Meet Jordan Roman | Film Writer and Director and YouTube Creator

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

Hi Jordan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
It has been a pretty difficult road to embark on a film directing career. Perhaps the most tumultuous aspect of pursuing this career is not necessarily creating films or generating ideas or stories but navigating the incredibly competitive and uncertain terrain that is the industry side of filmmaking.

The market is ever-changing in terms of what films get greenlit and whether topics and genres are popular or not, and this vacillates all of the time. Specifically, the last few years with both the Writer and Actor strikes and Covid, it has been an even more difficult road of contraction and layoffs within the industry, but I believe this will always be inherently a part of what we do, and it’s more about building a sustainable and financially stable life as an artist, especially when the industry is shut down.

This even led me to create my own YouTube channel to discuss important topics about how to make films and share the information I wish I had learned in Film School so that, hopefully, the next generation of filmmakers can use this wisdom to help their careers in such an incredibly difficult industry to break into, with so much gatekeeping.

I have also learned that taking major risks and betting on yourself is the best way to truly innovate in an artistic sense, but also to challenge yourself to grow as a person and also take your destiny into your own hands. With starting my YouTube channel as one example, I learned that building my own platform and following has led to so many other great opportunities. As James Earl Jones said in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”

The one thing that drives me more than anything on this creative journey is the will to overcome hardship. Put another way, the resolve to face difficulties and conquer them anyway. I learned early on that a career in filmmaking is an incredibly arduous path and one littered with obstacles and barriers to prevent you from creating at the caliber you aspire to.

As I’ve made films throughout my time in LA, what I’ve learned is that any problem has a solution. It’s just about how much you care to solve it. Filmmaking is all about problem-solving, and upon every completion of a project, it inspires confidence within you that compels you to continue seeking out the goals that scare you.

In a career that’s built on risk, I’ve found that embracing it and seeking it out will lead to an exponentially higher rate of growth. Without risk, there is no growth, and without growth, there’s no reward. In many ways, my filmmaking career has acted as a mirror to my personal life that runs parallel, and the confidence and overcoming of adversity within my career have elegantly translated into the same desire to overcome the hardship within my own life.

In this way, I think my driving mission has informed and enhanced my life in the most holistic sense.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I specialize in narrative filmmaking as a writer and director, and specifically, my niche is character dramas and psychological horror films.

I would say I am known for telling stories that center on protagonists grappling with their own sense of identity, vulnerability, and intimacy, or lack thereof. I’m curious about the human component of people and in exploring the inner psyche, and my films often ask the question, “What makes us uniquely human?”

I think my interest in combining the surreal and experimental visual styles of filmmaking with early 2000s-inspired character dramas and filmmaking techniques is what sets me apart and has become my unique brand as a writer and director.

I’m the most proud of my short film Cuddle Buddies, a short I wrote, directed, edited, and produced about a single mother who works as a professional cuddler for a living. The amount I learned making this short was more than I could ever articulate and by far the most challenging thing I have ever completed.

As a result, I’m incredibly proud of how it turned out, but I’m even more proud of the discussion it generated when I screened it at festivals and locally around Los Angeles.

I want the world to know that hard work and great things take time, and are so worth it. I also believe that art made genuinely will also genuinely resonate. I also want people to know that in all of my art, I seek to be as genuine as humanly possible

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d take them to some of my favorite bars and restaurants around the city, since conversing over a great meal or a place with fantastic ambience is really one way to key into a city’s personality. I’d take them to Bottega Louie in West Hollywood for brunch, and then to Malibu for some sightseeing of the indelible nature out there and hit Nobu for dinner. I’d also pair a Griffith Observatory visit during the trip, along with some great hikes on the West Side like Mandeville Canyon, or Mishe Mokwa trail in Malibu, and then we would definitely have to hit Clifton’s, or Tenants of the Trees on the East side for a nightcap!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to shout out my parents first and foremost. They have single handedly supported by artistic journey and pursuit into a precarious career field, even when they have not understood it or been afraid of the risks and challenges it has posed. But without my lovely Mother Leslie Roman and father Greg Roman, I wouldn’t even have had the financial and mental ability to go to college to study film, move to Los Angeles to pursue the dream and have the privilege to take a chance to see about a filmmaking career. So for that I’m eternally grateful and am not sure if I’ll ever be able to fully repay them but achieving success is one way I feel I could to a degree.

Website: https://ominousentertainment.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joro719/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanroman/

Twitter: https://x.com/JORO44

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JORO420

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirectedByJoro