that sprouted, which we'll save. So all of a sudden I was busier than ever. So my director of photography, my DP on Strictly Background, was my co-editor as well as very brilliant, talented filmmaker, and he wanted to make his first movie and he knew the people from Holy Rollers and you know spoiler alert he even joined the team. So we were talking one day and he's like you know, we should, you should do a documentary about these guys.
Speaker 1:You have access and access is such a big part of documentary filmmaking. You need access, you need people that trust you. So we moved forward and when we were just talking about the idea, I just said let's call it Holy Rollers, the true story of card counting Christians, and so that's what it is, and we went off about three years and so they did trust us and he was on the team. We had that level of access and we thought the movie might take 10 years to come out because the team was doing so well and they didn't want to be outed. But then things happen and the movie was allowed to come out sooner than later and it did very well at the festivals.
Speaker 1:And Netflix it was. I mean, it was picked up by Netflix at a time before Netflix was making original shows, so it's like pre House of Cards, and they came and called and well, through my distributor, and said hey, a three-year deal. And it was just like wow, it was such a big thing and it's very controversial. It did very well at the film festivals, as you can imagine, because it's like such a great discussion and nearly, nearly, nearly, became a big narrative movie. We had an A-list director attached, a studio, oh wow. And then the last second or I say last second, but it just didn't go through Something else went through in that director. I mean, he's done huge movies, so that was an almost story to turn it into a bigger movie.
Speaker 3:Anyway, interesting thing, what did you think some challenging was working as an independent filmmaker in LA, and I can imagine that so many people traveling all over the world to come to la to make movies. So what do you think the biggest challenges are?
Speaker 1:well, you never have enough money right. So there's that and I just that wasn't a weakness, I just accepted it right and I knew I had a vision. So we never had, we weren't, we weren't living k cush and we were all working for less and working side hustles because we loved what we were doing. And we then started to build a track record of getting distribution. So the biggest hurdle was well, I needed other, really A players. I needed a small group of talented people with shared vision. So I was able to carve that out, which was fortunate for me.
Speaker 1:When I started the film festivals, I really expanded my network because when you're making a movie, you're like in a silo, it's just a few of you guys and you're working away. But the festivals allowed me to talk to other people, look at their work, shared resources. I began producing with people I met through the film festival. So I really liked that. It got me out of just that closed off mindset and expanded upon that and also just shepherding other people's work. So for me, I'm not normal, I don't think I'm abnormal, unique, so I was doing that.
Speaker 1:But, to answer your question, there's so many challenges and what you have to do is believe in yourself and your vision. Maybe you don't want to be a director, maybe you just want to be a part of another team. So find your tribe right, find what you're passionate about, find your skillset and find good people to be around. Because I'll tell you what I moved out here and I hit the ground running because I was hungry and I would meet people that just wanted to talk, and I don't mean that's a bad thing, but I mean talk about doing things. And you check in with them six months later and they're still talking about maybe doing something.
Speaker 1:I don't have time for that. I am moving forward. We only have so much time on this planet and so much energy, so create now when you have the capacity to do so, and there's a lot of those types of people. In a place like los angeles, california, in oklahoma, I was a unicorn there was. I couldn't find another me but out here. That's why I like bigger places, the pool of people, and I was really fortunate to make the move here.
Speaker 3:And what would you recommend for someone who are interested in going to, maybe from somewhere like Oklahoma today and Well, the landscape's changed.
Speaker 1:That was 2004. Even places like Oklahoma since the pandemic I've seen that I don't go there much, but I have family there. They've changed. There's a bigger art community. People are leaving bigger cities and going to other places because they can afford to live. So if I was 20 now, I don't know if I would rush to Los Angeles. But I'm here and this is my life. I've been here 20 years and there's so many reasons that I would never leave. But I think you can do it anywhere. You can find that tribe online now. That didn't exist when I came out here. I mean, we had internet, but we didn't even have YouTube. So it's just like find your people around you. Your other peers, colleagues, share stuff online, get ideas. I mean, I'm a podcaster. Now I don't have to be around people. I can do it from anywhere. We're doing it across the country. What am I saying Across the world right now?
Speaker 2:Across the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. You guys are far and wide and here we are, so it has changed. But really, you got to have a vision for what you want to do. I always have it clear as day in my mind, and then it's about creating that and making adjustments as you go.
