ABSTRACT
Jay Duplass is the rare hyphenate, a writer-producer-director who sometimes edits and is more widely known as an actor, in a recurring role on Transparent, the successful series from Amazon Studios. The Duplass Brothers gained great success with multiple awards from the Sundance Film Festival over years. With his brother Mark, Jay has variously co-written and co-directed The Puffy Chair, Baghead, Cyrus and Jeff Who Lives at Home. They also produced independent films including Safety Not Guaranteed, The Skeleton Twins and Tangerine. The brothers also created, wrote, directed and produced the HBO series Togetherness. In this chapter, Jay traces his journey as a filmmaker with his brother Mark and their early Sundance success with a short film This is John and later The Puffy Chair and Baghead, all made in the DIY model. Deals were with companies such as Netflix, Roadside Attractions, Indian Paintbrush, Paramount and Fox Searchlight. Advice includes make movies not meetings; protect your product; low-budget planning and shooting techniques; don’t start with a budget; don’t talk about it, do it; work-life balance.
