Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jake Jarvi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jake, thanks for joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

Making an independent feature film was absolutely the best investment of time and money that I’ve ever spent. It was also the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but that probably adds to why it feels so rewarding. I work in video for a living. I shoot and edit for the music YouTuber Rob Scallon. I’ve been shooting and editing for him for the last seven years. And although it’s very fulfilling making videos for his very large and receptive audience, those are really all HIS videos. I do my best to make them great, but I don’t have the final creative say. I’m an employee. So writing and directing Haunt Season, now available to rent or buy on all major platforms, was my chance to really express myself and have the final creative say in every aspect. It was an absolute dream. I love horror movies, especially ones that focus on creative people, and the best is when they take place during Halloween, so I got to check all the boxes with this one project. It was a nightmare at first, because I’d never tackled something of this scale, and I’d never had the budget to hire camera, lighting, and sound professionals before. Everything was much more logistically and departmentally complicated. But after learning the ropes over the first few shoot days, it was so satisfying to see everyone’s dedication to their specific responsibilities and for the advanced levels of craftsmanship to turn the movie into something so much greater than I ever could have pulled off doing it myself. So, yeah, it took a much larger investment of time and money than anything we’d ever done before, but it was so so so worth it. Luckily, we had a supportive group of investors from eight years of doing a free web series on YouTube that came out to back us and provide us the capital to make it happen. Getting distribution, learning all about delivering an independent film for the marketplace, seeing the reviews come in. Everything I’ve always wanted to learn has come in because of this investment.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a full-time shooter/editor/project manager for the Rob Scallon YouTube channel (2.5 million subscribers) and I just released my first feature film as a writer and director called Haunt Season, a haunted house Halloween slasher. I previously created a web series called The Platoon of Power Squadron about a group of roommates with superpowers which won a couple of awards and built a small but loyal following, also releasing weekly videos between episodes talking about the filmmaking process and engaging with the audience every week for seven years. I enjoy shooting video, but it’s not my main skill set. I love writing character-based movies, I love directing actors, and I love the editing process.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That people would be able to see potential through poor quality. I put so much sub-par material out into the world with decent writing but terrible visual or audio quality. There were absolutely people who could see the good aspects of what I was doing, but no one who wanted to hire me to do something. Of course. Because no one wants to pay for a final product that has an obvious technical problem. It even applies to rough cuts in work situations. You always have to deliver as final a product as possible the very first time.

Also, do not get emotionally attached to paid jobs. Always do your best and apply your full skill to every project you’re hired to do. But there will always be notes. If you prickle at that every time, it’s a horrible way to live. Whoever’s paying gets the final say.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Something I’ve learned by being around a lot of successful social media personalities is that every platform has its own path to engagement. Content you make for one platform usually won’t work for the others and promotional content that solely pushes someone to take action away from the platform is largely white noise. People on Twitter don’t want to close Twitter to go watch your thing on YouTube or Tubi or wherever. They’re happy on Twitter. Same for TikTok and Instagram and all the places. They will only take action outside the platform if enough people on the platform are talking about your thing. They have to be convinced by the community of the platform that it’s worth taking an action off of the platform. So to engage each platform you have to actually make the content they value. Short, funny or engaging pieces of content under a minute that speak to your thing but are content on there own. It’s like impossible.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janks37/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jake.jarvi/
• Twitter: https://x.com/PoPSJakeJarvi
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JakeJarvi

Image Credits

Jake Jarvi with camera in a field: Rob Scallon
Red Room and Haunter Stephen Kristof with Director Jake Jarvi: Tommy Martin
Stephen Kristof and Jake Jarvi clean up blood in a bowling alley: Adam Hinkle
Actress Sarah Elizabeth and Jake Jarvi sit on pumpkins: Alexander Lakin
Jake Jarvi films Rob Scallon and drummer Alex Rudinger for the psychosis video: Teagan
Others, no credit required.