Creatives Offscript

Director: Ian Pons Jewell

Episode Summary

Ian Pons Jewell is a luminary in the commercial directing world, being voted the #1 commercial director globally by industry producers for the second year in a row. He has directed spots for Apple, Oculus, XBOX, Jack Daniels and many more. In this episode, learn about his rapid ascent to the top of the commercial directing industry, and he he developed his unique surrealistic style.

Episode Transcription

Nate Watkin: Ian Pons Jewell has taken the commercial directing world by storm. Since directing his first commercial only a few years ago, he has risen to the top of the ranks for commercial directors worldwide, signing with RESET Content and directing spots for the likes of Apple, Oculus, Xbox, Jack Daniels, and more. With his signature surreal visual style, commercial producers have voted Ian, the number one commercial director in the world for two years running. So without further ado, welcome to our show, Ian.

Ian Pons Jewell: Thanks for having me.

Nate Watkin: Absolutely. So, on this podcast, we'd really like to hear about the journey of how somebody rose from the beginnings of their career, all the way to where you currently are at as one of the top commercial directors in the world, and also breaking into the feature film industry. So, off the bat, we'd love to just learn about your early life. Tell me, where did you grow up, and how early on did you realize that you wanted to be a filmmaker?

Ian Pons Jewell: I was born in Menorca, which is an island off of Barcelona, so a Spanish island. I was born there, then was there for like two years, then we went to England two years and back to Menorca two years. I lived in Sussex, Surrey, West Yorkshire. We were always moving around based on my mom's career, because she was changing positions and companies. I think the longest place we lived in at one house was just under four years.

Nate Watkin: It's almost like a military upbringing.

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah, but not going around to many different countries. It's going from Sussex to Halifax. There's a little village actually near Halifax called Ripponden. So yeah, moved around a lot early life and always loved films. I'm an only child, and naturally I have a lot of solid on your own time more than say someone with siblings probably. And my parents were just very chill with letting me just watch anything that they'd recorded. And they recorded a lot of stuff on VHS, as you did back in the day. So we had a fair few VHS recordings of films that were on TV and whatever, and I would just go and put something on and watch it. I'd say I watched quite weird films at a very young age. I watched The Devils at, I must have been eight or something like that. That film is seared into my brain.

Nate Watkin: Do you remember any films that specifically had an impact on you?

Ian Pons Jewell: Yes. The most powerful was 2001. It was across two tapes, because how long it is, and I watched the whole thing, and that definitely has never left me, that experience. As an only child, I think you can live in your head quite a lot, and films, that experience of watching them was definitely a big part of my early life, I'd say. I've never ever thought, "Oh, I want to make films." That never crossed my mind.

Ian Pons Jewell: I did a bit of acting at school, I did drama, I did art, I did photography, I didn't like any sciences. Then at A-levels I did media studies course and I made a fake commercial, and I enjoyed that process. We made a fake pot noodle commercial where my idea was this girl wakes up screaming, and her boyfriend runs out of the house and goes on this journey just constantly sprinting to the shop, buys a pot noodle, and runs back, and she's still screaming, just in this constant scream state, and then gives her the pot noodle, and then she stops screaming. And that was the commercial that we made. And yeah, that was the first thing I ever made. I don't have it, unfortunately.

Nate Watkin: Yeah, I was going to say, it's got to be the first spot on your director's reel these days, right?

Ian Pons Jewell: Exactly, but it sucks I don't for I have no idea where that would be. Yeah, and then I didn't know what I wanted to do still. I was going to do German or advertising as a degree. I like German, and had some German friends, and had gone over there, and I don't know why I just thought, "Oh maybe I'll do German." I really didn't know what I was going to do. And then luckily my mate, [Tim Carol Moler 00:04:36], told me, "Oh, why don't you do film production?" And I was like, "What's that?" And he goes, "Oh, you make films." And then he hooked me in when he said it's 80% practical. And I was like I just couldn't believe you could make films for three years and get a degree. It was like, I must have had some quite conservative opinion of degrees in the back of my mind.

