Police Off The Cuff/Real Crime Stories

Law and Crime author series, Tennessee Police officer turned movie producer Jaron Lockridge

Duration:: 1h 3m
Broadcast on:: 08 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Police officer and movie producer Jaron Lockridge interviewed. #JaronLockridge #Stix #tennessee Growing up in Bolivar, Tennessee, a small town 45 minutes east of Memphis, Jaron became interested in filmmaking as a high school sophomore in 2002. Believing a career in Hollywood was nothing more than a far-fetched dream, Jaron graduated the police academy in 2010 and became a commissioned peace officer in the State of Tennessee in 2010. As an outlet from the stressors of the job, Jaron began writing again and in 2016, he started his production company, Misguided Perceptions Media Group. With no formal training or film schooling, he began to teach himself how to produce independent films, primarily self-financing his films, saving his paychecks from his job as a police officer. He has since produced 11 feature films such as Betray, The Reaper Man, & Down Bad: Life In The Hood. He believes his niche is telling human stories from an authentic perspective using his experiences of working the streets in uniform as a police officer. His latest film, The Stix, is a promise fulfilled to a close friend and former cast member, whom the film is dedicated to. 💯 Join our mission to uncover the truth in crime! Support Police Off the Cuff on Patreon for exclusive content and insider access. Click now and become a part of our detective squad: https://www.patreon.com/policeoffthecuff 💬 Did you like this video? Let me know in the comments below! ✅ Subscribe to Police off the Cuff right now! Click here: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceofftheCuff?sub_confirmation=1 Or become a YouTube Member to get access to perks here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKo80Xa1PYTc23XN_Yjp8pA/join --------------- Welcome to the Official YouTube Channel of Police off the Cuff This is where the veil of mystery on high-profile cases is lifted through the sharp insights of seasoned law enforcement professionals and where real crime meets real analysis. This is your destination for exploring the complexities of true crime stories, illuminated by the rich experience and street wisdom of those who have walked the thin blue line. At the helm is retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a figure of authority in the crime investigation arena, with a diverse background that spans across acting, broadcasting, and academia. Bill's profound knowledge and keen analytical skills, combined with his empathetic approach, make each story not just heard but felt. Phil's extensive investigative experience, coupled with his genuine passion and characteristic Brooklyn charm, adds depth and relatability to the discussions. ➡️ Here we navigate the intricate web of the nation's most captivating crime stories, offering not just stories, but an education on the realities of criminal investigation. Their combined expertise provides a unique lens through which the stories are told, offering insights that only those with firsthand experience can provide. Join us on this journey into the heart of true crime, where every episode promises a deep dive into the minds of criminals and the tireless efforts of law enforcement to bring them to justice. --------------- 📲 Follow Police off the Cuff on social media: Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/policeoffthecuff Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/Policeoffthecuff-312794509230136/ Twitter ▶️ https://twitter.com/policeoffthecuf 🎧 Dive deep into true crime with Police Off the Cuff Podcast. Join retired NYPD expert Bill Cannon as he dissects infamous cases with insider insight: https://anchor.fm/otcpod1 ☑️ Support Police Off the Cuff and help us bring you more captivating crime stories. Every contribution makes a difference! Choose your preferred way to donate: Venmo: https://venmo.com/William-Cannon-27 PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/policeoffthecuff1gma --------------- 📚 Disclaimer: This video may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. --------------- #PoliceOffTheCuff

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LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. ♪♪ Hello, everyone, and welcome to "Police Off the Cut" from "Your Crime Stories." Actually, this is our Law and Crime Author Series, and I sort of deviated a little bit today, because what we have today is something I'm really excited about. We have a police officer who's also a movie director/producer. He wears all the hats. And I think that's amazing, because, first of all, any of you guys that know about police work, there's many talented people in police work, and not just in law enforcement. They're talented singers, they're talented actors. In this case, he's a talented movie producer/director. And where do you get all that grit from, and where do you get all that talent from, and where do you get all that know-how from? Well, seeing the reality of the streets, and that is one of the places that we get this from. I remember when we interviewed Chaz Palmentary, he said, "Cops are natural actors, "because they have to be actors to do the work they do." And I somewhat agreed with him. I said, "That's pretty-- that's correct, "but, you know, something-- "you still need to study acting "if you want to be good at it." But, yeah, we're all natural actors, because we have to use that in the work we do. And sometimes, to save our own lives, we are able to act in a certain way. And think about being a movie director/producer. All the hats that Geron Lockridge has to wear, and because not only is he producing and directing, he's hiring the actors. He's making sure the actors show up on time. He's hiring his crew. And all of this probably has to be done in a small budget, because Hollywood's not behind Geron at this point, but, you know, something that's not bothering him. He's one busy dude. So, with that said, I want to bring up-- I'm going to show you the thumbnail. Here we are. This is Geron. "Law and Crime" series, "Tennessee Police Officer" turn movie producer Geron Lockridge. Growing up in Boulevard, Tennessee, a small town 45 minutes east of Memphis, Geron became interested in filmmaking as a high school sophomore in 2002. Believing a career in Hollywood was nothing more than a far-fetched dream. Geron graduated the police academy in 2010 and became a commissioned peace officer in the state of Tennessee. As an outlet from the stresses of the job, Geron began writing again, and in 2016, he started his production company, Miss Guided Perception's Media Group. With no formal training of film schooling, he began to teach himself how to produce independent films. Primarily, self-financing his film, saving his paychecks from his job as a police officer. He has since produced 11 feature films such as Betray, "The Reaper Man" and "Down Bad," "The Life in the Hood." He believes his niche is telling human stories from an authentic perspective using his experiences of working the streets in uniform as a police officer. His latest film, "The Sticks," is a promise fulfilled to a close friend and former cast member whom the film is dedicated to. So without further ado, I wanna introduce you to Geron Lockwood. Geron, welcome to