* Click on images for pop-ups Darren
Jones was born from the great state of Texas. His family later
moved to Oklahoma where he graduated from the Univ. of Tulsa with
a degree in communications. There he got his first taste of Hollywood
when he interned on Francis Coppola’s “The Outsiders” and “Rumble
Fish”. Darren worked for oil and computer companies in Tulsa for
a few years producing industrial videos and photography. He finally
made the big move to Los Angeles where he continued his production
work in a studio at United Artist cable. There he worked practically
every production position and on numerous freelance gigs for NBC,
WTBS, WWF, ABC and ESPN. He was production coordinator for the
pilot of Totally Hidden Video for Fox. Finally he put all the
pieces together when he produced and directed an anti smoking
video for Barlow Respiratory Hospital of Los Angeles.
Darren
then went to work for a then small cable company E! Entertainment.
After a few years in a technical position there he moved to E!
Online where he has been for five years producing multimedia content.
Darren’s first foray into the multimedia area was with Macromedia’s
Director. His knowledge with Director was put to good use at E!
Online when he assigned to be the technical coordinator of online
games along with his other multimedia duties. What he enjoyed
about game production was that it was always a game with twist,
such as “Sink the Titanic” or “Live and Let Dice” Along the way
another program called Smart Sketch caught his eye. This program
evolved into an animation program that became Flash which is his
favorite tool to work with. Using his television background he
went on to direct most of E! Online’s live web events over the
last five years. This has included premieres, junkets, and several
Film School series that brought in top directors of their respectful
genres.
As
he continued work the fast changing field of the internet he pursued
other educational opportunities in the Los Angeles area. He studied
animation the Animation Institute in North Hollywood and took
several courses in multimedia/animation at other schools in the
Los Angeles area. Later he assisted in teaching a course at Santa
Monica School of Multimedia and then got a position of teaching
Flash at the Webisode Academy. He never strays too far from the
freelance world. Darren produced a promotional cd using Director
for MD Synergy of Beverly Hills, a medical services company. He
works on a cultishly popular yearly project, Tim Sweeny’s Christmas
Card. It’s a silly Christmas card that Tim and Darren try to turn
into an epic production each year when they don’t really have
that much time to spare.
As television, the internet, and other media delivery systems
evolved Darren moved into new areas of production at E! He has
a weekly studio shoot at E! that features gossip columnists that
is presented in the multimedia gallery of E! Online. It is a blue
screen production that is posted with Adobe After Effects. With
the arrival of the Hollywood and Highland entertainment complex
in Hollywood, Darren has been testing out the new video content
for E! on the video ticker screen that runs 24 hours a day. He
has produced DVD demo reels of E!’s programming that is used in
overseas television markets. Darren has been working on a personal
project “Drawing a Conclusion” A video-to-animaiton-look short.
Darren's
thoughts on production:
It’s a wonderful playground, much better than the one I got to
play on as a kid. If you told me when I was young that I would
one day work in television, I would have fainted. On top of that
I have been to able to take classes taught by Disney animators,
director classes taught by an Oscar winning director, work in
movies and television, intern with another Oscar winner, start
out in a new medium, the internet, and now dabble in animation.
Wow. I have meet great people who are fun, brilliant, at times
crazy, but always interesting. Because I did so many freelance
gigs over the years I’ve worked on everything from faith healing
to dog shows, sports to variety, soaps to drama, comedy to oil
rigs. After moving to a corporate environment at E! I learned
that if you want to your skills to grow, create work for yourself.
I wanted to learn 3D animation so I pitched a game that required
3D elements. I wanted to learn After Effects, so I got a green
light on a blue screen production that is posted in After Effects.
Keep striving and learning because it will add up over time. You
will get better at what you do and have fun at the same time.
That’s what I want in life, to get paid to have fun.
