Jonathan Shahan
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Cinematographer
- Director
Jonathan Shahan is a filmmaker from Oklahoma. He began making home movies with friends in middle school and went on to be part of his High School video news team. Around this time he also began to learn 35mm photography and Photoshop. After HS Jonathan attended South Western Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) as a theater major, learning the craft of lighting and set construction. Following a transfer to the film department at Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) he began making countless short films, crewing on local productions and watching the department grow from a tiny closet with one camera, to a 6,000 sq foot sound stage with millions of dollars of equipment. During this time he gained valued experience as production assistant on commercials and films.
In 2010, a year into his studies at OCCC he was hired as the Marketing Communications Specialist for Allegiance Credit Union. Here, his duties including writing, shooting, directing, and editing all commercials and promotional videos, as well as being the company's in house photographer and graphic designer.
In 2011 Jonathan took up a position in the film department back at OCCC. First as a lab technician and then as a Cinematographer and Editor. While in this post he was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the President of OCCC for his contribution as a Cameraman and Cinematographer for the Emmy nominated documentaries The Dogs of Lexington and Bassett Tales.
In 2015, Jonathan (along with Cait Brasel) co-directed the documentary Live Cinema Workshop, working closely with Oscar winning director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) during the creative process of his live cinema film Distant Vision. Afterwards Jonathan started his own production company and has directed hundreds of short films, music videos, documentaries, non profits and commercials while also serving as a Cameraman, Cinematographer and Editor on countless other productions big and small.
His five 48 Hour Film projects were nominated for over 25 awards total and his most recent short film InterScape (2019 ) won Best Actress at the Bare Bones Film Festival and was part of the anthology film Mono part Deux, which went on to raise over $800 for the charity organization End the Backlog.
In 2020, after working for over 10 years in the film industry, Jonathan made is feature film directorial debut with the horror comedy "Wait!" set to be released in 2022. In the meantime Jonathan spends most of his days now working on movie sets as either Cinematographer or Digital Imaging Technician.