Over the past year I have had the opportunity to teach theatre to local teenagers at Story Theatre Company. It has been an amazing experience being able to watch these teenagers grow as theatre artists, gain confidence, and become young adults. It is probably one of my favorite things that I have done in my time here at ISU.  Kiersten and I loved going in each week over the summer to play imagination fun time, cerebral vortex, coach monologues, do short scenes, make fake blood, and bring in guests.  Watching Teen Club grow from just a summer activity into a once a month school activity was awesome.  The growing interest in the club felt extremely rewarding. Seeing new students come in and diving right on in with the the rest of the class as if they had been there from day one was satisfying.  I learned a lot about lesson planning and seeing how students work differently from one another and how to best engage them to do better.  It is one experience that I will cherish forever.

Life in LA Means a Life Without Snow

Where to begin? Where to begin? How about with a quote?

“Perception is created and twisted so quickly.”-Louis C.K.

Now, the last time I was in LA, which was one year ago this month, I feared for my life. While trying to find the theater for the Dark Shadows premiere, my GPS led me in the opposite direction to a liquor store in a bad part of town. It was during this trek that my friend was verbally assaulted by a homeless man in front of the Church of Scientology. Afterwards, we walked the Hollywood Walk of Fame and were bombarded by persistent people trying to get us to take a tour of celebrity homes. At the time, in the back of my mind, I had a hunch that they were probably just going to drive us out into the desert and rob us. Tack on the horrific traffic and the fact that we almost got into several accidents during the cab ride and factor in the high cost of, well, everything, and you can imagine what I was going through. And while the trip did end well with the Dark Shadows screening (with the exception of the film itself), my perception of Los Angeles consisted of it being the culmination of all things corrupt, diseased, and disturbed. It was where evil incarnate resided due to the warm weather How on earth could anyone survive out here? More importantly, how was I going to survive? In order to break into the industry, I would have to move out HERE? Me? Mister 5’8” 142lb Ethnically Ambiguous Born and Raised Midwestern Small Town Boy?

For the past year, I’ve endured a great deal of self-doubt. I must say, however, that after my most recent visit to LA to finish up the final part of this internship (which is only the first step of this journey) my perceptions of LA have been greatly altered. Not only is it a place I envision myself embarking on a career, but I can see it as a place of eventually raising a family.

It’s funny. Even after all this exposition, I’m still at a loss for words. I don’t know where to begin. I guess I’ll be direct and to the point. For the entire duration of my visit, I shadowed Tim Sullivan while playing an active part in several key events. I experienced firsthand what a day in the life is like for a director working within the Hollywood system and more importantly, I influenced it.

After arriving in LA with a serious case of jetlag, I spent two hours recuperating. That night I explored Venice Beach where over sixty years ago, Orson Welles filmed Touch of Evil with Charleton Heston and Janet Leigh. Venice is actually a really nice part of California because there’s…I just realized how easy it is to get lost in reminiscing about the locale. If I don’t stop myself now, the next twelve paragraphs will probably be devoted to the nice weather and friendly locals. I’ll try to avoid this.

The highlights of my trip included sitting in on a recording session with Patrick Copeland. He was Tim’s composer on I Was a Teenage Werebear. I was fortunate enough to witness firsthand Tim breaking the news to him that the film has been picked up in the UK to be adapted into a stage musical along the lines of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Andrew Harcourt has picked it up and it's set to premiere at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Because the film was only a 30 minute short and featured five songs, the two of them brainstormed ideas for an additional 10 songs.

In addition to this session, the entire team got together for a little powwow. I finally met in person the people I’ve been working with and the lead actor. They’re all incredibly nice. There are no egos. It was at this time, I was introduced to Matthew Vinaja, a film student at Cal State LA and cameraman for Disney-ABC television group as well as the Jimmy Kimmel show. We really hit it off and I learned that he’s looking for a roommate in September which is when I plan on moving out there. Tim also told us about a few places that have two bedrooms and charge roughly $800 a month.

It was during this session that Matthew and I filmed a couple of promotional publicity spots. Oddly enough, we both have the same camera which worked out perfectly.