Ian Pons Jewell: I applied and used this pot noodle thing, and I did a stage play of The Young Ones, which highly unlikely you know that. This is like cult comedy from the UK. It's really amazing. I recommend it. And we got together some friends and we did a stage adaption of that. So I had a VHS recording of me acting as Rik Mayall from The Young Ones in this stage play version of it, and a fake pot noodle commercial, and some essays. And I got in to the university. It was called Surrey Institute of Art & Design, and then it got changed to, now it's University College for the Creative Arts. I got in there, did the degree, and then as soon as I did the second project there, it was like I got hit by this train. I was like, "This is it. This is what I'm going to do till it's physically impossible for me to do it."

Nate Watkin: Wow, yeah. What was film school like for you? Was it a valuable experience looking back?

Ian Pons Jewell: Highly, highly valuable. If I hadn't gone, I don't know if I would have, it actually legitimately petrifies me to think about what I would've done had I not found film, because had I done German as a degree or advertising, I don't know. I don't think I would've found my way there. But I didn't. I did find it. So it's also a bit of a pointless imagination exercise to think what if anything. What if I cross the street the wrong way and got hit by a bus? But yeah, so it was highly, highly valuable.

And that's not to say everyone should go to film school. I think the cost of it now in the UK is criminal. The US, I can't even speak to that, because it's nuts. But the good thing with it is it gives you a mental space to be focusing on it. But if you already know that you want to dabble in it or do it, you could even calculate the amount you would spend now on fees and put it towards 10 short film projects and you'd learn quite a bit on it. But being around others who were learning it and the energy and everything, I think for me, it was everything.

My feature that we are doing, that Hunter Andrews is the writer, he is a genius, and I went to uni with him. My grad film was produced by him. We went to school together, and now my first film, we've completed the final draft. Doug Walshe was the DP of my first music videos, which was game changer in terms of my career. The work we did with Doug, Bolivia, he came out to Bolivia and now he's focused on steady cam and I work with him still in cam operating and yeah. So it was huge for me, for sure.

Nate Watkin: Definitely. Yeah, building that network of early collaborators. And in film school, of course, you're probably just immersing yourself in film. You have this surrealist style that's so unique. You already mentioned a film 2001 Stanley Kubrick had an impact on you. Anything else that stood out in these early formative years as you're really studying film as directors or films that really help to influence your creative style and development?

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah, definitely. So I feel like what draws me to specific films is purity level, I guess. So, it goes without saying Kubrick, there's an almost ominous perfection that exists and it's not really describable. But what he does, all those little choices that he makes and what he's taken out, you end up with a piece of work that transcends. It's like you can't describe it. 2001 I would argue is the one of, if not the greatest, work of art outside of film, outside of whatever medium. It's like a cliche to say it's the best film ever made. But he had a huge effect in terms of going toward a space that only film can take your experience as a human as you watch it.

Nate Watkin: Yeah.

Ian Pons Jewell: Fincher, of course, a huge fan, and his craft level is definitely influential in terms of the meticulous nature of his filmmaking is also inspirational. He did the Zodiac film and solved a bunch of unknown elements of the actual criminal case. That's the level that he's at.

Nate Watkin: Yeah.

Ian Pons Jewell: And then in terms of surreal reality in this kind of thing, it's not that I don't think that's something that I would say comes from, again, it's like say Lynch, for example, the biggest influence that that's had on me is to remind me to be free. His craftsmanship is incredible, but his ideas are free. They're him, it's pure Lynch. And it's keeping whatever that pure sources inside you is to go to that and let things come from that. And Robert Crumb, the illustrator, his whole rule is anything that comes in my head, I will draw. He doesn't allow a filter in a way. So you can sometimes have ideas, which you try and write it down and it's like, "This doesn't make sense," but you can feel it in your brain. And those influences sometimes can just be giving you confidence to remember to follow your own source.

Nate Watkin: Yeah, one of my favorite filmmakers who definitely dabbles in this surreal is Gaspar Noe with Enter the Void, one of my favorite films of all time.

Ian Pons Jewell: This is really embarrassing, but I have to mention it because you brought it up. So it's, clearly I have to say it, I've never seen it until a few weeks ago.

Nate Watkin: No way. Wow.

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah. I had to my shame. And for days couldn't get it out my head. It was just mind blowing. And the freedom, again, it reminds you do what you want to fucking do.

Nate Watkin: Yeah.

