ATLANTA PRODUCERS
Stubborn to the Core How the Sagittarius in Justin Poage transfers that emotion into greatness By Mi chae l J . Pa l l e r i no
F ourth grade. That’s when Justin Poage wrote his first screenplay. Not only that, he wanted to direct it, too. It didn’t matter that he was only 9 years old and that the screenplay was only six pages. Oh, and it was absolutely ter- rible. His words. But it was the effort that counted. The passion. Poage wanted to be a filmmaker. Call it a child- hood fantasy, wishful thinking, or just a flat out cliché, but that was his dream. He remembers watching Enter- tainment Tonight and being in awe of the filmmaking process. He recalls being blown away by movies ET , Jurassic Park , and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark . You don’t believe in fate? Poage does. When he was in 10 th grade, a rep from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) visited his art class and showed a promotional video. He was hooked. And no, if you think attending art school is all about drawing, he dares you to ask any art student who hasn’t slept in 72 hours how their drawing is coming along. “SCAD taught me a lot. Not just about film, but about life. Regarding film, it not only taught me how to make movies, but how to respect them as well. It made me respect every job and every nuance of the process. It taught me how to respect your audience. As for life, it taught me the meaning of struggle, and the value of friendship and collaboration.” The struggles came. No path to success is without it. After graduating in 2005, Poage came home to Atlanta to make movies. The Sagittarius in him— that stubborn streak—didn’t have time for working with industry people in New York or LA. Instead, he chose independent filmmaking—a path he calls both way of films like Arbitration , The Six , and Zatanna . He also worked on award- winning documentaries like Submit the Documentary: The Virtual Reality of Cyberbullying and the 2018 film Life . “My journey has had some major successes and major failures. And along the way, I’ve met and collaborated with some phenomenal people, many of whom are still good friends to this day. I wouldn’t trade any of those experiences.” the dumbest and smartest decision he has ever made. The work came in the
“ [Film] taught me the meaning of struggle, and the value of friendship and collaboration. ”
Justin Poage
Photos courtesy of Fifteen Studios
Poage climbed the ladder of film- making success even higher with the timely and poignant movie short, What Divides Us . Written by co-star Chase Gutzmore, the movie tackles topics related to interracial couples and the BLM movement. “Being able to have the freedom to create work un- abated is important,” states Poage. But it was his first film, Express Take- Out in 2009, that changed everything. New to the game, it was, what Poage recalls, “all reckless running and gunning.” While that could be considered fun in your 20s, the learning experience was invaluable. “It was chaos and serenity all at the same time. I
awesome that if I could have spent every moment in it just appreciating it I would.” Fast-forward to today and Poage owns and operates Fifteen Studios with his business partner, Keith Bradley. In a time when he says opportunities are everywhere, Fifteen Studios gives him that unabated freedom to cre- ate what he wants. Right now, he has a drama, three romantic comedies, and one very important (unnamed) project he is working on this year. “I don’t want to go too much into them because I don’t want to jinx anything. But I will continue to do the work, listen, appreciate and learn.” If you could go back and tell the 9-year-old boy how it would all turn out, Poage tends to agree the budding filmmaker would approve.
knew I had no idea what I was really doing and I knew I didn’t even know the things I didn’t know. But it was so
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