Another highlight was a screening of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York which featured a Q and A with Kurt Russell. The event was sold out but Tim pulled some strings (Tim had the premiere for one of his films at the Egyptian and is friends with the theater owners) and got us tickets. We were there mainly to scope things out and get in contact with Kurt’s manager. Kurt is Tim’s top contender to play an aging Jim Morrison in The Poet in Exile and I agree, I think he would be an ideal choice. He was in fine form that night and sharp as ever. Sadly, I heard that Burt Reynolds is in terrible health is most likely being dropped from Adam Rifkin’s upcoming film.

I also had the privilege of attending Iron Man 3 in 3D IMAX with Adam Rifkin and Peter Schink. I already mentioned Adam in a previous blog and it was nice meeting him in person. He actually reminds me of me, which might explain why so many people find for the 2010 film Legion. At Tim’s behest, I showed both Adam and Pete the trailer for my Batman film on my phone. They were both immensely impressed and want to see the film. This just raised the stakes on my film. Aside from this, I made two very important contacts.

In addition to widening my book of contacts, I met (albeit briefly) Ryan Schifrin. Ryan is also a director but his father, Lalo, is probably more renowned. Lalo is a music composer who created the theme song to Mission Impossible and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Finally, I had a meeting with Tim and Matt. We set our agenda. In June, we’ll be filming a documentary, in September we’ll be filming the pilot to the show, and in early 2014, I’ll be working on The Poet in Exile. Also, starting in June, I’ll start getting paid (roughly $500 a month). In addition to these projects, Matt and I have been promoted to producers for the upcoming film Shockbuster. I can’t saying anything about it at the moment but it might lead to my directorial debut to a mass market via short films.

That’s the gist of my trip. I honestly could have gone on for ten more pages but I felt that this final blog should be short and sweet. I’ve really gained a lot of insight into the film industry this semester and there are big things to come.

Cynthia Adams actually suggested last semester that I continue to blog and I would love to do just that, maybe start a website and publish my past blogs from directing my 10-minute and one-act to the journal I kept during Modern Comp.

Well, that’s all folks. I feel I should end with a quote and this one from Eleanor Roosevelt feels right.

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” 

I'm in LA and I've Run Out of Clever Things to Say

Hey everyone.

Just giving a quick update. I've been in Los Angeles for the past couple of days. I don't have time to go into all the details but I'll post a follow-up blog dishing out the details when I get back next week.

Things to come: Production meeting with cast and crew, meeting with Kurt Russell, and sitting in on a film score recording session.

Consider this a teaser.

Best.

Stephen

This Wasn’t in the Job Description

Okay, now that we’ve covered my work for Adam Rifkin and have my Iowa Zoetrope stuff out of the way, let’s get back to my main squeeze, the work I’ve been doing for Tim Sullivan and New Rebellion Entertainment.

Going back to my blog post covered in “A Bit of Catch Up (Or Is It Pronounced Ketchup?)” I mentioned that the Denver casting trip had been cancelled. At the time, I had been told that this was due to the fact that the show’s star had a callback for the new X-Men movie.

Turns out that this was just a cover up in order to hide a bit of drama that was going on behind the scenes. As it happened, and I’m not sure how much I can divulge at the moment so I won’t go into specifics, one of the producers submitted an early draft of the pilot episode script to several casting agencies without Tim’s permission. This was an incomplete script that had been copy and pasted into another document. To add insult to injury, when you copy and paste a script from one program to another (i.e. Final Draft and Celtx), it causes actions to become character names or scene headings to become camera shots. He didn’t even take the time to proofread the script. This act almost cost us the production.

As a result, Tim fired him on the spot. Now, this person was also in charge of the studio we were going to use in Denver so as a result, the entire Denver studio has been dropped. So, this means that our entire Denver team has been terminated as well.

At first, when I heard this, I became really uneasy. Was the entire project being scrapped? Well, after a lengthy follow up call with Tim, he explained the situation and told me that production was moving back to LA. After some thought, I realized that this is for the best. Instead of hanging around Denver, I can now become accustomed to the Hollywood system in (where else?) Hollywood. This also means that Haven and I will have a much more hands on experience with filming the pilot as opposed to standing around watching like typical associate producers. And I may have already mentioned this in a previous blog but I have since received the script for episode 1 and really enjoyed it.

As of right now, I leave on April 22 (as I mentioned in “Batman has Much Ado About Nothing with this Blog”) to film promos for the show as well as my interview regarding my Batman fan film. This is now set in stone as I have the time off from work and my plane ticket purchased.

