Paris Jones Of Andre Ray Paris Films: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker
Interview with Guernslye Honorés
If you’re not willing to go at it for a decade, then you shouldn’t even get started. Like Paris said, it can take a long time. You really need a breakthrough thing to happen, and without that, you can be waiting for quite a while. You need to be ready and willing to wait.
As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Paris Jones and Andre Ray.
Paris, CEO and head of production at Paris Films, has more than 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry. As an alum of the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, he was inspired to produce his own projects after seeing a lack of authenticity on screens worldwide. Since then, this award-winning actor/producer came up with the idea to create his own venture — Paris Films — where he has created numerous films, television shows, commercials and documentaries designed to leave a lasting impression in the minds of the audience.
Andre, Chief Creative Officer and Head of Development at Paris Films, earned his bachelor’s degree in Screen Arts and Cultures and his master’s in Information Science from the University of Michigan. Since partnering with Paris to start Paris Films, he has helped execute multi-million-dollar development deals with major production companies, such as Universal Television, Astute Films and TubiTV, which led to the creation of award-winning films. He has also cultivated relationships with leading talent agencies, distributors, crew, and investors, which broadened Paris Films’ reach within the film industry.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?
Paris: Growing up, I loved watching movies. That was my number one thing. My mother was in performing arts; she had her own dance troupe. She put me in one of her showcases when I was 11. Then, she bought me a camera when I was 14 years old, and we started shooting mini-films. I loved it and decided to go to school for acting. The entertainment industry is in my blood.
Andre: I grew up wanting to go to the NBA — but when I realized I wasn’t going to be over six feet tall, I knew I needed to do something else. I was a pretty dedicated and hardworking person, and I turned my obsession with basketball into an obsession with writing. I was 13 and decided to start writing my first feature film. I wanted to win best original screenplay. I watched the Oscars every year, and I watched all the movies nominated for an Oscar every year. I wrote a handful of screenplays before I graduated high school. I went to the Motion Picture Institute (MPI), where I met Paris, and went on to the University of Michigan. Throughout college, it was always film for me.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Paris: When I started out as an actor, there really weren’t a lot of opportunities here in Michigan. So, I was kind of forced to be a producer and create my own opportunities. I was looking to partner with a writer/director, and that’s when I came into contact with Andre by auditioning for one of his film projects while he was a student. That’s how we met.
Andre: I was 18 at the time, and Paris was surprised that a person my age was writing such a mature movie. I was at MPI, making a film called “Foggy Relations,” and then Paris and I redid it once I graduated as our first production under the Paris Films banner. It ended up winning three Michigan Film Awards at The Uptown Film Festival for best short, best actress in a short, and best director in a short.
Can you share the most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
Andre: We were in development hell. That’s an industry term for having a project with a big company, and it’s forever in development. You’re writing it and working on it with them, and it never actually comes out. For us, we were sick of waiting on other people. So instead of trying to shoot a $3 million project, we decided to try and shoot a $200,000 movie concept and find investors willing to invest in us. We’ve been doing budgets under $1M for the last few movies, like “The Housekeeper” with Denise Richards. But then one of the investors came on and said, “I love this model so much. I’m just going to invest in you guys to make a slate of movies so you don’t have to go out looking for money anymore.” We got wrapped into a private equity firm because of that deal. We were elated!
Paris: It’s life-changing! It takes us to a whole different level. We knew we had ideas that could sell, but we needed the financing to make it happen. Sure, at the end of the day, we still have to pitch our stuff just like any other company. But now we’ve got everything we need, so it’s just off to the races.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Andre: At the Sundance Film Festival, we’ve gone to several parties. And, typically, the better the party, the bigger the opportunity to meet powerful people in the room. That led to some of our biggest film deals. Our first time at Sundance we had to sneak into a lot of these parties because we were unknown outsiders. We ended up meeting huge agents and producers and managers. We’ve also met actors Issa Rae and Jeffrey Wright, singer John Legend, and so many others. Not only are we dancing with celebrities and mingling, but we also ended up securing a development deal on a $3 million movie after meeting someone at one of these parties who asked what we were working on and wanted to invest in us.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Paris: This guy next to me [points to Andre]. We help each other. If there’s a concept I have for a film, I want this guy to write it. He has a brilliant mind, and I know he will be able to take it to the next level.
Andre: Same here. For example, with “Foggy Relations,” I shot it at school on a 60D camera. Paris came in and produced it with an elevated budget on a Red camera — one of the most powerful cinema cameras on the market. I was 18; I didn’t have any money to produce my own thing. But Paris believed in me and gave me an opportunity and produced it for me. That’s been fantastic.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Andre: “You better live now before the grim reaper comes knocking on your door” from the song “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince. We say that all the time. Paris was diagnosed with cancer in 2019 — and the grim reaper literally came knocking at his door and started wrestling with him . We actually have a documentary, “Strong,” premiering soon on streaming services about it.
Paris: It’s a short doc, 31 minutes, about living with multiple myeloma — a rare type of blood cancer that affects the bone marrow. And, ever since I was diagnosed, I’ve lived by that Prince quote. We’re only here once after all.
Andre: And that drives our sense of urgency, and it’s been a big catalyst to our success. That’s why we’re working every day to move towards our goals, and it shows in the films we make and the projects we do.
I am very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
Paris: 1. I would say people want to see themselves. We try to make good movies by putting real people in it and making it as diverse as possible. That’s our main thing.
