We recently connected with James “JR” Rhaburn and have shared our conversation below.
James “JR”, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.
I decided from the age of 10 that I wanted to be a filmmaker; a director specifically. This thought came from a childhood of heavily indulging in movies and television. The classic 2-D Disney animation era along with the early work of John Singleton, Spike Lee & Steven Spielberg were my inspirations. Plus a lot of the Shōwa & Heisei era of the Godzilla franchise. Jaws, to be exact, was the film that made me say, I can do that. There wasn’t a lot of access to filmmaking equipment and opportunities in my younger years like there is today. My best bet was to focus on writing and that’s what I did up into my college years. What I discover about filmmaking is it’s not a linear path compared to someone who wants to become a doctor or a lawyer. I had a screenwriting professor in college who I did not get along with. I’m a self taught screenwriter and by the time I crossed paths with this professor, who seems to have enjoyed stressing his students out with his curriculum, I found his class to be easygoing and I suppose he did not care for my mellow behavior, compared to the rest of his classrooms. Keep in mind I was never a “trouble-making” student. I did my work and kept my mouth shut. Quiet, almost too quiet to the point where I was hardly noticed. One day this professor and I had a class discussion that I’ll never forget. We were discussing the film industry and what it takes to be a part of the world. I remember asking how he felt about short films cause at the time I had friends/colleagues outside of college that were doing things that I wanted to do, but I was stuck in a classroom reading about what I wanted to do, but not getting the experiences to apply all this knowledge. He told me making short films was a waste of time and that it was as simple as going to school, graduating, getting a job and then life is set. Keep in mind this is right before Netflix & others took off heavy with their streaming platforms. I ask this professor if he was willing to give me job recommendations and put me in contact with his network after I graduated. He gave me a scorn look and his answer was the PG-13 version of a “Hell no!” response. I didn’t realize it at that exact moment, but that professor. for better or for worse, changed a lot of my thoughts about college and unintentionally gave me a push to move from writing to getting a camera to start my directing career. A year and some change later, I saved and brought a camera & other miscellaneous camera gears. The biggest purchase & investment I did for myself at the time. I spent so much money that it gave me a panic attack. Fortunately, even to this day, that same camera has open up doors of opportunities that I never experience before. I trained with a photographer mentor for 3 years. I’ve made several short films along with 2 web series, some music video work and 100+ miscellaneous video work, I made a company called B&E Productions with one of my best friends. I photographed friends, family, strangers, models, celebrities, capturing “behind the scenes” photography on different productions and traveled quite a bit just based off of my skillsets. I haven’t look back. I have yet to do my biggest dream… Which is to direct a feature film, something I’m looking forward to accomplishing much sooner than later… And making a living off of that. 14 years and counting…
James “JR”, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is James “JR” Rhaburn. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. I got into the business doing production assistant work on music videos. I display my craft of being a film director, screenwriter and photographer. I want to tell stories and create them through every genre of film and not be bound by one category. My photography goals include, but not limited to capturing memories in my day-to-day life, on set and capturing fine arts, fashion, editorial, etc. What I’m most proud of is convincing myself to not give up because there’s been plenty of times I wanted to. Imposter syndrome, comparison to my colleagues, lack of equipment to knowledge, fear of missing out, etc. I felt it all and still deal with those feelings from time to time. Displaying what I’ve accomplished while also looking back from time to time of where I was to where I am and still aiming to where I’m going helps keeps everything in perspective. If I want readers to take away anything from reading this… Keep going…
Have you ever had to pivot?
I wrote and directed a short film during the pandemic (safely of course). Eventually I will release it to the public, but the film was about a person with schizophrenia having a conversation with a entity that was deciding if he will live or die after their conversation was over. Being an independent filmmaker has its own sets of challenges that any filmmaker, whether in front or behind the camera, will gladly tell you. One of the actors really connected with the script. So much so that they took it into their personal life and I had no idea. Myself and this said actor were slated to do another project. As time got closer to make the next project a reality, this said actor was hiding their depression from everyone. Eventually, communication was dropped all together. and it led me to take the project in another direction. The lack of communication from the said actor was not normal for me and it did not sit well on my thoughts. Attempts to reach out from myself and others were made, but they all lead to nowhere. Then… One day I get a call from said actor’s roommate. We weren’t close cause the roommate did things outside of the industry and we’ve maybe had a paragraph of a conversation in the past. The Roommate tells me my said actor friend is threatening to take his life away and he only wants to talk to me. I immediately drop what I was doing and went to go see my friend. Long story short… I convinced him somehow to not kill himself. He got check into a hospital and has stay there for several months. He’s much better now, but he has decided to take his life in a different approach outside the entertainment industry. I don’t blame him. There were less than 10 people at the time who knew what was really going on with my friend. As far as what we were supposed to do moving forward, I had to revamp that project a bit, but the point is… Even though most of us are usually smiles and laughter when we come together, a lot of people downplay what they’re really going through, myself included. My friend really was going through something long before we shot that film and it’s just another reminder to check in on people and be kind. I’m glad he didn’t kill himself because I don’t know how I would have handle pivoting moving forward.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My mission is to make something of myself with this filmmaking journey. Mentally, financially, physically. There wasn’t a lot of artists in my family before me, but there’s quite a few of them courtesy of my extended family. Being the first of my kind to enter their field, I feel I have a lot to prove. Network, passion and drive are what gets me up every single day. Ultimately, in some shape or form, I want to pay back those who invested in me, especially my first screenwriting professor from when I was pre-teen. She unfortunately has departed this life during 2021. She’s the one who motivated me to become who I am and honor my craft.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raybizzle91/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rhaburnchannel106
Image Credits
Pictures 2, 4 & 6 credited to Kevin Sasahara