Justen and Julien Turner are the creative brothers behind Freelance, a 41-minute pilot that recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In a true full-circle moment, the duo had originally saved up money to attend the prestigious festival as fans the year prior. After realizing how expensive the trip would be, they decided to pivot and use those savings to fund and shoot their own project instead.
That very project became Freelance, earning them a surprise acceptance call to the festival.
Freelance is a serial comedy that spotlights the unpredictable hustle behind making a movie and navigating the creative industry. To bring their vision to life, the brothers cast a mix of internet personalities and established actors, featuring familiar faces like Kevin Onstage and Spence Moore. Because the Turners were so familiar with social talent, they essentially used Instagram timelines as resumes, reaching out organically to cast creators whose unique comedic styles perfectly fit the show’s characters.
The inspiration for the story came directly from a shared notes app where Justen and Julien would document all the funny, crazy, and chaotic moments they experienced on commercial sets. The series serves as a condensed “speed run” of their own careers, highlighting the tough lessons they had to learn the hard way.
Importantly, the brothers intentionally shifted away from the overused “making it out of the hood” trope. Instead, they chose to showcase a supportive, middle-class upbringing, shedding light on the reality that filmmaking is a privilege that often requires capital and familial support to enter.
At the heart of the series is the protagonist, Lance (Moore), who represents the “Zillennial” generation, a demographic caught in the purgatory between Millennials and Gen Z.
Through Lance’s journey, the Turners explore the anxiety of entering today’s job market that feels like a “rug pull.” With the film industry facing dwindling opportunities and a lack of clear guidance post-COVID, the brothers perfectly capture the struggle of young creatives trying to stay afloat in a shifting landscape.
We sat down with Justen and Julien to discuss the making of Freelance, the Zillennial creative struggle, and the power of doing it yourself.
[Interview has been edited for length and clarity]
The Quintessential Gentleman: First and foremost, congratulations. What does it mean for you to be a part of the Sundance circuit?
Julien: It was a surprise to both of us when we got the news. That was the last thing we were expecting. To be a part of the last one in Utah is crazy. Last year we were saving up our money to go to Sundance, but once we realized how expensive it was, we decided to use our money to actually shoot something instead. That ended up being Freelance, so it’s a full-circle moment.
QG: What was it like finding out? Was it an email or a phone call?
Justen: It was actually a phone call. We didn’t have our personal number in FilmFreeway, so somehow they left a voicemail on our mom’s phone. She sent us the transcript and told us to call the number right now. We called, and a programmer said they loved Freelance and wanted to premiere it at the Sundance Film Festival. We muted ourselves and I ran around the house.
QG: What were you doing beforehand? What is your background prior to this project?
Justen We started back around 2012, and got our LLC around 2014 or 2015. We did a lot of sci-fi and action short films. I also used to shoot Julien’s high school football games for money to make highlight tapes. Around 2020, we got into advertising and sneaker commercials, working with James Whitner from Whitaker Group. Eventually, we were picked up by a production company, Invisible Collective, and did commercials for brands like Axe, Taco Bell, and Cheez-It. We honed our skills, saved money, and put it into the bank for when we decided to do our own personal project. For our day jobs, we work at Abercrombie & Fitch at their headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. I’m an art director on the editorial side, and Justen’s an art director on the social team.
QG: Where did the idea for the concept of the story in Freelance come from?
Justen: We used to have a shared notes app where we would put down anything funny or crazy that happened on set. We were like this gotta go into some kind of like serial comedy at some point. We eventually compiled enough events and decided to call it Freelance and make it a serial comedy. It’s a condensed speed run of our career, showing the lessons we learned, like learning you don’t like editing by doing a documentary, or learning what overtime is by going into overtime.
QG: When you were thinking about casting people like Kevin Onstage or Spence Moore, what was that process like?
Julien: We work a lot with social talent and non-actors on the commercial side. We wanted people who fit specific niches of characters, and who better to play these niches than the talent we see every day on our timelines?. We reached out organically through DMs, and from there the relationships developed.
QG: I loved seeing the representation of middle-class life—having supportive parents and a nice home, rather than the typical story of “making it out of the hood.” Why was this the setting for you?
Justen: We wanted to speak to a part of Middle America that is often not spoken about, outside of major cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. We also wanted to address that filmmaking is a privilege that takes a level of capital to get into. Our parents are super talented, inspiring, and invested in us to get into filmmaking at a young age, so we wanted to incorporate that aspect of our life into the series.
QG: What are your thoughts around the “Zillennial” generation, and why did you choose Lance to represent that?
Justen: It feels like the current landscape around all professions is a rug pull. Twenty years ago, opportunities seemed endless coming out of college, but now opportunities seem to be dwindling and the industry is on halt. There isn’t a tutorial on how to get through it. Julien is a Zillennial and Justen is more Gen Z, so since we’re four years apart, we saw two different sides of the job market and the internet society. We wanted to speak to that in-between purgatory that bridges Millennial and Gen Z struggles.
QG: What do you think about the current industry landscape, and how do you want to move forward?
Justen: Since COVID shut down the film industry, there haven’t been many slivers of hope. Streamers are buying less and investing less into original ideas, and the bubble has popped around the industry. We feel that now is the best time to do things independently if you have the capital, rather than waiting on “the industry”. We are leaning on our community, which is what Freelance is honestly about.
QG: What was one of the biggest lessons you learned around funding this 41-minute pilot?
Julien: You have to build the boat and the plane as you go. You need a delusional POV and confidence as a creative to just go out and do it. If people realize the train is moving, they are more apt to hop on. Telling people we were shooting on a specific weekend helped put the fire under them to commit and get on board.
QG: What are your thoughts on AI and its current manifestation in the industry?
Justen: There’s good AI and bad AI. People like Ben Affleck are trying to use AI to cut down on menial tasks, which there may be space for in the future. However, if we overindulge, people will really value human-made work over AI work. We hope there is more regulation to protect the environment.
Check out the full interview.
Photo Credit: DREADHEAD Films