I’ll get into more detail below when I start copy and pasting my weekly updates and responses but before I do that, I need to address the title of this blog. As you know, I essentially respond to fan mail for the show’s star. It’s referred to as social networking to gain more followers to sell the show to.

Well, last Tuesday night, I had 15 messages to answer before going to bed. At approximately 11pm, I saw six consecutive messages from one fan named Akum that said this:

“Hello [name omitted], I couldn't possibly think of anyone to share this but I thought of you cos I know you would understand where I came from. And Sometimes its easier talking to a stranger.

I'm born and brought up in a tightly confined christian family. My grand father is a pastor in a church. Till today I never had the heart and gut to share anything with anyone. As a kid I knew I was not like the other boys. I was young and I never had an adult to guide me or tell me it was ok to be gay. I kept it all to myself . Years of bottling up of hating myself, anger, guilt , frustration and being ashamed has had a bad impact on me

I know and understand that I am lucky in a million of ways... A decent family, a job to earn a living... But mostly cos of who I'm I don't have a single fren. I have aquintance but when I think of someone to share with, I'm scared to let anyone inside my messy world.

the society, my family... There is no way of me coming out. I'd break the only 'home' I have.

I tried and keep myself busy and being positive but I'm falling apart. Its impacting everything I do and everything i'm. I feel like I'm pushing every thing far away . I feel like I'm alone surrounded by millions of people.

Mate, I never choose this life. I have seen gay guys here ... Old and lonely and alone , searching for some love and companion. I really don't want to be that person. years from now I don't want to sit in front of my computer trying to find some comfort from a kind stranger. Everyone no matter who and what they are needs a a shoulder, a kind word a hug or a loving touch . I'm really worried of what will become of me. I have always hoped for the best and am not trying to be difficult but its been more than 2 decades and life gets worst and only more cruel.

[Name omitted] my life sucks. Sometimes I feel death will be a sweet release from this pain thats slowly killing me inside.

if you would have any suggestions and advise for me I'd appreciate it a lot - Thanks and sorry I had to take this out on you.”

Imagine my shock when I read this at 11pm at night just as I’m about to go to bed before a 5am shift at work. I didn’t type a word. As far as I knew, this boy was on the verge of suicide and my response could possibly determine whether he lived or died. I immediately sent an email and a text message to Tim about the situation and he promptly called me back. After ascertaining that this wasn’t a fake message to get attention (there was one case a few months ago where a fan lied about having aids in order to get an autorgraph), I crafted the following message with Tim’s suggestions:

Aküm.

My heart bleeds for you. I know what you're going through but please remember,, there's no shame in being gay. There are numerous communities that have helped many to find acceptance. If your family can't understand that,, then I feel sorry for them. I realize that your situation is truly unfortunate but suicide is never the answer. If you find yourself in such a dark place, I urge you to seek PROFESSIONAL help via a doctor or hotline.

Stay strong,, Aküm...for me.

[Name Omitted]

Immediately after work the following day, I checked the inbox to see if Akum had responded. As luck would have it, this is what I found:

Thank you for your encouragement [Name Omitted].

I guess I am just having a bad time of life !

Tired of being lonesome,Tired of pretending, Tired of trying, tired of hoping. Tired of being sad... Just tired of everything.

I appreciate your encouragement and I want you to know that I wont be taking such tragic step. I will keep in mind what you said.

Seeing Akum’s message was a huge relief. I was not prepared for anything like this. Messages generally range from people thanking him for his work in film while others ask personal questions out of hopes of striking up a friendship. I’m reminded of an interview with Johnny Depp back in the early 90s in which he said that he received fan mail from teenagers detailing their emotional struggles. All he could say was to hang in despite not being all that emotionally stable himself. I wonder if the actor will ever know that his image (or at least someone posing as him), may have saved a life.

The other thing I want to add is a public post I made the other day. I posted this statement the other day:

Hey everyone.

I just want to take a moment to thank you all for the kind messages and wall posts. One message that I’d like to address is one I received from a friend from Tehran where homosexuality is considered a crime,, thus making him a prisoner of his mind. Because of [title omitted] and interacting with everyone on this page,, it’s helped free him from this prison.

I’m truly humbled and messages like this one have really opened my eyes to things on a grander scale. Sure,, the U.S. still has a long way to go,, but it could be so much worse and it’s easy to take what we have for granted.

