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Jason R. Johnston (born July 10, 1979 in McAllen, TX) is an American multi-award-winning cinematographer, director, producer, and editor of independent films.

Life and career
A multi-faceted independent filmmaker since childhood, Jason began his career in the television advertising industry in 1997, producing thousands of regional commercials for small businesses in southern Texas. Transitioning to feature films in 2007, Jason began work as a unit stills photographer, then camera assistant, then camera operator, on a few low budget feature films.

Progressing to cinematography in 2009 and working on several short films, Jason shot his first feature film as Director of Photography in 2010. By 2023, Jason has shot 7 feature films, 18 short films (directed 5 of them), 44 music videos (directed 30), competed in 18 timed filmmaking competitions (awarded 6 times for his cinematography), several of which became official selections, won awards, and gathered critical recognition, at film festivals across the world.

Personal life
A native Texan, Jason resides near Nashville, Tennessee where he works as a full-time freelance cinematographer or director on narrative feature films and short films, as well as music videos, advertisements, commercial documentaries, and broadcast television programs. He also dabbles in photography, drawing and painting, playing the piano, singing, and composing music and film scores.

Jason is primarily influenced by film directors Ridley Scott, Norman Jewison, Michael Mann, and Steven Spielberg; cinematographers Derek Vanlint, Jordan Cronenweth, Alex Thomson, Adrian Biddle, Oswald Morris, John Mathieson, Douglas Slocombe, Dean Cundey, Jan de Bont, Bill Butler, Michael Chapman, Allen Daviau, Vilmos Zsigmond, Geoffrey Unsworth, Vittorio Storaro, and Roger Deakins; as well as Baroque painters Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Vermeer.

His favorite film is Jaws. Jason is Christian and regularly freelances for TBN. He is currently working on his first feature film as director.