Guitarist | Filmmaker

Jamison (JFork) Forkenbrock is a writer, director, editor & guitarist. He has worked on projects with many high profile clients that have included: Sam & Colby, Macy Gray, Mark Polish, Activision, Ubisoft, Turtle Beach, IGN, UFC, Facebook.

He grew up in Sterling, Virginia. After graduating from Radford University's Film and Cinematography program in 2005, he played guitar in various bands across the Northern Virginia area while filming & editing videos for local businesses & working on DVD/Blu-Ray titles for Discovery and National Geographic.

His "Craigslist journey to Hollywood" started in 2010, after re-editing a trailer for a local group of paranormal investigators in the Washington D.C. area. This led him to create season one of the paranormal doc-reality show “The R.I.P. Files”. He filmed, edited, wrote original music (on a computer typing keyboard) all on a shoe string budget and delivered (13) episodes helping them land a distribution deal.

The highs and lows of freelance editing work hit hard after finding out his work on the show had come to a surprising halt, as he would not be working on their follow up seasons. It wasn't until 2014, after hundreds of failed CL responses, and zero connections in the film industry that he decided to not give up and keep following his "dream" of working on feature films and writing/directing his own.

He began searching CL again for editing work. This time in Los Angeles, landing a full time video game trailer editing gig in Santa Monica and driving across the country twice with his wife and their Balinese cat Mr. Emerson, from Virginia — settling in a one bedroom, 500 square foot apartment in Venice Beach in 2015.

“The lesson in following your dreams is that there is always a cost
and suffering is inevitable. Following the path of Craigslist to work
on movies with no connections in LA or family money is hard and
I almost gave up entirely.”

While working as a full time editor, in his free time, making new connections through Craigslist again… Jamison provided editing, sound design and additional music to the feature films — “Murmur” (2022), “Chasing Molly” (2019), “Headlock” (2019).

After many unsuccessful attempts at starting a band and feeling overworked and undervalued in LA, Jamison turned to screenwriting for catharsis, realizing that the only way he could work on movies was to make his own. So, over a period of seven years he learned how to transform his emotions onto the page and properly write a screenplay with the help of consultants, Jimmy George the “Script Butcher” & Mark Sanderson aka “Script Cat”.

By the spring of 2023, he was “replaced without notice” from his full time job, while at the same time the industry took its biggest turn in decades with a prolonged writers and actors strike. As rent drained his remaining funds and unemployment checks barely covering the bills, the countdown to remain in LA was on.

With every job lead going no where… and the cost of living continuing to rise. Not to mention — a series of days where the inside of their one bedroom apartment was overrun by a swarm of bee’s coming through the furnace. It would seem as if the universe itself was forcing them out and all hope was lost…

“Believe in yourself and breathe. Have faith through the fire’s of everyday. Most of all be kind, as each and every one of us is going through something difficult.”

Time is our greatest commodity and now that he had some, he took action with the help of fellow musician and filmmaker, Chris Rucinski (Northern Shade “2023”). Whom he met on Craigslist, yet again, while attempting to jam and start a band.

Having already written, produced and directed his first feature film, Chris led the producing efforts as the two collaborated over coffee on Rose Ave in Venice.

Unemployment became the spark for Jamison to rewrite a short screenplay "Little Lillith" he had written in his darkest moments of depression and despair. His collaboration with Rucinski, led the two, to produce the film on a $2500 budget and release “Little Lillith” into the festival circuit in the fall of 2023.

“There was a moment when Chris and I were location scouting and the turning point for me was when I said, if it happens. Chris cut me short and said, you gotta stop saying IF man… WHEN this happens. I thought it was impossible to make my own film for so many years that I was blind to believe it possible within myself, until this pivotal moment.”

“In the end the only thing that really matters is family and the friends that help you make it through another day. It is only our desires which lead us into hell. You can stay there if you choose, though it is our unnatural desires that cause us to suffer. To end suffering, free yourself from your desires or transform them into creative art. Be grateful for your breath, life is a gift. Peace of mind you will find, is everything.”

On Los Angeles and living in a one bedroom in Venice for nearly a decade…

“The boardwalk on Venice beach is a River of Emotions that separates tranquility, the beach/ocean and chaos, the city. When gentrification is slamming you in the face everyday and poverty exists silently on the same bench as some of the most rich & beautiful people on the planet, it’s near impossible to not feel huge waves of emotions from anger to envy to lust and loneliness. Venice Beach is where joy and despair delicately dance in a city full of angels and demons.”

“Money is not inherently evil. It is the love of money that is. Greed is the greatest disease to ever fall upon humanity.”