the show. - Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here today. - You know, Geron, what a great story. And I'll tell you the truth. You know, you hear there's so many clichés in police work. And some of them are true. And people will always say, when you leave the job, they'll say, there's life after the police department. - You've heard that, right? You've heard that a million times. And you're making sure that your life is gonna be on the path 'cause you're setting a path already for when you do leave. Talk about that a little bit. - Yeah, I remember when I was in the academy, one of the instructors made it a point to emphasize how to find something to do outside the job. Find something that you love to do outside of the job. Don't, you know, all your friends shouldn't be cops. Everything you do shouldn't be cop related. Find something that you love to do and do it. And kind of separate yourself from police work. And that always stuck out to me when he mentioned that. And it holds true because being able to do something and just kind of leave work at work has been one of the greatest things, you know, especially with the stress and everything that goes on with this job today because when you're feeling that burnout because you're just always about police work having this outlet has helped me quite a bit and helped me to get away from it all. So that's one thing that stuck out to me, especially at the academy that I always think about that instructor. I can't think of his name for nothing but I remember his face and him telling us, find something to do outside the job. And, you know, it'll help you on the long run. And he was so right. - You know, Jerome, some teachers in life, they don't even know that they necessarily are teachers. And I remember someone said something to be at the academy that I wish I had taken the advice, but I didn't. And he said the simple thing, loose lips, sink chips. And I was shy of taking advice 'cause I had a big mouth. But it's so true, right? And you think of the little lessons that you learn and not just from police. You could learn a lesson from kids. You can learn a lesson from someone in the street, you know? And the reality of police work, though, is so perfect for what you're going into for the field because I'm sure the characters you meet, the things you experience, they wind up in your films. Want to speak about that? - Yeah, a lot of things, like, especially when I first started back to writing, was more as an outlet from the stresses of the jobs and everything, they're just going to writing. And then the more and more films that I produced, I started to realize, like, I'm in a unique spot. I experience things that most people don't get to experience. I get to talk about things from a authentic perspective that most people don't have. They go to TV to hear how cops deal with things or these crime stories from people who've never experienced that there is a fictionalized way of having these stories where I've experienced them. So I can come in a more, I'll think, to ways. So I started to lean into that more. I started to lean into writing stories, especially here recently in more of a way that uses my experience to make these stories feel more real. And that's how I came out with the sticks and a couple more works that I'm working on, just using that to my benefit because a lot of people, especially writers out there, they can say they have the experience I have. And it influences a lot of stories to the way that certain interactions with characters, I use that because I've experienced those interactions with certain situations happening in my story. So it definitely helps with my writing. - That's wonderful. I'm gonna play a little, a short little trailer from your recent film, The Sticks. - Do I do anything to make this right, bro? I promise you, I do anything, don't do this. He'll do anything, y'all. - I saw that thing. Same for first or last time, I mean, she was time one day and we're gonna see the next. Right now, we got pretty much. - What's up, what's up, Bob told Montea you ain't come to work no more. So what do you want to tell ya, thank you all me, that's it. - I don't know what to do. - I want Montea, and you gonna help me get up. - There's never been a war that your comic didn't take in those guys after the first shots were fired. I suggest you think of this little situation out into it fast. Because I have to do your intention of showing everybody up to action. ♪ From the same weeks ♪ ♪ Welcome to the same weeks ♪ ♪ You in the heart so you go longer ♪ ♪ Then you go down you wanna take in class ♪ ♪ I had to survive ♪ ♪ I pulled on the ♪ (dramatic music) - Wow, very impressive. I love that, that was fantastic. And you could see watching that, the grittiness of the characters. Those characters I'm not seeing on "Blue Bloods". - Yeah. - I'm not seeing on a network TV show. And as I spoke to "Off the Air", I think we're both two lovers of that amazing show "The Wire" that was on HBO. And that's what this reminds me of. It's very gritty and you could see the characters of a street. And I love that, you know? And the hard thing about this, and the thing that I don't think television ever gets correct is to write the lingo of the street. - Definitely, right? - Yeah. And you know, when I created this show, like "The Wire" was definitely an inspiration because the way that that show brought Baltimore into that show, like they had natives of Baltimore who never acted and brought them into that show. And it just brought a level of realism that I don't think any other show has touched up. 'Cause "The Wire" is top two, one of my favorite shows of all time. And it definitely inspired the way I wrote the sticks just to the way of bringing the streets and how the streets are into this project. And showing the human nature of the police in this show and the issues that they deal with. One of the detectives in there is, you know, trying to raise a family as a single mother, getting this check that, you know, people think maybe somebody in a fair chance. - I mean to fight this war and win it. - "House of the Dragon" is back for season two. And so is the official "Game of Thrones" podcast. - I'm Jason Kitsapcyon. - And I'm Greta Johnson. Together, we are going to be talking about every new episode of the HBO original series, "House of the Dragon." - The second season starts Sunday, June 16th. The new episodes of this podcast start on May 22nd. - Listen directly on Macs or wherever you get your podcasts. - Good to war then. - American giant makes great clothing, t-shirts, jeans, and more, right here in the U.S. creating jobs in towns and cities across the country. Support America's workers and get 20% off your first order at american-giant.com with codes staple20. - The land things cops make a lot of money and they see her check and the stuff she's dealing with in her life and just humanizing so much in this show is my intent as an officer myself in just showing that, you know, people think that, you know, we're Superman or something like we bleed and breathe just like everybody else. So that was a lot of my intention with this show that was inspired by the wires is bringing human stories and realism into this movie like that show did so well. - That's great. You know, Jeron, you also, I asked you off camera, you're a dad, you're married and you have three