Jana Sue Memel

Oscar-winning Film Producer

Think Hollywood Meets Eslan

Nobody grows up in L.A. but Jana Sue Memel did. Growing up in L.A. gave Jana an early taste for the entertainment industry: When she was five years old, she called up 20th Century Fox and offered her services to the switchboard operator. That career opportunity didn’t work out. But later, after a brief and uninspiring foray into the practice of law (“the six most miserable months of my life”), Jana became a Hollywood agent. Today, she is an Academy Award winning film producer with a specialty in short films that tell a genuine story—without the commercialism and contrivances required in full length Hollywood films.

“When I was a young agent, I fell in love with the movies I represented. I didn’t want to let them go,” she says. “But, as an agent, you work on them, you sell them, and they’re gone. I hated that.” So she decided to leave the security of an agency paycheck and move into the ranks of independent producers.

As an agent, Jana had specialized in representing first-time writers and directors. As a producer, she kept up the practice. Chanticleer Films, the company she founded with a partner, made a deal with Columbia pictures to produce half-hour movies to be directed by first-timers with industry experience in other areas. Chanticleer’s very first film won an Oscar. Ten other Oscar nominations followed, two of which turned into wins along with multiple other awards. Jana attributes the critical success of her films to one simple thing: “The stories are all relatable. They touch the audience on some emotional level—whether it’s to make them laugh, cry or scream, they make people feel.”

Jana is devoted to the storytelling behind the movie, and it is this quality that she brings to a more recent enterprise, The HollywoodWay, which conducts business presentation workshops with a focus on corporate storytelling. “Lack of emotion in business is a growing corporate pandemic,” she says. “You’re never going to be able to differentiate your product that much from your competition. Buyers base their purchase decision on how they feel about the seller. Maybe you don’t think that you have something to offer because you’re unconventional or you’re not exactly what you think you’re supposed to be, but that’s what people buy.”

The HollywoodWay teaches five basic precepts that Jana believes will turn any speaker into someone who can sell tickets to a concert on the moon. They are: Preparation, the most important element of which is knowing your audience; Passion, which means loving what you’re talking about and making your audience feel that love; Presentation, which is the art of selling your passion in a way that causes your audience to emotionally connect to your story; Brevity a concept that speaks for itself; and Breathing; creating a space where you, as a storyteller, can internalize your message so it doesn’t come out as a canned, robotic monologue but rather as the beginning of a conversation with the audience.

As both a filmmaker and a communication facilitator, Jana has a passion for reaching out to young women starting out on their professional path. As a single parent of three teenage daughters who grew up with no professional role models of her own, Jana says she is mindful about what she projects to her daughters. “It’s about living a life where you have to think about constantly challenging yourself to walk the walk that you talk. I can’t advocate listening to what people are saying and then shut down myself. I can’t urge speaking your mind clearly and honestly and then cut my daughters off when they do. “

“I have spent my entire professional life telling stories in the hopes of moving people to take action whether it’s to buy a ticket, shed a tear, or buy a product. Now I teach others how to do that. It gives me great joy when I see a business school graduate, unfold her hands, loosen a button on her blouse and jump up in the middle of a presentation letting loose with a “Girl you should buy this cause my mother told me it’s the best oven cleaner she’s ever used. You should see her scrubbing away and humming. I don’t get why it makes her smile but it does.” The day that business school graduate painted that picture in my mind of her smiling mother was the day I knew that I could teach people how to win by being themselves.”

RELATED

• Visit Jana's organization The Hollywood Way
• Follow Jana on Twitter (@hollywoodwaynet)