Ben’s Web Diary

Ben’s been held down throughout his time in high school, and he’s finally ready to prove that he’s the big man on campus now that he’s been accepted to Baden University! See what he brings to the table in his web diary!

Character Preview: Ben

It’s day 21 of the Social Studies: Extracurricular Activities Kickstarter campaign, and today our character preview focuses on Ben Herbert, another of the main characters in Social Studies: Extracurricular Activities. Ben unintentionally plays the fool among his group of friends.

Ben is a gamer, and is more than willing to pour hours of his day into his favorite video games. He can quote offhand his favorite video game characters, and video game apparel composes most of his wardrobe. Ben’s love of video games burdens him at times, as he often uses them as a way to escape from his undesirable reality.

Ben isn’t comfortable in most social situations. Outside of his group of friends, he’s awkward and overcompensates by trying to prove that he can “go as hard” as the rest of his fellow college students. More often than not, he overdoes it and wakes up the next morning covered in permanent-marker graffiti. He is insecure about his lack of sexual experience, and and has made losing his virginity the top priority of his freshman year.

It should be fun to see what kind of trouble he gets himself into!

Stay cool,

Matt Kopp

Character Preview- Kayla

It’s day 14 of our Kickstarter campaign, and today I’ll be writing up a character preview for another of the main characters. In this case, it’s the character of Kayla Forenti. Kayla is played by Megan Griffith.

Kayla is the popular girl of her group of friends. As she enters her freshman year at Baden University, Kayla has high aspirations for her social life at her new school. Her entire life she’s been the girl that everyone wanted, and over time she’s figured out how to use her looks to get whatever she wants. Her concern going into her freshman year isn’t necessarily her major, or her career path, but rather the night life opportunities that are available to her.

Kayla’s personality is largely a front for her own insecurities. Having watched her parents’ volatile relationship for most of her life, Kayla has arrived at the conclusion that true love is a pantomime, and that all relationships will inevitably end in bitter heartbreak. As a result, she cares little for the people she chooses to involve herself with romantically. As soon as she recognizes real emotion or anything that resembles love in her counterpart, Kayla will sever whatever relationship that she’s in, and will move on to the next person.

Character Preview- Lindsay

It’s day 11 of the Social Studies: Extracurricular Activities Kickstarter campaign, and today I’ll be previewing another of the main characters, in this case, Lindsay Harrison. Lindsay is played by Adrienne Ianniciello.

Lindsay Harrison is a fiery and ambition nonprofit management major at Baden University. She has a strong perfectionist streak and moral constitution, and is a model student as a result. She often finds herself as the moral compass of her group of friends, a position that she’s not always thrilled to find herself in.

Lindsay has very strong views on politics, social justice, and discrimination. She actively searches for ways to be involved in whatever community she’s in. She feels passionately about her causes and will debate anyone who challenges her. At times, her strength in her convictions causes her to be morally idealistic, which can cause her to be disappointed in her peers. At her core however, Lindsay is a loyal person who would do anything she could to help any of her new  friends.

Lindsay is a coffee addict, although she often downplays the amount and frequency of coffee that she drinks to her friends. She has a secret crush on Bill Clinton that she’s embarrassed of, as evidenced by the biography that she hides in a secret compartment of her dorm room desk.

Character Preview: Jack MacKinnon

Today, I’ll be introducing to another of the main characters in the Social Studies series. Today, it’s Jack MacKinnon– Riley’s twin brother and alpha male of the Social Studies cast. He is played by Sam Finn Cutler.

Jack MacKinnon is a standout athlete, and has been his entire life. He’s attending Baden University on a hockey scholarship, and is the blue-chip recruit of the incoming recruiting class. He idolizes Peter Forsberg, and has patterned his game around the hall-of-famer’s playing style. As a result, he’s a physical terror on the ice, and is as competitive as anyone who’s played the game.

This competitive streak drives everything that Jack does in life. He feels a need to win in everything that he does, no matter how inconsequential. When beaten, his short temper often shows itself, and this can occasionally result in mayhem for his friends. Jack is highly protective of his brother, and won’t hesitate to fight anyone who gives his brother a hard time. Jack has extraordinary confidence in himself, and doesn’t seem to panic in any scenario he finds himself in.

Character Preview: Riley

It’s day 7 of the Social Studies: Extracurricular Activities Kickstarter Campaign, and thanks to some very generous contributions, we’ve already raised over $3,000 towards the production of our series’ pilot episode!

Today, we’ll be previewing one of the main characters of Social Studies, in this case, Riley. Riley is played by Peter Giessl, and you’ll be seeing his character’s web diary and Peter’s interview over the next two days.

Riley MacKinnon is a philosophical, deep-thinking freshman at Baden University. Although unsure of what he wants to do with his life, Riley has an intense desire to leave a legacy of some sort behind him. He has interests in philosophy, psychology, literary theory, social work and history, but is indecisive on which path he wishes to pursue as a future career.