children, right? - Three boys. - And so that's a challenge too. And the things that you see in the street, you may come home and bring that to your boys. Like, I don't want you guys, well, you know, you see horrible things in the street. - Yeah. - Those lessons that you learn as a police officer, I'm sure wind up as lessons to your three boys. - Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of things like they hear me fuss about all time, like, you know, leaving the door unlocked and, you know, when you go out to eat, you know, make sure you sit with your back against the wall. - All right. - Little stuff like that, you know, that I bring home to them, but I think they're starting to realize like, why now, you know, the world is a complex place and just having that attitude for preparing them to always expect it, you know, never be lack of physical, you know, never, you know, just sit around unassuming, you know, always watch you back and be safe because the world is not a nice place. It's the stuff that's going on out here. So a lot of the job does kind of go into just making sure they're prepared and always expecting the unexpected out here. So it's just trying to find that balance with all of this, with, you know, going to court and, you know, trying to do these movies and just having enough balance for your family is always a struggle. But, yeah, it's just trying to keep them prepared for this world. - How did the other cops relate to you? Not just as a police officer, but knowing that you're and aspiring, not just aspiring, you're doing it. - Yeah. - A movie producer/director/writer. - Yeah. - A guy sucking up to you 'cause they want parts in your next movie or what? - Not really, you would think that they would, but you know, everybody has different tastes. You know, it's really something that, until recently, a lot of people didn't know about because I would do it on the side. And, you know, I might mention it to a few of the guys, but they were like, okay, they just let it kind of go past their ears. I don't think they believed like what I maybe just thought I was talking and didn't believe that I was actually out here doing the filmmaking thing. But yeah, here recently, like a lot of the projects are starting to get seen. So they're like, man, I didn't know you did this. I mean, I used to hear it, but I didn't realize you were actually out here making movies. So it's a lot of realization here lately that this is something that I'm actually doing. And it's kind of neat seeing some of the guys respond to it. - But do they ask you, many of them ask you to be in your next movie or? - I have wanted to. You know, I wanted to. - I wanted to. - Whatever you have a role, make sure you call me. And sometimes they're playing 'cause I've called their buff a few times when you call their bloke, like, oh, okay. He actually did that. But yeah, I have a few here now and then asked me, man, will you have you got a role? Let me know, I want to be in there. That's very cool. Now, the actual stories, are you writing the film also besides producing and directing it? - Yes, I'm involved in everything because here at this moment in time, this low budget just costs so much money to do everything that you see behind the camera. So one thing that when I first started writing, I did try to go out and hire out people, cameraman and sound guys and this and that. Then I realized like, wow, that take up everything that I have to make the movie. So I started just kind of teaching myself the skills using the cameras, directing and all this and that. And I've gotten this little system myself where I write it. I cast the movies, actually while I'm directing, I'm the one that's doing the camera work. I'm a cinematographer on it as well. I'm just the last movie on the sticks. Actually, I hired a sound guy for the first time. I used to handle the sound myself as well and I also edit the movie. So I'm pretty much having to do a lot of the jobs to myself. And I've gotten to a point to where now I can do that without you telling being able to notice that I'm the one doing all the jobs. A lot of times people see the movies and they're like, you did all of this? So if that's a good sign when you don't believe that I'm the one that's doing everything. So that sounds like, yeah, that sounds amazing that you've taught yourself how to do all those things. That's like, especially editing. Editing's got to be really tough. Yeah, yeah, 'cause you can make or break the movie in the edit. And it's actually the thing that I'm focusing on improving the most because it's so much with editing is, you know, the pacing and everything that's controlled in editing. So the more, I'm one of those, I love feeling the story. I wanna have time within the story and I'm noticing a lot of people, they want the story just to keep moving. So that's something that I'm learning every movie or where to kind of pick up the pace and edit. So the editing is just the hardest part. It's the most time consuming part, but you can really make or break a movie in the edit. And it's starting to kind of be the part I most enjoy in the movie making process. Wow, that's a ton of things to do with one man. Let me just play another. This was another one of your films. I think it was an older one. I'm gonna bring it up on the screen. (dramatic music) ♪ Oh in the long, long, long ♪ ♪ I'm going home ♪ ♪ Why, I come today ♪ ♪ And just go in home ♪ ♪ It's not my ♪ ♪ Death but by ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ ♪ By the dawn ♪ ♪ Tell it by ♪ ♪ And the feel no more ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ ♪ Grown upon the floor ♪ - Wow. (laughs) - When you watch those, how does it make you feel? Does it feel like that's old news and I've moved on from there? - Yeah, sometimes I look at some of my older stuff and I wish I made different decisions. (laughs) - Yes. - Just now looking at that trailer, I'm like, I can see somebody like, what is this about? You know, like what's going on here? Yeah, that was a cool little story about a guy whose, his sister is terminally ill, so he's trying to get money to get a procedure that she needs and he's going through some difficult decisions on that movie, but yeah, that's one of my older projects. - Well, good for you. Now, how long are your movies usually? - Usually, they're around the 90 minute, the standard, the 90 minute, a few of them may go around two hours. They've usually pretty much the standard 90 minute, hour, 30 minute movie runtime. - That's a lot of time to fill. I mean, really tough. I mean, here's another one, Betray, that was a shot. And I'm going to read a list of the movies you've done. Sticks is the most recent, Betray 2023, The Reaper Man 2023, Down Bad Life in the Hood 2023, Zacuba 2022, Close Caption 2021, Down Bad TV Series 2021. And I think it was Smith 2020. - You're a busy guy. I don't, what do you get time to do all of these movies? My God. - I used to try to, I try to take the system to do at least one a year. A lot of those are just kind of seeing what genre is responsive, audience wise, what genres are they responsible to? And just trying to write to see what direction I need to go with my company and pursue when it comes to these films. And what I'm realizing is like the show, well, it was a show and I re-edited it into a movie, Down Bad, The Sticks. I have another detective