By Justin Little |
Contributor
Jakin Shaw is a 20-year-old filmmaker based in Augusta with big dreams to become a unique and original filmmaker. Ever since he was a young child, he has had a fascination with the art of film. He remembers specifically falling in love with filmmaking when his father, a movie theater manager, introduced him to the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
“It blew my mind,” said Shaw, “I remember Googling who directed it, who made the music, who produced it and so on. And this started a chain reaction of just researching it and the more I found out about this film, the more I began to appreciate movies and how they were made.”
Shaw started very young, experimenting with stop-motion animation with his Legos, then eventually graduating to live action films. He notes that one of his biggest achievements was getting to be a part of his friends' first short film “Waterpoint.”
“Even though the film ended up being terrible, it was really an eye-opening experience,” Shaw said. “It made me believe that we could make films, and not just backyard action skits with toy guns.”
After this burst of inspiration, Jakin went on to write and direct numerous other short films and skits. Most notably, his short film “Vigilant” went on to win a best original short film award at a film festival in his hometown of Greenville, S.C. After that, he went on to direct a Superman fan film for YouTube.
“The making of Superman came out of anger,” explained Shaw, “mainly anger of how Hollywood is portraying Superman as a dark and brooding character. I wanted to throw things back to the classic comic book and Christopher Reeves roots of the character.”
Since then, his short film “The Adventures of Superman” has gone on to receive thousands of views online, and he credits it as his biggest success yet.
Today, Jakin resides in Augusta collaborating closely with other filmmakers. He runs a YouTube channel where he produces original films along with weekly vlogs and film reviews. Within the next couple of years, he hopes to move out of the city to make his first big leap into the film industry.
You can find him and his many films on YouTube by searching “Jakin Shaw.”