Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nik Jermaine. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Nik, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Thank you for having me! I think creating our podcast series, Mortuus Est, was definitely a risk. Before this series, I had never worked on an audio drama or podcast or done voice-over, ever. Every part of making this show has been a learning experience for me and the Crazy10 team.
Mortuus Est was originally a short film, which became a series, and eventually we landed on telling the story as an audio drama. We didn’t have the budget to shoot a live-action series that would likely require many stunts, locations, and VFX. And the concept of telling a story that could have been very action heavy as an audio only series was an exciting challenge. And I loved that an audio drama podcast allows the listener to immerse themselves in the story, wherever they are.
I had listened to a few shows and set out to produce Mortuus Est: Legacy without much of a blueprint to follow. We just dove headfirst into production. My co-creator Chris and I started reworking the script to make the show work without any visuals. We found and cast amazing actors (some of who had never done voice over before) who brought that script to life. Amairany, our AD and production coordinator helped find Goodpeeples, which is the studio we used to record all the voice over. Luckily, my friend Malaiye was there to handle engineering; I was able to learn from what she did and engineered additional sessions.
Then I had the challenge of putting everything together to create the world of Mortuus Est. It was a lot of trial and error. I had only used Adobe Audition a handful of times before this. There were many late nights of trying to figure out how to create the atmosphere I wanted. Eventually, the show premiered in November 2021 and the rest of the episodes came out in the Spring of 2022 (I caught COVID and was sick for a while).
I had no idea if we could pull this off. I honestly would have been happy if only one person liked our show. But after premiering, we had a panel at LA Comic Con, the show has been nominated in festivals and won a few awards, and we now have listeners all around the world. I’m proud of the work that the cast and the Crazy10 team has put in and its outcome, so I would say it was definitely worth the risk.
Now we’re currently in production with the next part of the series, Mortuus Est: Origins, which is a prequel to Legacy. Mortuus Est: Origins is slated to premiere in the fall of this year!
Nik, 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?
In addition to writing and directing the Mortuus Est series, I’m the creative diector of Crazy10 Entertainment. I am also an actor; I was always really imaginative and liked to tell stories so having the opportunities to play any role on a project, in the scene or behind the scenes, has been amazing.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect would be collaborating with all the artists who I meet on projects. Working with others and seeing from their perspective often adds a new layer to a project. Living your life and experiencing things is an important component to creating a story, but the people you work with will often have had experiences that you haven’t.
Outside of adding things to the story, I think seeing other people’s processes and techniques are valuable takeaways from collaborating with someone. I’ve learned so much from both the cast and the rest of the creative team.
As a writer and director, getting to hear something I wrote performed is a reward on its own.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Sharing and interacting with the art & content that you enjoyed is the easiest way to support artists and creatives! We’re lucky that these days that media is so accessible to create and consume, but because there’s so much out there it’s easy to miss out on things. Posting about or leaving reviews for things you enjoy, or even just sending it to friends is a great way to support. I love getting comments and messages about my work; it’s great to get feedback and even helps motivate me to keep going.
And of course if an artist/creative has a ko-fi, patreon, or has a crowd-funding campaign going, those are all great ways to directly support the creation of their art.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.crazy10entertainment.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/mortuusestseries
- Facebook: facebook.com/crazy10ent
- Twitter: twitter.com/MortuusEst__
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@crazy10entertainment
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/7F0SLqI0ckQG8md7Yu1Y4t?si=44626e12b6994eb5
Image Credits
Karen Santos, Michael Mattes, Bryan Flores