crime mystery, Cubies of Konya that's coming up. And I'm just realizing that the projects that have the greatest response are those type of projects. Because I believe my unique voice is what's capturing people. That they see like with the sticks, as we roll this movie out there, they're seeing like, there is a unique voice about it, which I can only credit to, you know, me being a cop and making these stories. So I'm noticing, you know, over the Superman as a horror film did okay, but I mean, it's nothing that's different from what you've already seen, whereas, you know, something like the sticks and some of these other shows where I'm able to show, you know, authentic stories, I see those are capturing people a lot more and that's the route that I'm noticing that I need to take moving forward with my films. Now, with the stories, these are obviously personal stories to you that you've lived through your life as a police officer, through your personal life. Does anyone recognize these stories in your films as, oh, that was the so-and-so case. - Not really, because I usually, in that degree, I will fictionalize the story. I will always fictionalize it because I don't out of respect from anything that I've worked with personally. I don't want anybody to feel that I went and used that to make a movie out of it. You know, I wanna respect people like that. So more than anything, I will just, I'll come up with a fictionalized case or a fictionalized storyline. And more than anything, if I do copy anything from my experiences, it's just the reactions and the way these characters interact when certain things happen. Like, I would know how a mother would act if she's lost her son. I would know how a drug dealer would act when his house is raided and you arrest him and how he would react with the cops. Like, I would use those real life experiences and interject them into the dialogue and the situations with the characters more than the story itself because I don't ever want anybody to say, "Hey, that's my life that you just wrote about." You know, I wouldn't want that ever happened. And then too, like my department knows what I'm doing and I wouldn't ever want them to feel like I'm out here exploiting real life things that's going on as well. So I usually always fictionalize the story and just interject my real life experiences into the way these characters interact so that it comes off authentic on the screen. - And I think it does, I think it really does. You know, I remember, I told you, I did some acting and I did six episodes of this show that was on ID channel. I'm not gonna tell you the name of it because the story I'm gonna tell you is pretty funny. They were like a low budget too. So they would like want to shoot a scene in a parking garage and they would take two vans, they would just pay for it and they wouldn't tell them they were shooting. And I was like, "I can't believe you guys are doing this." And they would go in and shoot their owl, whatever and just say, we paid for that. And I was like, "That was great." You know, but I can imagine if you told the garage, or yes, we want 500 an hour or whatever, you know? - Yeah. - Hate their parking fee. And that was their set, which was a beautiful set. No one bothered them because they didn't know what they were there. - Yeah, you have to get creative, especially on low budget room 'cause it can't get up there. So yeah, you have to get creative in two things like that. - I guess you didn't do things like that, so you're on right now. (both laughing) - I don't even know how to do anything. - Yeah, I'm doing my head on certain things. So like, I tried to do it the right way as much as I can. (both laughing) - Well, get those permits. They cost money though, right? - Oh, yeah, they do. But here in Tennessee, that's one good thing about here specifically a lot of public places and stuff like that you don't need permits for unless you're like shutting down a street or something that usually has a public access. You have to go get a permit, but here so far, we don't have to worry about that. So that's a good thing. - Absolutely. Except what if your shooting is seen with guns? You've got to let people know that you're out there. - Yeah, and most of the time, 'cause I do have like blank guns that I shoot with that are, that's why I can't understand what happened with the incident in Hollywood a few months back. But I have these blank guns that are specific blank guns that the barrel are kind of chopped off so no projectile can come out. But they do sound like real guns. So a lot of times I'll give my sergeant or whoever the commander is on that shift. Hey, I'm just letting you know I'm gonna be here such and such shooting. If you hear shots fired or anything, you dispatch officer, but just be, it's over here. So I know that, so I usually have, I let them know ahead of time. And then I also put big signs up filming in progress. So there's no misunderstandings just in case a county unit or something that didn't get the message walk comes up. And I usually always try to take those precautions to make sure those easy mistakes can happen. - Yeah, that could end tragically if, I remember when I was an anti-crime years ago, some kids were doing student film with guns and they told nobody. - Oh, well, it almost got ugly, you know. And it can happen quick 'cause nowadays you never know. - Yeah, no, because you know, how do you know what the hell's going on? Oh, we're shooting, oh, how do we know that? - Yeah, yeah. - There's a lot of films in public. How about, let me ask you something. You try to do these films for the lowest course possible. Move finances, your films. - It's me, I find as most of them, because I do most of the work behind the camera, I just, you know, I don't have to pay myself. I can be tearing my own pavement for the film turn, the profit. So mostly I'm just paying my actors, renting locations whenever I have to. But other than that, I'm trying to get as much as I can free to keep that cost down. But paying the actors, a lot of my actors come from the Memphis area or Nashville. So I have to pay gas and lodging for them as well. So I keep that cost down as much as possible. And anything with the movie, almost all of the cost is the director, the cinematographer, the sound guy, the this and that. So you can run into all of your costs there. But by me doing those jobs, I keep that cost extremely low. And my little budget is just to compensate my actors and to feed them and to lodge them if necessary. So that's how I'm able to make my movies on such a low cost is because I'm doing most of the cost jobs myself to keep that budget now. - So when Geron Lockridge is shooting movie or the three Lockridge boys do not eat and meet that week. (laughing) - I don't know that, (indistinct) (laughing) they're just getting beans. They're getting rice and beans that week, no meat. Usually, you know, if I work a couple hours of overtime and something, especially at the beginning now, my company has grown quite a bit to where it's kind of self-sustaining itself. But yeah, first off, you know, I would save a lot of overtime checks, in service checks, you know, stuff like that to kind of get these movies funded and do it. And now I'm fortunate to wear my movies are starting to bring a little income in and they're just supporting themselves at the moment. So, that's