Biography | jsbeswick.com

I started out in the studios of Hollywood repairing lights and taking little side gigs as a grip and gaffer. I learned a lot while I was AC’ing and gripping for other DPs as I was learning my craft on the fly. I was very lucky and managed to grab a few high profile DP jobs, kind of unusual for non film school DP. Shot some commercials for Wendy’s hamburgers,Kentucky Fried Chicken, Gallo Wines, Acura, Toyota, Mail Boxes Etc. to name a few. I loved what I was doing but I found the Hollywood personalities and lifestyle not for me.

I wandered for a few years as you do in your 20’s, had a job on the radio in Gilroy, California for short time. Had a photography business shooting Zed cards and models for a short while and few other industry gigs along the way. Moving to Orange County, California in the early 80’s I found work at a Satellite uplink facility the precursor to HBO/Showtime where I learned to edit video, while producing movie promos and I got a crash course in video engineering.

In 1984 my life would change when I got an offer to go on tour with Tina Turner. A super opportunity covering 16 months of world travel. While touring In the those early days of concert projection, I was involved with designing and developing with Nocturne Productions, the first flight pack video systems that are now widely used throughout the world. Ground breaking stuff in those days. The next decade took me around the world several times with Michael Jackson, Guns & Roses, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson,The Police and many other world class performers. After 8 busy years of concert touring I wanted to get back to my Director of photography roots and get behind the camera again. I set up shop in Orange County California purchasing a Betacam, a lighting truck and ultimately a full digital edit bay. We had a great commercial and corporate list of clients. A short time later I partnered with a couple of guys and formed World Media Television a direct marketing company specializing in Infomercials. In 1992 infomercials were just starting to take off, it was a gold rush of business and we quickly had 24 employees, media buying and product development going full swing. We had great success developing products and marketing them via Infomercials, producing two of the highest grossing infomercials at that time, Murad skin care and The Stimulator, a natural pain relief product. I produced around 30 infomercials during this period. After 4 years of amazing business the other partners decided to move on to other ventures and we parted ways. Following the end of WMTV in 1995 I started an alternative health care company (homeopathic products) and developed some new and innovative products. That ran its course for about 2 years, but sadly I was about 10 years before my time and the American public was just not ready for homeopathic’s quite yet.

In 1999, I returned to the concert directing scene, Directing and designing a variety of live concert performances, DVD’s, live broadcasts and content for legendary and prestigious performers. I have shot, produced and edited tour documentaries and developed show playback and content used for many artist tours and music videos. I have been creating show content for over 20 years. Animation, Filmed conceptual videos or just atmospheric visions.

In addition to Touring, I also have been active with many other non touring broadcast concert shows such as CMT (Country Music Television) Directing their popular “ Invitation Only” series with Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Martina Mcbride, Jason Aldean as well as the “Crossroads “ Series with John Mayer/ Keith Urban, Martina Mcbride/ Train and an instant concert with Darius Rucker.

On a personal note, I am a gear head car nut, motorcycle builder and private pilot. I live in Santa Fe New Mexico with my wife Denise, Akita dogs and Paint horses.

Jonathan Beswick