JARREK MONTENEGRO
Originally from Melbourne, Australia. Jarrek began creating stories when he was just 7 years old. From there he developed his narrative capabilities through courses at high school. Eventually becoming top of his class in Media where he developed his first short experimental film, Run in 2014 at the age of 16.
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Jarrek continued to persue his film making abilities and world creating bravado as he began to develop worlds built for TV Series. When he was 17, he began developing his first TV series and Pilot, Into the Dark. In his final year of high school, Jarrek achieved an outstanding award for his port folio which centred itself around his film, Altered. A short film about the changing of futures by adapting to outcomes that are yet to unfold.
Jarrek continued to study in South Melbourne, where he attended JMC Academy for a Bachelor in Creative Arts (Film and Television Production)
Jarrek finessed his abilities of Directing, Camera Operation, Editing and Writing whilst also developing skills to be proficient across a film set.
Jarrek found a love for visuals, being able to edit together sequences and create beautifully composed shots but knew that he wanted to continue to direct and write
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Working on an abundance of projects that varied in size, he has progressed not just as a director / writer but also proficiently as a First Assistant Camera and an Editor.
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His time at JMC came to an end when he graduated in 2019, following the successful shoot of his graduate film and TV Pilot, Dingo.
DINGO
"Dingo was when I first saw my capabilities as a story telling come to life"
Being his first project that sustained a crew over 5 days, Jarrek relished in his opportunity to lead his colleagues and friend's into this world he had created.
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Set in his world, based on films like Two Hands (1999) and Animal Kingdom (2010), Dingo centres itself around Family, Loyalty and the underground crime land of Melbourne.
Originally set to be a TV Series, the story centres itself within the middle of the world with pre-existing events prior that help to set up context for the world to come.
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"I would love to tell the full story sometime, my estimate is 3 seasons to tell the story i want".
POST UNIVERSITY
Following his tenure at University, Jarrek continued to work on projects with friends, inclusive of;
Package from Mr S (Darcy Broom)
Tale of Two Knights (Kurtis Lowden)
Dear Nancy (Taylah Bons)
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"I took a step back from directing and writing, I wanted to see what else I was capable of. What i found was that when I'm on a film set, I'm at my best, the feeling of getting a shot or nailing a take was so satisfying"
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Continuing on, Jarrek began working on the brand of Midnight Valley where he is able to put his skills to use in creating posts and videos for his own brand.
A short hiatus was followed by a multitude of inspiring moments for the young writer. Developing Horizonal, a short film about regional bushfires that had ripped through the Australian landscape.
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Developing this, alongside Butcherbird helped to solidfy the relationship between Jarrek and Midnight Valley with his friends, Cooper Hands, Adam Juric and Taylah Bons who represented Krakin Productions. The relationship blossomed as the group continued to show great success on a number of projects they worked on together.
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Jarrek went on to pull Eleven Fifty-Nine from his archive, a thriller about relationship dynamics that he originally wrote in 2017, created 4 years later.
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"It's where I want to be, I love suspense but more than that, I love working with the talented group we have. I can't tell you the capabilities we have, because we have the capabilities for anything we want"
FUTURE ENDEAVOURS
After finalising his third short film, Jarrek began to develop longer projects, setting his endeavours to long form Feature films and TV Series.
Following 4 years of outlining and idea generation, Jarrek smashed out the first draft of his coming of age feature screen play, Night to Remember in 5 days and continues to develop new films for long form.
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"I love story telling but the issue is, A small idea grows very quickly and once it does, it's exponetial in the amount that I think about, every day, my ideas grow. At this point I reckon I have 20 years worth of content. And that number isn't going to go down"
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Jarrek Montenegro is a FIlm-Maker whose projects vary on their size and has the capability to adapt to scenarios and find a way to work together for any role.