Speaker 2:That's so interesting that you've talked about the way in which Los Angeles, which traditionally was seen as the center you've got to be there or you're no one. Now this feeling that maybe that town is now being de-centered is tremendously interesting, and the way in which the internet has liberated it. There was a famous media professor called Henry Jenkins who said we're now in the era of here comes everybody, whereas previously it was just one or two people in elites. Now you've had several lives. You've talked about the energy that you bring to all your passions, and we must talk about what I would call maybe the second act in your career so far, which is film festivals. So you ran the United Film Festival for, I think, 12 years, so can you maybe talk us through that transition, the way that you moved from being sort of, if you like, poacher to gamekeeper?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I guess I was doing the documentaries and film festivals simultaneously because they kind of fed each other. So that part. They are two different things, but I was kind of doing them at the same time. And so I actually started the festival in my hometown of Tulsa and I did one festival like one year and then I moved. So when I moved and I got, I mean it was just short films, it hadn't grown, it hadn't really blossomed, but there was something about that energy I liked and also filmmaking, even documentaries.
Speaker 1:You're in fundraising, you're finishing editing, you're waiting for a festival. There's still a lot of hurry up and wait. You're finishing editing, you're waiting for a festival. There's still a lot of hurry up and wait and, as I already spoke to, I don't want to sit around on idle hands. So I was like you know what? I had that festival in Tulsa. It was a great way to meet people and that's what made me have that eureka moment and start it here in LA. I already knew a lot of filmmakers and I like to do things big. So I started the LA one it was Los Angeles United Film Festival Kept it going in Tulsa, so resurrected a second year there and why not cover the coast and do New York? And so I thought that's a great idea because I can be in New York once a year. And this is small, this isn't like a festival that we have multiple screens, but it is one screen for seven days. So I had to like build relationships with the right venues, build, you know, connectivity with an audience.
Speaker 1:And I'm telling you, over those 12 years we started to really grow and I expanded further. I then took it to San Francisco, chicago and London for like six of the 12 years, took it to San Francisco, chicago and London for like six of the 12 years. So then every two months I'm going to a city. Eventually I had more help and it was a different lineup. It would be kind of tailor-made for Chicago more Chicago movies and then some bigger movies. And I just loved it. I'd be producing. That's kind of another reason why I was producing the documentaries by then and not directing. I'd be in London talking to the directors, talking to the editing team, because you could do that remotely. And then, oh, I got to go on, I got to introduce this movie. So I just got used to that kind of pacing and connectivity and I even started doing distribution for movies through our film festival because my own doc started to get a lot of distribution the 10 I did. So then I became a sales rep for like a hundred movies, getting them small deals, because no one will listen to a one. You know, hey, I have a film, but if you come in with like 20, 30, 40, the distributors will at least listen. So I did all of that for several years at 12 years.
Speaker 1:The issue is it kind of burned me out a little bit. I was going a little too hot, a little too much, and you realize like, and also I never had that big payday. Festivals aren't cash cows. They take a lot of work, tickets and the submissions would help cover the bills and pay the staff and me something. But it was nonstop. We were getting thousands of submissions. We had lots of. It was a great thing I did, it's amazing. But at one point I just said, hey, I think it's run its course. Or what I should have done in hindsight is probably throttle back and made the LA one bigger, because the LA one was just it had gotten to another level here. We had celebrities coming out, we honor people, we'd show classic movies. But I love the brand. I'm so proud of it. People still talk about it today if it comes up which is really cool.
Speaker 3:Do you have any interesting anecdotes? The LA one, do you have any?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, yeah, mean yeah, so I mean I was that one. We actually had two theaters we did. It was the Vista Theater, which was so famous and is actually now owned by Quentin Tarantino. He bought it during the pandemic, which is cool. It's right like where Sunset and Hollywood converged. The Vista Theater you've seen it a in a lot of movies and they do handprints out front, very similar to Grauman's Theater, grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, but there's only like room for like maybe 30 or 40 of them. Well, I was able to bring four of them to the Vista because of my festival. They would say hey, jason, do you have anybody you want to honor? So I was so happy to honor Carl Gottlieb who wrote Jaws.
Speaker 3:The theater's old this month, Exactly 50 this month.
