Nicholas Furris is the co-owner and senior producer/director of Spectrum Film.
WHAT IS YOUR ROLE?
“I’m responsible for interfacing with our clients creatively, dealing with them on budgetary issues and supervising the production from the inception to the completion to assure quality and accuracy.”
MORE THAN A NAME
“We’re not tied down to one type of production or format. We run the full spectrum, be it commercials, documentaries, infomercials, educational, corporate or business to business presentations.” The firm opened in 1999 with Furris and his two partners.
WHAT’S YOUR PREFERRED MEDIUM?
“Documentary filmmaking is a wonderful way of telling stories unscripted. Therein lies the challenge, capturing the essence of a subject and bringing it together with a narrative and letting it play out and, at the same time, entertain and educate. We’re developing a series now on the life of the 12 disciples of Christ. Think of the lives of these people and the places I will go — Spain, Italy, Asia, Africa — tracing these paths. Good documentary filmmaking is where my heart is at.”
WHO DO YOU PRODUCE FOR?
“My clients run the spectrum from advertising agencies locally and across the country to producers of educational programming to religious institutions.”
EDUCATION
Rutgers University in New Jersey trained Furris in the craft of communications.
AFTER TINSELTOWN
Furris was employed by Atlantic Pictures Corporation and Florida Production Center. “I’ve worked with people in Hollywood. Some of my clients are Academy Award winners that I directed on their set. I’ve done all that. I like Jacksonville; I like the environment here. I would rather make a mark here than get caught up in the millions trying to make a mark out there.”
BORN
West Orange, N.J.
WHY SETTLE DOWN HERE?
“In 1988, I relocated from New York to Jacksonville. I’ve been in this production community ever since then. Our business is thriving and we love the potential that we have here. It’s a city that’s still in its growing stage. We will eventually grow and more businesses will relocate and with that comes a greater economy locally. I think we’re on the verge of being recognized nationally as a good business town. I’ve been everywhere around the world, literally. Jacksonville offers a peaceful lifestyle and at the same time a very busy working environment. I like to wake up and hear birds, not horns, buses and taxis.”
EVER WORKED IN ANOTHER PROFESSION?
“I worked through college as a waiter and cook in New York, bartended through school and worked some construction — a little bit of everything — but my passion has always been production.”
WHAT APPEALS TO YOU ABOUT THE INDUSTRY?
“In my second year at Rutgers, the person who employed me at a restaurant knew someone at CBS in New York, specifically “60 Minutes.” I had an opportunity to intern at CBS. When I saw the intensity and the creativity surrounding me, I said, ‘This is something I want to do.’ Once it bites you, it’s like a bug. The hours are very long, the stress is great but it’s the passion and the love of filmmaking, of telling stories through a visual medium, that’s keeps you going. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to make a living in the film and video industry. Not too many people can say that.”
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU GIVE ASPIRING FILMMAKERS?
“I think they should find any means possible to get into the industry by volunteering their time wherever it is on film sets, at production companies, opening potato chips. That’s how I got my start. No money but it was the exposure. You never know who you’re going to meet or what kind of impression you’ll make on someone that will ultimately lead to something else. Be persistent. It’s not going to easy but hopefully they’ll succeed.”
WHAT’S MOST CHALLENGING TO YOU?
“Making sure the business doesn’t overtake the other priorities in life — family, faith, friends. This business can consume you because the demands are great.”
WHERE DO YOU COME UP WITH IDEAS?
“It’s not a me thing. The best creativity is bringing people around the table and taking a bunch of ideas and molding them. The final product may be one person’s idea of a little bit of everyone else’s combined. The scriptwriter adds his or her creativity, the editor adds adds his or her creativity, the client ultimately adds their creativity. When it’s on me to create, I try to go back and think through the eyes of a child because their creativity is not in a box. They see things that we don’t because they’re uninhibited. Sometimes I talk to my kids and they’ll come up with little catch lines.”
AFFILIATIONS
Furris is on the advisory board of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, parish council president at St. John The Divine Greek Orthodox Church and a board member of St. Photios National Shrine in St. Augustine.
FAMILY
Mandarin is home to Furris, his wife Maria and their two sons, Stefan and Andrew.
OFF THE SET
In addition to being a sports nut, Furris has collected thousands of autographs from VIPs such as actors, politicians and sports figures. If he was a voter for the Academy Awards, he would have cast his ballot for “Raging Bull,” the film by director Martin Scorsese about the life of boxer Jake LaMotta. “It’s such a well-made movie; it captured the essence of an era. It was also sports-related; it’s boxing. It captured in a wonderful way this fallen hero and vignettes of life in that time. And [actor Robert] DeNiro, he’s just unreal.”
— by Monica Chamness