Meeting ambitious locals.

Matt Jay's relationship with filmmaking began in 1997, at a mere 10 years of age. He co-founded the independent film collective Thunderball Productions with childhood friend and fellow budding filmmaker Cameron Beyl, which has gone on to produce numerous feature-length and short films. Currently a 3rd year student at New York City's School of Visual Arts, Jay is on schedule to graduate from the Film/Video department with a concentration in Film Directing in 2009. His time is spent divided between New York and Portland, and he has always drawn much creative inspiration from the cities he has called home (Tokyo, Japan included). 

Jay's directorial debut came in 2005 with the deeply personal documentary BRING BACK THEIR HONOR, which chronicled the events leading up to a double suicide in Jay's family during China's Communist revolution. Later that same year saw the release of TWILIGHT, a new independent feature co-directed with Cameron Beyl. TWILIGHT was premiered at the Guild Theatre in Portland in December 2005. 

The first project completed in Jay's new city of residence NYC, was 2006's ASCENSION - a portrait of a young, up and coming Hip Hop musician finding salvation and solace in his music and spirituality. During this time Jay also completed a number of free form short documentaries dealing with artists and and the street art scene in New York. This interest would eventually fuel his next film, STATE OF MIND in 2007. A stream of consciousness documentary that blended scripted elements, STATE OF MIND sought to express the personal philosophies and life stories of an eclectic group of New York artists. 

2007 also marked the tenth anniversary of the founding of Thunderball Productions, and a new independent feature from Jay and Cameron Beyl - BURNSIDE. An ensemble drama set on the notorious Portland thoroughfare, BURNSIDE proved to be Jay and Beyl's most ambitious and rewarding project yet, gaining coverage from prominent local media such as The Oregonian, The Portland Mercury, Willamette Week, as well as local radio and television programs. BURNSIDE opened in July of 2007 with a limited engagement at the Hollywood Theatre.

Also in 2007, Jay began working at Academy Award winning production company @Radical Media, in their Manhattan office. He shifted duties between assistant editing at their in-house post production wing Outpost Digital, and intern work that included assisting shoots for MTV. Previous to joining the @Radical Media staff, Jay's first taste of professional industry work was a summer internship at Portland based post production house Joint. 

In the beginning months of 2008, Jay has written and directed a new narrative short film titled THE INSOMNIAC LOUNGE, as well as having completed a number of other narrative short scripts and begun development on a host of new narrative features. 

Jay currently divides his time between New York City and Portland, Oregon.