USC alumnus Meiselas joins duo on comedy project
USC alumnus Brett Meiselas has quickly found a foothold in an increasingly competitive entertainment industry. After graduating from the School of Cinematic Arts as a critical studies major in 2012, he began working on The Ellen Show, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. Meiselas’s latest project, We’re the Jasons, is a feature-length mockumentary based on the real-life comedians Jason Blackman and Jason Bader, both of whom are high school friends of Meiselas. The story follows the two comedians as they hit the road on a comedy tour to New York, hoping to become hometown heroes.
Through their journey to comedy success, these comedians discover their own misguided views of fame and fortune. The documentary style captures their larger-than-life characters with exaggerated humor and all the good and bad moments they experience on their adventures.
The video on their Kickstarter page shows the two Jasons acting in two pre-filmed scenes. In the first, Bader quits his job in not-quite-Jerry-Maguire fashion with plenty of awkward humor mined out of this famous film trope. The second scene shows Blackman breaking up with his girlfriend in preparation for the tour. In a much more absurd scene than the first one in the video, Blackman’s girlfriend explains that he has been breaking up with her periodically after any semi-major life event since he left for summer camp when they were children.
The inspiration for this project came from the dynamic comedy duo themselves. Meiselas had helped produce their comedic work that appeared on outlets such as the The Huffington Post and Funny or Die. When the two approached Meiselas to pitch the idea for this project, Meiselas jumped at the opportunity to get on board.
“They are some of the funniest guys and they always make me laugh,” said Meiselas.
The Jasons were also inspired by the mockumentary genre that made shows such as The Office and Parks and Recreation so popular.
“We felt there was still room in the genre to create something really unique and funny,” Meiselas said.
Meiselas and the Jasons focused on featuring real-life people and situations in the film to help make their characters come to life for a unique spin on this TV and film platform.
Meiselas said the project’s biggest challenge was raising money.
“Even a cheap film costs a significant amount of money,” Meiselas said.
The Kickstarter campaign hopes to raise $40,000 — the minimum amount they believe could help make this movie — through donations.
“We have such talented people working on this project,” Meiselas said.
Though Meiselas admits that there is a tough, long road ahead, he is excited about the potential for this project. He said the team will ideally reach its funding goal and begin filming part of the project this summer. He would then enter the post-production phase as editor and producer of the film before the team would hopefully begin distribution of the project. Meiselas hopes to release the film on-demand, a platform he thinks is an effective medium for pieces like this.
An avid lover of his alma mater USC, Meiselas credits his success to the film school that gave him his start.
“Being a critical studies major, you are kind of an underdog when it comes to production experience,” Meiselas said. “I worked at Trojan Vision while at USC and I was shocked to find how similar it was to working on The Ellen Show.”