As this will be my first real post under this persona I thought it would be best to just give you a little history ( I have another blog which is way too ranty and sweary for this forum). This then is the who, what, where and why of Jayce. And I guess that would be a good place to start, the name. You may notice that the blog is under the non de plume Jeremy Briers and I keep calling myself Jayce? Well the reason for that is both long and short. Short version is that during my time in the military forced on me by an oppressive government I was known as The Outlaw J.C. No Nails Briers. As people got bored calling me by that name it was shortened to JC and when that became too much it slid into Jayce. Short enough?

I won’t bore you with the full story just yet. You don’t know me that well and it really is a long story filled with disaster, violence and bloodshed. I kid you not, I still have the scars.

But that is not why we are here. We are here for the work. The 30 years of building my career into what it is today, the ups the downs and the shortcuts.

Life in this industry for me began as a sound engineer for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) where I engineered radio shows, recorded live events and recorded and mixed music for small up and coming bands.  I soon grew tired of the bureaucracy and fled into the arms of a very small company producing Slide/Tape programmes for corporate clients. At first I was the audio engineer, recording voice overs and mixing the soundtracks to the AVs. I soon learned to use the programming computer and also then moved to staging guy doing live sound, lighting and playback. As the age of Slide/Tape died and was replaced by affordable video technology, my skill set grew. Learning to shoot in studio, then editing what I had shot and also mixing the final programme. Using non linear tape to tape systems until I eventually moved from there to run a post production facility which included shooting, mixing, editing and staging of all events.

My next hurdle was directing and I was given the opportunity in 1992, creating TV inserts for magazine programmes and eventually being in charge of several magazine shows in a few years.

The feature film and TV Series side of the business always was the holy grail for me and in 1993 I got the chance to cut a feature film for a French company shooting in South Africa. From there it spiraled into a TV series as head editor, based mainly on my involvement with the script process. And that’s where it all began. I became the first video editor to cut a TV series in South Africa on a non-linear edit suite. I shall regale you with stories of that event in a later post.  I moved back to Corporate TV for a little while but added Documentary Film Making to my bow. It wasn’t too long after that, that I moved almost exclusively into making Concert DVD’s for local and international bands. Touring Europe and South Africa for a good number of years before, in 2010 I moved back into the TV Drama field.

In the last 3 and a half years I have edited over a hundred TV shows including Visual Effects, Sound Design and Post Production Supervision. International TV Shows for MTV, The Africa Channel and DSTV as well as the SABC all fell under my rather numb fingers.

I have numerous awards for my work in sound design, editing, camerawork and production. Programmes I have made have won international awards for excellence and I’m fortunate to still do that today.

I am currently working on a Telenovella for Mzansi Magic broadcast to the whole of Africa(Editor, Sound Designer), a series for Africa Magic Channel (Editor, Final Mix, Colourist) and a Doccie Series on Mandela for the SABC (Final Mix, Colourist).

I have worked on everything from Music Videos, to Training Films to Sales and Marketing Videos. Launch Videos, DVD Concerts Movies, Documentaries, TV Magazine Inserts, Corporate Identity, Feature Films, TV Series and more. I have been lucky to work with some amazing people and musicians as well, David Millen ASC, Cameron Mitchell, Shawn Phillips, Marillion, Jon Bon Jovi, Sargeant and Eunice Shriver from The Special Olympics. For the past 20 years or so I have had the pleasure of working with my very best friend, Writer, Producer, Director  Mr Paul S. Rowlston.  We spent many years side by side, in the edit suite, on the tour bus and hotel rooms around the world, on set, on stage, on each others nerves but always there for each other. And many a reason as to why I am where I am today.

This business is ‘the business’ and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Hopefully a little bit of the passion I still feel for this world will rub off. I’m 49 in a few weeks and I still love this job. It’s like a new job everyday. Of course it helps to have the diversity of my skill set but that isn’t the only thing.

I hope to add more ramblings soon and maybe a few quick insights into my work flow process. If you think that might interest you, stick around.

Muchness.

JAYCE