Jai Mitchell

production assistant Jai Mitchell

To pay the bills, Jai Mitchell, 30, is a production assistant at the Discovery Health Channel. To feed his creative passions, he shoots his own videos -- in the 20- to 45-minute range -- in between his day job and helping other filmmaking friends on their projects.

"It's a nice escape to be able to create your own," he said at Metro Cafe. Having it on a big screen for the first time was also enticing.
...
Not just any team can pull off song and dance, so Mitchell also had a choice to do a Western or sci-fi flick. But he took the cheering as a mandate.

His teammates didn't agree. They argued most of Friday night -- the prime script-writing hours. His lead actor couldn't sing. His music director quit. But Mitchell held firm.

"I've helped out a lot of friends on their films, so it's come back to haunt them," Mitchell said.

By Saturday, the team was shooting scenes around Arlington about a guy who dresses up as a rapping bear for parties but wants to be a filmmaker. There was no script. The star, the guy in the bear costume, was Steven Eskay, a local actor who doesn't know Mitchell well, but worked with him on another movie.
...
Mitchell used a wheelchair as a dolly for himself and his camera.

But the finale ended up on the cutting-room floor. Okay, the computer's recycle bin. Turns out that when Mitchell edited the movie, it was 17 minutes long instead of 12.

"Instead of ending on an upbeat, it gives it more melancholy," he says.
...
But Mitchell, Pretty Little Heads, Girls Night and the Discovery Channel employees have all won a spot in the Visions screenings that start tonight, says Ruppert, who is expanding in coming weeks to the 48 Hour Film Project to New York and Atlanta. (For information, see http://www.48hourfilm.com/.)
...
Mitchell summed it up:

"It's just a matter of survival."

The 48 Hour Film Project screens at Visions Cinema/Bistro/Lounge, 1927 Florida Ave. NW, through next Thursday.

Production Assistant Jai Mitchell

Kondor Films Production - Patrick Klein - Gil Coronado - Jai Mitchell - Kai Lintumaa - Pascal Degrume
...
JAI MITCHELL
...
Award winning filmmaker Jai Mitchell brings more than 15 years of experience to THE RIFF-RATZ from the diverse worlds of Music Videos, Documentaries, Short and Feature Films, and Television.A graduate of the prestigious film schools of the University of California, Santa

Barbara and the New York Film Academy, Mitchell won the award for BEST FILM OF WASHINGTON DC, 2001, at the 48 Hour Film Contest.He has been featured in the Washington Post ("Lights, Camera, Frantic Action" from Style: Artsbeat: worked for three years at the Discovery Health Channel, and is currently President of Reignition Productions, an independent film and music video company.He has written, directed, produced, and edited 15 films in the past five years.