Riley is obsessed with time. Not only the concept and creation of it, but the amount of time that people have on this planet, the amount of people time use in a day, the amount of time devoted to different activities, and the concept of time in relation to human existence.

Riley also has a deep interest in the way which people interact with one another. He often conducts social experiments in order to produce certain reactions in people. He takes note of his discoveries in a notebook that he calls “The ACE Files”.

Stay tuned for Riley’s character diary tomorrow, and Peter’s interview on Sunday!

-Matt

Liftoff

Hello everyone,

It’s with great pride that I’d like to announce the launching of the Social Studies: Extracurricular Activities Kickstarter campaign. You can check out our Kickstarter page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/694359751/social-studies-extracurricular-activities?ref=video, and follow all our updates on our website, http://www.socialstudiestv.com! This has been a dream journey and a fantastic learning experience for myself and all parties involved, and we’re proud to present it to you!

Enjoy,

Matt

Preparing for Launch

It’s a very important week for me.

This week, I’m going to be launching the Kickstarter for my original web-series, Social Studies: Extracurricular Activities. It’ll be the culmination of three years of development, four months of casting, months of shooting and editing footage, and an acquisition of industry knowledge that begun hundreds of miles away in Broome County, and has been augmented in Greenwich Village at the New School.

Yeah, you could say this is a pretty big deal for me.

As I look forward I see that while I’ve managed to complete a lot of the steps in this process, there are still plenty more on the way. I’m going to be writing a lot of emails, sharing my project on plenty of blogs, sending out press releases to as many places as I can, and all the while operating all my social media channels from one central location. (That’d be my project’s website, http://www.socialstudiestv.com, in case you were wondering.)

Now that the project has been approved, and the act of launching it into cyberspace is but a click away, the impact of this process I’m about to undertake is fully hitting me. Nerves, which have been fairly minimal up until this point, are suddenly overtaking me. There’s a cacophony of voices inside of my head that are arguing with each other, and that certainly isn’t helping with the whole nerves thing.

There’s three voices, to be exact. The first is the rational, forward thinking one that has guided me throughout this entire process. When I’ve listened to it, I’ve found that it has lead me to success in my endeavors. It’s usually the conversation starter, and leads in with something like this:

“Dude, relax. You know what you have to do. Just take this thing one step at a time, make sure each step is done perfectly, and don’t let the entire process overwhelm you. Start thinking about what you want to tell people about your project when you email them, make a list, just be thorough. You’ve got this.”

The rational voice is then cut off by the second voice swirling between my ears. It’s my self-doubt, my cynicism, the part of me that usually keeps me honest, but at this moment is giving me grey hairs, and persuading me to give up on my dreams. It chimes in with:

“You know, Kickstarter is for professionals. Professionals– so not you.”

Before the rational voice can retort, both voices are drowned out by a third. This one is loud and authoritative, and booms as if transmitted through loudspeakers. It’s the sound of my impending Kickstarter launch as time winds down.

“PREPARING FOR LAUCH…”

“Okay, you’ve got to make sure all your social media channels are in line.”

“Good thing you’re averaging 15 likes on Instagram. That kind of exposure just screams ‘fully funded Kickstarter’. I’m being sarcastic, if you can’t tell.”

“INITIATING IGNITION, EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IS A GO…”

“Make sure that you explain to everyone you contact how they helped you with this project.”

“While you’re at it, you can catch up on everything that has happened in the two years since you last contacted them, asshole.”

“T-MINUS TEN SECONDS TO LAUNCH…”

“Lay out all your videos so that they all make sense, you want this to be as entertaining of a process as possible.”

“You think people are actually going to click on anything you post? Hah!”

“TEN…NINE…EIGHT…”

“Mailchimp link on your website…make sure you’ve got all your photos ready to upload to your social media pages.”

“I’m sure people are just going to be lining up to subscribe to your mailing list. That’s sarcasm again.”

“SEVEN…SIX…FIVE…”

“You’ve got a whiteboard, make sure everything is written down. Stay calm and realize that this is a cumulative process.”

“A cumulative process that will end with no money in your pocket.”

“FOUR…THREE…TWO…”

“Trust in your friends. They believe in you and will help you along the way.”

“IF they remember who you are.” 

“ONE!”

Finishing Touches

It’s a beuatiful day today. Spring feels like it’s finally, FINALLY arrived to the Northeast US, and the scene in front of me couldn’t be more different than the arctic wasteland that lay before me the last time I posted here.

A lot has happened over the past few months. Mainly, I’ve spent my time shooting, editing, color correcting, and compiling video content for all thirty days of the Social Studies:Extracurricular Activities Kickstarter. The entire process has been a fantastic learning experience for me. I purchased my first DSLR camera, got better acquainted with my editing program, and learned how to pretend to act comfortable in front of a camera. The process was much more complicated than I anticipated, but learning how to overcome each obstacle in my path first-hand has proven to be invaluable for my development as a creative professional.

