Jimi Petula (born August 6, 1960) is an American filmmaker, entrepreneur and educator who is known for his Mentor/Apprentice approach to learning. He is the founder and CEO of RRF, Inc., which offers mentor based courses in film, recording, and radio.

Career as an educator

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Recording Connection, Radio Connection, and Film Connection, Jimi Petulla is currently involved in developing strategic alliances with leaders in the entertainment industry to better serve graduates of these schools of Recording Radio Film Connection & CASA Schools® (RRFC). Petulla conceived of the

mentor Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the perso ...

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

approach to education for the arts back in 1986 and has been refining it ever since. Petulla has recently finished a new film, ''Trust in Love'' based on his original

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

. The film is a modern

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

story told from the point of view of the husband-father.

Radio career

Petulla started his career in media as a

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

at WOYL in Oil City, Pennsylvania while still in high school. After graduating from Oil City High School, Petulla moved to Cleveland, Ohio for a disc jockey job at Y103 FM. Two years later, the station’s general manager moved to the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

and took Petulla with him to be his

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

DJ at KFOX radio in San Jose, California. While working there, Petulla was approached by the Columbia School of Broadcasting (CSB) who were impressed by the

radio commercials In the United States, commercial radio stations make most of their revenue by selling airtime to be used for running radio advertisements. These advertisements are the result of a business or a service providing a valuable consideration, usually ...

he had done for them. Soon, Petulla was teaching a course for CSB on

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...

and eventually became General Manager of their San Jose branch. While working in this position Petulla decided that classroom education really wasn’t suited for education in

broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

or other media. He conceived of the

/apprentice method of education and presented it to the executive board at CSB. When CSB declined to pursue Petulla’s vision, he left the company and formed Radio Connection.

Career as an entrepreneur

Radio Connection was launched in 1986, with student placed by Petulla inside a real radio station to serve as apprentices while learning the trade from an on-air radio DJ. Petulla launched Recording Connection in 1989 which again used the mentor/apprentice method of education for aspiring

audio engineers An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

and

music producers A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. Along the way, Petulla became interested in movie-making and in 1999 launched Film Connection, a mentor-apprentice school for aspiring

filmmakers Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screenwritin ...

. Today, Radio Connection,

Recording Connection A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

, Film Connection, and CASA Schools are part of RRFC, Inc.

Film career

Petulla’s career in filmmaking started as an

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. He first appeared as "Toby" in ''Silk n' Sabotage'' in 1994. In 1997, he appeared in the part of "Bennett" in The P.A.C.K. series from

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

. In 2001, he wrote, starred and produced the film '' Reversal'', which drew heavily on his experiences as a high school

wrestler Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves diffe ...

. In 2006, Petulla and Brian Kraft worked on the

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

''The Brandon Corey Story'' in which he played the lead role and served as producer. In 2009 they released ''The Fall of America and the Western World''. In 2024, Petulla released
Trust in Love
" about a high school kid with a music producer dad (Petulla) who has managed to let work break up his family. In addition to his role in the film, Petulla produced and wrote the screenplay which has won 22 film festival awards.

References

External links

* *
The Recording Connection

The Film Connection

The Radio Connection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petulla, Jimi 1960 births Living people American male actors American directors American educators American film producers