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(Watch the video on Youtube here)

How An Unknown Filmmaker Sells A Television Show by Jay Silverman of OFF THE MENU 

Film Courage: So I know you had said in another interview that Richard Avedon was one of your idols [along with maybe] Francesco Scavullo, all of these fashion photographers. So it seems like that was your aim at that time, either that or products?

Jay Silverman: Well, when I was going to photography school you pick mentors if you are fortunate enough to be motivated by them. In my case I had Richard Avedon, I had Pete Turner, and I had Scavullo, Annie Leibovitz. You know these are people that I looked at as someone I’d like to be like.

And when I finished school I moved to New York and it became almost a surprise to me when I realized that “I think I can make a living in Los Angeles. I don’t think I have to live in New York.” And I knew back then that lifestyle was more important to me than money. I did not want to leave my family and my friends so I came back to LA and set up a business that way.

Film Courage: Especially the allure of doing a VOGUE cover, especially when you are just starting out.

Jay Silverman:  Well it’s curious that you say that because as a photographer at the beginning of my creative career, I did everything. I did fashion, I did product shots, everything but a wedding. And then you wake up one morning and somebody gives you some advice, you know? And that advice came at a high price. I paid a lot of money for someone to give me advice when I was in my 20’s on how to go to the next level. And the advice came with a question. The question was very simplistically what makes you different from everybody else and he really screwed with me because he did not want to tell me what the simplistic answer was….(Watch the video on Youtube here).

“Goodness is something to be chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man.”