Ian Pons Jewell: Film is so loaded with so many steps to award. A painter can get up and pick up a paintbrush and paint, or a writer opens their laptop or a pen and just starts writing. A filmmaker, we can have an idea, and then there's multiple years, millions of pounds, thousands of people between that initial inception of an idea and the work at the end, and through that process, to change it or to give up, whatever it's, [inaudible 00:12:47]

Nate Watkin: Yeah, I agree. Spike Jones had a famous quote about that where he says, "You just compromise a little bit every day and all of a sudden you look up and you're so far away from that original place that you wanted to be." Right?

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah.

Nate Watkin: But anyways, no, that's great. I love hearing about your influences and what helped you develop your own very unique style. But back to the career path. You get out of college, after school you were working a self-described terrible job, editing comedy clips. You were just trying to save up enough money to buy a DV camera. Describe that period in your life and what your outlook on the world was, and what you wanted to become at that time.

Ian Pons Jewell: When I was at uni, I went to Menorca and my own uncle worked as a security guy in a hotel called, it was called, I think it's still there, Inns Hotel, and he worked as a secure guy, and I was looking to get to work all summer to get enough money to buy this camera. It's not the Z one. I can't remember the name of it. It's one down from the Z one. HDV Camera

Nate Watkin: Was this before the Redrock lens adapters and-

Ian Pons Jewell: I got it before those were even around.

Nate Watkin: Got it, got it.

Ian Pons Jewell: So I went and worked in this hotel as a waiter for two weeks till they put me on reception. And then I worked, and it's like the worst receptionist in the fucking world for three months. I never learnt to close the till, the money at the end, you have to do, close the till, they would try and show me every other day and I could never, they just gave up. So I worked there and got enough money to buy this camera. That was at uni. And then the lens adapters came out on my final year. My grad film was shot 60mill, the one that Hunter produced, and it was shot by [inaudible 00:14:41] who's DPA now, and my personal project. So you do, let's say a proper one, which is the 60 one, and then the other one we shot on lens Apter. I don't know if it was Redrock or not, but yeah.

And then after that I went to do this job. And it's like, it was funny. I feel bad saying terrible, but that, because it gave me a lot of, I've got a lot of love for that job that I had. It was very funny, but yeah, it was like working in a startup. The guy has put all his money into this, an effort into this startup we were doing every day. It just never took off though. But yeah, it was like working, editing in this little room upstairs. And then my good friend, Richard Paris Wilson, he was a director as well. So that was at the beginning, and I finished university, I went straight to London, managed to get this job and the room in Brixton where I lived there. So yeah, that was kind of the beginning.

Nate Watkin: And at this time you were, really shooting anything, cooperate, weddings?

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah.

Nate Watkin: Sorry, go ahead.

Ian Pons Jewell: Well, I was going to say this job was full time, but he was really cool, our boss, because he then would let me go do, I think I did four days at one point or even three. So then I could do my own things and he would let me use his camera. So if I did a corporate job, I had my camera and he'd let me use his as well. And I'd go and I'd shoot random, whatever things would pay me, videography work.

Nate Watkin: And it seems like you wanted to break into commercial as you saw an opportunity there, but really spent seven years back to back shooting music videos. And even at one point you said you even gave up trying to crack into commercials. What was that period like? And what was it about the music video format that you love so much?

Ian Pons Jewell: Well, so unfortunately there's no system or whatever for short films is, I don't know how to describe, it's like, you make a short, you can't get money to do it, and once you've made it, you can't get your money back. And they don't get distributed to be seen really. It's not like some short films do well or whatever, but not really. So you go to short film festival, but it's very short film bubbles, and it's not like it's really being seen by general public that much.

So I had this, six months into moving to London, I had this mortal fear set in, it hit me like, it was almost like this instant come down that hit me and I was freaked out and think, "Oh my God, I haven't made anything since I've left university. I'm going to be that guy, one of many people who don't end up doing it." So then I said, "Right I'll go make something." And I'd met this artist, [inaudible 00:17:55], and thought, "Maybe I'd do," I said, "If I do a short film, I don't know what to do, and where's it going to go?"

And so I figured if I do a music video, I'd do a video for an artist and they've got an existing fan base. So then I'm making creative work, but it is then actually getting distributed via their fan base. That was what drew me to music videos, it's making work that people actually watch rather than a short film that goes to a festival and it's locked up for a year, not being able to be screened publicly till after it's done the festival rounds, and then it just felt dumb to do that. So that's why I did first to the music video.

