- April 23, 2024
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Jesse Chapman
Jesse Chapman is an alumnus of Flagler Palm Coast High School.
"Star Trek Beyond" opens July 22.
When he was 4 years old, Jesse Chapman watched the 1989 version of “Batman” starring Michael Keaton hundreds of times — so often that his mother eventually hid the VHS tape from him.
Even at such a young age, Chapman was blown away by the power of film. “I realized there was a tone to that movie — very dark, surreal, magical,” he explained recently during an interview conducted in Los Angeles, the city he now calls home.
Chapman grew up in Palm Coast and attended its public schools before enrolling at the University of Central Florida for a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. From there he moved to California and worked his way into a successful career in Hollywood’s film industry.
Last week, Chapman finished up more than a year’s work as an assistant editor on “Star Trek Beyond,” the latest movie in the successful sci-fi franchise and a picture that is sure to rank among this summer’s biggest blockbusters.
After “Batman” (the tape was hidden in the silverware drawer, his mother would later reveal), Chapman’s most vivid movie memory from his childhood was watching the performances of Jim Carrey, particularly in the 1994 comedy “The Mask.”
For the young Chapman, Carrey’s portrayal of Stanley Ipkiss was about much more than a few laughs.
"It's about a guy who's kind of nerdy and kind of a loner, and then he finds this magical item that makes him someone people want to be around, and that's what movies do for me," Chapman explained. Never a sports fan, Chapman for a long time felt like he had to try harder in order to relate to other kids growing up in Florida, where football reigns.
Watching “The Mask” changed that perception for Chapman. At the film’s end, Carrey’s character makes a conclusion that has stuck with Chapman all through his life. “He realizes he doesn't need the mask,” Chapman explained. “You don’t have to be the person that anyone wants you to be. You just have to pursue who you want to be.”
In order to pursue who he wanted to be — a player in the film industry — Chapman’s first real step was enrolling in Flagler Palm Coast High School’s summer theater program, led by Mary-Lou Beale. He loved it from the very beginning.
“I did it every year — two, sometimes three times a year,” he explained.
The experience motivated him to continue to pursue his dream, and so he applied to the University of Central Florida’s film program — and was rejected. “It was a huge letdown,” Chapman allows today, but not enough of one to stymie his drive. Despite not getting a spot in the film school, Chapman was accepted as a general student at UCF, so he attended, worked hard and reapplied.
The second time worked. Chapman was ecstatic. “It was exactly what I thought it would be,” he recalled of the Film Production program. “I loved it: every second of it, every class.” As a film student, Chapman would meet instructors like editing teacher Mark Gerstein and directing teacher Lori Ingle, people that would eventually help him make the leap to film’s biggest stage, in Los Angeles.
The move to California was “hugely scary,” but Chapman had a plan for getting going: Once he arrived, he contacted every person on a list of 20 UCF film school alumni that Gerstein and Ingle helped him build. One of those emails got him a job helping with the pilot episode of a new show for HBO.
The show wasn’t picked up, which meant the job lasted all of one day. But even that small window was enough for Chapman to make something happen, as he parlayed that into a nine-month stint as a production assistant on a TV version of the movie "10 Things I Hate About You." The work was hardly glamorous — answering phones, making copies. "It was frustrating because I knew that all the work I did and all the energy I poured into it, while it was important to develop those relationships, it wasn't the track I wanted to be on," Chapman explained.
He started targeting post-production work, and found a job working on the penultimate season of HBO’s "Entourage" series, starring Adrian Grenier and Jeremy Piven. Now on track toward his career goals, Chapman worked several more jobs as a post-production assistant in television before making the move to film, landing a spot as an apprentice editor on "Fast & Furious 6," a movie that has grossed nearly $800 million in revenue worldwide to date, according to boxofficemojo.com. He was then hired as an assistant editor for "Furious 7," which grossed more than $1.5 billion.
That first film job of Chapman’s, on "Furious 6," was for a movie directed by Justin Lin, a rising star among Hollywood’s filmmakers. Lin’s newest project is "Star Trek Beyond," a Paramount Pictures film with an estimated budget of $150 million. Chapman had been working on that project since last summer, up until wrapping up just last week.
"Star Trek Beyond" is an action movie, but Chapman says moviegoers don’t need to be fans of the broader Star Trek franchise to enjoy the film. “Everything that’s going on is so relatable,” Chapman said. “You have characters dealing with super common problems.”
"Star Trek Beyond" is in theaters everywhere July 22.
Growing up in Palm Coast, there wasn’t much for young people to do, Jesse Chapman recalls. Chapman now lives in Los Angeles and works in the movie industry, his latest job coming as an assistant editor on "Star Trek Beyond."
But that doesn’t mean there was nothing to do. Chapman’s top pick: going to Steak 'n' Shake with his closest friends. “It was this unspoken central hub of interaction and community,” he said. “We would go there after everything.”