fantastic. - Sure, yeah, yeah. - Now, how about your crew? A, where are they from? B, who trains them? And C, are they repeat crew members? Are they the one orphan and they leaving after that? - Yeah, for the longest, it was just my wife. Just me and my wife, like literally, there was only two of us behind the camera. I'm doing all of it, the lighting and everything. So here recently, I have a guy that's doing like my sound, holding the boom mic and recording all the sound for me. And I'm still handling the camera and doing the lighting and all of this and that. So, he basically was basically on the job training for him. He's here local where I stay. And on the job training in this next movie is like the first time that I'm gonna be able to kind of step away from the camera and let somebody else handle that job. So we're steadily growing to get more and more to the way that I'm stepping away and maybe one day I can just focus solely on directing, other than doing a million jobs behind the camera. So it's getting there slowly as the more that my company grows. And because I have no intention of going the Hollywood route, I really want to build it here in my community and build something sustainable with my company to the way even though their low budget we're making high quality projects to the way that they have this indie feel, but they don't feel cheap. I'm getting to that point and that's where I kind of want to stay. I don't have any interest in going to a studio system or anything like that because the industry has changed so much that you don't have to streaming and stuff that's opened the floodgates for you to be able to get your movie out there and make a profit without having to have Hollywood backing or millions and billions of dollars behind your movie. As long as you make a high quality project, a lot of people will appreciate that. - Geron, the movie The Sticks, which we have a picture up on the screen. When that was released this year, right? When it gets released, where is it released to? Is it released on Netflix? Where is, what's your vehicle actually? It's not going to movie theaters right away, right? - Yeah. Well, I started with mostly what you call four-walling when you rent your home movie theater and put the movie in there and sell tickets, but now it's starting to be released in the streaming platforms. It's on Apple TV right now. Apple TV used to be called iTunes. Apple TV and watch it, waiting on it to drop on Amazon any day. So it should probably be out today, tomorrow, who knows? And then Roku. So a lot of streaming channels are starting to license the movie and it'll be available. One thing about Netflix and Hulu, the real big platforms is they are all about business. So business is the number one factor. So they're looking for notable faces more than stories. They want to know if you have Samuel Jackson in your movie because they want to drive subscribers to their platform, which is understandable, but as of right now, until this little name gets a little bigger, Netflix property won't be interested in licensing the movie. So it'll be on Amazon. Amazon is a licensed it. There's a waiting on it to go live. Apple TV has licensed it. Roku is a platform that's upcoming called Tubi this licensed it and a few more. I have to check with my distributor and see, but it's starting to slowly roll out there. - That's great. It's great that those platforms do exist and that the rules, as you say, like Hollywood aren't dictated to you. A guy like you that is a man of many, many hats can survive in this world on a shoestring budget, but you may not be on a shoestring budget much longer. You could take all you need is one movie to blow up and the way you do things could change overnight. And not that what you're doing is wrong. I think it's fantastic, but I'm sure as you said, you'd rather just go behind the camera, not have to be the jack of all trades and have more people to do the things that are sort of maybe burdening you now and not allowing you is enough time to do the directing as you would like to. - Yeah, and that's the goal. The goal is just to create a self-sustaining company and employ people and have jobs because a lot of people here in my community are interested. Kind of like it was when I first came out of high school. If I had the belief that I could do filmmaking, I'm not sure if I would be at the office today to be honest with you, because I probably would have went directly into trying to be a filmmaker and going that route, but I'm from Tennessee, little old Tennessee. Hollywood is thousands and thousands of miles away. I didn't have the money or the drive to even want to go to move to LA really. So here in Tennessee and ended up going a different path. So like a lot of kids who are coming up through school now who may be thinking, "Hey, I would love to do this and that," but those opportunities aren't here. And being able to provide those opportunities where when I was coming out of high school, I thought there was impossible where it could be possible here is one of my goals. I want to be able to provide that opportunity of, "Hey, if you want to be a part of the moving industry "or the entertainment industry, "you don't have to move out of the way to Hollywood "and do that." We have what we're building right here. Let me teach you these skills. Let me give you these skills and let me hire you to be a part of my company. So it's a slow burn. It's a big ambitious idea, but I see it starting to come into fruition because the growth my company has had from this year to last is almost mind blowing. So I see the more we create projects and just focus on making them high quality and great stories. I see my company starting to build toward that goal of mine. And I can see it growing to the part where maybe one day I'm just sitting in the offices producing these projects and getting them out there and have my own little Hollywood sitting right here in Tennessee. - You know, something, Jerome, it's going to happen. It's absolutely going to happen. And you're an inspiration to any small filmmaker that says, you know, I use this example. You're the little engine that could, you know? It's so true because you didn't let these obstacles stand in front of you. You went out and did it and you're doing it. And you know, something, you build a building one brick at a time and you're building your film company one film at a time. And that's something really to be proud of. And also for your kids, you know? It's not like you're not telling them to do something. You're doing it and you're giving an example to your kids, you know? And that's an amazing thing because people can, oh, do as I say, but not as I do, you know? And, you know, when you're giving that kind of a type of example to your kids and not just your kids, but other kids that see you doing this, it's tremendous. You know, look, I'm not even myself. My kids see me after I left the police department, I taught college and I did stand up comedy, I tried acting, they saw I wasn't afraid to try anything. I maybe didn't succeed in everything or in the way that maybe I had wanted. But, you know, when you try different things, that's admirable too, you know? - Yeah, yeah. And just being, you know, having the courage enough to just step out there and pursue different things, it means a lot. And I started to even see it with my own kids, like