Joseph McGovern is a writer and actor, known for All Over Again (2017), Inside Jonathan Fox (2020), and Hush (2018) which featured at this years FirstGlance Film Festival LA. Joseph is undoubtedly one individual with an undying passion for his artistry. Listening to his honest, transparent, and thought-provoking account of growing up, his consistency in binge-watching movies, and listening to music, one cannot be surprised by the outcome- an individual we look forward to following as he climbs the heights of success. It was a pleasure speaking to him about his career to date and what we can expect in the future.
Q1 Hi Joseph, Thank you for granting the interview. Congratulations on your career so far. You have a Bachelor of Science in Forensic Science. Your academic background isn’t a prerequisite for entering the industry but how did you get into filmmaking?
Thank you, David, for the kind remarks and interviewing me and my career as an independent filmmaker, I truly appreciate the opportunity. I graduated from Chestnut Hill College with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forensic Science, Chemistry focus – my buddy Keaton Nahan who is a chemist and photographer and my friend Erica Vargas who is a chemist and fitness and health trainer and myself were the first ones to graduate from this school with this degree since the school began. We were very proud of this journey when the chapter closed at graduation.
Growing up I didn’t have a lot of friends who I could hang out with on weekends or after school. I was social in school to a degree, trying to fit in but most of the time standing out. People I played sports with would mock me when they saw me scribbling thoughts and emotions in a notebook, teachers would take my headphones away from me even though the music (although I’m a lyricist more than instrumentalist) would help keep my focus. I probably had about thirty CD players taken away from me throughout the years in school until I became crafty enough to hide the CD player in my pocket and fished headphones behind my hoodies and under my beanie. Haha – it was that severe. Few attributes to understand me and my personality: first, I despise conformity and believe this leads to unhappiness to a degree aside from people who require form and structure; second, I’m passionate and have the drive; and third, there is always a reason for anything and everything I do that is leading to a greater purpose. Since I didn’t fit in – music is what got me through the school days but when I got home it was movie time all the time. I would binge-watch anything I could get my hands on different types of animation, stories about animals, live-action PG-13 dramas, sci-fi, actions, minimal horror in my parent’s house, thrillers, R-rated movies my parents hid but I would find them and watch since I was about 10-12 years old. I was fascinated by these stories and the journeys characters were experiencing moved me until I discovered poetry in college. Poetry is the only creative outlet that came close to being as important as film. I would spend hours watching films and eventually when I discovered thrift shops and other outlets which sold cheap movies I would walk away with at times up to fifty movies at one shot blowing entire paychecks on VHS sales and DVDs – also collecting in the process and would watch multiple viewings as I grew older for different aspects to the particular piece, thinking what would I do differently. Focusing on the original scores created, lighting, pacing of the editing, composition, camera movement, and what was being said without any dialogue. Unfortunately at a young age no one really could understand, I didn’t have many friends or people to spend time with and I spent the majority of my time watching movies – the positive aspect I would come to learn was my time watching these films, hours on end, was the foundation I was lying in terms of my future writing screenplays with knowledge of the different stories I experienced. I would begin diving into writing towards the tail end of my second year at King’s College before I transferred to Chestnut Hill College.
Towards the end of my sophomore year at King’s College and still not fitting in as I would have hoped (the first year was ok but second-year went downhill pretty drastically) and my cou
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