A little more than a month after CJRW sold M-3 Productions to Waymack & Crew, M-3’s founder, Gary Jones, said he’s launching his own businesses.
The veteran filmmaker said Monday that he is relaunching his SERAfilms and Jones Film Video companies.
Jones said he formed SERAfilms in 1985 to produce a pair of feature films. He said he’s reactivating and rebranding the business to serve as a video publisher of long-form web and social media content. Jones Film Video will be “an independent supplier for high-end television commercials,” he said.
A Jonesboro native, Jones worked in film production in Dallas, Canada and Arkansas before founding Jones Film & Video in 1981. He has done work as cinematographer of several IMAX documentaries, participating in film production projects around the world. In Arkansas, he’s worked closely with the state Department of Parks & Tourism, both on his own and as part of advertising agency CJRW of Little Rock, which purchased his company in 2006.
CJRW sold the firm, whose name it changed to M-3 Productions, in February to another film production company, Waymack and Crew of Little Rock.
Led by Dan Waymack, Waymack & Crew has produced television commercials for clients including Allstate Insurance, Ford Motor Company, the U.S. Army, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Southland Gaming & Racing, Conway Regional Hospital and Arkansas Tech University.
Jones said both SERAfilms and Jones Film Video relaunched on Friday. The warehouse-style headquarters is located at 822 W. 7th St. in Little Rock.
Jones said that some of his children are in the business with him, along with freelancers. He said he aims to run the business for the next 10 to 15 years before retiring.
“These are challenging and exciting times for video production,” Jones said. “There continues to be a growing demand for budget-conscious creative work that cuts through the clutter of smartphone selfies and DIY YouTube videos. Literally anyone can come up with a video these days and upload it to the Internet. The challenge SERAfilms and Jones Film Video will help a client solve is: how do I get people to watch it?”
Jones said his first project is the Arkansas Moving Image Library, which would be “the state’s first international stock footage library of Arkansas places and activities.”
“We are certainly throwing our hats back into the ring for commissioned filmmaking assignments, but we are also concentrating upon investing in original content,” Jones said.
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