Uprising: Embracing Curiosity and Difference with Jordan Clarke

In an industry that prides itself on creativity, difference is good. 

Consider it. When everybody is competing to be the first to wield an insight, idea or piece of technology, thinking differently becomes necessary for the creation of fresh ideas, providing critical viewpoints on the work, or pushing the limits of what’s been done before. Be it a first year copywriter or a senior colourist, truly, there’s a lot to be said for not being quite like everyone else. 

This is especially true in the case of BOLDLY director Jordan Clarke. While admittedly, he shares the trait of being a talented artist with many in his field, unlike those others, his background in animation and strong sense of curiosity has instilled a need to explore the boundaries of what’s possible when it comes to incorporating VFX, 3D animation, and AI into his work.

And, if you look at his journey into the industry, it just makes sense. 

Born in Kelowna, British Columbia, Jordan’s childhood experiences were pretty unique. He lived in Japan from the ages of one to three, before moving back to Canada’s west coast - this time in Victoria. His parents were part of a “pretty out-there church” - the speaking in tongues kind - which, again, contributed to pretty significant feelings of difference (à la Pete Holmes’ ‘Crashing’), and his house was always full of people and friends. 

“My family was extremely hospitable, and our house was definitely the spot for a lot of our friends,” he recalls. “Sometimes we’d be eating dinner and all of a sudden, we’d hear a neighbourhood kid playing the piano in the other room. He actually taught himself just by coming over to our house.”

It didn’t stop there, either. Friends were such frequent fixtures that when his dad planned a trip to hike to the base camp of Mount Everest - even though Jordan himself didn’t want to go - because his friends were interested, the trip planning continued with all of them instead.

“I did end up going, and it was amazing,” he adds, “but he had that kind of relationship with our friends. In fact, after I moved out to go to film school, three of my friends moved in!”

As for Jordan himself, he remembers being a “pretty intense kid that would get obsessed with things”, allowing them to take over his life… which he relished. 

“I loved being able to master something without relying on other people's level of engagement or schedule,” he says. “I got pretty far in gymnastics at a young age, which then led to breakdancing and then yo-yoing (I had a coach and would go to tournaments and such!).”

Unfortunately, highschool made it pretty clear that yo-yoing wasn’t particularly cool anymore, so this would be replaced in Jordan’s arsenal of skills with a skateboarding hobby. And, while perhaps the skateboarding to making skate videos to directing pipeline has been seen and done before, it’s probably not every director who can say a specific song (in this case ‘Yeah Right’ by Spike Jonze) was responsible for opening their mind to the craft of shooting, VFX and editing, versus just getting the shot. 

“At a certain point I realised that I liked making skate videos more than I liked skateboarding,” he notes. “We took filming very seriously, and I would make these monthly videos at the skatepark that were more focused on the effects/editing than the actual activity itself.”

And, while he got teased for this, it certainly seemed he wasn’t the only one with a passion for that sort of thing. “The skateboarders and art kids were all in the same scene,” he adds. “So, after high school, a couple of my skate/artsy friends got a scholarship to the Vancouver Film School, and we’re still very good friends now - all working in the creative field.”

The decision to attend would pay off nicely. Jordan notes that he really leaned into finding his own learning, and this was well exemplified through his decision to share creative fruit with the world via Vimeo. Not only was it valuable experience, but he was rewarded with a nice confidence boost from receiving six Staff Picks during his time in school… although he caveats that it probably isn’t as impressive as it sounds, due to just how new the platform was. 

One such example can be seen in his final project, which truly lives up to the definition of mixed results. Sure, he may not have followed along in class and received a 0 because it was late, and Vancouver Film School was upset it wasn’t credited in the work and had to call a meeting, but all’s well that ends well. Ultimately, putting in the credits got him adjusted to a passing grade (allowing him to graduate), the video would be used to promote the school (which his future wife, a fellow student at the school would see years before they met), and not only did Vimeo’s staff like it - Ashton Kutcher would post it on his Twitter, making it go viral for a little bit and giving Jordan his first foot into the industry. 

So, with a newly-opened world and offers coming in from production companies around the world, Jordan was blessed with the luxury of choice. As he puts it, “I was pretty set on taking a job in London, however, my girlfriend at the time wanted to go to Toronto for school and I had been offered a job working at the MuchMusic/MTV creative department. I thought that would be a smaller step into the industry rather than jumping into a higher position I definitely wasn’t ready for at the time.”

This was the right decision, even if it was made partially with the wrong person in mind. Jordan and his girlfriend would break up two weeks after the move, but the job itself was exceptional, reminding him of a big college campus. “I had grown up watching MuchMusic and It was amazing to be in that building, watching the artists come through, sometimes even giving private performances to the people in our office,” he remembers. 

It was here that he’d also undertake his first big out-of-school project, designing the graphical theme, creating intros and working on the show package for that year’s MuchMusic Video Awards - all of which would influence the stage design for the live show. 

“It was pretty cool to see something I had created actually on a stage in downtown Toronto, which was a pretty big deal for me coming from an island off the west coast of Canada,” says Jordan. “I think Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry were performing that year… I didn’t know who they were - I think that’s where my skateboarder mentality of ‘mainstream everything sucks’ changed into seeing this broader world of talent in real life - but the real lesson from all of that was learning to not wait for shit to come to you, but instead go out and do it.”

