5 Questions with Marcus Jones
The easygoing comedy, “A Seasonal Thing,” by director Marcus Jones, follows an aspiring music supervisor over a couple days in L.A. as he tries to break through a couple of life barriers. We asked Jones how the project started, what the biggest challenge was, and what comes next for him…
1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?
So I'm a suburban kid from the Midwest which means I was often bored and longed to escape to somewhere more exciting. I did that by watching a lot of television. Primarily, whatever MTV had to offer. I eventually did escape to college at Howard University in Washington, D.C. There, I became an editor for the university's short lived humor magazine call The Illtop Journal.
That scratched the itch of wanting to do something in comedy as a career so I moved to Chicago and studied improv at Second City. Once there, I met some guys and we formed a comedy group called The Mantasticks and wrote and performed in many sketch revues and some comedy festivals.
Eventually, I trickled out to Los Angeles like so many of us Chicago actors and comedians do and realized after not having much control over where my career was going that I wanted some. That's what got me interested in filmmaking.
2) What’s the backstory here - what was the initial idea and how did it evolve from there?
So a couple years ago, some friends of mine were putting on a holiday show and I thought I'd be funny to do an earnest cover of John Mayer's "St. Patrick's Day" but my friend who was going to accompany me on guitar was unable to perform. His name is Zach Ross and he ended up co-writing and producing the key song in this film so we're all good...now. The other co-writer of the song, Kevin M. Brennan, who was my roommate at the time, suggested that I write an original song for it and helped me with the music.
Writing the lyrics, I tried to think about what I would want to say in a holiday song that hopefully had some humor baked in it. Being from the Midwest but living in Southern California for many years, I started to think about seasons, Winter in particular; and how it's interesting that out here, there are no real definitive markers in terms of climate for the seasons changing. It's all just one big blend of sunshine.
That led me into thinking for some reason about the concept of "Cuffing Season" which gave me the idea for the song. And if you've already watched the film you know what that spins into. And if you haven't, what are you waiting for?
3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And generally what part of the creative process do you enjoy the best, and the least?
The biggest challenge for this or any no budget project is resources. Every facet of resources. You'll never have enough but you have to make it happen with the ones that you were lucky enough to acquire.
After making a few things, I've found that editing, more specifically working with my editor is the part of the creative process I enjoy the most. It really is just another stage of screenwriting in my opinion and in that spirit my editor, Kyle Blair-Henderson is a great co-writer.
4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?
I haven't seen yet but I know I'm going to love Noah Baumbach's latest film Marriage Story. Baumbach's batting average is very high with me and I think the reason is because his dialogue is witty and smart, he gets great grounded and real performances from his actors and even though the films that he makes are mostly very specific to some elite, liberal, white New Yorker type enclave; I can always find a way in even though I only have being a liberal in common with most of it.
5) What’s next for you?
I'm working on a half hour pilot to sell (C.R.E.A.M.) and trying to figure out what to write next that I don't have to get permission from someone else to direct.
—