Speaker 1:He also directed movies like Dr Detroit and Caveman, but he was a famous and is just such a famous writer. So he came out. We played Jaws in 35 millimeter years ago. Then we honored Vilmos Zygmunt. Rest in peace. Incredible cinematographer. He did Close Encounters, deliverance. I mean, this guy worked into his 80s and he got his handprints out front. Then we had this is a big one John Landis Honored him.
Speaker 1:We played what movie we played for him I think it was Animal House and met him. He's an idol of mine. I'm like I am honoring an idol of mine.
Speaker 1:His handprints are still there because he's like. He called me right back when we asked him via email. He's like Jason, I've never had my handprints. I didn't work out with Grauman timing, so he was elated. And then I honored Dabney Coleman and Mark Rydell because they had worked on Golden Pond, rydell had directed it and of course, dabney Coleman he just passed away last year. He became a dear friend and we did a documentary on him called Dabney Coleman, or Conversations with Dabney Coleman or I'm sorry, let me say that again, not Such a Bad Guy Conversations with Dabney Coleman and a great doc, bio doc. So those four things were worth. Every bit that I put in the 12 years To honor legends to myself and others was like I mean it was crazy. I mean I'm still on cloud nine thinking about it.
Speaker 3:Can I ask a bit about the motivation of doing this film festival? Was it that you wanted to have film that you didn't feel was seen, or did you feel that you didn't get a chance to be seen? Or what was your motivation to start a film festival?
Speaker 1:Fair, yeah, I'll tell you. And to honor those guys was be those great legends was because we were playing classic movies. We really were an independent film festival. For you know, first and foremost and great question. So back in 2000, 1999, I made my first short film and no, that's not true, it was the second short film I did and it didn't get into that festival in Tulsa, tulsa Overground. That my first film got into and they censored it. And now this is the Bible Belt and it wasn't dirty, it was more rated R, just some humor, adult language, nothing bad. But they said, jason, we loved it, but we couldn't play it. It got censored. So I was like the slam dance model to Sundance. I was like, oh, you censored it. Okay, I'm starting my own film festival and that's where it started from, and it was actually called Tulsa Uncensored Film Festival for the first few years.
Speaker 1:And then I got away from that as we grew and the brand grew because people were thinking it was like literal, like oh, it's going to be raunchy, and so we moved it to United, which was more embracing. So that was the genesis for the festival. But over time it was really shepherding other filmmakers in quality. We were very quality driven but we really like to get local premieres, like all festivals do. So if someone didn't get into, say, an LA version, if they didn't get into the LA Film Festival or AFI, they're looking for an LA premiere.
Speaker 1:We became that third rung for many, many years. We were getting great movies that would go on and get an HBO deal. We had short films by future Oscar winners, of other documentaries or shorts, and I would always pair great shorts with the features. So we didn't have trailers, so we would have a packed house and they would watch a seven-minute short and these were high, high quality and be blown away. And we had like 90% filmmaker participation. So we had Q and A's always. So people loved it. It was a film goers, filmmakers paradise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she mentioned that, but at the same time, you touched on the fact that this was a huge juggernaut and you were really feeling stressed and almost burnt out by it. So is that why you decided to move to podcasting? Was that the aha moment and what brought you into the world of podcasting, as opposed to, obviously, the filmmaking background that you had worked in before?
Speaker 1:You know it wasn't this. I don't think I was overly stressed. I just kind of hit a wall one day because it's a grind right. I mean making 10 documentaries with barely any money. I kind of told myself, don't do it that way again. I nearly made an 11th documentary, but we were going for real funding and we almost had it and something happened. This is how the world works, or filmmaking works, and it didn't go through and I said, rather than just jump in and do what you do, pump the brakes, don't just do it. You've already done 10 of them. And film festivals was kind of the same. We were really close to getting some bigger sponsorship, but it didn't happen.
Speaker 1:So I didn't want to keep doing the grind, but my own habits had changed. I mean, imagine watching hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of submitted films from some of these films should never see the light of day I hate to say it, but others did, and that made me a better filmmaker. Honestly, watching those. And then I had people curating them to get to me and you could just see flaws or beauty right away, I became really astute curator and, not to mention, I'm a cinephile. So I'm watching everything else.
