Cohn directs William Shatner. Photo courtesy of Jared Cohen
Jared Cohn, 35, is at the helm of yet another horror film, DEAD
afterlife that just may nudge him into the elite company of other
low-budget, shock masters, John Carpenter, George Romero or Toby Hooper. The Horror Society website recently
predicted his ascendency to the pinnacles of horror film stardom when it named Death Pool, which Cohn wrote and
directed, as one of the top 17 horror films for 2017.
“Jared Cohn is quickly becoming one of the best independent
writer/directors in the business,” wrote MGDSQUAN, senior editor. “He’s
produced a number of recognizable pictures, including 12/12/12, Little Dead Riding Hood,
action-thriller The Horde and chiller
favorite Hold Your Breath, but I think
Death Pool is really going to be the
movie that skyrockets him to the next level.”
If Cohn hasn’t reached the pinnacle of horror success yet, it
certainly isn’t for the lack of trying. To date, the soft-spoken, hyperactive
director who is prone to cameos in his own films, has led the charge of 26 films
in just eight years, which must be a record of some sort.
Usually backed by unknown entities looking for either an
investment opportunity or film credits, of sorts, his films lean toward the
ghoulish, tinged with just a touch of wicked humor. His latest effort, DEAD
afterlife, is relatively tame compared to some of his other titles: Hollywood
Pussy Trap Kill Kill (2017), Evil Nanny (2016), Little
Dead Riding Hood (2016), and who can forget Underground Lizard
People (2011). Then there are those that sound almost mainstream: Dangerous Date (2017), After School Special (2017), Wishing for a Dream (2016), and Hold Your Breath (2011).
Then there are two works, though, that would not be considered
typical Cohn films.
The first being Street Survivors: The True Story of the
Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash, from Cleopatra Entertainment, and starring
a very prolific Kelly Lynn Reiter, who has appeared in 18 projects during 2017,
and Jon Briddell, a filmic mainstay since 1998. The Skynyrd project
has been tied up in a legal battle when heirs of band members Ronnie Van Zant
and Steve Gaines, won an injunction against the release of the film.
The second was God’s Club (script written by
the author), starring three well-known actors who have in recent years
concentrated their efforts on taking parts in faith-based films: Stephen
Baldwin, Corbin Bernsen and Lorenzo Lamas. Cohn was roundly criticized by
online pundits for directing God’s Club perhaps because they deemed him either
somehow unqualified to direct the faith-based film (released by Nasser
Entertainment in 2015), or that he had broken some sort of allegiance with
horror fans by doing so.
In any case, Cohn has continued to move on at what can only be
described as Herculean speed, having recently completed Minutes
to Midnight, which he also appears in, to be
released early 2018. It stars another Baldwin brother, William, and one of
Cohn’s go-to actors, Richard Grieco. Since wrapping Relic (working
title that will most likely change), starring William Shatner (Star Trek, T.J.
Hooker) and Jeri Ryan (Bosch, Major Crimes), Cohn hopes to begin work on DEAD
afterlife soon, though it does not have a start date yet.
Cohn, who often works with Cleopatra Entertainment, is the CEO
of his own production company, Traplight Pictures, LLC. He hails from Baldwin
(a curious coincidence, considering he has hired more than one Baldwin
brother), Long Island, NY. He’s been pounding the streets of L.A. for the past
15 years.
Cohn broke into film as a 19-year-old actor and has appeared in
34 films and television series, some of which he directed. His first acting
credit, according to IMDB, was Diary of an Affair, where actors
would reenact real people’s affairs. His most recent listed acting gig is in
Minutes to Midnight, which by its logline has more
than a smidgeon of similarities to Halloween or Scream, as seven
friends end up in an isolated ski lodge only to be hunted down by a ruthless
masked man.
“I did a fair amount of independent productions that are similar
to the ones I’m now directing,” he said, which he described as in the,
“low-budget space that won’t break you out unless you somehow make it to
Sundance.”
Though he still enjoys acting, he said he began to look at
working behind-the-scenes because there are more tangible opportunities there.
But he’s more than ready to take on an acting role if the opportunity presents
itself, as it can in those projects he directs. In the 2017 film Locked
Up, he actually ended up in a gender-swap situation where he stepped in for
an actress who was playing the aunt of the main character, but dropped out of
the project and he ended up playing the same character, only as the uncle.
As he began to transition from acting fulltime to directing, it
was mostly through observing other directors and on-the-job training that he
learned his craft. But when he had the chance, he attended film school in New
York where he landed his BA degree and promptly moved back to Los Angeles, to
study the technical side of film production.
