Director Spotlight: James Cooper

Holy Directors-cut Batman! Today we're going to shine the spotlight on a man who shines behind the scenes! 

An already internationally accepted short film director, James Cooper is a freelance writer and director born in Hamilton Ont, Canada. Throughout his youth, James was enthralled with stories, comics and over flowing with creativity.


 From an early age James (fondly referred to by friends as Jim) showed not only the drive but the talent to create compelling tales and the artistic ability to display them in his own comic book series called electro-boy (among others). 


It wasn't until high school where (the not so) little Jim found his calling in the classroom of one Mrs Lindel. It was here the short film bug bit our intrepid director. Like the radioactive spider in the Spiderman comic book series, this little bug wrought changes within James. 


Somewhat akin to the snow ball effect; James started having more vivid ideas! From those ideas spurred a concept and from a concept Jim found himself emerged in the world of cinematography. 


That is not to say that James is a one trick pony; far from it- James has done a number of works in his relativity short career and has had a number of those works recognized in film-festivals around the world. 


But lets not get a head of our selves. That one first tentative step towards the director's seat was a short film created for his grade 11 culmination task; titled Super Jesus! Due to the technology James was forced to record on, there is no digital copy that this blogger can find. 

 Francis the monster and Krispy the Evil Puppy Dog Stocking.

After Super Jesus; James found himself working on a short internet series called 'Roomies' and while once again there are no longer any of the series clips on the internet, you can find pictures of the infamous Krispy the evil puppy dog stocking, and others. 


As graduation came and went, the collapse of the 'Roomies' internet series was upon us and while it was a sad day to see it go we all knew there was more to come.


James never being one to sit still, found himself wanting deeply to develop those creative screen writters muscles, and found such an opportunity in classes taught by Maxwell D. Adams (Excess baggage). Following which he finished writing two feature length screen plays. 


It wasn't long after he felt confident enough in his new found (or rather newly sharpened) skills that James Enrolled in the Toronto Film School where he met current friend and business partner Yaw Attuah. 
And with this union i dub thee Rule five productions.


That's right, it was this fateful meeting back in film school that set the wheels in motion; the enogeration of the production company and the jump start in to James' career. 


Under the banner RULE Five, James has written and directed two short films; Trigger, and In between dreams. 


Both short films where premiered at the Cannes Film festival in 2008. The films where well received and hosted their  north american touch down at the Big Bear Film festival.


 Trigger, went on to play in film festivals internationally. Festivals like:

~Dark River Film Festival

~ThrillSpy International Film Festival 

~TriMedia Film Festival 2009!

~Moving Images Film Festival!

Sadly, three terms in to his program at the Toronto Film School, James quit: his reason?  According to his IMDB Profile, James was "unhappy with lax teaching methods and the tendency to cater to the lowest common denominator." 

Was that the end of Jame's Career for directing? Is this going to turn in to a tabloid speaking of drunken en devours involving  polar bears and paint balls!? NO! 

in fact James has just finished working on yet another short film called Elijah the prophet. I'll late james tell you what this film is about- after all no one says it better.


"The story of Elijah, the pious, chumy and Alcoholic prophet, whose yearly antics have graced Jewish households for ages. Unfortunately for the childlike servant of god, not everyone understands drunk driving is for him, a divine right, which soon causes him to get in trouble with the law."

While this screen play was not written by James, he is the driving force behind the directors chair.  The cast and crew behind this film are all amazing and i think deserve some credits here. 


Who knows maybe you'll even know some of the names?

Dave Franciosa Concept Artist
David Cormican Producer
James Cooper Director
Olds Sleeper Composer
Alan Hardiman Sound Editor
Art Hindle Actor
Carlos Diaz Actor
Melanie Nicholls-King Actress
Zachary Herrmann Writer


So, What can i say about this film that one can't already see with the cast and crew backing it? The fact that their kickstarter campaigne had 134 backers and some of the tossing in hundreds of dollars to see this thing made! I don't see what else can be said that hasn't been already, especially if people, adverage everyday people are willing to just toss in their hard earned money to a director they don't know, that should tell everyone something about the caliber and credit that James deserves. But enough of this mush and such; I'll just leave Elijah the prophet  here for you so you can go find out all about it! 

So does all this directing mean that James has left behind his early childhood of tying towels around his shoulders and fling around like a captian underpants, or his crime fighting electro boy behind? Well maybe, but that doesn't mean that his Comic book making days are over, in fact i'd say they are far from it. 


In 2010 James teamed up with Dave Franciosa, (at the time a fine art's student in university) and created Rise Comics. Which on the official website; is described as. "Rise comics: A joke that caught on." 

DAYWING and Ban Plushies

Ban-Sidekicked Rise comics 

It is with Rise comics that one see's the humor and a little more playful side to James. With the witty banter on the FaQ, and the little stabs at web design flaws. It is entertaining to go check out, though it will quickly become apparent that the website hasn't been updated in a while. 


While no real reason is apparent to the sudden death of the Rise comics website, there has been at least one issue of Ban-side kicked(Image on left) printed. And Indeed even Plushies have been hand crafted! 

James and Dave Franciosa Promoting
Ban Sidekicked!

Mayhap it is simply just an issue of time available in a day, after all directing isn't just standing behind the camera screaming ACTION or CUT all day long. Or perhaps this little blogger just hasn't been able to dig deeper and needs to get rid of the gold Shovel and make a diamond one (that's a minecraft reference for those of you scratching your heads in wonder). 


Of course there is one thing i did manage to find, an interview with James Cooper himself at Fan expo, a comic book convention talking about Ban! Check it out!

So, Have i caught your attention yet?  Good, now go Stalk- err i mean follow the multidimensional  James and all his secret genius on Twitter! And don't forget to check back often for announcements on a potential follow up interview with the man himself! @TrishaEllen1