The inside of Jessica Valentine’s Sunnyland neighborhood house is currently a wreck. She’s packing for Los Angeles, where she’ll spend nearly a month creating her own short film starring Uma Thurman.
As one of three winners of the 2014 Jameson First Shot contest – judged by Kevin Spacey, Uma Thurman, producer Dana Brunetti, and other film industry insiders – Valentine was the entrant selected from the United States; the other two were from South Africa and Russia.
Academy-Award winning Trigger Street Productions – known for “The Social Network,” “Captain Phillips” and the upcoming “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy – will produce her short film.
“It’s been a crazy ride,” Valentine says, laughing. “Totally bizarre and kind of surreal.”
She learned about the contest last fall and decided on a whim to write a script to submit. She had a month to make the contest deadline.
“I’ve been working in film for almost 10 years now, but not as a writer – and most definitely not as a director,” she says.
Valentine grew up in Vancouver and has lived in Bellingham for seven years. She always knew she wanted to work in the film industry. Knowing that acting would be a hard road, she studied makeup – creating monster makeup, in particular – in hopes of breaking into the industry that way.
Her first film was a horror movie shot in Bellingham in 2005 called “Bloody Mary.” She’s now married to Richard Valentine, that film’s writer and director, whom she met on set. “He’s taught me a lot over the last nine years,” says Valentine.
Finding it nearly impossible to crack into the union as a makeup artist in Vancouver, Valentine instead worked for two years as a production assistant on the television show “Supernatural.”
“It wasn’t a fun job necessarily,” she says, laughing, “but I liked that I was on set.”
She and Richard Valentine eventually worked together on other projects, including a full-length feature film, “The Taken,” which Valentine produced. The couple also shot a three-minute short for the “ABC’s of Death” competition, titled “M is for Manny.”
“That was the first time I had contributed to a story,” Valentine says. She began writing her own feature last summer and got positive feedback from industry folks she admired. “They were surprised that it was my very first draft. I thought, well, maybe I can do this.”
A few months later, she learned about the Jameson First Shot contest.
“It sounded too good to be true,” she says. “Uma Thurman’s face was plastered all over it and she’s somebody that I’ve always followed. Kevin Spacey is also somebody that I’ve always followed. I thought, I just have to try.”
Valentine researched Uma Thurman – who will star in all three winners’ short films – Kevin Spacey, and Dana Brunetti, to find out what types of stories and films they seemed to prefer.
“Then I tried to tailor my story to something I thought would appeal to all of them,” Valentine says. “What would be challenging for an actress like Uma, who plays so many different roles? Her career is defined by diversity.”
Valentine ultimately felt she had written something special. “Not necessarily that I was going to win,” she says, “but I felt like I had a really good chance of getting pretty far.”
She likens her script to “Big Fish” meets “Forrest Gump” or “The Green Mile” – “but not nearly as sad as “The Green Mile,” she quickly says, laughing. “It has sad parts but a lot of humor, as well.”
A month after submitting her script, Valentine learned she’d made the shortlist – one of only seven American contestants asked to delve deeper with their contest entry.
Valentine then had to supply a video biography, a detailed director’s treatment of her script, and also shoot a one-page script supplied by Trigger Street.
She had only ten days to provide the requested materials.
“Unfortunately for me, the shoot was scheduled over Super Bowl weekend, so I had about three solid days when no one was available to come out and help,” Valentine says. “It was extra challenging on top of all the rest.”
But Valentine made it work, shooting and editing her short in 24 hours.
“That was technically my first time directing,” she says. “It proved that I could direct.”
You can see the moment Valentine and her fellow winners learned they’d won right here.
Now she’s knee deep in preparation for this potentially life- and career-changing trip.
“I just got my auditions for all the other characters,” Valentine says. “There are lots of people that anybody would recognize who are potentials for the other cast members.”
Once she arrives in Los Angeles, Valentine will have a week and a half of prep, will shoot for two days, and then will stay through post-production and return to Bellingham on July 2nd. She’ll fly back down to Hollywood for the premier three weeks later.
Her husband will be by her side at the premier, but won’t be joining Valentine during production.
“My first time out, and I essentially won the filmmaking lottery,” she says. “He’s been doing this a lot longer than me and has been incredibly supportive and helpful.”
Valentine’s goal after the project is complete is to find representation as a director and writer so she can pursue work directing television and feature films.
“I’ll have to move, even if it’s just temporary,” she admits. “But then I’d hope to get back up here once I’m established. I love Bellingham; it’s so charming.”
Valentine is trying to live in the moment and appreciate the anticipation, but it’s hard not to get keyed up for what awaits.
“I’m really excited to get to my production office and meet my crew and team in person,” she says.
And Uma has requested a read-through.
“I can’t wait for that,” says Valentine. “It will be neat to see all the actors I’ve chosen with Uma and see what they do once they’re all together.”
“It’s insane that I’m going to be talking to Uma, working with her,” she continues. “She’s going to be asking me questions and I have to come up with answers. This whole thing is just so much bigger than I had mentally prepared for when I decided to do it.”
For regular updates and behind-the-scenes videos following Valentine’s experience in Los Angeles – as well as her final film, after its premier – follow Jameson’s YouTube channel.