As a heterosexual male, I was overwhelmed by the responses this message received. I only do the public post twice a week so I try to make them count often by creating inspirational messages. Granted, I don’t know if any of the fan interaction has had any effect on the actor but it sure has opened my eyes. I may speak on his behalf but I’m speaking from my heart and it’s something that I never would’ve thought to attain from this internship.

Okay, I won’t squander any longer, here are the reports from the past four weeks.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Hey Tim.

I don’t have much to relay this week which is why I included my report from last week at the end. I sent it to Brian and Tyler but I doubt anyone ever read it as I never heard back. But before we get to that, here is the lowdown for 3/4-3/10.

Tasks included responding to messages on Tuesday and Thursday and all I can say is that fans desperately want to meet [name omitted] in person. I think he might even have a few stalkers. One instance I noticed, however, was an ongoing conversation in which one fan persistently wanted to meet [name omitted] to the extent that he moved out to LA and was messaging the page in hopes of setting up a time to hang out. Now, I never interacted with this guy and I wound up marking the message unread to bring it to everyone else’s attention. Everyone on the team knows that this isn’t possible due to a multitude of reasons (Safety for one). Needless to say, this guy became very harsh with his words.

As for today’s post, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to top the posts from the past few days. The AfterElton photos and [name omitted]’s self portrait are universal posts that fans all around the world can appreciate due to the absence of a language barrier involved with, well, photos. The eye candy doesn’t hurt either. So, as you saw, I decided to post something about my passion (film) and utilize the fans to help me decide on what movie to see. The fans that responded to this were all within their 20s and 30s and it was a diverse mix of men and women. Choosing films with Nicholas Hoult and James Franco wasn’t a coincidence either. I knew they would appeal to hiss fans more than say, Identity Thief or Dead Man Down. Shame about Jack the Giant Slayer but I’ve always been an Oz fan.

RE: FB Message Report 3/4-3/10

Oh, Stephen-

I SOOOO look forward to your updates. They are thorough, professional, informative- and with tongue SLIGHTLY planted in cheek!

The thoughtfulness that you put into this is indicative of everything you do.

Definitely bet on the right horse with you as they say!

Regarding the stalker(s)—Please send me and Paul links to their profile pages and we will delete them and report them to facebook- but best we have a record of their conversations and interactions in case things get—well--- scary.

THANKS BUDDY!

Cannot wait till you get to LA in April.

Keep kicking ass on the Bat!

Tim

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Subject: NEW POPE! NEW TEAM!

Hey Guys!

[Name Omitted] and I just want to say that we could not feel better about how smoothly the new streamlined team is working out.

IT FEELS FUN AGAIN!

I have spoken to all of you individually this week, and I know you all feel the same.

So THANK YOU from me and [Name Omitted]- and let’s keep it going.

Next up on the agenda is testing the waters of merchandising with the web store. We are gonna start selling autographed 8x10’s in the first or second week of April, which will yield a little extra cash in everyone’s pockets. I will go over that in more detail as we get closer.

Meantime- attached are your individual TO DO sheets for this week.

I am off for two weeks to Taos, New Mexico for a POET IN EXILE writing retreat with my sister, Lizzie.

HOWEVER- I will be available via text and email- so don’t hesitate to be in touch.

Have a great week everyone-

And THANKS!

Tim

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Heya Paul.

Here is the 411 for the week of March 11^th through the 17^th.

Tuesday night, I pulled double duty answering private messages and creating the daily post. I’m not sure what was going on, perhaps it was the alignment of the planets or a slow school night, but I was bombarded by messages. I swear, I had at least 50 responses within a two hour period. The demographic was largely male with two female callers. The most prevalent request I received was for signed photos and autographed memorabilia which leads me to infer that the demand for a webstore is higher than ever. There was one case where a woman wanted a signed photo to give as a gift to a member of her wedding party for a wedding which was less than 11 days away. I brought this to Tim’s attention and he said he’d get it taken care of at his next meeting with [name omitted]. The remainder of the messages were either from people who had watched [title omitted] for the first time or ongoing conversations of people wanting to shoot the breeze in order to get to know him better.

