AJ Arts & Entertainment

Joan Mead-Matsui Abington Journal Correspondent

Baseball player. Filmmaker. Writer. Actor. Model. Yoga practitioner. These words are all synonymous with one man: Johnny Braz.

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For Johnny Braz of Clarks Summit, life’s a ball as filmmaker and yoga practitioner.

Abington Journal/Joan Mead-Matsui

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For Johnny Braz of Clarks Summit, life’s a ball as filmmaker and yoga practitioner.

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The 45-year-old Clarks Summit resident thrives on “creative impulse” as his driving force.

That force has been the momentum that has led him down a path that has included a long list of varied artistic projects such as filming The Monterey Jazz Festival for Clint Eastwood and years later working on Flags of Our Fathers, touring twice with Bonnie Raitt as her environmental spokesperson and working closely with Robert Downey Jr. as camera assistant for the movie, “Friends and Lovers,” filmed in Park City, UT. The list goes on: He worked with Sylvester Stallone in the last “Rocky,” with Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” and with Emilio Estevez’ “Bobby.”

“I’m a huge jazz fan and I was fortunate enough to do a jazz documentary with the one and only Clint Eastwood.”

He spent his early days as a baseball player in the Abington Heights School District and moved to the fast-paced and alluring life as a filmmaker in California, where he filmed “The Dress” in 1993 and 1994. Now he has returned to Clarks Summit exercising his body, mind and creativity through local film projects and as a yoga practitioner.

In the first chapter of his life, Braz was defined by his batting average and leadership skills on the field. “I was the first baseball player to letter all four years,” said Braz. “At one point I held all of the records because I had played the most games. That could have had something to do with my father’s winning coaching skills. My father was the chief influence in my life. His perfectionism worked for me and made me determined to go deep within myself.”

In chapter two of his life, Braz worked in New York as a bartender and waiter and dabbled in filmmaking with creative longings “to produce a film.” “I started doing these storyboards for this story idea I had about a dress. I sat in Central Park day after day. This is how it culminated into my first project. I got to the point where I said to myself, ‘I need to make a film if I’m going to be a filmmaker.’”

Sometime in between swinging a bat and setting the stage for his film, “The Dress” while living in New York, Braz appeared in front of the camera as a model and his photos appeared in European fashion magazines. “I was working as a waiter at the time and my agent sent me to modeling jobs, which led to an opportunity to appear in the soap opera, “Ryan’s Hope.” I met some photographers, but I never anticipated the opportunity to model would present itself.”

Chapter three began when Braz moved to Los Angeles, where he found himself in the limelight in a five-year high profile relationship with actress, Jamie Luner, which landed the couple on those who’s dating who pages of periodicals such as People magazine and Cosmopolitan. Luner has played Cindy Lubbock in the television sitcom, “Just the Ten of Us;” Lexi Sterling on “Melrose Place” and Rachel Burke on “Profiler.” Since April 2009, Luner has played the role of Liza Colby on the ABC soap opera, “All My Children.”

“I was working in the coffee house and Jamie Luner came in the coffee house,” said Braz. “We met and we literally spent the next five years together. She was an important part of my journey. Without knowing Jamie, I don’t know if we would have had the creative jump start to accomplish our goals. We inspired one another and benefited as artists by supporting one another at a really high-end restaurant.”

Braz is not a big movie buff. “I remember NFL films on cable with slow motion, beautiful photography and classical music. I never realized what a huge, huge impact that had on me until years later when I was pondering where my filmmaking would take me.”

“I shot ‘The Dress’ and my friend pushed me around in a wagon. It wasn’t a big crew. Whether a movie costs $200,000 or $200 million, the process is the same.”

After filming “The Dress,” Braz worked in the Hollywood trenches. “I made a film first and then became the coffeemaker,” he said. “I switched roles in 1999 when Jamie and I broke up. I’ve done everything you could imagine from the coffee guy to a production assistant, to grip work.”

The grip crew sets up the lights and helps set up the shot for the director. They’re the technicians who make it all happen on the set and are separate from electricians who do the wiring and lighting.

When he found himself straying from the course he had set decades earlier, Braz sensed it was time to make a change, to once again follow his two passions: a healthy lifestyle and filmmaking. “I’ve rededicated myself to working out and getting back on track. I began yoga practice in the ’90s, which reflects the inner athlete and baseball training in high school. Yoga is my cohesive force. It’s amazing.”

Locally, Braz has worked on films for organizations such as Power Scranton, The Scranton Jazz Festival, musician Marko Marcinko and other organizations, and is also investigating other creative endeavors for television and film. He shot the Scranton Jazz Festival last year and has been invited back this year.

“I conquered my dream of going to Hollywood to learn filmmaking first hand,” said Braz. “Everyone knows me. I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from my California experiences and brought it back to share with the Northeast Pennsylvania community. Work was not work, but a paid opportunity to learn movie making from the masters. I am sharing yoga with friends, and making movies and films.”

In chapter four of his life, Braz is stewing ideas and developing characters in his mind. He has a project in the writing stage that could soon become a film. Aside from some of the smaller projects he has done, he is also planning to finish a screenplay.

For Johnny Braz, “there’s this stage where there’s a lot going on—it’s an experiment. You need to have a starting point and you build on that. Mine starts out with a hunch and snowballs over time.”