Life & Work with James C. Turner

Today we’d like to introduce you to James C. Turner.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am a native Detroiter who was raised in Highland Park, Michigan. I attended Oakland University immediately after graduating high school and eventually graduated from Wayne State University (WSU) with a bachelor’s degree in Film Production (Cum Laude). After graduation, I wrote and directed my first feature film Destiny’s Calling. Knowing nothing about the business side of the entertainment industry, my movie sat on the shelf. I decided to go back to school and get a business degree so that I could have a better understanding of the business side of the industry. I graduated from WSU with my MBA in 2015. After working a couple of years as a Licensed Banker for JPMorgan Securities, I decided to get back to my true calling in life, filmmaking. I had a long conversation with my wife, and she agreed to support me and our family for two years while I quit my job to pursue my dream; that was six years ago. Since then, I have made two documentary films and multiple marketing videos for non-profit organizations. Noble Intentions is my first venture back into scripted narrative films.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
In life, there are always challenges, but during the production of Noble Intentions, the challenges were extra heavy. To begin, we were three days into shooting the movie and were still in negotiations with our main stars who had to be on set and shooting by day eight. Pulling that off was one of many miracles that happened during the 21 days of production. We endured a horrible mosquito infestation at our first shooting location in River Rouge. The mosquitos were biting us so much that we had to run to our cars to keep from being bitten. It sounds funny in hindsight, but it was a serious challenge at the time. During one of the two days that we were scheduled to shoot with Mr. Obba Babatunde, we had a monsoon that shut down the freeways and caused power outages across the city. Trees were down, freeways were flooded all the way up to the overpasses and the rain was falling relentlessly. So, after flying our main stars into town and putting them up in luxury suites, we had to cancel one of our main days of shooting. Fortunately, our out-of-town stars were gracious enough to fly back in at a later date to complete the shoot. Unfortunately, on the day that everybody flew back in to shoot, our main character lost his voice and could speak a word, and our main antagonist lost his father the night before. Only God brought us through! These are only a few of the challenges we faced, it was so many of them that my wife started keeping a list…

• We sustained a power outage at home for 4.5 days preceding the start of production due to torrential rains & storms
• A power surge caused a loss of 4 terabyte of data/video and a very expensive data retrieval
• Flooding caused us to halt filming for a day right after Aaron D. Spears & Obba Babatunde arrived to Detroit
• A mosquito infestation in River Rouge with our son Jaden getting attacked, causing him to be swollen from head to toe
• A Production Assistant went to get gas for the generator and left with the gas can and went to the airport
• A swarm bees & wasps surrounded the set in Highland Park and a cast member got stung
• A cast member’s audio pack constantly stopped working
• Three tornados touched down in Southeastern MI & floods caused an actor to spend the night with a crew member
• An actor’s finger got pinched in the prop gun
• The audio tech’s truck went out
• A prop car owner wouldn’t come back to the set and we had to pivot and film an interior of an identical car that happened to be found in a police impound lot
• Obba Babatunde’s mic wasn’t on when we shot the original climax scene and the whole scene needed to be reshot
• We needed an ambulance for a scene in less than 24 hours and no one had anything available. We called an ambulance service as our last hope and was turned down. James recognized the guy’s name and asked him if he knew a woman named Louise Turner, the guy immediately said, “SHE RAISED ME!” At that moment, I was reconnected to a man who was raised by my mother. He owns the ambulance company, and he made it happen for us.
• Our credit card company started declining our purchases as suspected fraud. To our embarrassment, the first declines were our actors’ hotel rooms while they attempted to check in
• Upon the return to do the climax scene in Michigan, an actress forgot her character’s wig in another state
• A main actor had strep throat the day before reshooting the climax scene. He reshot the whole scene in discomfort while miming his lines.
• Lloyd Montague’s father passed away the morning of the reshoot of the climax scene
• Just as promotions was beginning for the film’s presale period, Facebook restricted my account for 27 days, preventing me from reaching my established audience

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am very passionate, and I love what I do! I am a filmmaker who’s highly competent in all aspects of the filmmaking process. From writing to shooting and editing to distribution, I know how to take a thought and bring it to life in a dynamic way. My favorite films to make are scripted feature films. I love to take people for a ride-along in a different world. My goal is not just to make movies, it’s to make movies with meaning. So, I want to always leave my audience with a new way of looking at life. I am best known for creating dynamic marketing videos for non-profit organizations, but I’m quickly beginning to be known for my feature films. The most popular of which is now Noble Intentions. I’m most proud of my body of work and my progression as a filmmaker. I love looking back at my work and seeing how much better I have gotten. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that I created it.

I believe that my relentless spirit and fluid-like nature sets me apart from others. I’m extremely tenacious and I move like water around obstacles. My mother looked deep into my eyes as a young child and told me, “You can do anything that you want to do in this world, as long as it’s within God’s will,” and I believed her.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love that Detroit swag! We have a great since of fashion and a unique way of carrying ourselves, especially when we’re in the presence of outsiders. I love that anywhere in the world you go, they know where you’re from when you say Detroit. I love our independence. We aren’t swept up and grouped with the coast or even our state. When you say Michigan, it’s kind of a subtle response, but when you say Detroit; it’s time to party!

I wish we were more supportive of each other as a whole. There are many outstanding individuals in the Detroit area, but rarely do we rise to national or international status, and I personally believe that it’s because we don’t support our own as much as we support people from elsewhere. It’s like we don’t take our local talent seriously until and/or unless someone from the outside does it first.

Pricing:

• Buy $9.99
• Rent $4.99

Contact Info:

• Website: jamescturner.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.turner.9041083/
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/Noble-Intentions-Obba-Babatunde/dp/B0B74M7LCX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FZEUH5XXGTOL&keywords=noble+intentions&qid=1672751241&s=instant-video&sprefix=noble+intentions%2Cinstant-video%2C93&sr=1-1

Image Credits
Turner Media Productions, LLC