I first met Jamie Follis briefly at a screening of last year’s HSE High School student film Iris.  Last July, Adam Aasen & I invited him to appear on our weekly film podcast “Hamilton County Goes To The Movies.”  It was during that interview that I learned Mr. Follis was more than a film making  adviser for high school students, he also worked on the side as a sculptor.

All that led to Jamie Follis being named Arts Educator of the Year” by Nickel Plate Arts, according to my news-gathering partners at the Hamilton County Reporter.

For 20 years, Follis has been educating and creating a passion in students for film by teaching an after-school film studies course. In 2013, he decided to use his experience in filmmaking to create Olio Road Productions, a fully-functioning film group that seeks to connect the most talented students at HSE and turn the school into a film studio. Follis guides and oversees the students as they create original, feature-length films. Follis says the students create every aspect of the project, including writing, producing, directing,
acting, filming, lighting and editing. In addition to teaching at Hamilton Southeastern, Follis works as a professional sculptor, selling his work at art gallery shows and on a commission basis.

Follis has also worked as a producer and in production design for Disney/Lucasfilm,
Supernatural, Seth Meyers, Patton Oswalt and Stephen Colbert. Most recently,
Follis was the art director for The Storyteller, which won the Audience Award
at the 2018 Heartland Film Festival.

Follis says he will proudly display his award, made from copper, wood and stained glass by DeMaris Gaunt of Mud Horse Art, a former Fishers resident. Each Nickel Plate Arts’ nominee received a gift of a locally-made item. Follis was also given a hand-turned wooden pen made by Fishers resident Chris Hayes of AskCheese Woodworks.

You can view the full-length feature film produced by his students last year, Iris, at this link

Yo can listen to the podcast interview with Jamie Follis (along with Fishers resident Andy Murphy, mother of famed director Ryan Murphy)  at this link.