Meet Jason Ragosta | writer, director, & Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jason Ragosta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
As a creative professional specializing in writing, directing, and illustration, I have survived the last two decades by dialing in a system of habits that keep me inspired and productive. They break down as follows:

* FOCUS: I find its essential to schedule & guard one’s creative time. Dedicating 2-4 hours for two days of the week for focused writing time can be more effective than a whole week of trying to write while distracted. The key is to build a routine that works best for you. For me, I love working at cafe’s blasting my writing music playlists through noise canceling headphones.

* FUEL: What fuels your imagination? One cannot create characters and build worlds without inspiration. A healthy diet of Films, Episodics, Novels, Plays, Graphic Novels. Other things that may work are hikes, travel, or impromptu adventures. Whatever gets your creative juices flowing is essential to maintaining the health of an active imagination.

* EMBRACE: Rejection and Criticism are part of the game. Unless you are your own client (or financier) the job will involve collaboration that will require being open to other people’s ideas or, in some cases, a full on dictatorship where your creative abilities are hired to serve the vision of whomever pays you. This is not an attack on your creativity, this is the job. One thing I find helpful is to have a creative project at home, that you alone control, to serve as an outlet to keep you from dying on every hill fighting against the notes from your client. This way, if the notes are driving you insane, you can put all that creative angst into something awesome at home. It can really take the edge off daily creative compromises.

* STRATEGIZE: What projects you work based on what is actionable from your current position. I find its better to focus on projects that are smaller and attainable with your current set of resources/budget than to drown in massive pipe dream projects that take decades to finish (or never if you never attain the resources). If you do want to take on a massive project, I suggest breaking it up into smaller pieces so that you can finish each piece in a reasonable amount of time without stretching yourself too thin and having the pieces add up to the larger project over time. Examples would be short films or stories that can add up to and be sold as an anthology or 5-10 minute webisodes that can add up to a feature film. In my case, I have been building my ZTV universe through a short proof of concept film and an expanded universe comic book series. Eventually I would like to make a series of films or an episodic series out of this epic tale, but I will most likely have to lay out a larger section of the story before people will have a clear picture of the potential of the franchise.

* SURPRISE : Don’t get locked into your outline/plan. Planning and over preparing is great, but making discoveries that surprise and engage you emotionally in your own work is far greater. My favorite moments wihen writing or illustrating is when the characters do something I didn’t plan, when they make me laugh, cry, or truly horrify me with their actions. When this happens at home (or on set) this is pure gold, it is the proverbial lightning in the bottle don’t be afraid to take a chance to follow this new direction and allow it to elevate your project beyond anything you could have initially imagine.

* BLIISS: Last of all, Allow yourself to have fun. When in doubt, follow your bliss. If the words don’t come, read something , take a break and walk outside, or grab a snack. Forcing the words can sometimes be worse than note writing at all if you end up writing something you hate, which can lead to a loss of hope, and ultimately giving up.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started out as a classically trained artist, having graduated from the Maryland Institute, College of Art. From there I got hired as a Storyboard artist at a small Stop-motion Animation studio called Wreckless Abandon, where I went on to work as concept artist, set and props builder, and 1st Assistant Camera, back in the time before digital DSLRs when we shot on Mitchell Rack-over 35mm Motion Picture film cameras. From there, I moved to San Francisco and worked as a Sound Stage Manager for actress Diane Baker (Marnie, Silence of the Lambs) before serving as a Production Assistant on the Disney film John Carter, for a year. After that, I worked as a Director of Photography for several commercials and short indie films and as a writer, director, and animator doing several Stop-motion animation shorts for Lego as well as co-directing multiple short documentaries for the Previsualization Society alongside Daniel Gregoire, the founder of Halon Entertainment. From there, I wrote, directed, and produced my first short, Boy in the Dark, which premiered at the Dances With Films festival and screened at the Hollyshorts Festival in 2017. Since then, I have written several features and have shot multiple short films that I’ve written and directed including ZTV Sympathy for the Devil (which premiered at Screamfest and screened at several major horror festivals being nominated and winning multiple awards) , Mother Love, a short occult horror slasher that will be released in 2022 in Sinphony: A Clubhouse Horror Anthology, and The Alchemist’s Daughter, a cosmic Lovecraftian horror tale about star crossed lovers, which is currently in post-production. I am also currently writing several features with my writing partner, Robert Archer and a Horror Comedy Christmas Musical with Joe Boccia Jr. I have also completed and printed my first comic book, ZTV: Undead Empire and look forward to writing and illustrating several more books in the series. I currently serve as the Editorial Manager at Halon Entertainment, an NEP Virtual Studios company, which specializes in Visualization, Virtual Production, and Game Cinematics for top level film, episodic, and video game properties. My journey has been a winding and purely creative one. I think the biggest challenge when carving the path of such a career is embracing your creature comforts and finding a routine that keeps you inspired and gives you hope even in the darkest and most depressing of times. Another thing that is essential is to never stop learning or allow your ego to keep you from growing as an artist. No matter how good you may be there is always a way to improve and to strive for a higher level of creative expression. More than anything, I guess the most important advice I can give comes in the form of a quote from my former boss Andrew Stanton’s film, Finding Nemo: “Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming.”

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’ve been living in SF since 2003 and am not much one for tourist traps. All my favorite places are hidden throughout the city and I would be terrified to share them as the lines are already long enough as it is. I guess the one clue I would give is don’t be afraid to do some research on Yelp and wander off the beaten path. There are many treasures spread throughout San Francisco, in the form of cafe’s, restaurants, and museums.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give a shoutout to my producer, Marisa Garay for always having my back and facilitating the logistics of our film shoots, which can sometimes be quite complex and stressful to manage. And also, Margaret Caragan Aldrich, who is the owner and head of makeup at Pandora FX and creates all of our amazing makeup and creature effects and led us to win Best Makeup FX at the 2021 South African Horror Fest and Best Slasher/Splatter Short Film at the 2021 Another Hole in the Head festival with our short film; ZTV Sympathy for the Devil. I’d also like to give a shout out to her husband, Tony Aldrich who makes all my set carpentry dreams a realty as well as designing and performing all of our blood and fluids work. I’d also be remiss not to give a shoutout to Justin Amore, my tireless editor and Nick Bozzone, our sound editor/mixer for keeping me sane and infinitely supported when in post on all our films. And Lastly, a massive shoutout to our Executive Producers, Sebastien Bazille and Michael Galvan for believing in us and including us in Sinphony: A Clubhouse Horror Anthology, and for working so hard for all of us under the most stressful and emotionally draining of circumstances.

Website: www.halon.com

Instagram: @jasonragosta

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-ragosta-b211539/

Twitter: @jasonragosta

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.ragosta

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jason+ragosta

Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user1040488 TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVpiwmPXATU Sinphony: A Clubhouse Horror Anthology trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyu4Qfqm96Y&t=2s

Image Credits
1. Jason Ragosta, illustrator 2. Jason Ragosta, illustrator 3. Pavel Fedorov, Photographer 4. Pavel Fedorov, Photographer 5. Pavel Fedorov, Photographer 6. Jason Ragosta, illustrator 7. Pascal Combes-Knoke, Cinematographer 8. Curt Wiser, Photographer