We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaye Pniewski. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaye below.
Jaye, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
My parents raised me to be very respectful to others and treat all people fairly. I have used this attitude throughout my career in TV production from hiring my crew, to on set respect given to and expected from all parties involved. You become a family on each production and without mutual respect you can lose the cohesiveness and glue that keeps the production positive and collaborative. This is a business where collaboration is important and all parties involved need to feel valued and respected at all times. There are pressures on every production, many we can’t control, but we can control how we support each other and encourage the best performance and therefore achieve the best outcome.
Jaye, 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?
I started as a production asst in the early 80’s, and after watching how the whole set ran and what each department was in charge of, I decided to go into Hair & Make Up. I did that for many years and was quite successful working on hundreds of great productions in both LA and Atlanta. However, I was always looking at each project from a director’s perspective (creatively, shots chosen, lighting, coverage, etc.) and while working as a make up artist on a PSA about child sexual abuse prevention, the client asked me to help direct the child actors. I loved working with these talented minors, and still do! So I began my first production company, BlueJaye Films where the tag line was “Making a difference, one film at a time”. We created many PSA’s and commercials for non profits and causes dear to my heart. I still love giving a voice to the voiceless and bringing awareness to important causes. And I welcome the challenge of working with children and animals. In 2019, I started another production company, BuddyBoy Films, focusing on short films and again, stories with a heart. I love story telling and creating content that will evoke thought and emotion to spark change in a positive way. This is a collaborative business, and as a female director, I respect and value my entire crew and encourage them to create the best product possible. My job as the director of each production is to guide the mission and be at the helm keeping the vision of the project in focus from conception to completion. I am most proud of our latest award winning short film, Bound, which I chose to shoot as a ‘oner’ (a hybrid one shot) to create an intimate peek into two estranged brothers’ lives as they come together with a life or death request. This film was well received on the film festival circuit and I’m looking forward to our upcoming projects.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My main goal and mission as a creative is to create projects that will leave viewers moved and motivated to make positive changes in the world we all live in. This is why most all of my projects (commercials, PSA’s and short films) are centered around topics that need to be brought into the light, reveal a darkness that is uncomfortable, or give a voice to the voiceless. As a story teller, I like sparking much needed conversations in order to create change in certain arenas. I hope to leave the planet better than I found it through thought provoking projects.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
My business partners are my husband and our daughter, both of whom are talented and professional actors. We started our production company, BuddyBoy Films, many years ago after telling all our creative friends to “create your own content” and then decided we should do the same! Our tag line on our website is “Inclusive content about family. For family. By family.” Most every film set becomes a family in one way or another. And we love creating an environment where our cast and crews feel they belong and are valued, as should be the recipe for a healthy family, but often is not the case. Our production family is the family we choose and we love putting those kinds of families together. It is exciting to see the outcome of that kind of love and support.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.buddyboyfilms.com, https://www.bluejayefilms.com
- Instagram: @jayepniewski
- Facebook: Jaye Jackson Pniewski
- Linkedin: Jaye Pniewski