I was so preoccupied with messages that my post was delayed to roughly 8pm Central time but the content certainly made up for it. The prior week, I responded to a message from a fan who had come across a [name omitted] tumblr with a cornucopia of animated gifs from [title omitted]. He gave me permission to share it and I kept the message in mind for a future post. I’ve found that the most popular posts (those that garner the most “likes”) are pictures. As I’ve stated before, fans like the eye candy and a photo can be appreciated in a second without effort. This post was actually the most popular one I’ve posted and I’ve certainly tried experimenting with various subjects, from [name omitted]’s place of Zen to the Superbowl to deciding on whether to see Oz or Jack the Giant Slayer. It obtained 274 likes, 44 comments, and 4,680 people saw the post. The popularity of this link can probably be attributed to 1.) the pictures, 2.) the relation to [title omitted], and 3.) the fact that the site was fan-created. I made sure to give credit to the fan who sent the link,  (referring to him only by first name) and by stating how grateful [name omitted] was for all of the love and support he’s received for the film (something we’re all accustomed to by now). The comments were quite gracious and one I’d like to point out was this one from Michael Jones.

It is refreshing when you see an actor embracing and celebrating a film that has been out as long as this one, without a "jeesh, guys that was like 5 years ago" and honestly and humbly acknowledge the impact and influence he and the performance he gave has had on so many.

Thursday night brought about less messages, which was a bit of a relief, although I’m embarrassed to admit that I fell asleep while answering them (but that’s another story ;-) ). For the most part, it was more of the same but there’s one request that I’d like to bring to your attention. Apparently, this fan sent this request a little over a month ago and dispatched a reminder that night. It stated:

Hi [name omitted]! This is me again, Donn. Well, anyway, I'm sure you don't remember me. Haha. Uhmm. I just wanna ask you a 'lil favor. Please please... My college graduation will be this 24th of March and my ONLY wish is... Can you take a picture holding a piece of bond paper(or any paper will do) that has 'CONGRATULATIONS DONN' on it? Pls pls pls. Coz I will put it in a tarpaulin. Please ;;) I swear, I'm gonna be your number 1 fan FOREVER! Just attach the pic in your reply. Thank you so much. And God bless

Yow Yong

His request seems simple enough. No physical copy required, no postage, and nothing unreasonable.

Finally, Sunday (today actually) was the St. Patrick’s Day post. After a bit of confusion (he accidently sent the video to Danny), the 14 second video was posted. Granted, it’s only been live for a little over four hours, but it hasn’t garnered as much attention as I thought it would. Perhaps it was the timing or maybe everyone was already drunk by this point. When I usually do the Sunday post, I post at 4pm Central time but so far, the video has less likes and views than the earlier post, 128 compared to 217 and 3,774 to 4,238. I’ll give it time, but this is a bit of a conundrum worthy of Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett ideally).

That’s all I have for now. In hindsight, I intended for this message to be two paragraphs at the most. Ummmm…hope you enjoyed the read?

All the best.

Stephen

RE: FB Message Report 3/11-3/17

Stephen-

Just got this today too.

WONDERFUL. Informative and FUNNY. Typical Haydon.  

We will get that webstore going asap.

I'll see what I can do regarding that request from YING YONG (or whatever)

We have taken care of the Australian lady.

Thanks Stephen!

Talk soon!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Tim

Heya Tim and Paul.

I meant to send this last night but I had a splitting headache. To put it in context, I felt like my head was being crushed by Sean Paul Lockhart’s legs (without yielding the hilarious results of the film however). I remember looking at the clock and it was 8pm and then I looked over two seconds later and it was 4am. Well, without further delay, here is the lowdown for this past week.

Tuesday, I was tasked with answering messages and creating the post. After countless posts (well that’s not true, they’re easily countable) of asking fans what movie they’re planning on seeing after giving them two choices as if pitting them against one another via some kind of grudge match, I invited everyone to throw out their favorite films ala battle royale so as to create a bit of market research that would allow us to find out what kinds of films everyone prefers. Little did I know, that this post would yield 169 comments. Of course [title omitted] was a recurring answer. I saw that coming but people provided a wide range of films from classics to comedies to blockbusters to some of my favorites (“Clue” anyone?) to the occasional oddball answer.

In the end, I derived from the study that the majority of the films were dramas with “Perks of Being a Wallflower” and anything with Joseph Gordon-Levitt being the most commonly answered (again these were second only to [title omitted]). Another thing I picked up on was that there are a handful of fans that want to see [name omitted] in a musical.

Overall, the post only garnered 134 likes but the comments more than made up for it. After all, this was another post that invited user interaction. It’s also worth noting that roughly ¾ of the participants were male who were from all over the world so I’d bet that it’s safe to say that the sample group was an adequate representation of his fanbase. Man, I feel like I’m a pharmacist student again giving my results during chem. lab (a dark point in my life).

