Meet Terance Mcleod of Film Jocks in Mcdonough

Today we’d like to introduce you to Terance Mcleod.

Terance, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was raised in Broward County Florida where you were either a football player or found yourself involved in some sort of illegal activities. I was fortunate enough to have a mother (Diane Mcleod) that was as strong a woman as you could ever imagine. My mom and my dad divorced when I was young but that ended benefiting me in a weird sorta way. It allowed me to have two fathers that were opposites. Which in the grand scheme of things made life a lot easier. I took was able to take advice from both sides and kinda weight my options.

My uncle John, along with my mom, stayed on me throughout my school years. I grew up a pretty good student, although my mouth always got me in trouble. I noticed at an early age that whenever I told any sort of story, I’d always have everyone’s attention. So with that being said, whether I was in class or not I’d always tell stories. I managed to get a few scholarships for football and played in college for a while. When I came home from school, I went into the workforce with a head of steam. The storytelling never stopped. While at work one day at a retail job a guy by the name of Shane Delange and I were discussing hobbies. I told Shane that I wrote little funny skits and short stories and he asked me to send some of them his way. See coming from where I come from it just wasn’t cool to be a 6-foot 350-pound black guy that writes short stories. Shane just kept taking them and telling me to keep writing, He never judged me and I was comfortable sending them to him. One day he called me and said “You write very visual. I can see the stories play out while reading them. You should think about writing screenplays”. A few weeks and 4 or 5 YouTube videos later, I knew I’d found my passion.

Once we moved to Atlanta, I gave a few scripts to some folks and got a feel for the industry on the indie level. After a lot of hiccups on a project of my own, we decided to shift our strategy and focus only on short films. Now, this comes along with a crazy schedule. I work full-time as a commercial building inspector, I attend GSU for college, drive Lyft to fund productions on my free time, and still have to find time to write, film, and oh, by the way, spend time with the family. My motto is that there are 24 hours in the day. Even if you spend 8 hours working and 8 hours to sleep you still have 8 hours to work on your dream. Lazy people say “I don’t have time”, successful people say “How do I find the time”.

Family is a huge factor whenever you’re trying to pursue success. I’m truly blessed to have a wife (Paula Mcleod) that pushes me to be the best I can be at whatever that is. The late nights and sometimes not even seeing each other for days at a time is tough, but she always understands that it’s for a bigger purpose. My daughter (Taylor Mcleod) is never more than five steps away and wants to be a Director as well.

I’ve met too many good people in Atlanta to even name. One person, in particular, is my DP Nick Solorzano. This guy is awesome. The knowledge he has and the way that he performs his craft onset is the definition of art. He sees things differently and has a mindset that just seems to always mesh with my visions. All of those things along with the experience that he brings is something that you couldn’t put a price tag on. My former DP Kieth Smiley, and my AD Joseph Coleman both now work on the creative side as we’ve all been through the mud together.

My goals is to be a one-stop-shop to networks, where we can create content as well as deliver it without supervision being needed.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s definitely been a tough road thus far. From the beginning, it was tough to even get started, Hell I literally only had one person that would even read my stories/scripts. Honestly, that shaped my never give up mindset. After I grew tired of begging folks to pay attention to my writing, I said I’d never look for anyone’s approval to do anything again. If they didn’t pay attention, I was gonna make them pay attention. The first company I dealt with in Atlanta sold 2 of my scripts behind my back. They knew I was “Green” to the industry and didn’t know any better. That made me go on my own and say “I’ll never allow anyone to ever have my life in their hands”.

Financing projects is a very tough thing. Fortunately, I have a really good job and support system but even still, I find myself driving rideshare gearing up for productions to make things work financially. Because of that, I get about 3/4 hours of sleep during the week sometimes. But if it were easy everyone would do it. Lots of people have good content, but not everyone has the drive and determination to keep going no matter what. Keep putting one foot in front of the other regardless of the road ahead.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Film Jocks – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Film Jocks is the name of my company. We’re a new all in one film production company. What separates us from other Indie companies is that we are able to offer a full service to the industry. We create, write, direct, film, etc. The thing that I’m most proud of is the progression that my team has made in just 16 months’ time. I’ve assembled a great group of folks and wouldn’t wanna work with anyone else.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My future plans are that I’d like to be able to be a one-stop-shop to the networks. Have them fund projects that we develop and gift wrap them back to them. That one shot comes the most unexpected time and we’ll be ready.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 9545941657
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/filmjocks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/filmjocks/
• Other: instagram.com/terancemcleod

Image Credit:
Kyle Kemp, Keith Smiley, Nick Solorzano

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