Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen by Jon M. Chu & Jeremy McCarter

Author:Jon M. Chu & Jeremy McCarter [Chu, Jon M. & McCarter, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2024-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

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No sooner had I finished Step Up 3D (once again, mixed reviews; once again, box office success—$159 million worldwide) than I got a much clearer look at the internet’s enormous potential to create, destroy, and everything in between. A full immersion, in fact.

“Have you heard of Justin Bieber?”

Adam Goodman was on the phone. He was the president of production at Paramount, though I’d known him since he’d been a studio exec at DreamWorks, in my bygone tyro days.

“I think so,” I told him. “The internet guy.”

That was one way of describing Justin, who was, at sixteen years old, a worldwide celebrity with an album atop the Billboard chart. What set him apart from other pop stars—what made him “the internet guy”—was that he’d been discovered on YouTube. Just a regular kid from a small Canadian town who now inspired Beatlemania screams every time he left his house.

Paramount had acquired the rights to make a 3D film of his upcoming show at Madison Square Garden. But the concert was less than a month away and it still didn’t have a director. Adam knew that I’d just come off a 3D movie, and he remembered me from my over-the-top Moxie pitch. He wondered if I’d be interested. I said I’d get back to him.

I hung up thinking a concert movie might be fun but not taking the idea much more seriously than that. Then I went to YouTube.

I’d been impressed by Justin’s videos when he’d blown up the year before. But this time, I scrolled all the way back to the earliest comments on his videos and saw how he started. First his mom had left one, then his neighbors, then total strangers. Those fans had connected with one another, and pretty soon a community had formed. Their enthusiasm had launched Justin with so much velocity that within two years he could sell out the world’s most famous arena in twenty-two minutes.

Those comments made me feel like I’d been on the ride the entire time. It was a fairy tale: a kid chasing a dream—the kind of story I like best. Only this time it had a Silicon Valley twist because of the outsized role that the internet had played in creating one of the biggest stars in the world. I started to imagine ways to tell Justin’s story using the comments and his songs.

It all sounded great, Adam told me when I called him back, but the decision wasn’t entirely up to him. I’d need the approval of Justin’s manager, the one who had discovered him on YouTube and set the entire crazy story in motion.

“He’s a lot,” Adam said.

I assured him I could handle it, then called the number he’d given me.

“I don’t think you’re the right filmmaker for this,” said Justin’s manager, Scooter Braun.

A challenge. I relish a challenge.

I explained why I was the right filmmaker for this. It seemed to me that Justin represented a new generation, young people pursuing their dreams in a connected world—a world that I was part of and knew well.

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