Speaker 1:But my own habits changed. I don't have time to sit down and watch just incessant movies over and over our new submissions and I was really gravitating to audibles, podcast and kind of that old radio intimacy right. So I talked about it for years when I was still finishing my last couple of docs, like I really want to start a podcast, and kind of toyed with the idea. So I waited and then several years later, maybe five years later, I already had the logo for Just Curious Media. Then it was time when everything was tidied up, put aside and I knew I wanted to make this my third act and more sustainable, because I don't have to physically be all over the place. The price point's easier to manage. You don't need a huge, robust team to look at all these movies. And so then I made the leap and I didn't know it would work. I really didn't. It's been six years now, six years it feels like yesterday.
Speaker 3:How do you think podcasting is similar or different from documentary or from filmmaking? How do you?
Speaker 1:well, they are very different. They are, but it's it's being creative right, and it's different in the sense that it's I like the reward, I like doing it and having an episode come out and moving on to the next or documentaries. It's like you really can't pivot too far. You're making a movie and you're making a movie and you're bringing the ship in Harbor and you can't really. So I knew that I really wanted the little wins along the way. I didn't know I would come out with a lot of shows and it would keep growing. I also had to pivot and start bringing in clients, because even popular shows don't make revenue right away and so that's not sustainable. So now I'm taking, it's grown a lot in these six years.
Speaker 1:I learned things along the way, but I'm still headed the same direction. But there's some more in the sense that you need equipment, you need to understand editing. I came in with a full understanding of editing films and I do all the post-production and I mean I have years of experience and it helps me immensely. In fact, to me it was easier, easier. Oh, I only need this much equipment compared to you know a camera and and always getting a new camera and I mean it's so much cheaper, but, um, but I'm, you know, I'm learning along the way, and it just happened to be in a space that's just continued to explode and grow and we don't even know what podcasts are going to become.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, let's talk about Cobra Kai, which has really been a huge, huge hit, and why do you think that that one in particular took off and became this juggernaut for you?
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you, when I chose it it was nothing and no offense to it, but it was on YouTube Red. Nobody I knew was talking about it. But I had studied a lot of docu. What am I saying? I studied a lot of podcasts and I knew my first one. I wanted to do a two-person conversation, like a recap show, because that way I could really understand what I'm doing and just get into it. So I randomly chose Cobra Kai. I reluctantly put the show on one day because I love the Karate Kid. I think it's a masterpiece.
Speaker 1:John G Avildsen who would go and do Rocky before? Who did Rocky beforehand? It's basically Rocky for kids, but it holds up. It's a beautiful movie. Pat Morita gets nominated for an Oscar, so that's like the crown jewel and what is this going to be? But first episode in, I'm two scenes in and I'm saying I am going to do a recap show on this and I'll be able to work out all the kinks. So I went and recruited a co-host who I had known from my film festivals. In fact he came.
Speaker 1:Sal Rodriguez came to the tryouts for Strictly Background because he grew up in Hollywood and he was on shows like Wonder Years and 90210 is an extra, and we bonded right away. But I was going for an older crowd, like an older cast, but I kept his number and years later I called him and hired him to host an event and then we became friends and he worked with me a lot as a host. So I called him and hired him to host an event and then we became friends and he worked with me a lot as a host. So I asked him and he watched the first episode and said I'm in, or maybe he watched the Karate Kid again and he said he was in. So we didn't know this show was going to blow up. It was just something for me to try and this is what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1:So we did season one, season two the show is still on YouTube the pandemic hits. We got like 50 downloads a month, nothing crickets, but I didn't care. I was like I've made 20 episodes. I did the Karate Kid. We did have a long version of the Karate Kid, scene by scene breakdown, and then, when the pandemic hit, netflix got involved and they moved those first two seasons to Netflix and all of a sudden the popularity started to grow and I looked at our numbers and we're not getting 50 a month, we were getting thousands a week.
