Never boring, never comfortable: Taunton filmmaker explores his own grief in 'The Painter"

TAUNTON — Taunton artist and filmmaker Jimmy Martin sees short films as both a standalone display of art and a path to something greater.

“Doing shorts is a great way to learn and have a quick turnaround. It’s also proof of concept for bigger ideas,” Martin said.

Martin “grew up with a love of all arts,” including painting and illustration, which we still does, he said.

“In high school, I discovered the craft of filmmaking as an amalgamation of all those things,” Martin said.

A Boston University graduate with a bachelor’s in film and television, Martin, 27, who’s lived in Taunton since 2020, has hustled to find any opportunity he could get to work in the filmmaking industry and make connections for bigger projects.

“You never know what’s next. It never gets boring, but it’s also never quite comfortable,” joked Martin about the feast-or-famine nature of filmmaking.

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Hungry and building a resumé

According to his resumé and IMDB page, he’s worked freelance as a camera operator for numerous fellow local/regional filmmakers’ productions.

He’s also gotten his foot in the door with Hollywood-level productions, including production assistant work on "Hocus Pocus 2", a season of the HBO series "The Gilded Age," "Confess Fletch," the sequel to Fletch, and a few episodes of the AMC series "Kevin Can F**k Himself."

A big opportunity he said was working on set for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" in 2021 when they filmed in the Cambridge and Worcester areas, working as a production assistant specifically regarding COVID protocols. “That was my ‘in’ for getting onto big sets,” he said.

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Putting his stamp on film

Martin’s main focus is short films. He has been honing his craft as a writer, director and producer through short films for the last six years.

His shorts have been varied across the genre spectrum, ranging from horror and science fiction to dark comedy.

One film, "The Harrow", is a found footage-style horror movie about a hiker lost in the woods who gets stalked and chased by beings wearing bird masks.

Another work, "It Came from Above," deals with an extraterrestrial robot landing in a woods and a nearby cabin owner trying to communicate with it.

Another work, "Mr. Winslow’s Bell," is called “a Victorian dark comedy” in the vein of Monty Python by Martin. The premise, inspired by the coffin bell system and the fear of being buried alive during the Victorian era, has two friends of a recently deceased man sit at his grave and place a bet over whether he’s actually dead. A bell is placed at the grave with a string running to inside the coffin, theorizing that if the person is still alive, he would ring the bell.

Most personal work

His latest short film, "The Painter," delves into serious drama and deals with themes of grief and trauma associated with the death of a loved one.

Said Martin in a news release, the film “follows the emotional journey of an aging artist confronting his past trauma as he paints the beach house he grew up in. It's an exploration of how artistic expression helps people heal.”

The film gave Martin the opportunity to display some of his paintings, which is also an additional source of income for him as he does commission work on the side. Some fundraising for the budget was done with the selling of his works.

“It felt fitting and authentic as a means to raise money,” he said.

Martin said its his most personal film and is inspired by his own experiences dealing with the loss of his father.

“Working through the ensuing grief and depression took a very long time. I didn’t write for about two years after his passing and lost most motivation to advance my career,” Martin said.

Maturing as a filmmaker

"The Painter" has no dialogue, with the film focusing on the visual elements for communication.

“This is a person confronting his own past. There’s so much happening internally, to me, it made more sense to be told visually,” Martin said.

Martin said he believes this is the best film he’s made, one he couldn’t have made first in his independent career, “or at least couldn’t have made it the way it deserved to be made. It required a lot of maturing as an artist.”

What next?

"The Painter," currently in the final stages of post-production, filmed last year in November in Biddeford, Maine over three days, with a cast and crew of 20. It’s about 12 ½ minutes long.

By the end of post-production, the budget for the film will have reached $5,000, said Martin.

Martin has started submitting to independent film festivals across the country, an outlet he’s presented his films at for years.

“At this point in time, I want to get this project in front of as many people as possible,” as well as continue to get his name out there through other work, he said.

He believes "The Painter" could have a wider audience than some of his other works, which were more genre-specific and usually stayed within niche markets, science fiction and horror festivals.

Martin said his long-term goal is to make full-length films, both from the scripts of others and himself.

“I have written scripts that have been sitting on my shelf for years,” he said.

He said most of his short films can be expanded into full-lengths, because, as he said, they can be viewed as “proof of concepts.”

You can view Jimmy Martin's work on his portfolio website.

This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Taunton filmmaker explores his grief in latest short 'The Painter'