Jamee Natella Interview

Thanks to Francine Silverman for the following interview with Jamee Natella. Francine is the editor of Book Promotion Newsletter, an on-line publicist, a compiler of 16 ebooks about talk radio shows, and host of a weekly radio show titled "Fraternizing with Fran" – where interesting people come to chat. Find out more about Francine at http://www.talkradioadvocate.com and http://talkradioadvocate.blogpot.com.

Jamee Natella is founder and executive producer of Blueyed Pictures, an award-winning commercial and corporate media production company, founded in Tokyo in 1998 with offices in London and Los Angeles. Blueyed offers commercial content production of TV commercials, corporate videos, production of live events and feature films to advertising agencies and corporations worldwide. Clients include Toyota, Sony, Under Armour, HP, Dove and P&G.

FRANCINE: How did you get the idea for Blueyed?

JAMEE: I was living in Japan and I felt there was a need to help cater to foreign crews who wanted to pursue commercial production In Japan. In the 90’s the Japanese market didn’t have many bilingual crews in Tokyo to help foreigners in Japan.  So the timing was right to create a Bilingual service production company in Japan.  Blueyed pictures was founded in 1988 and since its inception has produced commercials for Virgin Enterprises, NTT DoCoMo, Mitsubishi, Pioneer and Toyota to name a few.

FRANCINE: For 9 years, you partnered with BBDO- west to produce commercials for national brands, both domestically and abroad. You once said that this partnership put Blueyed on the map. Could you expand on ways this advertising agency benefited your company?

JAMEE:  I was fortunate enough to form a partnership with BBDO when I was just moving back to the United States after living abroad for 11 years. So by Blueyed aligning itself with an Omnicom company I was able to develop strong connections with their clients. It was a hugely beneficial relationship that would not only give us work but also save BBDO- west money by acting as an in house production company for the ad agency. Although we didn’t produce all their commercials in the pacific region we were involved with a great deal of them. So yes, that helped build the Blueyed brand and ultimately put us on the map.

FRANCINE: As to feature films, your biggest success thus far was for “Beyond” with Jon Voight, Terri Polo and Dermot Mulroney. When I first wrote you about an interview, you responded that you were at the Sundance Film Festival.  I know that you plan to produce one or two independent films per year, which ideally would premiere at Sundance, Toronto or another international festival. Were you premiering a feature film? Are you at liberty to discuss it?  

JAMEE: Our long form projects are still in development. But, who is to say next year we won’t surprise you. Blueyed is launching a feature film division this year so we as a team are always looking to further develop our acquisition and development relationships

FRANCINE: I know that your immediate goal is to expand your roster to include upcoming film directors. What is your long-term goal?

JAMEE: Ideally, we want to expand upon our existing success as a soup-to-nuts integrated content production company.  Both Co-Executive Producer Lorraine Schreyer and myself are ramping up to accommodate the growth we see in the marketplace for diversified directorial talent. By incorporating talented feature film directors into our portfolio we will expand our presence and scope of work in that arena.  Blueyed currently is in talks of signing a first look deal with a major film studio and we’re excited about a slew of  projects  that have great potential. Keep your eye on Blueyed pictures and visit our website at www.blueyedpictures.com OR follow Blueyed  on Instagram and Twitter.