With film credits on almost all The CW Network’s ‘DC Superhero’ projects, ‘Yellowjackets’ and (most recently) ‘The Peacemaker’, 2013 Professional Filmmaking graduate Jordan Marlin is creating a great career for himself.
What was your first job after graduating from CAT’s Professional Filmmaking program?
The summer location team for a Kelowna Local Radio Station.
Tell us about your filmmaking career progression since that first job – what projects have you worked on and what have been your roles on those projects?
I had spent the bulk of my professional career in live events, where I was a Cameraman for around 3 years.
A few big projects I lent my skills to include: ‘TEDTALK’, 2018/2019; ‘SIGGRAPH’, 2018; ‘Calgary Stampede’, 2019; and ‘The Nature of Things with David Suzuki’.
In the twilight of live events, I was even a Technical Director/Camera Switcher for the 2020 ‘BLM Protests’ in downtown Vancouver. I then reached a professional hinge point, and entered the Film Industry proper. Since then I have worked on nearly all of The CW Network’s ‘DC Superhero’ sets, ‘Yellowjackets’, ‘The Peacemaker’, and a few Netflix titles dropping next year (‘Fall of House of Usher‘/’Quantum Leap’).
Where are you working now?
Scarab Digital – a creative studio in Vancouver providing content creation and post-production services to the film and television industry
Tell us a little about what a typical day looks like for you in your present position in the film industry.
Typical days simply do not exist for me. Some days see me to set, other days I am in the office coordinating for a production or doing R&D on new camera systems or technology.
What is the best thing, and the hardest thing about your present position?
The demand for brain bandwidth is substantial and unforgiving. Some days you feel like you’re pulled in all directions, and it can become overwhelming if you don’t take a moment to dip beneath the clouds to re-orient.
What made you choose the CAT Filmmaking program?
Some erstwhile CAT representative came to my little high school in Saskatchewan and spoke of a great industry where the stars shine and artistic professionals work in collaboration. Shortly thereafter, my father and I came out to a little city named Kelowna, nestled away in the mountains. I fell in love with the surrounding country, then the campus. In that order. After that, the decision was pretty easy for me.
What things did you learn at CAT that have been helpful to you?
CAT gave me a tiny, telescopic view of what I could be if I applied myself.
Sure, I learned an introduction to say, After Effects, and the keystrokes still ring true to this day. I learned how to do a crash focus and what a subject looks like in a long or short lens. But that’s not what’s stuck the most. To put it simply, CATO gave me the tools, the company, and the industry contacts to excel. To try to number everything would waste your time, dear reader.
What advice would you have for our current Filmmaking students?
Well, if they are actively engaged in reading this article? I hope you are putting your feet up after a long day at the Sutherland studio. Or catching an article while your Premiere is rendering. This is your time to create and make and forge and iterate and fail and succeed and mold yourself.
Get the pictures you see in your head at night onto that screen. You have a story, I’m sure. Go tell it.
