We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jon Kemmerer and Tyler Jennings. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jon Kemmerer and Tyler Jennings below.
Jon & Tyler, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Definitely Command! Season 1 was a lot of work for both of us. It put us outside of our comfort zones and we learned a lot of practical knowledge along the way about how the professional film world works. Command is about Ronnie Kitman, who is a lost young man trying to find his place in the world. Both of us really related to him as a character as we were both recent graduates of Towson University and trying to find jobs, in a world that felt like it didn’t want us. In the story, Ronnie get the chance to use his newfound abilities to better his life and those around him with superpowers. In graduating we were met with a lot of situations that told us “we can’t”, but making Command from nothing proved to us that we could, and we did and are very proud of the accomplishments that we have made.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Jon and Tyler met in college at Towson University. We both had a giant passion for creating films and shorts, writing, directing, producing, all of it. It all really started with us making goofy shorts and having fun with cameras, and that eventually turned into helping each other on our own sets.
Both of us have been creating fun videos and movies with our friends and family since we were young, Jon creating videos with his stuffed animals when he was in elementary school. Anytime either of us had free time we were also roping our friends and family’s into filming shorts and YouTube videos just to get our creative side out into the world.
I think we both found a way to provide content that we love in a creative, fun way, and in a way that didn’t break the bank.
We’re both the most proud of how when we run a set for our series, we always make sure to get our work done, but in a fun and safe way, because that’s what’s ultimately one of the most important things for us.
Right now we both are happy to work together to work on Command and provide some entertainment online, Season 1 is fully out on YouTube, and some more things are in the works!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Something that illustrates our resilience is our ability to create against the odds. That is how we go about our work ethic and keep pushing forward.
Something that highlights that is probably just the overall creation of Season 1. When Tyler and I first discussed it, we just kept saying that we’d just be happy once we made it, because that meant that we had pushed through all of our problems, we’ve conquered them.
Some of the problems that we had to fight through:
– Cast & Crew dropping out last minute, the day of filming
– Budget restrictions
– Scheduling conflicts
– Filming an intense chase scene in the Inner Harbor on one of the hottest days in Maryland.
– Getting into Festivals and not being discouraged when not accepted
– Creating a story that we’re happy with that we could film within our restrictions
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think the biggest thing that people may not understand is just the overall process and the passion that we have for it.
For the process:
It’s a HUGE process from pre-production (Scheduling, locations, casting, writing, budgeting, and so much more) to production, all the way to post-producton and distribution. Every little thing takes a lot of thought and planning and I think that’s something that people don’t understand sometimes.
For the passion:
It’s not always about the money or the job, it’s great that if it does, but if it doesn’t that’s okay too. It’s almost like an itch that you have to scratch and if you don’t it’ll just keep eating you alive. Making money with this creative field is great, but it’s also just about getting your work out there and being creative.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/@commandtheseries
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/commandtheseries/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commandtheseries
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommandSeries
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@commandtheseries