Employee Spotlight: Jason Bauguess

FEATURE BY NATALIE COMFORT

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: JASON BAUGUESS

THE ERA OF BLACK MAGIC CAMERAS IS COMING TO PASS

Jason Bauguess, a video producer, talks about his journey in 22 West Media’s video branch, his newest show about mental health struggles, and preparing to take on a bigger role in the department next semester.

Natalie Comfort: Tell me about your journey towards being interested in film.

Jason Bauguess: I was always making videos, ever since elementary school… just videos of my siblings and stuff. There was a point where I started making gaming videos for like six or seven years. Then, in high school, I kind of just stopped. I bought a camera. I got really into photography. And then that turned out into recording my friends whenever we hung out. We just made vlogs and shit like that. No one would watch them except us. That turned into any school project opportunity… I would make a video for it. And then I was like fuck it, I’ll study film. Now I’m here.

NC: When and how did you start working at 22 WestMedia?

JB: I started as a freshman volunteering on the shows they had running at the time. I found [22 West] at Week of Welcome and I’ve been trapped ever since.

NC: So, next semester you are going to step into a bigger role as the current executive producer is leaving, what plans do you have?

JB: I definitely want it to feel a little more organized. I like that it is a creative outlet for us as students. But I just think the content itself can be polished, in terms of thumbnails, descriptions, just general formatting of videos. There has been a lack of quality control and as a video producer, I can realize that some of the shit I was making wasn’t that good. I should have seen it sooner but sometimes if you are not having eyes on it, it’s hard to see if your project is flawed. But a lot of the time I just got greenlit to post stuff, and I only realized afterward there was a lot of stuff I didn’t like about it. Just generally, more quality control. And I’ll only be here for a semester more so really I’m just setting the grounds for the next person to step in and figure shit out. I want to try to bring back a 22 West film competition, I entered it and won. Especially since we are on campus again, it would be fun to have volunteers enter that. More cute stuff like that to get volunteers involved beyond film shoots.

NC: Do you remember any of the shows you first worked on?

JB: Yes, it was “Dear Long Beach”. I liked it because it was so unique. It was heavily inspired by Wes Anderson. At the time, I had no idea who that was. So, seeing this unique style of symmetry and stop motion was intriguing to me. I had never done that. It was talking about issues on campus. I feel like everyone can relate to that. And then that moved slowly into more comedy stuff. I worked on “Local Access” which is a show that I now brought back. And then I worked for a show called “Glass” which inspired me to make the show “Help”, [that is] the one I am mainly invested in right now.

NC: Do you think having more responsibilities, having to manage things, will mean you have to cut back on your own shows?

JB: I think it is possible for me to still produce shows but I will have to drop one of them. It just makes sense. Having such a larger role in the grand scheme of things, I would probably drop one. But I don’t mind. I already talked to some volunteers and interns about taking that show or using that show’s slot to create something else.

NC: Which show do you plan on keeping?

JB: My favorite one is “Help”, it kinda makes sense, right? It’s my favorite. I really connect with it. I have recently been seeing a psychiatrist so that’s [helped me] realize that mental health is a big thing in my life. So I’m glad that a lot of people see this show and use it as an outlet to talk about their own experiences in a film. We have recently gotten a lot of scripts being worked on and a lot of them are close to being locked: another anxiety one, one about substance abuse and one about autism. I think all of them are fucking great and I’m really excited to make all of them. I just love making short films and being on set.

NC: What’s the main concept behind Help? How did you come up with it and what is it meant to do?

JB: I wanted to bring back short films to 22 West because it made me fall in love with the company in the first place. In class, I have not made a single short film, not one, and I’m a film major. It’s fucking crazy. I wanted it to be about something that meant a lot to me and I have my own mental health trauma. It’s good to sort that stuff out with a creative outlet. The most funI have on set is working on narrative shorts. So, I just wanted to make that. The whole purpose of Help is to represent those who have mental health struggles but in a not cringe way. A lot of mental health shorts…

NC: Yeah, a lot of them can be borderline offensive for people who go through those struggles; it misrepresents.

