Jason Ensler - From PSAs to Executive Producer/Director of HULU's "Love, Victor"

52 mins

11/2/20

About

Jason Ensler is an Executive Producer and Director of some of your favorite TV shows. After graduating USC with an MFA in Cinema/Television production, Jason directed PSAs for a friend's marketing company and his alma mater, Brandeis University. That led to being part of a creative team at NBC 2000, promoting campaigns for NBC shows like The West Wing, Scrubs, Frasier, The Olympics and The NBA. Eventually, he started directing and producing shows such as The West Wing, The Newsroom, Scrubs, Gossip Girl, Franklin & Bash, The Passage, The Exorcist, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Red Band Society, and most recently, Love, Victor on HULU (to name a few).

In this episode, we talk about:

• Getting to work with Aaron Sorkin on The Newsroom and getting him to sing "The Surrey with the fringe on Top" (musical theater) a cappella

• How it is to direct Hulu’s Love, Victor in the midst of the pandemic

• What a Tone Meeting is and why it's important before filming a TV show

• What he likes about doing pilots vs an already established episodic

• The difference between working on Streaming vs network show

• A seminal meeting with Director Chuck Russell that changed his path (directed The Mask, Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3, The Blob, Eraser, The Scorpion King)

• How difficult was it to go from directing light comedies to dramas

• Is it important to leave the bubble of Hollywood as a filmmaker

• What he's looking forward to in his career

Episodes mentioned:

Episode 1 - Stan Brooks https://kite.link/stan

Resources:

Website: https://jasonenslerfilm.com/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Ensler

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0258128/

Mockumentary for NBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPP_Fpsi_LU

Twitter: @Jason_Ensler

Recommendation: If you like this episode, check out Episode 1.21 with TV Director Linda Mendoza (The Good Place, Scrubs, Black-ish, Yearly Departed).