Speaker 1:And I was like so I did nothing different other than be at the right place at the right time and bet on the right horse. So I quickly told Sal. I was like, hey, netflix is going to do a third season and maybe more, but we're getting a lot of downloads. We got to do episodes outside of the show, of the show show. So we started doing episodes on behind the scenes of this and let's talk about that, and now we just launched our 200th episode a couple of weeks ago. So we've done so many of these non, you know, episodes related to the show, just in the general universe of the karate kid cobra guy, and we have so many fans. I couldn't be more thankful and grateful for that. So that gave me confidence, like strictly backgrounded, to launch a second show and a third show and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2:To me, with a sort of long history of being involved with media in various ways, usually studying it. In some ways it's kind of back to the egg with podcasts, isn't it? You know, it's radio reborn. You know the oldest medium suddenly becomes. And why is it? And do you think that podcasts in the future? Where do you think it's going to go with podcasts? You mentioned that it might have an unexpected future.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know I'm willing to be surprised, I'm just happy to be in it and I know that I'm not chasing a fad. Like really I'm not. I know I'm willing to be surprised, I'm just happy to be in it and I know that I'm not chasing a fad. Like really I'm not. I know I'm not a celebrity yet. No, I mean like a big celebrity they launch a show and it's like everybody's listening. But stay true to making your great content. I perceive it as great and we know we're connecting with fans. You see numbers. So I like that. But to answer your question, where it's going, I mean I don't know, but I know you can take chances and that I like. Like I had an idea 14 months ago, just over a year ago, and it's called good thinking, and I really wanted to create a positive affirmation show and you can call it a podcast, but sometimes it's not even a podcast but it falls under podcast. So it's one minute long. I do a narration of a great affirmation repeats three times with music bed. I've now done.
Speaker 1:Today I released the 236th episode. It comes out every other day. It's the fastest growing show I have to date. I'm helping people. It helps me to do it. It's only one minute long, it's free and it's not conventional, because I have some shows that are always two hours long, but you can do things out there and test it. It's only one minute long, it's free and it's not conventional, because I have some shows that are always two hours long, but you can do things out there and test it and guess what? If it doesn't work and you don't see any numbers, you can put it aside and try something else. So I love that. The point of entry is very inexpensive and if you know what you're doing, you can take a shot. And so to me it's about brand building, and who knows what it'll be in the future. It'll probably be oversaturated, like independent film was, but there's always room for really good content.
Speaker 3:It's not a dream podcast. You would like to do, you haven't done, or like a dream guest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, in fact, the Good Thinking, positive Affirmation Show is really growing. I really think I might explore good thinking, positive conversations and then having not just the one minute but having a 15-minute conversation with someone who is doing interesting things in the world as well. It could be any walks of life. I just love connecting with others, from wherever they are, if they have energy and a story. And, much like you guys, you're seeking out these same things. So we all kind of like the same things and I'm just trying to find my niche within the niche, you know. But it's just, it's so funny. I thought it was really busy just doing let's Talk, cobra Kai, because it was all new to me, and now I'm doing a lot of shows and I don't even feel like I'm busy at all Because you're not overwhelmed by it, like okay, I got to do that, I got to slot this, and it's like it becomes just the life and not wearing myself out and taking time for self. But it's so fulfilling. And to your point, of radio, I totally agree.
Speaker 1:I think there's an intimacy about podcasting that we put on our headphones or we're in our car and we can just zone out and it doesn't require for you to sit and watch like a movie, and that's what we hear. We hear from fans. The engagement I get is insane. I've listened to every episode of let's Talk Cobra Kai or let's Talk Movies, or that's a Crime. Some fans listen to the whole run like a hundred episodes Again, like a second time, a third time. They drive across the country or they drive for a living, or they're always walking dogs for a living and you start to realize you're impacting others. You have a bond with people you don't even know. It's really special, and so now I feel like a responsibility to keep going special, and so now I feel like a responsibility to keep going.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, and, and to bring it full circle, you began in documentaries, you're now in podcasts and and, in a way, you know, one of the not the only function of documentary, but one of its primary functions was to bring about social change in many ways. Do you think that that that you podcasts are the new documentary in that respect, that they can bring social change?
Speaker 1:I totally think so, and it's funny that I you know kind of exit podcasting for now or who knows if I ever go back, but then it becomes you know where Netflix is paying filmmakers, I know, to do these series. So it's funny what documentaries turn into more episodic and they're on Amazon and Netflix. So it's like documentaries turned into more episodic and and they're on Amazon and Netflix. So it's like, oh, of course it gets easier. But, yes, documentaries as well. And there are documentary podcasts, as you know, and I haven't made one.
Speaker 1:Mine are not the documentary style, but there's a point in time that I want to explore that. But yeah, I do believe it is not replacing but it's like an addendum to that. You can get that information here. You can. I mean, I listen to a lot of documentary podcasts. Well, I don't have time to sit down and watch it, but I can listen to a 12-part series or what have you for sure. I mean there's a couple of shows I have coming online now that are more in that vein, not a documentary per se, but more news and informational and fascinating. That will just be audio format and I think that it's very accepted. So I mean, people want video podcasts too, like this and others, but the lion's share of people are the most people still just listen to podcasts because of the convenience.