they, where they would probably be timid or something here and there, just, man, you only live once, try it. You know, go out there if it's something that you're interested in or passionate about, just go out there and pursue it and just make it happen for yourself. So hopefully, you know, by example, I can be an inspiration to somebody to go out there and just go for it because I, to the point where, especially now in my department, like so many guys are, you know, having to do these extra duty jobs and this and that and just can't seem to get out of the uniform. Whereas, you know, I've, even though I still work full time, I still, I have this company on the side to where I don't have to deal with that. So, you know, and it's growing to the point that one of these days I might have to make a decision. Do I go ahead and retire from this and pursue this full time? So it's a great balance to have. It's a great problem to have. Whereas when I first started, I didn't see this as a possibility. So yeah, I just hope that if there's anybody out there thinking that, "Hey, man, I wanted to pursue that dream, but this is my reality now." It's never too late. You can just go out there and give it a try. I mean, you only got one life to live. - For sure. And John, you've been a police officer for 14 years, right? Do you have a 20 year retirement in Tennessee? Or is it more than that? - We have, my particular department, we have a 25, I think Tennessee wants you for 30. But when I got out of high school, I started at a mental health facility here in Tennessee that uses the same retirement plan. - System, yeah, it's a retirement system, isn't it? - Yeah, so I've actually been in it in our retirement system since I was 19. So I would actually have 20 years next year. Yeah, so that's one of the things, like if I can get to that 25 year mark and if my company-- - You can do 25 steps on your head. - Yeah. - I'll tell you one thing, Geron, you never want to let go of is that, is the health insurance. - Oh yeah, yeah, that's another thing, man. This health insurance is something else. So, yeah, that's really heavy on your mind whenever you're thinking about doing something. - Absolutely, you know, I wanted to talk about how do you balance your time between police work, being a dad of three and doing your movies and you know, your financial struggles that everyone has in this life, everything's really damn expensive. How do you balance all of that? - It's, it took a while to get to the point to where I had to figure that out. So I've eventually figured it out, just coming up with my own way of handling things. It's all about scheduling, scheduling your time through the week, you know, making sure that you have all the time for your family and when you do have the, when I have to focus on my business that everybody knows like this is the time I gotta, I gotta do this and just rationing my time accordingly. And I'm a big schedule guy, my scheduling app, my calendar app and my phone is filled up with stuff. So I'm big on scheduling and being planned out when it comes to my time and everything that I do. So that's, that's a help. And then too, at my job, I took a position where I do a lot of more office stuff. So I work in the lobby taking reporting, walk in reports, call reports, warrant checks and stuff like that. So having that desk job allows me to do my job and on my downtime, I can write, maybe do a little bit of editing and do my film stuff to the way when I'm all for with the family, I can focus with the family. So it kind of kills two birds with one stone and that helped out a lot, especially when it comes to my business stuff. And I'm gracious that the department had something like that to where they, you know, they don't have an issue with me when it's downtime at the job, working on my little work stuff, writing and doing stuff like that. So a lot of that just kind of worked out, worked itself out to the way I can still have enough time for families to have enough time for my business and myself when I need to and get everything done. - That's great, 'cause you know, Geron, there are some jealous people out there. I don't know if you've ever heard that before. There are some people that get jealous of what you're doing. - Yeah. - It's like, you know, it's like they're making the soup. You know, you're putting all the ingredients in it, but people want to eat the soup after you did all that work. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, it's part of it, you know, I would hope nobody is, but, you know, you live long enough to know there's not always the case, but I can't help that. I just have to do what I have to do for, to get my goals and make sure I feed my family at the end of the day. - 100%, tell me about your next big story for your next film idea. And tell me about how it was generated where you got the idea for it. - Well, my next one is, it's called Cubic Zaconia. It's actually inspired by a case that I worked early on in my career. And I wrote that story and it's a good old detective mystery. I love writing those types of stories and this is my first time actually being able to do so. And I've currently in post-production, editing, getting music done for it now and hoping to have that one ready to put out here by the end of the year. But like with the sticks, I have this big universe that I'm creating, it's called the Sticks Universe where these characters kind of can go off into their own movies. And I'm just looking at a broad array of stories like the Sticks is my story about the narcotics unit and the gritty street life. And then I got this movie coming up called Cubic Zaconia is about a detective and what he deals with from missing persons to homicide and stuff like that. It's like my detective theme movie. And then I have another one coming out that's kind of patrol based to kind of show how to patrol officers deal with the beat of the street. So I'm going into these more street all type of facets of law enforcement to kind of show more authentic reiterations of those stories that you necessarily don't see on TV now with a lot of these shows that like we mentioned before it can get too political for the wrong reasons. Like it doesn't show anything. And my thing is I just wanna kind of humanize the bad to kind of take this Superman vision that a lot of people have of us. Like, we're just Superman walking up and down the street. So like whenever you see a cop messing up it's like so shocking. Like no, he bleeds and breathes just like you. He deals with the same issues like you. And a lot of times we work the streets like on one story that I'm working on. This guy is constantly, he's working the streets dealing with all this and that. And he has to go 10-8 and go and serve us to another call where a lot of people would see a child dead in the car and they're done for a month, two months, three months with therapy. We go 10-8 and go right to the next call. So these cops are dealing with so much that they're required to push down and maybe are ticking time bomb. So will you see this guy go off on a citizen? Doesn't necessarily mean that he's a bad person. He's just all this stuff that he's been packing down over the years is just bubbling out all of a sudden. So a lot of stuff like that is what I'm passionate about showing through storytelling, especially now and just trying to humanize