About Me

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HeadShot Services

I've started doing a lot more still photography in the past year - specializing in headshots and modeling portfolio work. It's been a good way to keep my photographic skills sharp. Come take a look:
www.distinctivefocus.com
IF YOU ARE A FILMMAKER WHO IS HERE TO ASK A QUESTION, welcome. I am honored to get the number of messages every day from MySpace filmmakers, and I'm happy to provide whatever insight I can. The number of messages are growing, however, so I've got to put these caveats here:
PLEASE NOTE, these caveats have changed a bit recently, please read carefully. If you send a question, I will do my best to get back to everyone, but it might take me some time to do so. When I'm available, I'll try to respond as quickly as possible, but it could take a few days before I get back to you. The more complicated your question, often the longer it takes for me to respond. I appreciate your patience and look forward to talking with you. You can also post your question in the forums at DV.com , where I am the technical editor. The users of the forums there are very technically knowledgeable and helpful.
PLEASE, do NOT invite me to become a member of your MySpace group. No offense to anyone, but I simply don't have the time to read through anything more than my messages anymore. I try to get in there at least once a day, but I can't always do that. I cannot follow multiple groups in addition, so I won't even open your invitation, sorry.
I am often asked to look at short videos and works online and offer critical thoughts. I am happy to do this, but I rarely have the time to do so. If we haven't talked before, please do not ask me to review/comment your online work. If we've traded messages and I've responded to you in the past, I will try to spend the time to review your online work when you let me know it is available. When I do, I do my best to be very thorough and give the work a significant viewing - this takes a lot of time and energy. An out of the blue message "please watch my movie!" will most likely go unanswered or be deleted.
These caveats aren't here to be rude or elitist, it's simply a necessity to optimize the time I get to spend on here.
ACTORS, PLEASE NOTE With rare exception, the projects that I am involved with are cast through a casting director. I'm happy to have actors as MySpace friends and in my network here - as I have (even recently) called in many actors from MySpace for auditions and was impressed with the quality of talent I found here. That having been said, unless otherwise posted, I have no roles available. When I do - I will put information here.
About Me: Chicago born, raised in the blazing desert of Arizona, now residing in Los Angeles. Filmmaker. After eight years as a director of photography, I "hung up my meter" to purse directing and producing full time. I originally joined My Space while researching a documentary (my first feature as a director) that I was working on. I then started branching out to see what kind of real network I could put together on MySpace of filmmakers, actors, models, musicians and all-around interesting people. I have been very impressed with the quality of talent I have been able to connect with here on MySpace and am open to connecting with anyone interested in a potential professional relationship.My website is adakin.com/jayholben .
As far as my past work as a cinematographer, you can check out a music video I photographed for director Eric Tozzi - Fearless . Eric called me out of retirement to shoot this video. My first time working with the Panasonic VariCam and I liked it quite a bit.
My last official project as a cinematographer was Caerthan Banks' The Moor, a short film adapted from her father, Russell Banks' (The Sweet Hereafter, Affliction), short story.
I was also conned out of retirement to help my friend and DP, Christopher Probst recently as a second unit DP on two videos; Lisa Marie Presley Idiot and Mobb Deep feat. 50 Cent Have a Party.

PRODUCTION SLATE

Many MySpacers have written me asking what I'm currently working on, so I decided to put my current slate of active projects here. This slate was updated May 29, 2008.
Pre-Production
Cryptique (Internet series)
Miko Macabre hosts a weekly roast of classic horror flicks.
Jay Holben, Executive Producer
Miko Macabre, Writer/Host
Adakin Productions
Production
Undisclosed Educational DVD Series
Jay Holben, Producer
Your Half Media Group
Post-Production
CamGirls (feature documentary)
A look at a collection of women who host webcam sites.
Adakin Productions, Your Half Pictures
Jay Holben, Director, Producer
Update: April 2008: Edit progressing
Two Million Stupid Women (feature comedy)
A young woman struggling to find closure when her boyfriend cheats on her on her 21st birthday.
Jamie Neese, Director
Jay Holben, Producer, Director of Photography
Development
Lost Angel (feature thriller) (seeking funding)
Written by Sean P. Traver and Jamie Neese
A young mother finds her worst nightmare when her daughter is missing and no one believes she ever existed.
Jay Holben, Director, Producer
Desert Highway (working title) (feature horror)
Story by Jay Holben, written by Dave Shepherd
A couple on a trek across the desert run into terrifying trouble.
Adakin Productions
76 Hours (feature horror)
Written by Michael Allesandro
A renowned surgeon begins to delve into a world where he's doing much more harm than good.
Adakin Productions
Jay Holben, Director
Asylum Alcatraz (feature horror)
Written by Michael Allesandro
A billionare pharmaceutical corporation has purchased the historic island and turned it into an asylum for the criminally insane.
Adakin Productions
Jay Holben, Director, Producer
Home (working title) (feature horror)
Written by Jay Holben and Sean P. Traver
A haunted house tale with a twist.
Adakin Productions
Jay Holben, Director, Producer
On Hold
Sunday Whites (feature horror)
Story by Jay Holben, written by Sean P. Traver
A writer's creation becomes his most feared enemy and his undoing.
Adakin Productions
Jay Holben, Director, Producer
Undisclosed Novel Adaptation (feature thriller)
Written by James Cole
A man discovers a magical item that gives him a secret look into people's minds, but one mind takes him to a dark place he wishes he never found.
Adakin Productions, Your Half Pictures
Jay Holben, Director, Producer
(Development On Hold)
Alone (short film)
Written by Dave Shepherd
A young woman faces a terrifying night alone.
Adakin Productions
Jay Holben, director
(Post Production On Hold)
It's tough work, but somebody's got to do it. On location for CamGirls at The Palms in Las Vegas.
On the set of The Night Before.
On Location in Florida for CamGirls

