Meet Jill Manges Smith & Stanley A. Smith

We create stuff for a living, so from that standpoint, it is ALL a risk. As independent, freelance, creative folks there are some signposts and industry standards to follow along the way but other than that, it is all risk, chance, luck. Did I mention risk? I don’t think we have ever looked at life or our career choices through the lens of risk.  Everything that we have accomplished both personally and professionally was born out of experimenting, exploring new ideas and collaboration. Our mantra: “If Your Dreams Don’t Scare You, They’re Not Big Enough.” The element of the unknown always exists in life, so why not embrace it and take a risk? You never know what you might discover on the other side.

We are artists first, multihyphenates, “multi-passionate creatives” (shout out to Joi-Knows-How for coining the latter), who began our careers in the music business as teens – performing, recording, writing & producing. When the opportunity to write music for Film & Television came knocking, it was the perfect fit, and we never looked back. Stanley Composing/Producing and Jill- Writing/Singing & Music Supervising via our Standard Music, music production co. & studio. Our work has encompassed everything from feature films, shorts, web series, commercials, docs, to hit TV shows & theme songs- translation: we help tell stories with music. What sets us apart, you ask- it’s a combination of things: our unique and varied experience as artists, our passion for the craft, authenticity, the keen ability to listen & collaborate (it’s a team sport), and most importantly, deliver! It has taken a lot of hard work, but it doesn’t feel like “work” when you love what you do. That said, as creative, curious, ever-evolving types- our latest endeavor and what we are perhaps currently most excited about is creating content and storytelling. An idea to produce a documentary passion project about Hollywood’s first Make-Up Women, featuring Dee Manges (Jill’s Mother), organically came about inspiring our Standard Entertainment, companion, film production co. Our “Make-Up Women-Glamour & Guts” doc, which is currently fiscally sponsored by the IDA (https://www.documentary.org/project/make-women-glamour-guts), while it is close to completion, we are still in need of finishing funds…welcome to one of the most significant challenges of independent filmmaking?! We also recently completed a hybrid-interactive short film- “One Theme”, and a Black Lives Matter inspired music video- filmed on the streets of our native L.A. Both shot by Jill (on iPhone), directed, produced & edited by Team Smith with Stanley as the featured artist. As we continue to hone our filmmaking skills, we are also very excited about a couple of television series ideas we currently have in development. Stay tuned.