Jake Schreier is currently nominated for two Emmy Awards on the strength of his work on Beef (Netflix)–for Outstanding Limited Series as an EP on the show, and for Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series for his helming of “The Great Fabricator” episode.
Beef has earned a total of 13 Emmy noms, including for Outstanding Limited Series. And most recently Beef picked up three Film Independent Spirit Awards–for Best New Scripted Series and two for Best Lead Performance in a Scripted Series (individually for Steven Yeun and Ali Wong)
Beef follows an epic, ever escalating feud–triggered by a single road rage incident–between two strangers, portrayed by Wong, and Yeun. The twists and turns, while darkly entertaining, say a lot about our society, laying bare the rage, angst, ugliness and insecurities that have become so prevalent–but still managing to cast a cathartic ray of hope somehow reflecting the better side of human nature.
Beef capped a stellar awards season in 2023 for Schreier. He also teamed with Dave Free and Kendrick Lamar to direct We Cry Together, a Lamar short which earlier in the year won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Film Craft.
We Cry Together stars Lamar and Taylour Paige as a romantically involved couple who get into an intense, heated argument which takes the form of live vocals.
Schreier’s body of work spans commercials, music videos, features and television. He is currently in prep on a Marvel feature, Thunderbolts.
Schreier continues to direct spots and other fare via Park Pictures, his longstanding home. Park via its feature division also produced Schreier’s theatrical motion picture directorial debut, Robot & Frank, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
On the TV side, in addition to Beef, Schreier has had a hand in directing the Michel Gondry-produced Kidding, and the FX comedy series Dave. Schreier’s work for music artists extends beyond Lamar. Schreier has directed music videos for performers including Justin Bieber, Haim, Benny Blanco, Cashmere Cat, and Chance the Rapper.
This interview is excerpted from SHOOT’s “In The Director’s Chair” session held on October 26 at the DGA Theatre in New York City, part of our New Directors Showcase festivities that day. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
SHOOT: Has your short-form experience in commercials and music videos informed your TV and feature endeavors? And if so, how?
Schreier: I don’t know that the commercials really influenced a lot of the actual approach to filmmaking. But by the time we showed up on our first feature film set [Robot & Frank], we had been on 100 sets [for commercials]. I wasn’t a major commercial director at that time. I was four tiers down from Lance [Acord, partner in Park Pictures]. But you were making something. I used to do commercials for Eastern Europe. I’d go there for nine days and shoot some weird Russian bank ad but you’re still on set. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a job or done anything that I didn’t learn something from. To be able to step on that first set when it’s a feature and to have that part out of the way–on a set, you‘ve worked with people [is of great help]. Whether you’re going to be good at [feature] filmmaking is a whole different set of challenges.
SHOOT: What drew you to Beef? How did the opportunity come about for you to work on the show? What was the nature of your working relationship with its creator, Lee Sung Jin (aka Sonny)?
Schreier: I met Sonny and we had been friends for about six years. We met and just really connected in the way we looked at film. We would have talked about this [Beef] whether I worked on it or not. He got to a place where he needed some help so I kind of came in and helped out and then the role sort of expanded as we tried to get it made.
Beef is an extremely personal show to Sonny. I sort of look at my role in those situations as just trying to help those people with their vision, to translate it cinematically, to be there and support that. I think Beef is really an example of that
I kind of assumed [said with a smile]that my friendship with Sonny would end in post, when we were in the edit room–but it didn’t, which was great. As a friend of his for a long time. [I’m] just sort of proud of him for having made that. It’s very much his show but I probably feel about as proud of that as anything else I’ve made.
SHOOT: What was your biggest takeaway or lessons learned from your experience on Beef? We ask this in the spirit of what are among the things you walk away with first and foremost from that experience. What has made a lasting impression?
Schreier: I think just how important that alchemy is of who you’re working with. And how so many things need to be great to make something greater. You can be very proud of your work, and think well I worked hard on this and did all this stuff. But then step back even for a second and think about what it would have been like if we didn’t have Larkin [cinematographer Seiple] there, we hadn’t had [production designer] Grace [Yun], in particular Sunny’s vision, Steven [Yeun] and Ali [Wong], everything that they brought to it, so many people down the line of what they brought.
I have no idea if this has changed or not. I remember when we were coming out of film school, I think there’s this sense of what a director is, these auteurs you look up to. There’s kind of a mythos to it. “It’s your film and you have to hard charge through it.” That’s not an aspiration any more. I really just feel it’s finding the right group of people to make a thing is so essential to what it is. And it feels like again, sometimes you get very lucky. A lot of the time I feel very lucky to be there. That’s how I felt on the set of that Kendrick video. I felt this is a gift to be there with these people who are so incredibly talented. The shot is cool I guess but if the shot weren’t photographing those people doing that thing, it wouldn’t be anything at all.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of those experiences. And if you are, you just want to find more of those.