“I’m still learning from every film that I do,” he said. “I want
to continue to learn and grow. This last film (Relic) taught me quite a
bit.”
To say Cohn is working in film is a misnomer. Film is actually a
digital world now, from the lowest budgeted project to the latest Star Wars offering, one and all are
recorded digitally. He did, though, have the opportunity to work with 35mm film
on two projects. But digital gives him the ability to move quickly between
projects. The speed in which they can be shot and edited is a fraction of what
it took when film was the medium. His goal today is to move up into higher
budget productions that he can actually spend more time on.
“I want to be able to put more time in on the quality and the
story,” he said, though he believes some of his work holds up even if produced
at warp speed. He’s particularly proud of the Relic and the Skynyrd film
and hopes that it will break free of litigation soon. “At this point, I really
want to make artistic, meaningful films.”
After all these years, he still does not have an agent or
manager. It might take that to land one of those prestige films, but he’s doing
pretty good with word-of-mouth recommendations coming from producers and even
the likes of Shatner, as he moves effortlessly from project to project.
“God bless them all for allowing me to direct motion pictures,”
he said.
Cohn has not only become adept behind the camera, but he is very
knowledgeable about what it takes to get a film’s financing off the ground,
from pre-sales, loans, and multiple investors.
“Every movie is essentially its own limited liability company (LLC),”
he said. “Each film can require different attachments to get it greenlit. I
like to get involved as early as possible. As a filmmaker, if you don’t engage
yourself early on a lot of decisions, it can and will get made without your input. That’s
just the filmmaking process and sometimes you have to seek out what’s going
on behind the behind the scenes.”
He said no matter the genre or budget, every movie that his name
is attached to he wants it to turn out the best as possible. It’s the only way
he knows how to work, he said. While budget is important, Cohn said he has come
to rely on a band of people he can depend on who he will work with on as
many productions as possible.
“I’ve worked on some films that only had an actor, camera or and
sound person,” he said. “On other films there were hundreds of people involved.
It’s all about the budget. You can make a small genre film or big action
movie and they can cost the same amount or they can be very different.”
Moving from one film to the next without much of a break in
between, Cohn tries to make time to work with the editors.
“If you work with a good editor, who you’ve worked with before
and you trust and knows your style, then the process becomes much more
streamlined,” he said. “If you’re working with someone who you haven’t done so
before and you’re not on the same page, creatively, there’s going to be a lot
more back-and-forth to get the edit right.”
Cohn said he likes to work with the same people as much as
possible, but even if they’re very talented, they may not be the best choice to
work with from project to project. He said, though, that by the very nature of
how Hollywood works, actors or production people can go from working on a major
studio film to one of his low-budget projects when they find themselves out of
work after the big-budget project wraps. While most of his projects have been
in the low-budget arena, he said every director, including him, always strives
for more time and more money.
If one were to follow Cohn on Facebook or other social media, it
might seem that he flitters from film to film every couple months. These
mediums, however, are only brief glimpses of his work. He said each film,
now matter how small, can take a couple years before it’s completed.
“If you have the money, I can start shooting a movie in three weeks from when they start writing checks,” he
said. “The next thing you know you have locations, the production team, actors.
It doesn’t take that long if you have the money. But if you’re an independent
and you’re trying to find the locations and you’re scrambling trying to make
deals, camera equipment and crew, that’s going to take you a lot longer.”
When it comes to developing his style of directing, he
particularly admires George Miller who would storyboard an entire movie—and
sticking to them.
“I’ve attempted to storyboard some action scenes and then on the
day of the shoot it can fall by the wayside,” he said. “If you have the money
you can take the time to work on it. That’s what I’m trying to do, nail down
specificity of the scene.
“And then you can have creative conversations with the actors
and they have their own ideas, but at the end of the day, as the director, you
want to get the movie you’re visualizing. And if you have a great action
sequence that’s storyboarded and you can get shot for shot that is excellent.”
Meanwhile, Cohn has taken up flying drones, which is more than
just playing with a toy. He’s took the additional step of becoming a certified
FAA pilot for unmanned aircraft in order to use drones in his films.
And more recently, he stepped back into a familiar area.
“I actually went back to what I was doing in
NY, but on a more advanced level,” he said. “I used to shoot and edit video on
my prosumer camera during my film school days and after. Now I shoot on a Red
Dragon and work with a crew. Basically, instead of just working on feature
films, I’m getting back into my roots, shooting various types of content, ads,
music videos, photos, it’s a fusion of past and present.”
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