Biography

Shawn Martin was born in April of 1988 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the fourth child of Bill Martin and Fay Landry (then Martin, maiden name Gallant).

Growing up in a small city in Canada, he was an active child who loved the outdoors. All through elementary school, he was always asked what he wanted to be when he grew up and never could give a solid answer; a police officer, firefighter, doctor and even a professional wrestler.

It was in 1999, at the age of 11, that he first thought of becoming a filmmaker after seeing The Faculty (1998) by Robert Rodriguez. After a while, the thought left his head with dream constantly changing.

In Junior High, the thought came once again after seeing the advances in technology and how film-making became more like fun instead of a job. He started to study film on the Internet and through the 10 Minute Film Schools on Robert Rodriguez's DVD releases, but with his after work job and very little finances, he deemed the thought impossible.

During a visit trip to his father in Alberta in 2008 is when he finally decided that he wanted to be a filmmaker after reading handouts from SAIT which offered a film program. After missing the deadline to submit a student loan to the school, he decided to try things on his own and wrote his first screenplay later that year.

In late 2008, he founded Joseph James Pictures, an independent production (doing business as) company to produce and release his films.

In 2010, and with the use of a friend's camera, he started shooting his first short film The Bench (2014). All but one scene was shot before the production ended due to cast conflicts and uncontrollable weather.

From 2011 until 2015, the camera used in his productions was supplied by production partner, John Houston.

In November of 2011, he shot Chest Pain (2011) and completed the entire film in only a total of 9 hours.

He submitted the film to several film festivals, including IndieFlix and the Very Short Film Festival.

In March 2012, he released Retaliate (2012) where it competed in the Astana Action Short Film Festival.

Later that year, he released his first animated comedy film, Small Town Kevin (2012) which was created with the help of GoAnimate! and also released a sequel to his first experimental film Drip. (2011) titled Drip 2: Drip Harder (2012) which plays homage to the Die Hard (1988) film series.

In 2013, he produced, shot and edited I Promise (2013), directed by John Houston and written by Ryan Gallant. This marks the first time where Martin has not written nor directed a film released by Joseph James Pictures. The film was entered into the ShortsNonStop Online Film Festival.

In 2013, Martin resumed production on The Bench (2014) after three years of production issues with a new cast and crew.

In April of 2016, Martin shot and released the short film Deep Fried (2016) to coincide with 420, although he is not a user of the substance.

Productions from April 2016 until present will be shot with a Canon Rebel T5, owned by Martin.
- IMDb mini biography by: Shawn Martin

Often casts John Addison MacKinnon and Miranda Godkin in his films.

Hides references to Prince Edward Island in all his films.

Learned about filmmaking from the Robert Rodriguez 10 Minute Film Schools.

Favorite directors are Robert Rodriguez, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Darren Lynn Bousman and Kevin Smith, to name a few.

Brother of William Martin and Kirby Martin.

Son of Fay Landry.

Step-father is Michael Landry.