JB: A lot of pieces I watched on body dysmorphia are so poorly done; it probably meant a lot to that person so I don’t want to disrespect them. But I think there [are] better ways to represent mental health and that is what I am trying to do. I also want people who don’t know what it’s like to experience these issues to understand. My main goal is to have each episode be an experience visually and [audio-wise]…. to represent people who struggle with mental health.

NC: I think short-form videos are what most people watch. Not everyone watches movies, but I think everyone has time in their schedule to watch a short film.

JB: Yeah, it’s always hard to get committed to something that’s even longer than eight minutes. Even a YouTube video longer than eight minutes, I’m like ehh…

NC: Yeah, you’re like ‘do I have time for this?’

JB: If it’s three or four minutes, I’m like I have time to watch it. But most of [the episodes] are going to be concise.

NC: Would you say there was a specific moment that the concept originated? Or has it been in the back of your mind for a while?

JB: For a good portion of my job here, I was making content I thought I liked but I still felt I wasn’t making things I wanted to make. I had that realization towards the end of last year, so I dropped one of the shows that I disliked the most. I wanted to make short films, but I needed a niche. It’s better to have a concept and structure, especially for volunteers. So, when I was working on an older show called “Glass” here at 22 West [I really enjoyed it]. That was also a narrative anthology, similar to “Black Mirror”, that talked about social issues. That show inspired me to talk about my own issues.

NC: I saw you already have the first episode filmed so can you tell me what that is about?

JB: So, the first episode is about imposter syndrome. The concept is a student breaking into the exhibit where their art is supposed to be and trying to sneakily place it because they hadn’t put it in the display yet. So, they are hoping no one will notice them because they just don’t feel like they’re an artist. In the first half of the video, you don’t know why they are sneaking around; they are wearing all black, like very stereotypical I’m-going-to-steal-something, but then it does like a 180 and you find out he’s breaking into his own art gallery. Then he ends up winning. It’s just tackling the whole idea of imposter syndrome. A lot of people struggle with it, especially in college and as an art major. It’s kind of hard to validate what you’re doing because of how risky of a field it is.

NC: Yes, when I was watching that episode, at first I was like what is going on, but seventy percent of the way through I was like oh, everything makes sense.

JB: There are some elements that are supposed to be comedic to ease the audience in. But it does a 180 towards the end and is only drama. I think it’s fun and obviously, it wasn’t done. I think a lot of really feeling the imposter syndrome vibe will come from sound design. So, hopefully, it will be out by the time this comes out.

NC: How did filming the social anxiety episode end up going? I know you said you used the GoPro to create a first-person point of view.

JB: Shooting first-person, the crew is a little bit weird, because the audio team, we had to wire it where they were outside and can still hear the audio and give cues, they were on GoPro and we had to connect that to a phone so the script supervisor and director can see how he’s moving throughout the classroom and stuff. But he can’t really direct them live. So we would go for a take and then we would come back and there would be a buffer period, just giving direction, what people should be doing and what the extras should be doing. Then we would go back and it was a bunch of one-takes. It was really interesting. I have never experienced that before. I think choosing to have it in first-person makes it feel like, to a degree, you are that person. Especially because the actor’s body language is really good, his hands were shaking and it wasn’t over the top but it makes you feel his anxiety; I’m super excited to see the finished product.

NC: What are the future shows you want to make?

JB: There are a lot of [ideas] volunteers came up with and were drawn towards. It was really awesome to see people want to be so open about their mental health but also take it to a creative approach. Seeing ideas come to life, in a creative form, [is really cool]. We just had a script done about sensory overload. We have another anxiety episode because I feel it’s important to show multiple perspectives on different issues, since people experience their own mental health in different ways. No one experiences their depression the same, their anxiety the same, it’s all different. Multiple episodes will have the same topic but through a different lens. Some people are working on other episodes about loneliness, eye contact [and] addiction; there are a lot of concepts and scripts being worked on that I’m excited about.

NC: What do you want people to take away from theshow?

JB: Generally… to be aware and considerate of people’s feelings, people are invisible about [their mental health] so you don’t know if someone is experiencing depression or anxiety… [it’s important] for people to be considerate and understanding.

ILLUSTRATION BY BEATRIZ DA SILVA & BANNER BY FELICITY DAO