Andre: 2. It’s important to have a fair depiction of a culture, obviously. People often have a silo mindset. You know, we go back in the day and see films where all Black people or all Asian people are represented in a certain way or the Simpsons where everyone is yellow except for the people of color. Variation in films can help bring harmony and understanding into our culture.
3. It’s also just a smart business move. America is a melting pot. It’s a tremendously diverse place, and if you’re not telling those stories, you’re missing out on an audience. We’ve found a gold mine with telling stories that certain audiences feel they can relate to. And it’s not just like ethnic diversity. It’s different religions. It’s setting films in Middle America. We tell these stories that blue collar Midwesterners can relate to. We know the kind of tonality they like, the texture, and the realism that relates to them.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Paris: The movie “Mail Lady” just came out the last week of November. It’s about a family man whose life is put in jeopardy when the new mail lady becomes dangerously obsessed with him. And people can watch that on Tubi. We have another one tentatively coming out in March on Lifetime called “The Past Comes Knocking,” and we just finished the final edits of a film called “Dark Deceptions,” which we’re hoping to sell.
Andre: Then we’re shooting a movie in Yosemite National Park called “Breaking Free” at the end of the month. It’s about a lady who is a researcher working for a pharmaceutical company, and they’re creating a vaccine. She finds out that her fiancé, the CEO of the company, is actually building a bioweapon in secret. So, she steals the vials for this vaccine and goes on the run in search of a whistleblower out in the wilderness. That’s the heart of the story, but it really turns into a story about how to survive off the grid.
We have another film, “Scorned,” that we’re going to shoot in April about four women harboring a personal vendetta against a wealthy art dealer who orchestrates a daring heist to steal a coveted painting. With a buyer line up and 4.5 million dollars on the line, they have just five hours to complete the sale. And that one’s being shot in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
And in May or June, we’re shooting a film with the working title “Family Ties” about two estranged brothers — a struggling postdoc and a rising organized crime leader — who must come together to solve the mystery of their sister’s sudden murder. The brothers find out that what seems to be gang related is, in fact, the work of a sophisticated serial killer targeting crime riddled areas to hide their murders.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
Paris: 1. That it definitely wasn’t going to be easy. You can go to hundreds of pitch meetings, and keep getting told at each one, “No, it’s not going to work,” before getting that one yes.
2. Also, how hard it is to secure funding for a project. It could literally take you 10 years for one project. Like “Dallas Buyers Club” — it took 20 years for them to get that movie made.
Andre: 3. If you’re not willing to go at it for a decade, then you shouldn’t even get started. Like Paris said, it can take a long time. You really need a breakthrough thing to happen, and without that, you can be waiting for quite a while. You need to be ready and willing to wait.
4. I wish somebody told me to do a low-budget feature sooner. Try to make a feature for under $500,000 and just go for it. I think a lot of people rejected that model for a long time. I know we did; we thought we were too good for it. We thought we needed at least $2 million, which is still an extremely low budget film. Now in hindsight, there’s so much you can do on a budget if you know what you’re doing and if you can tell a condensed story .
5. Listen to your mother. My mom was telling me we should submit our movie to a film festival in Detroit for Channel 4. But we were out there, entering our movie in the HBO Film Festival in New York, so I didn’t plan on entering some local festival. But, right at the deadline with barely minutes to go, I decided to enter the movie in Detroit. And we ended up winning the Detroit film challenge. And because of that, the grand prize winner got to go to Sundance for free. They paid for everything. That was the first time we went to Sundance and that led to that deal I was talking about. And just think, I almost didn’t listen to her. If I hadn’t, who knows if all of this would have happened for us.
When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?
Paris: I would say our vision. We have in mind what the audience may want to see, and how we can impact them.
Andre: Yeah, I would say it’s a combination of us and the audience. The financiers, far less so. And the critics — not at all. I would say if you’re really good at filmmaking, you should be able to make something that is both satisfying to yourself and to your audience and has the opportunity to put butts in seats. We know these esoteric filmmakers who are snobby about their art and don’t want to concede at all to the audience. And I think they’re missing the opportunity to create something that makes the audience feel something. For me, I’m thinking about the audience all the time.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Andre: Apparently the number one trend on Spotify for Gen Z is sad music. There’s pessimism about climate change and about the corruption in the world. There’s all this negativity about just being alive. But just think about A) the chances of being alive at all and B) the chances of being alive as a human being. What if your grandparents had never met? You wouldn’t be here. Yet here you are. You have the ability to move, try new things, see beauty, love,
and appreciate the things around you. So, I think I would start a movement for people to start recognizing humans as the phenomenon they are and as truly unique and remarkable beings. I think people take that for granted. I mean, I love cats, I love dogs, I love parakeets, I love beetles. But to be a human, we can go to the moon and back. We can change the world. So, I think the future should be one of optimism versus feeling pessimism and depression about it. I want to spread that enthusiasm and positivity about life. It’s going to be a long future, and we can make it better if we start working towards it now.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Andre: I’m thinking about Byron Allen. He owns a bunch of TV stations, like the Weather Channel. He owns hundreds of them and has this big conglomerate.
Paris: For me, I’d say Elon Musk. I’d pick him because of what he’s trying to do with SpaceX and with the electric vehicle. He thinks out of this world.
Andre: Yeah, a lunch with them could lead to funding!
How can our readers further follow you online?
At www.paris-films.com, on Instagram at paris_films and at Paris Films on Facebook.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.
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