the badge and show this guy's the same person as you going through, the same things that you grow through. He just decided to answer a call in and law enforcement and just kind of bring down that expectation that a lot of people have of us. Like we just do no wrong and don't go through anything and we can handle it all and just bring down that Superman mantra and show you that we're people just like everybody else. - You know, Jerron, that's so important because as you know, and it's a common known, that the police have won the highest suicide rates of any profession, one of the highest alcoholism rates of any profession, probably one of the highest divorce rates of any profession. PTSD, I think we all have it. - Yeah. - You know, you've been on the job X amount of years. You got it. Whether you know it or not, you got it because it may take the form of you just waking up in the middle of the night 'cause some really ugly picture came into your head or something you saw, something that you did. And that's PTSD. And many departments, as you know, they don't want to face it, but anything mental health-wise, they're like, "Oh, take his guns, take his guns away from him." You know, he used to call it the bow and arrow patrol. Put him on the bow and arrow patrol. Put him on the rubber gun squad, you know? And departments are just, you know, they're very slow to react to this. - Yeah. - That cops need help too. Just like any other profession, but because of that gun that you live with day to day for your entire police career, it's almost a dirty word to discuss a mental health issue with anyone on the police department, your thoughts. - Yeah, and it is, that's so true. And even my own department here recently, they've really started to where, if you need a mental health day to let somebody know, and they'll give you time to go and talk to somebody. But, you know, the manpower is so short, you don't get much time. You know, they need you back on the streets. And I understand that. I mean, all the departments are dealing with the manpower issues and the streets have to be covered. The city has to be covered. But like a lot of these instances that a lot of police officers go through, like I remember one clearly where this accident with injuries and you have two kids ejected, like, and send their dealing with two dead kids, you shouldn't be expected to go back to work the next day. But all over the country, you are, and they do, you know? So a lot of that is, you know, I tell anybody, this is not the worst physical job, but mentally, it's mental gymnastics a lot of the time over your career and all that builds up. But you're starting to see a lot of the mental health aspects start to get preached more. I guess now the taboo of talking to somebody or the mental health of the job is starting to kind of get normalized. So you're starting to see a lot more departments bring that out, but years ago, yeah, that was an unexistent. - Yeah, years ago, the therapy was all right, I'll meet you at the bar and we'll stay little four in the morning and we'll drown those sorrows and drown our pain down the hall and that's not a good idea. You know, I remember, I had 17 years on a job when 9/11 happened and I worked all different facets, not just me, everyone on the NYPD worked all different. I was in the detective bureau at the time and I had, you know, worked on the pile and I had worked down at the Fresh Kills and I worked at the morgue and I never, I saw a lot of homicides. I never saw bodies in the condition I saw them at the morgue from the attacks of 9/11. And it was a hard thing to see, you know, because these were regular everyday people going to work and they're killed in there and then for God's, you know, you see the cops in the fireman that they brought in, it was horrible, you know? And again, like you said, go home, you know? Say hello to your family, be back tomorrow at 0600, you know. And then I remember people during 9/11 would go into the commanding officer and say, I can't do these hours. My husband and I were both cops and we watched the kids, we alternate and after a while the commanding officer just said, okay, and he would hand them a form and they would look at it and would be resigning from the police department form or whatever it's called. He goes, listen, you know, your country was just attacked. I don't know what to tell you. I can't help you at this point, you know? So basically suck it up and you know, you got to make other arrangements with your kids. And you know, it was a hard lesson to learn and during those times as you say, you know, these are, I'm sure a lot of these stories have yet to be written of this year, what 9/11 is 23 years ago. - Sure, yeah, it's a lot that you can expound on. And that's something that I'm passionate about now is just telling those type of stories, even though it may be unpopular now, 'cause I know for a second there, a lot of networks and stuff didn't want anything cop related to them all, but that's something that I'm passionate about now just to kind of show that authentic side to the job. Like, you know, it's a lot, you know, we were expected or are still kind of are expected to kind of deal with and make sure you had work on time. You know, we, you know, you're dealing with that. That's cool, but we still got a city to protect. We still got these issues to deal with. Just, you know, deal with them, how you deal with them, but just make sure that you're in a role call on time and just showing that opposite side of the coin what a lot of officers and people deal with when they're not at work or even when you don't see them at work is something that I'm passionate about showing and just kind of taking down that Superman of expectations that a lot of people have on us. - You know, some of the, a lot of, to me, hero cops too, were guys who did great things in the community. There's a guy who runs a police boxing program. Pat Russo. And I can't tell you how many kids he's saved through the boxing program. You know, kids right out of the projects, kids in the hood, and while they look to him as a father figure because some of them don't have fathers, he has saved so many kids through that police boxing club. And it's an amazing thing to watch. And there's other detectives that work with him. And, you know, same thing with the baseball programs and, you know, basketball programs, they run for kids. And having cops involved in those things is a great thing because they're seeing the human side of police officers and they're not, five oh, five oh, they say, you know what I mean? They're not looking at it like that. They're looking at all that's officer Pat, he's a dude, man. You know, and they see it from a different, and I'm sure you have the same thing at a different level in Tennessee. - Yeah, and, and, and by them doing that, those, you know, those officers have a perspective to, to give those kids, you know, because they, they see what happens. They see what happens when you're, when you're in the street, they see the destructiveness of what happens going this past. So doing that and kind of leaning them to something more positive and being able to answer these questions and give them their perspective is valuable. It's valuable. It's something that only we can give. Like that's why I say like this job is, we get all the criticism, all of the criticism, but only