I feel a sense of relief, today, because for the first time in the past three months I can look at the Kickstarter material that I’ve created and feel satisfied. Now, a new challenge now stands before me. I’ve got to get the word out! All this work that I’ve been putting into this Kickstarter is meaningless if I have nobody to share it with.

I’ve started compiling a list of every person I’ve crossed paths with in my past who I think would be interested in or enjoy this series that I’ve created. I’ve found this entire process very interesting because it makes me pause and reflect on the time I’ve spent with all these people. Some were mere acquaintances, some are friends I’ll have for as long as I’m alive. The common thread that connects them all, however, is the fact that they had a varying impact on what I consider to be the most important years of my life. Memories have started to emerge that I’ve long since forgotten or misplaced, and I feel illuminated by the warm glow of nostalgia. As I reflect of the relationships I’ve had in my life, and the friendships I’ve made, I can’t help but think how fortunate I am. By some stroke of luck, I’ve managed to run into some great people on my travels, and my encounters with them have helped inspire my work. My desire to share my series with all of them has provided me with some much-needed motivation during some of the rougher parts of this creative process.

I’m glad to say that since the production process has finished, I’ve freed up a lot more time to get back to what brought me to the dance- my writing. I’ll be dropping updates on all of you beautiful people through my blog, and posting all my content across my social media channels. I’m proud to announce that I also have a central hub where all my work is consolidated; the website that I built for my series-

I’ll be back tomorrow with the Kickstarter preview link!

-Matt

Condensation

Hey all,

It’s Friday night, and there’s still mountains of snow everywhere I look. We’ve been fortunate so far this year in the Northeast in terms of winter storms, and NYC barely got hit during this most recent one. However, I think I can speak for the majority of Suffolk County residents when I say- I’m good. I’ll take a nice quick transition into spring now, please. It’s gonna be sick when the 2 foot frozen snowbanks on either side of my street melt away next month, and I can drive down my block without having to worry about trading paint with someone coming in the other direction. But I digress…

I come bearing updates! The Kickstarter is forming in front of my eyes, and I’m almost at the point where I can say I’m in the proverbial home stretch. The Kickstarter trailer has been shot, edited, color-corrected, scored, and credited, and guess what? That’s just the start. There’s a few more things that have also been edited, color-corrected, scored, and credited. Namely, actor interviews, character video blogs, and interviews with crew. We have so much material produced, that we’ll be able to post new content on our Kickstarter every day. Yes, that means a new video, interview, blog post, or character diary for each of the 30 days we’ll be running our Kickstarter. If I were able to insert an emoticon of a person performing a flaming uppercut, I’d post it here. Get hyped folks, our next big step is approaching!

What hasn’t been shot, edited, color-corrected, scored, and credited yet, however, is my interview that accompanies the Kickstarter trailer. It’s where I’m to explain to our audience the premise of our show, but also my back story and personal connection to Social Studies. This should be simple, right? A concise, minute-and-a-half video where I paint a clear picture to my audience. Straight to the point. Only, I’m finding this task to be herculean.

It’s because my personal connection to Social Studies goes back three years. Back to the exact moment when the idea formed in my mind, and I realized that I suddenly had something that could help me realize my dreams if I applied my entire self to its development. It was with me throughout some of the most important moments of my life, as well as some of the happiest, and these moments flowed through my fingertips during the hours I spent in front of my laptop. As I grew personally, my idea grew with me, and the lessons I learned throughout my journey through young adulthood began to shape the Social Studies landscape. Sometime during my senior year, I hit a tipping point. I can’t remember exactly when it was, hell, I don’t even know if I was awake when it happened. All I know is that at some point, the trajectory of the show came into complete focus. It had an obvious direction, it had the themes I wanted- the characters, the setting, and the story lines I wanted. The gaps were filling in organically, and I now knew my series as well as I knew myself. I don’t know if there are words to describe an experience like that.

From that point onward, Social Studies became my ultimate ambition. It’s the first thing I think of when I wake up. It’s the last thing I think of before I go to sleep. During the day, I daydream so intensely about it that I can see it in front of me, and at night, I spend hours at the keyboard writing whatever I’d been daydreaming about that day. I’ve had full dreams where I’ve been characters in my own show, before I’d even met the actors that would eventually play them. Social Studies isn’t just a part of me, Social Studies is me. My friends, my experiences, my beliefs, and my history are interwoven into what I’ve created.It means more to me than most things in life.

Well, I think I’ve held you all captive for long enough. You get the picture, it’s hard to compress all of that into a minute and a half. The craziest thing is, this blog post is just for the undergrad years. To see how I transitioned from writer to producer, and how the plan for my production was formed, keep you eyes on my page. I’ll be dropping some more literary nuggets on you real soon.

-Matt