Speaker 2:So, to wrap things up, what do you think is the future for Jason Connell then, if we look forward, we've spent all the time looking back, very excited.
Speaker 1:What's the future? You know? I hope that I just continue to grow this company just curious media and have more shows they, they last, they reach more and more people. Shows, they last, they reach more and more people and we're able to work with more and more clients. I find that equally gratifying to work, and not just a client, but it's a partnership. I really love to help others, and some of the shows that I'm producing with partners and clients is they're coming to me and they don't know anything and I love what their vision is. So then we sit down and we map that out and a lot of times I become the host, you know, the moderator for the show. So this is even better. So I want to see this grow, where I need a team to help it continue on and we become a real brand in the space.
Speaker 3:Can I ask the final question then? What would you? We always ask our guests what would you say to your 21-year-old self? Oh, man.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, I think about that a lot. Is there more to that? Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and would you do it again? I mean, what advice would you give to yourself?
Speaker 1:give to yourself. Okay, the short answer to that would be I would be kinder to the 21-year-old self. I was very hard on myself. I pushed myself. I tried to compare myself to others. If a filmmaker had done something at a certain age, I'd rush to IMDb quickly, do the math and go gosh, they were only 22 when they did that, or 32 when they did that. And then I hear from other filmmakers who did the same thing. So I was very, very hard and pushed myself to kind of get to where I'm at. But I'm far kinder to myself now, like I'm not trying to hold everything together like I did with the festivals and documentary filmmaking.
Speaker 1:I took on too much and it does take its toll on you. We're only human. Now I do a lot but I do it at a real easy level. I have balance in my life like I've never had it before.
Speaker 1:I did leave California for four years during the pandemic. I was on the East Coast and really enjoyed my time there, made a lot of friends, did a lot of work, have a lot of projects. But I came back because I do love the sun, I do love warm weather, I am on hikes and I work out every day and it's just like I stay very balanced and I did not see that. I didn't understand that the 21-year-old me but I would do everything else the same. The lessons I've learned and the failures. I learned a lot from failing or not getting your expectations, or nothing was easy. So when you ever did finally get to the mountaintop, it was just so thrilling.
Speaker 1:But it's not about that. In fact, I won a lot of awards at festivals a lot like 30-something awards. Won a lot of awards at festivals a lot like 30-something awards. It felt equally, if not more, gratifying and fulfilling to give awards to other people when I was doing my festival and we were giving awards. That was just as thrilling, if not more, to honor them, because it's not about the award. I know it's not about the award, but that award helps catapult you further. But that award helps, you know, catapult you further. So, yeah, a lot has changed, but I would probably tell myself to be kinder to self.
Speaker 2:That's good To be kind. Well, that's a lovely way to end and well, I honestly think you've given our listeners a real award today. It's been a fantastic conversation, so thanks ever so much for for sharing your, your background and your journey. And I suppose just one very last thing is where can listeners and viewers find your work? Obviously, just curious media is your podcast company. But some of those um documentary films that we've been discussing the the early ones where are they available? Where could audiences find them?
Speaker 1:yeah, great question, because things come and go, like our movies have all been on. My films had all been on Netflix at one point in time but Netflix phases out the old right, so Amazon has really become a place or a safe haven. For most of the 10 documentaries I did. They're on there, either under prime or you can rent them for like a dollar or $2. So most of my films are on Amazon. Some of them aren't available right now but I think that'll probably pivot at some point. But you could go to IMDb, look me up, jason Connell, c-o-n-n-e-l-l. Also on justcuriousmediacom there's links to my personal website which is mrmrjasonconnellcom, and it kind of takes you to IMDB the other movies. But yeah, that's a really good place to track me down. But Just Curious Media, for sure, I update it all the time. You can even listen to every single podcast on the website. If you don't really understand apps and stuff like that, people get overwhelmed. So we try to make it real simple for people. But that's a great place for sure.
Speaker 2:Brilliant Well. Thanks ever so much, jason. It's clear that your curiosity is contagious and I really hope the audience will be curious to find out more about your work. Thanks ever so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Oh, it's my pleasure. You guys are fantastic and I really appreciate all your time.
Speaker 2:Thank you ever so much, and thank you to our audience for listening and we'll see you next time.