As for the messages I answered on Tuesday and Thursday, many fans sent their recommendations for films out of hopes that [name omitted] would consider their suggestions over everyone else’s. I should’ve seen it coming but people starting asking for [name omitted]’s favorite film and my Sunday post helped remedy the situation and should hopefully stifle any more questions coming in. There were a couple of fans insistent on [name omitted] coming to the Philippines although one of them was overly persistent going so far to say that he would protect him from a terrorist attack should it happen. Real smooth, man. Other than that, he didn’t say anything else to cause alarm but as Mark Hamill once said to me, “I know your face now and I’ll be watching for you.” Wow. Out of context, that probably made me sound like a stalker but I assure you, it was entirely Batman/Joker related and in good humor.

Now, with posting the trailer for “Rebel Without a Cause,” I came across a problem that I didn’t foresee. That is, the video was blocked in certain countries (most notably France). I just looked for the video with the best quality. I’m still unsure as to why the video couldn’t be seen by certain users and this caused a bit of outrage among fans who couldn’t watch it. One of my youtube videos has been banned from Germany because it features Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” but the “Rebel” trailer doesn’t feature copyrighted music like that. Oh well, something to keep in mind for future posts and subsequent videos.

Now the situation was remedied by another user who posted a trailer that wasn’t blocked so everyone got to enjoy seeing Jim Backus outside of “Gilligan’s Island” and “Mister Magoo.” The post gained quite a bit of attention and acted as [name omitted]’s personal suggestion for something to watch and hopefully, it will help introduce another generation to James Dean.

That’s all I have for now. In the meantime, I’ll be editing, working, and filling out paperwork.

Best.

Stephen

RE: FB Message 3/18-3/24

Dude-- You topped yourself with this one.

Good call on the REBEL post. Need to educate the fans on Jimmy Dean and River Phoenix etc.

And they would have gotten a chance to see [name omitted] in a musical if the f***er hadn't turned me down for werebears.

All kidding aside- this is an excellent post with excellent market research.

By the way, Stephen- feel free to TEXT or email [name omitted] asking what his fave films are or stuff like that.

He doesn't bite and is more than happy to hear from you.

Can't wait for you to meet him the week of the 22nd.

KEEP UP THE EXCELLENT WORK!

tim

March 31, 2013

Hey guys.

Happy Easter. Hope all is well with both of you. As for me, I spent my morning with the fambam and my evening trying to cheer up a lady friend on her birthday. She was upset that Christ’s RE-birth was overshadowing her birth.

Fortunately for me, my day was made incredibly easy as [name omitted] sent the video not only to myself but also to Danny. At the time, I was having lunch with relatives so Danny got to it first. Not only did he upload it to youtube but he also made the post public on facebook.

Since Danny did the manual labor, I’ll take care of the analysis, also known as the thinking man’s job. When I initially checked the video an hour after it was posted, it had garnered only 68 likes and a small handful of comments. Is it possible that Christ’s rebirth also overshadowed [name omitted]’s facebook post? It was listed at approximately the same time that I generally do the Sunday post and it had substantially less attention than usual. Looking at it now, however, it has 132 likes and 26 comments which isn’t bad, but not up to par with our standard fare. The Easter Flashback post on the other hand, despite being posted four hours after the video, now has 140 likes and 28 comments. Perhaps families were done celebrating together by this point but I must say that the photo and its message felt much more personal.

Okay, let’s rewind to last Tuesday. The post and change in profile picture were prompted by the Human Rights Campaign for marriage equality. I originally intended to do a simple post but this elevated things to another level for me. If you look at the photo I attached, you’ll see my version of the symbol. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of attention this post received, 520 likes, 22 shares, and 56 comments. Fans were ecstatic to have his support.

As for the messages, there were a lot BUT there’s only one that remains on my mind, one from Aküm Imsong. When we first launched Team [name omitted], the messages I responded to were primarily from Akum. He was trying his hardest to invite friends to like the page because he really wanted the live chat. But after we reached 10,000 likes, I never heard from him again. It wasn’t until Tuesday that he sent a barrage of messages detailing how hard life is for him as a homosexual. The final message he sent stated this:

My life sucks. Sometimes I feel death will be a sweet release from this pain thats slowly killing me inside.

