We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jordan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

Coming up with the idea to go into film and video production wasn’t tough. I went to school for filmmaking and it’s something for which I have an unending fascination. I was a full time musician before I moved into this world and when it came to video I started by just making music videos and projects for my own amusement. As I started to transition to film more professionally, I converted my studio space towards video editing, scoring and recording foley/ADR for film sound mixes. The tougher part is coming up with new ideas every project when it comes to music videos and fiction projects. I spend a lot of time writing screenplays for projects I’ve made and many I’d love to someday make. Long form stories like those can be difficult to rangle in the beginning. so I’m always thinking of new stories or ideas to communicate visually. That’s just my personal projects, and with clients someone could come to me for a music video with no pre-existing concept. Then I gotta go to the drawing board in my head and start pulling ideas. Usually those are a little easier because I have the musician or band’s music as inspiration. The tone and feel of the music and lyrics are a diving board for new ideas and usually after bouncing several of those ideas off the band we land on sometime everyone is excited about. For me I always want to try something I’ve never done before with projects so I’m always looking for ways to experiment or bring in new parties to try something entirely different. For example, on a recent music video we worked with a 3D visual artist from Glasgow and doing work that was heavily based on video compositing with an artist I’d never met was both a challenge and immensely satisfying! That’s the exciting part about filmmaking though, everything is always different based on the project.

When it comes to the podcast, that much simpler. I love talking movies and can do it all day. My good friend JB (who is much more versed in podcasting) told me I’d be good at it and we should try and do a show together. That was 2019 and we’ve been going full steam ever since! Since the beginning we’ve been able to have some of our dream guests on the show and traveled to some very cool events, not to mention hours talking about the subject we love most.

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?

As a creator, I produce original films mostly in the horror genre as well as co-hosting and producing a weekly podcast called Camp Nightmare with over 150 episodes of celebrity interviews, original stories and horror movie breakdowns.

Outside of the podcast I write/direct/produce my own films. With those, I’m most interested in genre stories that are based fundamentally in character. Scares and monsters are great, and I love them dearly, but I like those stories to be motivated at their core by character. You have to care about your characters or else the audience won’t care either. That being said, I like horror and genre stuff because it can exist somewhere beyond the expected flow of day-to-day life. You can make your own rules and anything can happen. I want to believe that there’s still some mystery left in the world, so in my stories, at least, I make sure there is.

My first directorial film was a short atmospheric faustian story called “Three” that starred Paul Cottman (Lion Gate’s “Where The Scary Things Are) and won numerous awards on the film festival circuit in 2018. That led to a release on Crypt TV to a massive audience. It’s still on their YouTube channel to check out.

Since then I have made two segments for a horror anthology called “The Black Hills Night Hike” which includes work from different directors, each about different urban legends and myths. I did one segment focusing on a covered bridge that is said to be haunted by vengeful spirits and the other about a mysterious sea monster legend from the Chesapeake Bay known as Chessie. This movie is still in post-production, but I’m hoping the producers get this one out to fests soon.

Most recently I have been finishing production for my newest feature lenght film, “The Only Ones”. This one is a character driven horror/comedy which features some of the best regional talent I know including Emily Classen, Tatiana Ford, Zach Ruchkin and working once again with Paul Cottman. It also features wonderful character actors like Nancy Ridder (Scream), Jim Krut (Dawn of the Dead ’78) and Brett Wagner (The Crazies, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003). I expect this one to start hitting festivals next year.

When it comes to working with clients, I work in all sides of production from cinematic storytelling and music videos to commercial, academic work. I am a filmmaker primarily but I’m really like a swiss army knife for your creative arsenal. I work in everything from directing, cinematography, sound department, graphic design and post-production/editing. Hell, I even teach drums one day a week. So really when someone needs something done creatively I usually just say “let’s chat”. For some clients I am a one-stop-shop for video and audio production. I can take your concept all the way though to completion or join your crew to make it happen. As I said, let’s talk!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, seeing a film I’ve made play in a theater with a big screen and nice sound system is one of the best experiences I can ever ask for. That is really where you can tell what things worked best if something fell flat for whatever reasons. Those audiences are seeing it for the first time with no outside ideas on what it should be. It either works or it doesn’t. When I see my short film “Three” turn a rowdy film fest audience down to silent, attentive audience, I know I did a good job.

I’ve definitely taken those experiences back to the studio and tweaked elements of the edit based on something that didn’t play like I’d hoped on a big screen. I once changed an entire color correction profile after seeing my film play at a Drive-In Movie Theater in PA. In a dark theater the movie looked great, but out here on the Drive-In it was way too dark! I took it back to the studio and tweaked the color, then next time it played in a dark theater it looked even better. No better place to find mistakes that a big huge screen!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I really can’t imagine what else I would be doing besides this anymore. I don’t think I could survive in a traditional job environment at this point. I’d lose it. I don’t think I’m alone here either, I think many creatives share the feeling of “I have to do this”. I don’t know if many of us could articulate WHY we feel like we have to do what we do, but we feel it all the same and have no choice but to follow the pull of that dowsing rod.

Between our podcast audience and the friends/fans I’ve found making my films, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

My goal now is to ride that horse til it bucks me off. Even then though, I’ll probably just climb back on. Let’s be real.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gypsycabstudios.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gypsycabstudios
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gypsycabstudios/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/nightmarecamp
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM4U6JLRWfI
• Other: www.campnightmare.com (Podcast Website)

Image Credits
photos curtesy of Gypsy Cab Studios