In this episode, we are talking about the role of the field producer with Justine Liese and her husband, Paul Matyasovsky. Justine started her career in post-production on Alaska the Last Frontier and went on to story producer on shows like The zoo: San Diego, 9 Months with Courteney Cox, and Leah Remini: It's All Relative. Her husband Paul has worked his way up from Production Assistant to field Producer on SyFy’s Ghost Hunters to Supervising Producer on National Geographic’s Wicked Tuna & Wicked Tuna Outer Banks and recently moved into Post Production for the show.
Justine Liese
I started to get the itch to be in entertainment when I was just a high school kid, as I observed my mentor (my mom - Sharon Liese) create an amazing documentary series where she was filming kids AT my high school, which ended up airing on WEtv. After I graduated, I went to Kentucky University, where I minored in TV, Film, and media studies. Once I graduated from KU, I went to New York City to work on my first reality show, then moved out to LA only ten years ago. I’ve worked on several types of unscripted series, including comedy, competition, docu-follows, and much more. In working on set, I grew a love for story-telling and wanted to expand my skills. So about four years into my career, I pursued my first job in post, as an AP on a popular show (Alaska the Last Frontier). I then fell in love with the art of story-telling in post-production as well and started bouncing back and forth ever since. Because of covid, I feel particularly fortunate to have secured jobs remotely over the last few years producing in the post. I’ve been working my up, starting out as an intern for Al Roker in NYC, to PAing on many sets all over the world, to now being a Supervising Producer both in the field and post.
As much as I love my career, one of these jobs also leads me to the greatest gift in my life… My husband, Paul. We were working on set, producing a NatGeo series Wicked Tuna Outer Banks. We worked hard each and every day and became close friends, which later turned into more, and I couldn’t be more thankful to have had him as a producing partner in the field.
Paul Matyasovsky
Unlike most in the industry, I’ve spent my entire 14-year career working for the same company, working my way up from Production Assistant to Field Producer on SyFy’s Ghost Hunters from 2008-2013 and then from Senior Field Producer to Supervising Producer on National Geographic’s Wicked Tuna & Wicked Tuna Outer Banks from 2013-2020 before switching over to Post on Wicked Tuna in January of 2021. Growing up in suburban Connecticut, I didn’t see a career in Film or TV as at all realistic, and if it were not for a series of fortunate encounters during my senior year of college at Providence College (Go Friars) my life would look a whole lot different today.
Fortunately, God, fate, or unbelievable luck, opened the right doors for me. Only seven weeks after graduating from college in the summer of 2008, I got a job as a Production Assistant and never looked back. While my resume is not nearly as diverse as many, I have worked consistently for 14 years on popular shows that people continue to want more of. As I sit here and write this, Wicked Tuna is airing its Season 11 finale as Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks Showdown gets ready to premier its 9th season next Sunday (9/8c on National Geographic!)
After getting engaged, it was very important to me not to spend my life on the road anymore. Thanks to a couple of great executives at my company, I could transition into Post Production at the beginning of last year. While I look back fondly on my time on the field, I couldn’t be happier to now be on the back end, where I still get to contribute to the Wicked Tuna franchise in a meaningful way but also get to be home with my wife and dog - the one and only Mister Rigatoni.