And then after I did that one, and he let me do what I want, I wrote something, I put two tracks together. He just sent me the albums, "Do whatever you want." He didn't give me any money, but he let me do whatever I wanted. And we made that with my good friends from uni, Matt King and another great friend, Grant Alexander. We did that one together, just three of us, in this old warehouse I lived in. Then I did one for my school friend, Tiff, who I've known since I was 11. I then did a video for him really early on, and people hear about it, they see it, then you get interest, and then your budget goes from nothing to then some artist who's got 300 quid, then the next one, you got a bit more confident to say no to 100, and you try and push it to four. So yeah, that's how it started

Nate Watkin: And so seven years shooting music videos, at one point you just flat out, gave up trying to get into the commercial world. How did you stumble upon your first commercial job? What was that first break?

Ian Pons Jewell: I went into it without having a clue what music video world was. I didn't know about production companies, they have directors, and when I came out of uni, I didn't know anything about, it was a bit shocking that they don't tell you any of this. I didn't know that there were production companies with rosters and people doing music videos, and you got reps. I didn't know about any of this. And I made a multitude of videos. 2009 I was active on Showreel, and then it was only three years later after I'd done this jargon featuring tiny temper, the policeman taking MDMA one, that came out. And by that point, I then knew about promo news. So I sent it there and David and I, he's amazing, I love that guy, he put it up. He was really supportive, really, really amazingly supportive at the beginning. And he put that up. And then I started getting, I got an email from someone, a production company, and I was, and then that's how I discovered that they existed. Because I got contacted.

And then because of that, then I was like, "Oh it's commercials, and directors who make commercials." All that long I was just clueless. So then that's why I then knew that they were commercials, and then I eventually signed to a company, and struggled at the beginning to get one. But then I kept making more and more videos and it just, nothing was happening, it just didn't happen. Oh, and then I did some really bad one commercial, and that would give me enough, and I'd be able to live on it for six months. I only got the first proper one in 2016.

Nate Watkin: And so what was the first big commercial you landed where you felt like, "Okay, this is it. I made it. I'm a commercial director now and I've entered the big stage."

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah, it was the one with ANORAK for Otelo, which we shot in 2016. That was the one I was like, "Okay, wicked, it's happening finally."

Nate Watkin: Yeah, and so you land your first big commercial in 2016, now just five years later, you've really catapulted to the top of the commercial world. It's been such a rapid rise for you, which I think is one of the most impressive things, is how quickly you've risen to the top of the commercial world.

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah, it was ... Oh, sorry Kin.

Nate Watkin: No, please go ahead.

Ian Pons Jewell: I was going to say, what happens, I did that one and then I got another pitch came in, and ANORAK were incredible. I got another pitch came in, and I pitched on that and I won that one as well. And ANORAK and like Christiana gave me a lot of confidence. They were great creatively with feedback on the treatment. And I still remember when Christiana called me, and I'd written the hornbach treatment and she said it was great writing. And I was like, "Oh shit, really?" That's, "I didn't ever think I could write, my writing is good or something." And so all of that stuff was really helpful. And yeah, then I did that second one. So then I'd done this Otelo right onto hornbach, I did hornbach and then I got another one coming.

Ian Pons Jewell: So then I just calculated, in my head I just saw how fickle the industry is of directors who would do an ad and then not do one soon enough and be forgotten, or not make a good one. It's such a tricky fucking thing. And so I was so wary of that and fearful that I was like, "Right, now, this is happening. My whole game plan was to solidify my place in ads as rapidly as possible so that I then go and do film." I can always come back to it if I fail spectacularly making, you never know what's going to happen. But then I very consciously just basically went militant on it and just kept pushing and pushing in ads and doing, I was pushing the level and what I could get away with creatively and everything, and it was this crazy flow.

I think I told myself three years, I'd do this for three years, crazy, and then stop and make my film. But it ended up four years. But I did stick to my timeline, because it was four, then the pandemic happened. You think that, "Oh perfect, I can write my film whilst I'm in here." But you can't, life has been stopped, so the flow of life not being around kills you. And then that film fell through anyway. And then I went back and I've been doing a bunch of commercials again.

Nate Watkin: Were you in London for the lockdown?

Ian Pons Jewell: The first one in London, yeah.

Nate Watkin: Yeah, I had some friends there. I heard it was pretty rough there.

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah, it was pretty brutal.