Years later, Jordan is still employing that mentality on a day to day basis, although on a much grander scale. Over the past six months, he’s placed a particular emphasis on learning Unreal Engine, aiming to embrace the fact that it can be “a more user-friendly CG software for filmmakers with quicker visual feedback, as it’s built for real time workflows.”

Of course, all of that is easier said than done. His first project with it - a music video brief - was a nervous affair as he’d never relied on it for a commercial project or done motion capture before, but the artist believed in Jordan’s work and was willing to let him try out these new skills. 

“The idea involved recreating the artist in CG and having his performance span through epic scenes that were larger than life, while also following two characters moving throughout these scenes,” Jordan details. “The budget didn’t allow for any post support and so I only had four weeks to build a world populated by animated characters with the artist’s likeness as the hero for three minutes.”

If this sounds like a difficult task, that’s because it was. Describing the experience of receiving the files back from the motion capture studio as making him “feel sick”, Jordan was forced to remember his ideology of going out and doing it, spending the weekend calling qualified people to offer advice, and pouring over tutorials and forums. 

However, once again, this approach paid off. “Once I got over the initial technical hump, things started to click and I was blown away by the speed and power of Unreal,” he states. “It’s hard to believe it’s only getting better with each iteration. Even as a one man band, I was already blown away with what I was able to accomplish in such a short period of time.”

Since then, this has been the most exciting part of the job for Jordan. Removing the constraints of prep, budget and people that’s required with live shooting, it allows for far more consistent practice than the usual pace of being on set maybe once every few months. 

“With what I’m doing, I’m able to basically play ‘filmmaking video game’ every day,” he explains. “I can work with actors through video chat (or do my own performance on my phone), and I can do all the camera work, lighting, production design, and scene blocking from my workstation. It’s definitely not as good as being on an actual set, however I feel like I’m mastering aspects of filmmaking because I'm doing it every day of the week.”

Lately, this emphasis from Jordan has been especially geared toward two specific niches, the first of which is exploring the car commercial space. Specifically, because cars look good in CG, and car ads are very expensive to shoot, he sees a world where the client and agency turns an editing session into driving a car however they want, while in control of every variable in real time. “Imagine moving cameras and lights all around as well being able to change the scenery and locations with a simple click. I think this would be invaluable…at least for showcasing the product.”

Meanwhile, the second area of exploration is Metahuman, a module of Unreal Engine capable of creating realistic human faces and movements using AI, and, he adds, “some other crazy wizardry.” 

Citing the best part as the fact that he doesn’t have to be a technical genius with team support to learn how to use it, Jordan appreciates the way he can control these metahumans just using his iPhone, which is something that came in handy during a recent music video shoot. 

“The artist was located in LA, so we did a video call and I walked him through setting up his iPhone for motion capture and was able to direct him and his performance in the video chat, in order to get his facial data,” he recalls. “And, it was really chill. With motion capture, there’s very few people on set, no reset times or set-ups, and you can focus purely on directing performance. I think we ran out of stuff to do before the shoot day was over (shout out to Animatrik Motion Capture studio for all the support).”      

Of course, with Jordan’s decision to embrace the cutting edge capabilities of the technological era, AI is another talking point that he holds strong feelings on. 

Specifically, while he admits an initial frustration, especially with receiving messages from people asking which AI software was responsible for generating his work, and people posting AI art like they themselves had created it, Jordan opted to not let the hate win, instead creating the ‘F*ckai?’ series. 

Here, instead of prompting the AI to generate visuals, he instead used it to write a story, after which he produced visuals based on what was prompted - an experience which has since created a change of tune. 

“I think a lot of people focus on generative art/video, and I know everyone is talking about Sora and how that’s going to revolutionise filmmaking in our industry (and I do think you should be scared if you're a stock video site), but what I am excited about is how AI is augmenting and simplifying tools within the software that I’m using,” Jordan adds. “AI in motion capture and animation is now doing a lot of the grunt work that goes into cleaning up animation and creating motion capture from iPhone footage. And hopefully in the future, we’ll be able to focus the budget on other aspects of the shoot and leave the drone footage or the generic shots to the AI.”

Career passion aside, at the end of the day, work isn’t everything for the director. While yes, this strong sense of curiosity has driven Jordan to great heights in both the realms of technological exploration and his craft, applying this same principle to day-to-day life is not only something he loves to do, but something he believes is important for maintaining his passion as a whole. 

“Outside of work, I decompress by playing with my kids and dogs, which is the best (although sometimes I also need to decompress from that),” he jokes. “I’m currently based in Toronto, and seeing as doing any outing with the kids and dogs is a very slow and time-consuming process that feels like you're always lugging around a ton of things and moving at a snail pace, over the last few years I’ve gotten really into E-skating (electric powered skateboards). These are basically the opposite - you're zooming around the city as fast as you can with nothing holding you back. It feels like flying.”

And this perfectly sums up Jordan’s ideology to a tee. Finishing, he acknowledges that no amount of creative pursuit, curiosity, or perfectly-done shots can truly create a meaningful experience if the overall goal isn’t to have fun. 

“Over the years, I’ve built up a library of stuff - some of which I'll post on Instagram - and sometimes, it leads to professional work that is exactly the kind of work I want to get,” he concludes. “Creating is such a luxury and we should never take it for granted - it’s one of the joys of life along with food, music, relationships, etc., and I think more people should try and tap into it.”