My Interests

You can purchase two of the short films that I directed, DESCENT and THE NIGHT BEFORE on Amazon.com by clicking the images below:

Beyond my profession - which takes up a considerable amount of my time - I have a passion for sailing. It’s the one activity that I can do every six months or so (about when I can get out) and a good year and a half of stress can melt off. I spend quite a bit of time on this digital box, although I’m certainly no computer whiz. I’m one of those people who know just enough to get myself into trouble. I read quite a bit, but most of that is related back to my work. I’m almost entirely self-taught (back to reading) in anything I’m interested in, including my own profession. I’m an amateur poker player, a long love that was rekindled by the boom in Texas Hold’em (and a shying away from all the other silly "home-game" versions of poker). Most of all it’s All Work and No Play Makes Jay a Dull Boy, but my work is really my passion so I’m very happy.

Below are one-sheets from some of the projects I’ve worked on in one capacity or another:

I'd like to meet:

A New "Top Friends"

I’ve decided to take a more category approach to my "Top Friends" section on here. With the exception of the first two slots - saved for my wife (yes, folks, the little lady gets top slot. :) ) and my company, I’ll rotate them out perodically to spotlight some extraordinary people I’ve met here on MySpace who merit special attention.

For this first cycle, a bit of self-promotion, of sorts. This first wave of new "Top Friends" features the women of CamGirls, the documentary. Not all of the women in CamGirls have MySpace profiles, but those that do are here on this page. There’s also a couple "bonus" women who currently or previously share their lives over the Internet.

Enjoy surfing profiles!

Music:

I am extraordinarily musically illiterate. Although I’ve gotten somewhat better over the recent years getting rid of moments like this:
Friend: "Dude, do you know who this band is?"
Me: "...Um... no?"
Friend: "DUDE! It’s the ROLLING STONES!!"
Me: "Ah, yeah... I’ve heard of them..."

My iTunes is an incredibly ecclectic collection of music - and fairly small compared to most. I listen to pop, contemporary, big band, punk and classic rock. I listen to pretty much anything but most rap and hip-hop and acid jazz. Techno, house and the like can be okay for a short while, but after a while the repitition will lead me on a murderous rampage.

Movies:

Wow. This is a very hard one. It’s kind of like trying to pick your favorite child... Some of the most influential movies to me, and movies that I own (always an important sign - I won’t own it if I don’t love it or it doesn’t mean something to me):
- Star Wars
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Empire of the Sun
- Searching for Bobby Fisher
- Seven
- Blade Runner
- The Sixth Sense
- The Road to Perdition
- Jaws
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy
- Rebecca
- Toy Story
- Finding Nemo
- Momento
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Saving Private Ryan
- Schindler’s List
- Aliens
- Out of Sight
- Silence of the Lambs
- On Golden Pond
- What Lies Beneath
- Cast Away
- Beautiful Girls
- Grosse Point Blank
- Cinema Paradiso
- The Exorcist
- Heat
- No Way Out
- Wind
- The Changling
- Mosquito Coast
- Show Me Love
- While You Were Sleeping
- The Usual Suspects
- Dead Again
- Blackhawk Down
- Bull Durham
- The Bourne Identity
- The Princess Bride
- Stand By Me
- Y Tu Mama Tambien
- 28 Days Later
- The Professional
- Dead Calm
- Identity
- American Beauty
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- The Shawshank Redemption
- The Fugitive
- Batman Begins
And many more... You get the picture.

