After graduating high school from Duluth, MN in 1995 Jim Ojala joined his local Public Access station. There he was taught all aspects of video production. Most importantly he gained complete access to video equipment and editing facilities.
Soon he would collaborate with friends to create the locally infamous series, My Three Scums. The horror/comedy series revolving around a family of misfits, freaks and monsters continued for 3 years and gained a large local following.
Based on the success of My Three Scums, Jim landed his first film job with Troma Studios in New York on their film, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4.
Upon completing the film, Jim was offered a position in the special makeup effects dept. of Tim Considine’s Direct Effects where he went on to assist Tim on features, commercials, photo shoots and theatre which included manufacturing an entire bald cap line whose clients included Phantom of the Opera, Blue Man Group, Saturday Night Live and Planet of the Apes. While in New York, Jim also attended the Millennium Film Program working with experimental filmmaking pioneer, Michael Kuchar.
Jim finally made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles in 2001. Since then Jim has worked on the makeup/creature effects for many commercials, TV series such as The Shield and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as numerous features including Where the Wild Things Are and Hellboy 2 The Golden Army.
In 2005, Jim opened the doors to Ojala Productions, which produced the internationally distributed short film, The Incredible Torture Trio as well as the recent viral video hit, Marvel Zombies The Movie. The short was also featured as #1 online video to see on cable TV’s G4 channel “Attack of the Show”.
Ojala Productions’ makeup/creature fx continues to be a strong force in the independent film world. Providing makeup fx for the internationally hailed, DEADGIRL, as well as the upcoming ,eagerly anticipated 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams. Ojala Productions recently finished on the makeup fx for music video film to Snoop Dogg’s new hit album, Malice In Wonderland.
Currently, Jim is in development on his debut feature film, Strange Nature, and a new web series, HARVEST as co-writer/director/special makeup fx supervisor.
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