Jonathan "Jay" Kaplin

Production Manager  /  Studio Development & Operations  /  Technical Production

503.734.9141
jonathan.kaplin@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/jonathanskaplin
jonathanskaplin.com

Built a career at the intersection of operational rigor and creative ambition. Studio-side, staff, and fluent in the gap between what a production needs to be and what it actually takes to make it, across live action, animation, virtual production, and some of the most technically demanding content being made right now.

Lord Danger

Los Angeles, CA

Production Manager, Associate Producer

Environments: Commercial Live Action  /  Animation  /  Post-Production
Clients: Epic Games  /  CD Projekt Red  /  Adobe  /  Zoom  /  LEGO  /  Amazon  /  Honda  /  DoorDash  /  Sonicare  /  Welch's  /  Blizzard Entertainment  /  Kayak.com  /  Gushers

Among the most decorated independent production companies in advertising, with top-tier recognition across Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, and beyond. Operational lead on a three-person executive team, owning the full production lifecycle from greenlight through financial close across studio operations, vendor infrastructure, client relationships, and compliance.

  • Manages production from greenlight through wrap: cost report auditing, profit participation actualization, and federal and state compliance at the company level.
  • Executes $8M+ in annual studio purchase orders; maintains union compliance, payroll infrastructure, and regulatory standards across all studio activity.
  • Sustains a vendor network enabling full production deployment in less than 60 days from greenlight to camera.
  • Holds stem-to-stern technical expertise across the virtual production pipeline, maintaining fluency current with leading practitioners in the field.
  • Maintains production culture and operational standards across a rotating ecosystem of freelance crew, staff, and vendor partners, onboarding all incoming talent to studio systems, compliance requirements, and workflow expectations.
  • Owns client relationships from first meeting through delivery and beyond; surfaces market intelligence to fuel executive business development and new business close.

Production Coordinator

Coordinated complex multi-market productions while building the operational infrastructure that would underpin the studio's growth across new project types and expanded client relationships.

  • Managed multi-market productions across Europe and the Americas; oversaw quarterly payroll of $700K with full compliance oversight.
  • Drove 10% client retention increase through tailored production environments and proactive relationship management.

Maingrove Captures / Dark Burn Creative

Los Angeles, CA

Production Coordinator

Environments: In-Engine Animation  /  In-Game Capture  /  Live Action  /  Finishing  /  Localization
Clients: Meta  /  Amazon Games  /  Epic Games  /  EA  /  Riot Games

Specialized production environment serving the world's largest game publishers across in-engine animation, in-game capture, and live action, often simultaneously, with no established playbook.

  • Managed a production team of 40 across 15+ simultaneous active projects with overlapping deadlines and non-traditional deliverable requirements.
  • Built specialized crews for non-traditional capture requests, developing operational infrastructure for project types with no prior precedent at the studio.
  • Brought in Amazon and Meta as new clients through innovative capture methodologies, contributing directly to 15% studio growth.

Fuzzy Door Entertainment

Los Angeles, CA

Office Production Assistant

Projects: The Orville  /  The End Is Nye  /  Cosmos  /  Family Guy  /  Naked Gun

Supported three executive desks at Seth MacFarlane's production company across an active slate of broadcast and streaming productions.

  • Coordinated between legal, corporate, and creative stakeholders to keep active productions on timeline and on brief.
  • Identified emerging talent and tracked IP with development potential across the studio slate, supporting long-term project pipeline.

Columbia College Chicago

Bachelor of Arts, Cinema Arts & Science

Semester in LA (SiLA) Program  /  Alumni Career Mentor

Working knowledge of compliance, rules, and production protocols across:
AICP  /  DGA  /  IATSE  /  SAG-AFTRA  /  PHBP  /  DOT

Production & Budget

Movie Magic  /  HotBudget  /  Studio Binder  /  Showbiz

Payroll

Wrapbook  /  CAPS Payroll

Project Tracking

Airtable

Virtual Production

Full pipeline  /  stem-to-stern

Creative & Office

Adobe Creative Suite  /  Microsoft Office Suite