Jessica and Justin Crum: Proving That Creative Careers Are Possible (But Difficult)

About this Episode

Jessica and Justin Crum decided to move to Conway in 2014, where Justin began working for PBS creating documentaries. He created educational documentaries, included one that aired nationally. But with little room to grow, he decided to take a step back into the scripts he’d written previously. “My roots are very much in narrative filmmaking,” Justin shared. “And I did grow to love documentaries there, I didn’t want to only do documentaries, and there’s no way to branch out from that there with PBS, really, unless you’re Downton Abbey. I just felt it was the right time to move into other scripts I had written before and start producing those. PBS was a bit of a training ground for me in a lot of ways and built my confidence up. I left there with the intention of making the film I’m making now, which is Papaw Land. I’ve been working on that for a year and a half. And it’ll probably be another year or so. It’s a long process.”

And Jessica tried to continue her career as a fashion designer. She was freelancing for her contacts in LA and started saying yes to other projects. “When people locally would say, ‘What do you do?’ I would say I’m a designer,” Jessica explained. “I would tell them textile design, fabric design, graphic t-shirts, and they’d go, ‘Oh! Could you make my logo?’ I was like, ‘Probably.’ I’m a yes person, so I was like, ‘Yes, of course I can,’ and then secretly I was like, ‘I’ll figure it out.’”

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Find more of Jessica's work:
Silverlake Studio Website - https://silverlakestudio.com
Silverlake Studio Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/teamsilverlake/
Silverlake Studio Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/teamsilverlake
The Studio Downtown Website - https://www.thestudiodowntown.com/
The Studio Downtown Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thestudiodowntown/
The Studio Downtown Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thestudiodowntown

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Find more of Justin's work:
Papaw Land Movie Website - https://papawlandmovie.com/
Papaw Land Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/papawlandmovie/
Papaw Land Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/papawlandmovie
Papaw Land Twitter - https://twitter.com/papawlandmovie
Papaw Land Land Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1546893063/papaw-land-movie-filming-in-arkansas-summer-2018

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Sustaining Craft is a project of Hew&Weld Writing. There are no fees for artists and craftspeople to participate. Each episode is only possible with the help of friends: Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance on iTunes and Spotify & Nomad Neighbors in the Denver area most weekends) and Joshua Kurtz.

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