Imagine my surprise when I read this at 11pm at night right as I was about to go to bed. I had to prepare for a 5am shift the next day too. After bringing this case to Tim’s attention, we’ve since instilled some hope back into him. Now, this isn’t like the last guy who gave us a fake sob story just to get an autograph. Judging by the long period of time between messages, Akum seems like he was genuinely in pain. I think it would be for the best if we kept a close eye on him although things have cooled down drastically.

That’s it for now. Peaster.

Stephen

RE: FB Message Report 3/25-3/31

Excellent assessment, Stephen. And f***ing hilarious as usual.

You have GOT to use that rebirth overshadowing your lady friend's birth in a movie.

In fact- I might use it in [title omitted] if I may.

Glad to hear Akum is feeling better.

Thank you for taking this so seriously.

There's a bigger picture for sure.

THANKS BUDDY!

Tim

I hope I haven’t gone overboard with this blog post. If you made it this far, I congratulate you and if you found it coherent despite all of the [name omitted] and [title omitted] quotations, then…well, I don’t know what conclusion to come to.

Maybe I’ll try for shorter blog posts in the near future but don’t hold me to it.

Best.

Stephen

Batman has Much Ado About Nothing with this Blog

“It’s not about money. It’s about sending a message.”

-the Joker (The Dark Knight, 2008)

First order of business, the teaser trailer for my fan film Batman: Gag Order is now on youtube. Not only did I write and produce the film but I also play Batman AND the Joker. I filmed the interior shots in Pearson 2140 so Iowa State played an integral part. You can see the trailer at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9lynjRcjUY

This has been a long journey. Gag Order has been in production since July and I’m just now releasing footage. In fact, this film was supposed to close my senior seminar film festival showcase. Unfortunately, it was so far from done that I decided to preview the film instead but even that didn’t happen. I suppose that I’ve taken the title, “Gag Order,” a bit too literal. Well, let’s lift that order right now.

The film has a lot of value to me. It’s my reaction to the Aurora, CO shooting and a love letter to the men and women in law enforcement all over the country like my father, who is an Urbandale police officer. The message is that there are no superheroes, but real-life heroes within law enforcement. Through my love of Batman and my passion for film, I’ve done my best to craft a piece that is respectful and unlikely to spark debate as I do not take a stance on issues like gun control or capital punishment.

The film cost me roughly $20,000 and it’s because of this that all of my films shown at the festival were made for next-to-nothing. But as the above quote states, “It’s not about money. It’s about sending a message.”

Now you may be wondering why I’m spending so much time plugging this rather than dishing out the details on the latest developments of my internship. Well, let’s just say that this trailer has lead to even more opportunities.

After accidentally sending Tim Sullivan the link for an earlier version of the trailer that I had deleted, I sent the correct link and this is what he had to say.

Subject: HOLY HAYDON!

TEAM T!

I must say- we are one bunch of talented creative motherf*****s!

And in this regard- I MUST share with everyone- the trailer I just watched for our team member Stephen’s new fan film DARK KNIGHT GAG ORDER…

In which—

Stephen not only plays Batman- he also plays the joker! And he writes- and he directs- and he hangs upside down!  lol

I am STUNNED- just STUNNED by this!

JESUS STEPHEN! 

I WANT TO BE IN ONE OF YOUR MOVIES!  PLEEEEASE!

CHECK IT OUT EVERYBODY! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9lynjRcjUY

Tim

This is the email he sent to the entire team but his personal message to me is listed below:

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am stunned beyond words-

NOTHING you have done has prepared me for this.

It has always been my fantasy to be Batman AND/OR The Joker- and you did both!

You are one f***ing talented motherf****r. I mean REALLY!

Can you BE any cooler?

I am jealous and envious and I want to be in one of your fan films!

EPIC!

Son- with a GREAT script and this film in your back pocket- plus your connections and POET IMDB credit- YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE IT HUGE IN HOLLYWOOD!

YOU are gonna be the next of the JJ ABRAMS and the JOSS WHEDONS and the CHRIS NOLANS and MATT VAUGHN! !

What you have accomplished so young and with so little in F***ING IOWA!

As another Joker once said-

Sorta

“Just wait till Hollywood gets a load out of you!”

MAN !

I am PUMPED for you!

I smiled so hard when I read this that I may have cracked one of my ribs…but the pain was easily overshadowed by my joy.

