At the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Jeff earned a bachelor degree in composition with emphasis on scoring for film. The school's program helped him devlelop his skills in performing, writing, and production. With direction from the Film Scoring Department chairman, Don Wilkins, Jeff teamed up with visual artist and animator Eric Hirsch, who was then a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design. At DuArt in New York, Jeff and Eric created the project's final sound mix with Dominick Tavella (who later won an Academy Award for Sound for the feature, "Chicago”). Their collaboration yielded en trance, an animated short film which was selected by RISD to tour Europe and seen at design studios and film schools there. En trance was broadcast on WNET in New York and later picked up by the Public Broadcasting Service in Toronto, Ontario. Jeff continued his own recording ventures by collaborating on song demos with Berklee students and by recording student recitals. A friend from East Africa gave him the nickname Jasir (jah-'seer), Arabic for courageous. And so his venture became known as Jasir Productions.

In August of 2009 the studio installed telecine systems. It has the facility to create digital video versions of 8mm, Super-8mm, 16mm, and Super-16mm film prints. The optical soundtrack from 16mm sound-films can also be captured and resynchronized with the film's picture to create a complete QuickTime movie file. QuickTime files can be written to either a DVD data disc for viewing on computers, or a video DVD for viewing via standard DVD or Blu-Ray players. The studio also performs digital capture of 35mm color slides, as well as 2.25" by 2.25" color transparencies. We have posted a few details about these services at our News Page. The studio incorporates Adobe Photoshop imaging software, iMovie, Final Cut Express HD and DaVinci Resolve 17 for video editing. Both Final Cut and DaVinci Resolve include title generators, nodal editing of audio, dynamic changes of many parameters with keyframes and advanced use of color correction/color grading.

The heart of the studio's production system includes a Silicon M1 Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, Macintosh G4 (OS 10.4), MOTU Track16 interface, Behringer UFX 1604 console/interface, a wide array of microphones, a Behringer Powerplay Pro-XL monitoring network and Logic Pro X. In addition to using its extensive features for music production, we have used Logic for audio restoration in film and video as well as for automated dialogue replacement (ADR). The studio has an acoustically excellent recording booth with space enough for a six-piece drum kit. Recent editions of MOTU Digital Performer and Opcode Vision are also available, and transfers of MIDI data between these three applications can be done (Logic - Performer - Vision). These services have been in demand with the production of hundreds of live recordings ranging from solo vocalists to band concerts and a student opera production. In the studio, recordings have been produced for a broad spectrum of projects in styles ranging from gospel quartets, 20th Century chamber music, opera, rock, country, jazz, rap, R&B and reggae, as well as music and sound design for theatre and film productions. Some highlights in recent years are:

• Location recording for The Assisi Concerts, a series of concerts at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Cordova, TN. The Inaugural Gala in December 2005 featured internationally renowned soprano Kallen Esperian, Memphis Symphony Orchestra flutist Karen Busler and other wonderful musicians, and arrangements and direction by bassist/composer Sam Shoup. In March of 2006 the church's concert choir, directed by Anthony Williams, performed the Requiem by Maurice Durufle. The choir was accompanied by organist Helen Rougeou and a chapel orchestra made up of musicians from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. In July we were blessed to have visiting artists Fiona Thompson, Ya-Ting Chang, and Peter Sirotin, the Mendelssohn Piano Trio. Karen Busler, artistic director of the series, presented "Making Joyful Noises". This concert featured Karen and a host of excellent singers and instrumentalists directed by Adam Turner.
  
  
• Five of our song productions have been selected by Tony Dimito and Cannell Studios for use in American and European rebroadcasts of the popular TV shows Hunter, 21 Jump Street, and Stingray. Styles include blues and country by Will Barrett Band, hard rock by The Rise/Remembrance, World music by J.S. Rust and opera featuring tenor, Scott Sadler.
  
  
• Location recording for the Memphis Vocal Arts Ensemble directed by Thomas Machen in several of their concerts from 2005 through 2008, including: Sing Hallelujah, hosted by Joyce Cobb and her band Cool Heat; a fundraiser concert at the Clark Opera Memphis Center hosted by soprano Kallen Esperian; and Cartoon Classics - A Family Concert presented at the William H. Rose Theatre of the Buckman Performing and Fine Arts Center.
  
  
• Sound design & original music for Cloud 9, a play by Caryl Churchill produced at Theatre Memphis on the Next Stage (March, 2004). With direction by Brian Mott, this production was nominated for four Ostrander Awards including Best Sound Design.
  
