Cool Cat: Jack Collier

Interview by Joseph Stranger | Photos by Kendall Yoder

Most people shy away from the strange and unsettling, but CWU alum Jack Collier revels in it. During his time in the film program, he worked on projects ranging from documentaries on model trains to short films about demented puppets. His videos have even been submitted to and won awards at film festivals across the country. Here’s why you should know this Cool Cat:

What have you been up to since graduating from Central?

Right after graduation I tried doing the whole freelance filmmaker thing. I did a couple small projects here and there. The biggest one I did was with an equine therapy place in Marysville called Courageous Connections. They asked me to help them create an introduction video … they wanted me to help illustrate that it’s a lot more than just horse-handling techniques. I made a couple videos for them and that went well, and then the pandemic hit and everything got screwed over. After that I was like, ‘Okay, can’t really do anything. I’m going to go back to Ellensburg and move in with my girlfriend for her final quarter, and then we’ll just see what happens.’ 

I went back to Ellensburg for a bit and there really wasn’t any film job opportunities there. I just ended up getting a temporary job at Hotel Windrow to pay bills. Things were looking good when [Ellensburg was] moving up in phases, and then the phases started going back down and I got let go because of that. Through a series of events, I ended up working at Kittitas Valley Health Care as a cleaner. I did not think I would end up cleaning [C[VID-19] rooms during a pandemic, but that’s what happened. And then, four months into that, our lease was ending, so me and my girlfriend sat down and we were like, ‘Do we really want to stick around Ellensburg, or do we just want to leave this place and try for greener pastures?’ 

We moved out last summer, and I ended up, through a friend, quickly finding a job doing video work for a Presbyterian church up in Seattle in the U-district. So that’s what I’m currently doing. I help edit the videos, shoot the videos and man the cameras or whatever else is needed during the livestreams. That’s my day job. On the side I’m still trying to create short films and videos. Me, my friend Kendall and some other folks just did a Halloween short film a couple weeks ago, and we’re working on rolling that out right now.

Tell us about ‘Toxic Chainsaw films’

It’s not like an LLC or anything, that’s just the monogram we’ve decided to go under for YouTube and submission purposes. I don’t know what the full plan is, I think we’re just kind of winging it at this point. I think the main plan is we want to produce a couple more shorts and hopefully find more people to work with around the Seattle area. Our web series, “Glumhouse Chums,” which is like a demented, twisted puppet show, got into a film festival last month and we ended up going and beating some other film folks around Seattle. I think we just want to build up our network, and maybe in the future attempt a feature film, but that’s still a long way off. I think the main thing we want to do is just create stuff, and even if we get jobs in other film work or anything, we don’t want to lose that creative spark that keeps us going.

What got you into movies?

I wasn’t really into movies until high school. I ended up taking a film as literature class, and my teacher was very passionate about film. He had graduated with a screenwriting degree, and he was just so enthusiastic and I had never thought about movies quite like he did, as works of art. I think I just got engrossed after that because after [that class] I ended up taking a video production class, and then going into college I found out Central had a film program and I just felt I had to continue it. It’s like a drug. You create something and then you need to do more. You can’t stop, because everything else seems boring in comparison when you’re not making your crazy short film or whatever.

Who would you say are some of your inspirations?

That’s a tough one. John Carpenter. He has a really mixed filmography, but I feel like he’s a good example of a quality filmmaker. I don’t think he’s someone that maybe most film buffs would immediately go to, but I think he’s just got such a wide array of works that range from action to horror that I just can’t help but enjoy. Specifically, John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” The practical effects and just the way the story was crafted around the inability to trust one another when a cosmic horror is creeping around. Yeah, so I look to that one alot. More recently, “The Lighthouse” with Willem Dafoe. That’s a film I look to alot, especially the script. I just love the way it was written. It’s odd because that one has a lot more detail in the script because [Robert Eggers] wrote with the intent of shooting it himself as opposed to trying to sell the script. But I think that’s just a good example of the writing style of the script reflecting the tone and the material of the story. 

What do you do in your free time?

I’m kind of always doing something, but I guess in the down time I’m usually either watching movies or playing video games. I feel like a lot of people look to movies for storytelling, but video games have also become very adept in the kinds of stories they can tell, and they can also be a lot more dynamic because of their immersion, so I’m always interested in the way video games tell stories as well. Aside from that, I’ve gotten really into D&D as of late, and as someone who loves writing I think D&D is very helpful in getting the creative juices flowing. Most of the time I’m the Game Master, which I think particularly helps a lot because you have to create a set of background characters and then you have to play them yourself. So it’s really helpful in character building, because I think the most important part of either a screenplay or a video game or any type of story is you need to have a character that’s very concrete and deep. I’ve found D&D really helpful with character crafting.

What work of yours are you most proud of?

I think, just from a scale standpoint, my capstone film “I Hate You, Dad.” I’m pretty proud of it, just from the amount of people working on it and the general vibe on the set. I feel like even though it was a stressful couple of days, we managed to keep a fun, lighthearted set. I don’t know, when I think of [pre-pandemic] filmmaking, that’s the set I immediately go to. It was just so nice working with a bunch of people and having our own location and being able to do a ridiculous story about a mobster who takes his daughter to work with him. I think if I tried to make it post 2020, I definitely would not have been able to. 

Aside from that, I also really like the short film “Zealot” that me and my friend Kendall made, just because it was such a small crew working at a remote location. It just felt really easy-going, I’d say, and there was a lot of room for experimentation. Whereas on a big set, you only have so much time and so many shots, there’s really no room to play around. But, going out there with just a camera, we have a shot list but then we think, ‘Oh, what if we do this?’ There’s a lot more room to play with small sets, at least in my experience.

What are your career goals?

I mean, my baseline no matter what is just keep creating. I know a lot of other people who’ve graduated who just don’t do film anymore. I just don’t want to get to that point where I’ve stopped creating for the sake of just living life, because I think the two should go hand-in-hand. I hope one day that Toxic Chainsaw can get a feature made either through our own funds or Kickstarter or maybe even selling a script or something. I don’t need a blockbuster or a big hit movie made, just like a cult classic that people will remember. My crazy goal, which I don’t know if ever will happen, but I always thought it would be cool to get on a list of banned movies in a country. So, if I ever do end up making a feature, if it could be banned from China, I feel like that’s a plus.

Toxic Chainsaw Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQtqsDjhgXDUGb89pwSUAA