Jordan Crafton wanted it, so he got it.
The award-winning filmmaker and founder of JDC Films has worked with Nickelodeon, Nick Cannon, “Wild N’ Out” and MTV. In a recent interview with rolling out, he discussed his latest project and gave an in-depth look at how he got to where he is today.
You just came from the Tribeca Film Festival. How was that?
A dream come true. As a filmmaker, as an artist, you want to be around the best, and that was my opportunity to be around the best. It just was so much fun. I soaked it up, and told myself, “Listen, while you’re here, you have to take this moment in because you never know how long it’s going to take you to get back here.”
Which one of your projects made it to Tribeca?
It’s called “Brooklyn Santa.” It’s actually a fiction podcast, this is something I started during quarantine. … I couldn’t go anywhere. I said, “Man, I would really love to tell stories in an audio format,” and it really reminded me of how my father was. My father’s 88 years old, and he used to tell me about how him and his family used to listen to Batman on the radio when it was time for supper, and so I just was locked in the house, and I just started writing. I was like, “Hey, you know what? I’m going to tell a story on audio only.” Then, I also had this musical background, so a lot of my friends and I made some original music. We were cooped in the studio, and we just started creating. It’s this quirky story like I said, called “Brooklyn Santa” about three kids in the projects looking for Santa to get a gift for a girl so that one of them could go on a date with her for Christmas.
What was it like working with a mogul like Nick Cannon?
Listen, man. I’ll be very clear to you. I was a Red Lobster man. I came out of college, I was a Red Lobster manager for four years, I had all these dreams. This is a very long story, but I’ll make it short in terms of I saw Nick on TV one day, and I literally was like, “Ma, I feel like I could work with him.” And I just hunted him down, hunted him down. It took about a year to finally get to him. I had to go through a ridiculous amount of channels to finally get face-to-face with him, and from that first day to every day, this man has invested in me, whether it was advice, knowledge, time or opportunities. I think it’s the responsibility of the Black man and the Black woman where we actually reach back and we present information, knowledge and opportunities. That’s why even I’ve had mentees throughout the years, because I just wanted to continue it.
