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The Daily Motivation

From Toy Stories to Blockbusters: Jon Chu's Journey into Filmmaking | Jon Chu EP 605

The Daily Motivation

Lewis Howes

Education, Self-improvement

4.8893 Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jon Chu credits getting a camera as a bored kid on family vacations for sparking his passion for filmmaking, recounting how he made mini movies with his siblings and honed storytelling with his abundant toy collection. He discusses the unexpected benefits of growing up immersed in the pre-Silicon Valley engineer culture, gaining early access to creative tech tools through his parents' restaurant connections. Chu conveys his love of telling fairy tale stories grounded in reality, like revealing the genuine talent and journey behind Justin Bieber's pop image in Never Say Never. Though initially just hired to direct a Bieber concert film, Chu pushed to create an inspirational, musical documentary chronicling the emerging artist's rapid rise to fame.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi my name is Louis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:07.0

Do you think that you'd be where you're at now if you didn't have that opportunity with Spielberg then?

0:15.0

It definitely was the catalyst to get me into the studio world.

0:20.0

I don't doubt that I wouldn't be making movies.

0:23.6

Maybe it wouldn't be movie movies.

0:25.3

Maybe it would be TV shows,

0:26.8

maybe it would be wedding videos,

0:28.2

maybe whatever, but in my,

0:30.3

since I was in third grade, I've always made movies on my own and that I know for a fact whether getting paid for it or not I would always do that and I will always do that in the future

0:40.4

Yeah, my movies may all bomb and I may never get another movie in

0:43.2

Hollywood ever again but I know I'll still be making stuff right. That's just in my

0:47.4

nature and yeah. And what I think I read online that you grew up in San Francisco area right?

0:53.1

Yeah, Palo Alto.

0:54.4

And your parents would give you the camera

0:56.6

to like film going on vacation or whatever,

0:59.0

but you decided to like make movies instead of filming

1:01.6

like the moments that you're supposed to film, right?

1:04.0

Yes, I mean, when you give a kid a camera,

1:06.0

what he's supposed to do?

1:07.0

I'm just bored on these vacations.

1:08.0

They were so great.

1:10.0

They came from China, the mall came from Taiwan,

...

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