Jessica Mae Stover
Jessica Mae Stover is an American actor, auteur director, screenwriter, filmmaker, and author.
The overall project is a cross-platform film project. The way we’re funding the film is, instead of going to studios--who don’t make original films anymore, specifically not original sci-fi and fantasy--you just don’t see that very often, if at all, we went straight to the audience.
Storytelling fills a basic human need.
Once I found out how that system works, the studio system, I was like,'“OK, do I want to work like that or no?--NO. OK, what do I do now?'
When I went to discuss independent media at the FCC, in the waiting room it was me and a bunch of NBC-Comcast lobbyists. These are not conspiracy theories: these are the facts of media ownership, business and influence. I wish I had a photo--the stage picture of that waiting room said it all. I was dwarfed by this wall of lobbyists in dark expensive suits.
The film, to me, is a story that is about the limitations that society puts on the individual, what’s your breaking point and how do you react to that. Which is at least a little meta, given what we’re doing with the project.
I just think there is a larger philosophy at play here, and I would urge you all not to take all the studio and advertising stuff at surface level.
As professionals, and as audience members, start really thinking about what storytelling means, what it means to us socially. This includes everything from news to movies and beyond. The same companies own all of these. I could tell you stories of the manipulative power of vertical integration that would make you physically ill. Fuck, I felt like such a tool once I saw what that merger could have done and how I was a part of using it to impact my teen peers. 5 million of them! I've probably stirred your impressionable thoughts around a bit and you don't even know it. Who was I to have such a global platform for something so comparatively frivolous?
And if it’s something as sacred and important to us as that, then why is it OK to watch ten commercials before a movie despite that you’ve paid for your ticket?
Beyond building the world of the film, I have to build the infrastructure around how we’re making it.
I see it as a renaissance we’re hoping for in filmmaking. It’s a way of life, it’s a philosophy
And I think it’s possible, but I basically feel like there’s a huge status quo going on, and it’s not going to be changing and we help reinforce it. You, yes I mean you. You are not an exception, you're enforcing this fabricated rule. I guess my hope would be, as we’re talking about a lot of these topics, to urge you to think outside of the box--you think you are, but you aren't--and not just accept the thought that that we have to be talking about studios and advertising.
Why does it have to come from the studios? And why does it have to involve advertising?
You can make the most brilliant thing in the world, and that 'if you build it, they will come' thing isn’t true. That’s because you need a marketing budget. Everything is propaganda..
Movement is a prelude to destiny.
The Internet as a great leveler is a myth. There is so much noise, it actually costs more to cut through the muddy waters and get your message out there.
Jessica Mae Stover is a force of nature. She is something like a hurricane or a tornado; she is an unstoppable force fueled by her passion and her vision and her belief. She is a revolutionary.
When you’re working at a professional level, but you don’t have a marketing budget… you’re screwed! Anyone in the business who won't admit the truths of distro is lying to you. So that's pretty much every mainstream media outlet.
It really is a community project, and people really are pulling their weight, because I’m one person and I can't do it all. They’re always helping us to spread the word, and share the story, and connect with press. It’s great when the audience has your back, it feels like you can do anything. But it's important that you do what's right, well.
Like many of us, she sees the mammoth movie studios and much of what they churn out, and she knows something is broken. Like most of us, she loves the cinematic experience but feels that commerce, company and committees are directly defiling the quality of what we see in a theater. Unlike the rest of us, she isn’t content to accept the way things are; she is out to change the world.
I wanted to create a business model and a case study that not only would yield an awesome movie that people would love, and something high-minded, but that would also confront things like media consolidation, [i.e.] when you have six companies controlling everything you’re seeing. To the artist, what’s important is they do not get tied up in the system. There needs to be an opportunity to not do that. To comment in a way that doesn't feed that beast. Let’s get organized and create that opportunity.