Nate Watkin: So throughout your career, you bounced around to a few reps and you're currently at RESET, one of the top in the world, and also a roster mate with David Fincher coming around full circle. You've also announced the launch of your own production company for long-form film. What's the latest in your world?

Ian Pons Jewell: Well, so I've got a commercial on now, which is through my own setup for commercials. I'm launching a commercials production company, but it's not like that. It's like a project has come along, which I love, and it's the first time I've had the time and wanted to do a job, which I'm also capable of producing through my own setup. So it's quite organic. So I'm doing this job now. It's not a kind of doing my company thing, the job's going great and everything, but yeah, let's see what happens.

And then I've got a second one that we want to write, which we are waiting to work out when we can do it, and hopefully April or something. And then there's a book I'm looking at to do a series, so if that happen, and then you start building that architecture now with your dream of the future, the dream is that like a painter, you can wake up, have an idea and do it. So the more architecture you create between you and shooting a film is what drives me in terms of earning money in commercials, in terms of having an infrastructure in place for commercials, and an infrastructure in place for building that infrastructure in place for film allows that smoother ride to the end goal of making something.

Nate Watkin: And swinging back to the commercial world for a moment, you've done a lot of work with Apple, have heard tons of stories about the experience of working with Apple and their CIA level security, what was that experience like shooting commercials for Apple?

Ian Pons Jewell: They do have CIA level security. You've got like, when you go to the location, they've got literally people, they look around the building to check where someone could look into a window or something like that, they scout, it all gets checked all around, and we use the word recce in film, which comes from reconnaissance, but they truly bring that meaning. I've had amazing experiences working with them. It's really challenging and really great, as you'd imagine.

The watch is by far the most annoying difficult thing to film. It's like it's [inaudible 00:29:15]. So you imagine you look at your watch, right? If you lift your wrist up, that's how you have to show it. But look at the distance between your hand and your chest, and then not only that, you want to shoot it at a varied angle and not just flat on over the top. So then where the camera goes is right where the body ... You've got no movement. It's not like filming-

Nate Watkin: Yeah, limited choices.

Ian Pons Jewell: ... with a phone, you can move it around a lot in the hand, the watch is a nightmare, but it's a cool experience.

Nate Watkin: Yeah, makes sense. So in a poll of commercial producers, you were recently ranked the number one commercial director for the second year in a row. How does it feel to achieve that type of recognition in such a short period of time?

Ian Pons Jewell: It means a hell of a lot to me to get to when that was, the first time and the second time it was really crazy, and really means a lot because yeah, it goes without saying.

Nate Watkin: Absolutely. And so, what's next? I know you got a feature film in the works, would love to hear about what you see as the next phase of your career development from here?

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah, so we've got a top secret thing which is happening, which unfortunately I can't tell you about, but that is not a film, it's the way that the production companies are architecture and the film companies architecture is, let's say it's an architectural thing that's been going since January. It's probably going to come out maybe a couple months. It'll be a full year of, that's just been running in the background amongst everything else.

We've got a music video for Tiff which is so, I can't wait to release that, it's incredibly violent and explicit and collaborative. So that's going to be coming out with this new top secret thing. I've got another music video that's out probably in a few weeks for cold man, which we're really excited about that. I've got a short film, which we shot in the first lockdown, the very first one in London. And that was shot just with just me and Mauro and this amazing now good friend, taxi driver, Jason, and [Em 00:31:50] who started off as PA and she's producing. And she was all remote during that first lockdown running around and doing this thing. And that was the first lockdown and that's finally being finished.

Nate Watkin: Out of curiosity, what's the motivation to make a short film now? I know you said early in your career you felt like they were pointless, but why now? Why short film now?

Ian Pons Jewell: They're not pointless, I love short films. I think we should be doing them all the time. The problem is the motivation to do them. You can't monetize them. You can't get budgets for them. So that's why we do music videos, because you get the 10 grand from the label where you're going to do like, use label's 10 grand to create something, or you're going to find 10 grand of your own money. Once you're doing commercials, you can do that. So, that's all good, so now I can do a short film, no problem.

Nate Watkin: Got it.

Ian Pons Jewell: I don't think that, my whole point is they're not pointless, they shouldn't be pointless. And this thing that I'm not able to say fully is related to being able to make a point for them. And the reason I did that first one was because I was, that first lockdown was, it's very rare that the world experiences something which everyone in the world experiences, which is completely new to the human experience. The idea of a lockdown before the lockdown would be a mad idea. You just wouldn't fathom it.