cops truly know what cops go through. I mean, he almost have to do this job to truly understand what it's like to do this job. So I take my hat off to anybody who, who does, you know, the boxing clubs and stuff like that to have a positive influence out here and just not, you know, so gone cold on, we don't care about them, they don't care about us. Like actually, to me, that's actually putting back into the community with a perspective that only we have. - Yeah, you should never have that us first, them mentality. You know, I'm sure there's times you can feel that way, but that's kind of good. And I remember, you know, there's so many, even on the police department, people don't understand some of the expressions we have. Like I used to love the expression, a million attaboys don't equal one, ah, shit. And that basically saying, a million, oh, you're great, you're great, you make one mistake. And that's what you're going to be remembered for. And it's an unforgiving job in that way. - Yeah, and it's so true. - You've got a question in your next movie, if you want. (laughing) - I'll show you a Tennessee expression, too, right? - Yeah, yeah, hey, that's a great one, 'cause it's so true. It's so true. You can do a million things, right? But they're one thing, that's what you'll be remembered for. - Well, 100%, you know, I taught, after I retired, I taught at an all black and Hispanic college. Well, 99.9%. And I, you know, I was thinking, oh man, one of these kids is going to think of me, because he has a white boy coming in and a homicide sergeant. And they were great, I love the kids, y'all. It was challenging, and I'm not going to act like it was all gravy or all ice cream, but it was good. And we got along, but it was, no, again, it was tough. It's just like anything, it's not you. - So yes, this is always wonderful, but there was a lot of, I have some still in contact with a lot of those kids today, you know, they'll email me over. Professor, they still call me Professor, even though I've been on teaching for six or seven years. Could you write me a letter of recommendation? I'm like, oh, why don't I interrupt me? You're asking me for something. But, you know, it was a great, I actually taught there for over 10 and a half years, 'cause I taught them all the time, I was on the police department. And then when I retired, I taught full time. But yeah, it was a great experience. And those are the things too, that, you know, you meet characters, like you need in your movies. And that's also an observer of the human condition. I think that's probably the best way to put it, right? - Yeah, that's the, that's a perfect way to put it. And, you know, that's why, like, when I started writing, I was like, I see and I observe, like it's a comedic storyline in the sticks that I experienced in some form before. And I remember after screening, they was like, oh, so wild, like, what makes you think of that? And just having that innocent mind to think like, nothing like that, whatever happened is kind of amazing because we experienced so much stuff that, you know, us fighting the naked guy, to somebody normal, they wouldn't think that whatever happened with like, that's just a normal Tuesday to us. You know, us having these different type of experiences and able to put them in a story, it's kind of enlightening and funny at the same time. - Well, you know, Jeran, I think that that's why cops have such a good sense of humor and they're funny, cops are funny, you know, as a group, they're not saying all of them are funny, but as a group, cops are really funny because you have to laugh, 'cause if you don't laugh, you're gonna cry, you know, and you gotta make fun of things. And that's how, you know, that's how, look, how but also like people don't understand is how cops rib each other and put each other's chops, you know, in some professions that would be looked at us, oh, I'm going to, you know, human resources. And the police department, if you can't take that, you better leave, you know. - I remember seeing a video a while back, oh, it was a crime scene and somebody had a camera recording like always and these cops are out there kind of joking about the crime scene. So they were like, oh, this is the most terrible thing. These people are joking about this person dying in the house. I was like, no, that's a coping mechanism. Like they're not trying to dwell on the crap they do so. They're just making those jokes to take their mind off of it. So that's one of the things that only we would understand. You know, that's, we've reeled and joked with each other about stuff that most people will be like, you know, looking at you like, what's wrong with that person? Because there's a way of dealing with that situation. So yeah, that's the only thing that like, you know, only cops can understand that type of situation. - You're 100% right and you're right. People observing that can't understand that they may look at as disrespectful. But it is your 100% coping mechanism. I just want to put you back up on the screen for a second. Folks, it's been my privilege today to interview Jeron Lockridge, a Tennessee police officer. Turn the movie producer. I should have put more on that. Slash writer slash director slash dad slash husband. He has to wear all these hats. And he's doing an unbelievable job. And I really, really mean this. I think that in a year or two, you're going to go back and look at Jeron Lockridge and say, "Holy shit, this guy, he did it, he did it." He really did something besides, look, it's enough to be a cop. But he took his training as a cop. And he took all the experiences and he did something really positive and really positive, not just for himself and his family, but the community. And he's, look, I could see just interviewing you right now, Jeron, you're looking to give back to the community. You're not just doing this all for yourself. You're giving back to the community. And Jeron, we're just about at an hour. I'm going to give you your final thoughts. You can read the Gettysburg Address, whatever you want to do, your final thoughts. - I just say, you know, anybody out there who's interested in what I got going on, just look me up on social media and you're welcome to follow me, interact. If you got questions or anything about, you know, if you're interested in getting the book off or doing a movie yourself, yeah, feel free to reach out. And hopefully you will support this project, the sticks that you see over my shoulder back there. When it starts slowly posting on platforms, hopefully to be on Amazon real soon. I know a lot of people love that platform and more platforms to be announced. So I just want to thank you first and foremost for having me on today. And I really enjoyed our conversation today. - It was fantastic, Jeron. I'm going to reach out to you again. If you could stay around when I go off the air just for a minute or so. But I really enjoy talking to you and look, next year I know you're going to be much, much bigger. And I'd like to say, I want to stay in contact with you because you're from real famous, you know? So well, at least off the car from real crime stories, but this is the Lauren crime author series and we are slash movie producer, director, all of those things that Jeron Lockridge is. Have a great day, everyone, and God bless. (upbeat music) ♪ Get it left up, get it in the tube ♪