I followed up with Tim via phone call on Sunday, March 17, in which he gave me much praise, asked a lot of questions, and gave me some sound advice for when I move out to LA which could possibly lead to me helming a comic book feature down the line.

The biggest news, however, is that the entire team was so impressed with the trailer that when I come out to LA in April to film promos for the show, the show’s star wants to film an intro where he interviews me that he can post on his facebook wall to garner the attention of his 12,000 facebook fans.

Okay, okay. Enough about Batman and ego boosting. When we last left off, I hinted about work I was doing for Adam Rifkin. For those of you unfamiliar with Adam, his filmography can be found here:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726472/?ref_=sr_1http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726472/?ref_=sr_1

On February 28, Tim shot me an email asking if I wanted to make a good first impression with Adam Rifkin and earn a hundred bucks. The money was just an added bonus. The real target was getting in good with Adam. Back when I signed the contract for The Poet in Exile, Tim told me about a film he was producing that I might be interested in. The film, and I’m not sure if I can reveal the title right now, is a Burt Reynolds film that’s sure to bring him back to the Oscar spotlight. The icing on the cake, however, is that Gore Verbinski (Director of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lone Ranger, and Rango) is producing the film.

I jumped at the opportunity without realizing how hard the work would be. Adam’s new film, Reality Show, a darker and condensed version of the Showtime television series, was about to make its premiere on opening night at South by Southwest opposite Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. Now this is pretty high-profile stuff but the film needed assurance to find a distributor. Now you might be curious as to why I was doing this work. Doesn’t Adam have a manager or agent that should be doing this? Or at the very least a personal assistant? Adam’s agent, in fact, refused to do this because his job was done and calling all of these companies wouldn’t be worth his time seeing that he wouldn’t have anything to gain. Adam called Tim knowing that he had a team working on his social networking experiment and asked for his best man. Tim then referred him to me.

Now it was my job to contact 24 different film companies, find out the identity of the head of acquisitions of each place, and obtain their email address so that Adam could send out personal email invitations for the premiere. It was Friday, March 1, when I received the list of companies, at around noon, and I had to call 24 different places on the east and west coast. I had to get all of the emails by Monday afternoon.

Number one on the list was the Weinstein Company. I got started immediately but I must admit that I got discouraged rather quickly. These people I was contacting weren’t in the film industry for the art. They strictly saw it as a business. These are people who aren’t interested in the director’s message but rather whether or not the film will garner them extra dough. I’d heard horror stories from Kevin Smith about Harvey and Bob Weinstein and how they were money grubbing mongrels who often cheated filmmakers out of their paychecks. Research the lawsuit regarding Clerks II and you’ll see what I mean. Granted, I wouldn’t be talking to Harvey or Bob personally. They’re the heads of the company after all. I found that most places wouldn’t let me past the receptionist without a specific name so after a few failed calls, I went back to the drawing board and did extensive research online to find out those in charge of acquisitions.

Since this was Friday, most all of these businesses would be closed until Monday. I did my homework and come Monday morning at 7am sharp, I started calling the companies on the east coast and come 11am, I started calling the west coast. Given the amount of research I had to do and the rings I had to jump through to get a hold of these people, I did roughly twelve hours of work for a hundred bucks.

There were two caveats in the list I compiled unfortunately. As I stated in my email to Adam:

The only two I haven't yet found are Michael Schaeffer with Summit (he was laid off about a year ago) and Ben Stambler with THINKFILM. They moved offices and have yet to return my call.

I left a message for THINKFilm several hours ago at this number (***-***-****) and still have yet to hear from them. There is no receptionist or operator. It just goes straight to voicemail. They filed for Chapter 11 back in 2010 and all other information online is out of date.

As for Summit, Lionsgate acquired them last January and laid off over 80 employees. All information for them online is also outdated as Brian Schaefer, head of acquisitions, was among the people let go. I've tried calling this number numerous times (***-***-****) and the receptionist won't let me through without a specific name and refuses to divulge information otherwise.

Adam called me immediately after I sent him the list. At first, he sounded kind of cold but he did express his gratitude at the end of the conversation.

When Tim contacted me on March 14, he told me that Adam’s film found a distributor and that Gore Verbinski found full funding for the Burt Reynolds film.

Looks like things are moving forward.

“I spent my whole life searching for a good death. This…this will be a good life. Good enough.”

-Batman (The Dark Knight Returns Part 2, 2013)