Javaughn Henry’s Creative Journey Behind "Chicken and Rice"

Three Key Takeaways

Immersive, experiential research drives Javaughn’s creative process, blending physical practice with artistic inspiration.
Balancing technical ambition with personal performance, Javaughn risks new gear to achieve cinematic and emotional impact.
Family collaboration and vulnerability on set empower authentic storytelling and personal growth.

Filmmaker and multi-hyphenate Javaughn Henry takes center stage in his deeply personal project, Chicken and Rice, winner of the CFA Quarterly Film Challenge.

Exploring the dark spiral of social media obsession through the lens of bodybuilding culture, Javaughn not only wrote, directed, and edited the film but also stars in it.

His wife and sister played integral behind-the-scenes roles, making this a true family affair.

Javaughn’s commitment to authenticity and craft shines throughout this intimate, visually striking work.

Q&A Interview

Did you write your script during the challenge window or beforehand? Please feel free to explain your creative process further here.

My creative process starts the same, trial and learning through fire. Whenever I want to explore a topic, I always start by creating a point of view and that perspective, for me at least, is only created by physically doing. I love to put myself in the middle of the action and actually practice the topics that I am exploring. It gives me a more hands-on in tune relationship with the subject, which then allows me to sit down and conceptualize the idea. This comes from my many years as a musician where the only time that you actually learned was through doing. It’s not through looking at music, studying the notes, nor interviewing musician that you get better, but by picking up the instrument and playing. Your perspective, at least mine, on any creative endeavor starts solely from jumping in and physically participating.

From there, I begin the process of conceptualizing, informing my own ideas as it relates to the overarching concept that I have explored. In doing this, I don’t only sit with the ideas that I’m trying to explore, but I also open myself up to other artistic endeavors, I tend to listen to a lot of classical and romantic music, study artists from the impressionist era, and read poetry. These all open me up to not create from within myself, but be open to the many ideas from the great artist that came before me.

Finally, I just start writing, acting, or performing. I always like to say that the idea is my start for me, but the act of creating has a mind of its own. Yes I edit me performances after they’re done, but in the moment you just need to fully immerse yourself in the moment or you risk losing the “magic” of a performance. It really is just being open and trusting the participation, the reflection and the research that I have done to all come together to create something that is unique and new.

What was your biggest creative risk or boldest decision — and did it pay off?

The biggest creative risk that I took was probably in the camera that I used. I have been an avid Blackmagic design user for about eight years now going all the way back to the original pocket camera. Using the Blackmagic Ursa Cine was definitely a step outside of my comfort zone, but towards where I want my creative journey in image capturing to go. Having to juggle both cinematography, wanting to capture the stunning imagery, as well as self directing and performing was definitely a creative risk, but at the end of the day, my largest goal to create stunning performances, and this allowed me to live in both worlds.

What surprised you most about the process — either about yourself or your team?

Not being embarrassed was actually the most surprising part of this whole project. I don’t much have the opportunity to perform in front of my family and this whole project. My little sister was the focus puller and my wife was the producer, so they were not only hands-on, but also eyes on. The most surprising and uplifting part of the whole project was being able to truly live in the moment and perform in front of those whose opinions mean the most, and being able to still truly let go of all of the self judgment, the apprehension, and the embarrassment, and truly live in the moment and still perform was a blessing and was incredibly uplifting.

Was there a moment where you thought you wouldn’t finish? How did you push through?

A little towards the end, we were getting short on time because the end scene needed to be redone. It wasn’t sitting in a place that either my wife, nor I particularly liked. The thing that really pushed me through was just the understanding that a complete completed project does not serve a purpose that only fits in one category whether this project was submitted to the CFA film challenge or simply published elsewhere due to running out of time the project speaks for itself and accomplishes what I set out to do once you relinquish the idea of complete control on an outcome the creative process become so much easier.

Did you meet new collaborators through CFA’s Collab Sheet? If yes, tell us who and what they did!

My wife and I are bi-coastal and unfortunately, we were not in Los Angeles to participate in the collaboration aspect of the CFA challenge this time, but we are looking forward to broadening our creative teams and opening up to collaboration in the future.

“Your perspective, at least mine, on any creative endeavor starts solely from jumping in and physically participating.”

What gear did you use (camera, sound, editing software, etc)?

Camera - Ursa Cine 12k
Lenses - Dzofilm Arles
Monitoring - Hollyland Mars M1 w/ Mars 4k Transmitter
Focus System - Nucleus M
Lighting - Nanlite FC-60, Nanlite Forza 500
Sound - Hollyland lark Lav w/ Audio-Technica AT875R
Editing - Davinci Resolve

What was your shooting schedule like? How many hours did you shoot each day?

The shooting schedule wasn’t all that strenuous. I am very neat when it comes to shot selection and shot breakdown. My philosophy is to plan because a lot of what cinematography boils down to is fixing problems on the day and setting up so I don’t want to waste all of that time having to think of the shots that I need to get to tell the story. We probably shot for 3 to 4 hours a day for two days with one hour of pick up.

What would you do differently next time?

I would definitely enlist more people to help with the set up and the teardown of everything, that is probably the most time-consuming part of the whole process.

“Not being embarrassed was actually the most surprising part of this whole project.”

What advice would you give to someone doing this challenge for the first time?

Be open, commit, and have fun. These are the low stakes environments that every creator should dream of. You have people who are supporting you and giving you the opportunity to not only showcase your work but create something, anything, and get it out there. This organization gives you access to tools, access to community, and also access to resources to put together a vision. Have fun, make something, release it, join the community and move onto the next project.

Anything else we should know or include? (Shoutouts, partner organizations, fun facts?)

Huge shout out to Blackmagic design, you guys have democratized high-end cinema tools. I used to dream of owning an Arri Alexa in order to create the stunning images that always fascinated me. Now with a fraction of the cost I can create those very same images and even beyond. Thank you. Most of all a huge shout out to my family, friends, and community that taught me the best lesson that any budding artist can learn, which is it is not silly to create.