Nate Watkin: Yeah.

Ian Pons Jewell: And then, so when it happened, I was like, "I've got to make something about this," or using this because it was just like to take a slice out of it, like a time capsule and there's empty streets. So I'd go on these long walks around London and it's like, no cars, nothing, and it's just insane. I was like, "I got to shoot something." So finally I got an idea and then we did it. We actually did it a bit late. We actually did it as it started to get more traffic and stuff, but we still got away with it. But yeah.

Nate Watkin: Yeah, I remember Los Angeles at that time, you could drive down the 405 and not a car in sight and it was in the middle of the day.

Ian Pons Jewell: I can't even imagine-

Nate Watkin: It was crazy.

Ian Pons Jewell: ... the hell over there.

Nate Watkin: Yeah. But so can you tell us a little bit about the feature and what you have in the works for that?

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah, so that's Hunter's idea that he had years before. He actually sent it to me, it must have been in 2016 maybe he sent me the idea. It's a true story that happened in Bolivia. And I had been in Bolivia shooting those videos, and I was going to even just move there. And so he sent me this idea and I loved it then, but I was busy on little short things and wouldn't have been capable of doing it back then anyway.

Nate Watkin: Amazing.

Ian Pons Jewell: And yes, and now we reconnected again last year and got together in Portugal this year and did that. It's a horror story based on inspired by a horrible true story.

Nate Watkin: And have you started production on it or it's about to go into pre-production?

Ian Pons Jewell: No, it's just in producer hands now. We've done final draft, hopefully, and now it's just, let's try and find the money now.

Nate Watkin: We're excited to see that come to life.

Ian Pons Jewell: I'm really just watching it with part of me gagging to just want to make it and another part of me really curious watching, "Right, let's see what happens now. Are we are going to get the money, not get the money? Could this take three months? Could it take a year before we get?" I've got absolutely no idea. And I'm just assuming the worst and thinking of other films and even with Hunter, we've got another one we want to do.

Nate Watkin: Nice. So for someone that's achieved such incredible success in the commercial world and now cracking in the feature film world, looking back, if you had to give advice to a young filmmaker starting their career fresh out of film school today, what would be the number one piece of advice that you would give them?

Ian Pons Jewell: So practical advice would be stay time rich, not money rich. The most important thing once you are out is, this is just practical advice, it's just to try and find a way to protect your time because time is invaluable. So you're going to struggle trying to do a Monday to Friday thing to pay the bills and then you've just got the weekends, but you might be more comfortable financially doing that. But if you can find a way to stay time rich, but be more broke, that's definitely the better part. If you're not lucky enough to have financial support, trying to find that way of, it's worth putting some effort and focus into finding that little cash cow somewhere or that some way of staying time rich. When I would do videography jobs, it was really lucky I could do that because you'd get like the day rate on that, I could do, even if I just did two jobs in a month, sometimes it'd be more than enough to pay bills. I had cheap rent as well. So yeah, that's practical advice.

And then I would say great bit of advice I got was, don't listen to the noise, and that's always stuck with me to till now. It's just, you have to just forget about, it's great when nice things are being said about you or you're getting recognition in this and that, but you also have to block that out somewhat because ultimately, that's not going to help you making something.

And then the other thing is then when you're not working and you're not producing stuff, and you've got, these days is busy hype industry with the next person making this and this next thing's coming out and this and that, then that can really affect you as well. So I think whether it's negative or positive in terms of noise, which you just have to try and not listen to it much and just remember that you are creating work.

And this advice I'm giving, I guess is advice for, I guess directors who might have a need to make films. Because you also get, there's also directors who love the craft and they want to do the craft and that's very valid as well. And I guess, basically if you've got this need to make work, then you do that and don't listen to the noise. Well, block it out, but always be trying to be doing a project, have something going, even if it's shooting it. There's always a way to shoot stuff.

Nate Watkin: Yeah, great advice. Great advice, stay focused, stay level and-

Ian Pons Jewell: And don't be a cunt.

Nate Watkin: The number one.

Ian Pons Jewell: Yeah.

Nate Watkin: Amazing. Great. Well, thank you so much for your time. I can't wait to follow the next steps of your career, and it was great talking to you today.

Ian Pons Jewell: Likewise, I really appreciate it.

Nate Watkin: All right. Take care.