Jan Shaw

Jan R. Shaw grew up in La Canada, California, in the foothills of the Angeles Crest Mountains, northeast of Los Angeles. Avis, her mother, was an artist, avid reader, writer, and head accountant for Bank of America. George, her father, was a star athlete and built cars from scratch as a teenager. He received an architectural degree from the University of Southern California, after which he designed and built custom homes. He became an aerospace engineer, working as Chief Liaison between Design and Assembly for Skunk Works, Lockheed, his planes including Howard Hughes' Constellation and the famous Blackbird SR71. Jan went to the college-prep schools of La Canada, writing for the high school paper and winning the Certificate of Outstanding Achievement in Journalism. She was the KRLA rock station representative for her high school, where she met many famous rock groups and disc jockeys including Bob Eubanks and Casey Kasem, providing content for the paper. As a journalist, she regularly attended the ABC television taping of Shindig where she was present for the premier of The Rolling Stones Satisfaction, and spoke with many star musicians, winning the Quill and Scroll Award of Honor for Outstanding and Distinctive Journalism from the International Honorary Society. Jan attended one of the top three Film Schools in the country at San Diego State University, receiving a BA in Film, graduating With Highest Honors. A student film she wrote, produced and directed, won a First Place National Award for Best Entertaining film and the award for Best Film at San Diego State University. She minored in Journalism, winning a Broadcast Journalism Award. A friend gifted her with a 16mm camera, enabling her to make a documentary film before she was old enough to start film school. It was chosen to screen in the San Diego Film Festival and was sought after by Mission Cable Television, who offered her a job in film production. While still in school she was chosen to work for the San Diego City School district writing, producing, directing and editing educational videos. Jan attended an extension course at Humboldt State College called the Science of Creative Intelligence. Upon returning to San Diego she received a call from the top ad agency to produce and direct a commercial which won her an Emmy Award for Best Directing. She took a full-time job at The Odyssey Corporation, writing, producing, directing and editing a variety of productions, including animation, from which she won two Merit Medals for commercials. Saratoga Development Corporation doubled her salary to work with them on a number of in-house films, working primarily as an editor. Winner Circle Films hired her away to help produce a feature documentary in which she was co-writer, supervising producer, second-unit director and editor. This film won several Emmy Awards, a Special Jury Award at the Virgin Island Film Festival, and the National Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence. She was invited to Sun Up San Diego where Sarah Purcell interviewed her about her experience working on Run for Blue. She then worked for public television, where she was Director and/or Unit Production Manager on 22 films and 30 TV shows, The Growing Years educational series, followed by the documentary Diane: The Story of a 601. Cinematographer Jan De Bont hired her as Script Supervisor to work for Noel Marshall Productions on the feature film Roar, which had a cast that included 132 wild lions, tigers, leopards and elephants, beside stars Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith. She also worked for his Hollywood production company, The Film Consortium, on a vast number of commercials. Mr. De Bont hired her again as Production Manager for his KLM Royal Dutch Airlines promotional film. After being invited to join Women in Film by master Script Consultant, Linda Seger, she was asked to help produce the Crystal Awards. She was asked to be a judge for the Cable Ace Awards in the category of Directing for Movies and Miniseries. After joining the Writers Guild of America she was asked to be a judge for the WGA Awards in the category of Animation. She joined the Directors Guild of America after many hours of directing, assistant directing and production managing. In 1982, she formed her own company, Real Magic Productions where she wrote, produced, directed and/or edited documentaries, features, industrial videos, public service announcements, and commercials. She had the pleasure of meeting the magician Doug Henning, who was interested in one of her scripts. He recommended her to the producers of the documentary, Unified Field Based Rehabilitation and Leadership which she directed and edited. It was praised for the editing, and effective in transforming prisons around the country and the military and government in South America. She also produced the documentary Festival of Light and Bliss, for Maharishi International University, where she received an MA in Maharishi Vedic Science in 2016 and is acquiring an MA in Reading the Vedic Literature in Sanskrit. In 2005, she received an honorary PhD in World Peace from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, at MIU, as a result of her many course studies, teaching and work for over 30 years, which has facilitated her focus on enlightened entertainment. She also received three Maharishi Awards for Enlightened Entertainment and Achievement in Consciousness. She has attended several course extensions and workshops at UCLA, AFI, WIF, and the DGA. In 2017, her company incorporated as Invincible World Entertainment, LLC, where she is Chief Executive Officer, and has written and is producing the unique action adventure, sci-fi fantasy feature film, The Field Effect.