Television:

Thank heavens for TIVO!!
I was not a big fan of television growing up. I used to have a plackard on my wall that read "Theatre is life, film is art, television is furniture..." For many years, I honestly believed that. Television was the lowest rung on the entertainment foodchain - and to some degree it still is - but today's TV world has many worthy mentions. In recent years, watching TV has become more of a personal interest rather than just a professional one (for about ten years I've tried to catch at least one episode of everything new to keep on top of what is happening). Right about the time Chris Carter came out with The X Files and Michael Crichton gave us ER I started to take notice. Today, I see television as a fertile environment where good writers can develop characters over storylines that feature filmmakers couldn't even dream of. The idea of stretching a character arc or a story line over fourteen, twenty even forty hours - is amazing to me. Television gives you time to really get to know the characters of your favorite shows as if they are family.

With that short dissertation having been shared, shows that I currently have TiVo set for include (in no particular order), Dexter, Gray's Anatomy, Battlestar Galactica, Mythbusters, Penn and Teller's Bullshit, Ghost Hunters, Lost, Beauty and the Geek (Yes, I watch reality TV), Entourage, Prison Break... There are many more shows that I feel are well written and executed, but I don't necessarily watch them on any regular basis.

Networks - there is no doubt that HBO rules the airwaves. A network that truly cares and nurtures their creative productions - and continues to produce exemplary work time after time - bravo HBO.

Following that I give great credit to FOX and F/X for really working to push the envelope and providing great entertainment. Finally - and I used to think they were a joke (especially after they killed Miracles so horribly (the best pilot for a series I've ever seen -hands down)), ABC has come back to be a leader.

Suddenly I feel like I'm teaching a class. I'll shut the hell up now.

Books:

I'm a voracious reader - but a slow one. I can't sit down and read for hours on end, so I take it in little chunks - but several little chunks a day.
Stephen King
Gerald's Game
The Dark Tower series
The Long Walk
It
Pet Semetary

Michael Crichton
State of Fear
Five Patients

James Patterson
The Jester
The Alex Cross Series

Others
Jame Grisham's A Painted House
The Harry Potter Series
Making Movies Sydney Lumet

Currently Reading:
Duma Key, Stephen King

Heroes:

Harrison Ford was of considerable influence to me growing up. Both the person and the roles he played. As were Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Beyond that, it's a tough topic.

My Blog

New Blogging! Techno Geeks Unite!

Hello fellow MySpacers!I have been somewhat absent from the MySpace community for the past couple months as my real-world work has overtaken my cyber time. One of the new developments in real-world wo...
Posted by Jay Holben on Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:03:00 PST

Mixed feelings - a long road

Today, September 16th, 2007, marks the official four year anniversary of my work on the documentary CamGirls. Four years ago, this evening, I had my first 'official' interview online with a CamGirl. I...
Posted by Jay Holben on Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:07:00 PST

My Celebrity Freakdom

Apparently my celebrity look-alikes are pretty dismal... And freakish... This is REALLY awesome for the ego... ...
Posted by Jay Holben on Thu, 23 Aug 2007 12:15:00 PST

Some Films You Might Have Missed

I've had a couple of people write me about my blog on the Summer movies and ask what I did like. Although I put my running top 10 new movies in the replies of that blog, I thought I might mention some...
Posted by Jay Holben on Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:06:00 PST

"STRIKE THREE! Summer's out!" or: "The Summer of Threes; The Summer of Schlock..."

Ah, summer. The wonderful time for big, blockbuster movies. Er... well... maybe not so wonderful.2007 is the summer of threes. The summer for the third flick in the series. We've got more "Threes" thi...
Posted by Jay Holben on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:57:00 PST

The Behind the Lens "series"

I've gotten half a dozen messages in the last two days asking where my "Behind the Lens" blogs went to - why didn't I write more? Actually, I did write several more, I just moved them from my Blog int...
Posted by Jay Holben on Mon, 07 May 2007 01:12:00 PST

One of the best Independent Films I've seen in a Long Time...

I just got finished watching 10 Items or Less written and directed by Brad Silberling (Lemony Snicket, Casper).The film stars Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega (Spanglish).It's wonderfully well written and ...
Posted by Jay Holben on Fri, 04 May 2007 04:24:00 PST

This Film is Not Yet Rated - Ugh!

Just gotta rant a bit here... I just got finished watching Kirby Dick's documentary on the MPAA ratings board, This Film is Not Yet Rated. I have to say that I sat through most of the film in a state...
Posted by Jay Holben on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 03:06:00 PST

About the Photo with the array of XL1's...

I've had quite a few people write me today asking about my current defauly picture (with the array of XL1 DV cameras), so I figued I'd put the explaniation here and make the responses a little e...
Posted by Jay Holben on Tue, 11 Apr 2006 04:47:00 PST

Aaron Sorkin WHERE ARE YOU?!?

I'm quite hot under the collar.In the last few years I've become a fan of The West Wing, a well written, wonderfully performed series. Before TiVo I was able to catch maybe one in five episodes and, a...
Posted by Jay Holben on Mon, 10 Apr 2006 04:07:00 PST