  
• Sound design & original music score for Cymbeline, a Sleeping Cat Studio Theatre production of William Shakespeare's play. The show was directed by John Malloy, produced by Jim Esposito, and performed by a talented troupe of actors in Memphis from March 19 through April 6, 2003. The "Stage On Screen" video version of this play runs about 2' 30" and was distributed by Mr. Malloy to schools and universities. Chad Davis was director of photography using Panasonic DVX-100 cameras. Editing was by Jeff Rust and John Malloy using Final Cut.
  
  
• Sound design & original music for Ned Slowman in "Anniversary Dinner", an animated film produced by Harvard University graduate student Ian Maisel, professor of advanced media studies Adrian Mendoza, and other talented animators at Harvard's extension school. Jeff collaborated with musician/engineer Bill Brockmeyer and the animators in March, 2003 on campus at Harvard.
  
  
• General Sessions - music scoring, sound editing and the recording of two new songs by the band, The Aims Gang for this feature film which made its debut at the 2002 Indie Memphis Film Festival in October of 2002. It was also screened at the Las Vegas Independent Film Festival in November, 2002.
  And at the Los Angeles Independent Film & Video Festival in 2003, it won the award for Best Score in a feature.
  It enjoyed showings at Memphis' Studio on the Square movie house and the New York Independent Film & Video Festival. The movie was also broadcast on WKNO-TV, PBS affiliate of the Mid-South. The soundtrack CD, mastered at Jasir Productions, was distributed in the Southeast U.S.
  
  
• Into Thy Narrow Bed - sound design, music and assistant editing for a pilot edition of this feature film which premiered at the McCoy Theatre on April 28, 2002. It was seen at the First Annual Media Co-op Film Festival in August, 2002 and also received a special screening at the 2002 Indie Memphis Film Festival.
  
  
• Production of Premonitioned Time, the Will Barrett Band debut CD with Keith "Mo" Morris and Charles David "CD" Overton. The disc was released October 4, 2002 with a concert at the Gibson Lounge in Memphis. The disc received praise from Commercial Appeal reviewer Bill Ellis in his holiday "Hot Sounds" article. In addition to broadcasts in the Southeast U.S., songs from the CD have been included in the soundtracks of the popular 80's shows Hunter and Stingray for the shows' rebroadcasts on cable TV.
  
  
• Musically Yours - James A. Hyter, the solo CD by one of Memphis' best loved singers and entertainers.
  
  
• Record production for Robin Crouse, the gifted coloratura soprano who has worked with the Opera Company of Charlotte and major opera companies all around the U.S.
  
  
• In 2018 it was a pleasure to once again work with Kallen Esperian and concert pianist Gary Beard. Our video of Kallen’s performance of Verdi's “Pace, pace mio Dio” can be viewed on YouTube.
  
  
• 2020 was a good year to again join forces with composer and music editor Tony DiMito. Our studio assisted him in the audio and video editing of virtual choir productions for Los Angeles area schools. This was our first opportunity to try out version 17 of the DaVinci Resolve editor in concert with our new powerhouse Macintosh M1 computer. It’s a match made in tech-heaven.
  
  
• 2021, May 4 : The Oakland Jazz Choir published their second virtual choir music video on YouTube. The choir did wonderful work in singing, acting and capturing their own video clips. Ben Flint directed the choir in a ZOOM meeting for part of it, and also performed with and directed the band at Hyde Park Studio in Oakland. Gerard Harris did the meticulous work of pastiche-ing the individual clips of audio into a fine mix. I took all the elements and created this video edit based on a clip sequence that was worked up by choir member, Eugenie Hsu. See: Hey COVID-19
  
  
• 2021, October 26 : This day the Jasir Productions label released a new EP album entitled, Music from The Gimbal Test. You will hear the four selections of music which make up the soundtrack for The Gimbal Test USCPX2190002 video on YouTube. This soundtrack album is available via most streaming services including iTunes, Spotify, Pandora and Amazon Music. It may also be purchased as a Digital Download through Apple Music.
  
  
• 2024, January 18 : Our label released a new single entitled, Just Another Lonely Girl. The song is available via streaming services including iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Pandora and Amazon Music. It is a Digital Download through Apple Music.
  There is a legacy document which relates details about the production. See: A Story Within A Story
  
  
  Listen to mp3 samples of music and sound design.
  
  Please report missing links to Java Man.