After graduating high school from Duluth, MN in 1995 Jim Ojala joined his local public access station. There he was taught all aspects of video production. Most importantly he gained complete access to video equipment and editing facilities.
Soon he would collaborate with friends, Derek Brun, Marty Johnson and Jeremy Davey to create the infamous series, My Three Scums. The horror/comedy series revolved around a family of misfits, freaks and monsters and their attempts at getting by and back at a society that rejects them. The series continued for 3 years and gained a large local following. However, Jim felt there was nowhere further to go by staying in Minnesota.
It was time to move on.
Jim sent off a tape of the best episode in a huge box filled with balloons to Troma Entertainment in New York City. This got their attention and a month later Jim was invited to visit. Upon this visit, Jim was offered a position on the set of their new film "Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4 (imdb)".
Once there, Jim was offered a position in the special makeup effects department of Tim Considine’s Direct Effects. After the completion of the film, Jim went on to assist Tim on features, commercials, photo shoots and theatre. Jim also handled the manufacturing of an entire bald cap line whose clients included Phantom of the Opera, Blue Man Group, Saturday Night Live and Planet of the Apes.
Once work began to slow down in late 2001, Jim moved to Los Angeles. Since then, Jim has worked on the makeup effects for many TV series such as "Angel (imdb)" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (imdb)" and many features such as "House of the Dead 2" (imdb), "X-Men 3 (imdb)", "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (imdb)", "Black Dahlia Movie: The Elizabeth Short Story (imdb)", and the upcoming "Where the Wild Things Are (imdb)".
Jim is also listed with the Internet Movie Database along with Animal Makers.
Jim Ojala