I was majoring in TV/Film Production at the Brooks Institute of Photography (which is now called Brooks Institute) and was required to take a series of 16mm Workshop classes to graduate. This was in 2006.

In the first two-month class, the students were required to write a low-budget screenplay under ten pages. I wrote a short drama about two punk teenagers on the run from the law, their brief love affair, and their eventual split. In the second class, everyone voted to decide which two screenplays would be put into production. “Escape! from Robot Island” and “Hideaway” were selected. My screenplay was not.

At this point, everyone put their name up on a list candidates for the position(s) they wanted. I put myself up as a candidate to direct “Hideaway,” if I remember correctly. Tim Thompson was the obvious and perfect choice for “Escape! from Robot Island.”

Well, I was not selected to direct “Hideaway” (the very talented Jacob Chase was).

I knew I had to fill a position to pass the class. Everyone raced to pick their 2nd and 3rd choices. I noticed the Electronic Press Kit position. An Electronic Press Kit (EPK) for a film is usually comprised of promotional videos and stills. They are used by major studios and independent production companies to advertise to potential audiences, film festival selection panels, acquisition executives, etc.

I took the position uncontested. I figured that I could make a documentary while operating under the guise of making a “Behind the Scenes/EPK” video for “Escape! from Robot Island.” I just hoped that my professor and peers wouldn’t mind too much when they realized I had not made a “promotional tool” for the film.

I had complete creative control. Naturally, my camera was drawn to the people and interactions that interested me, namely the writer/directors involved in “Escape! from Robot Island.” You have to remember that many of the aspiring writers and directors in my class had just put up their screenplays and been rejected, put up their names to direct and had been rejected, had agreed to fill their 2nd or 3rd choice crew position, and had been required to pay their share (about $650) to finance the film.

And these are all young, ambitious, gutsy, talented kids with crazy dreams. The ones who decided to pay to go to film school. The ones who survived the first two years and DID NOT drop out despite the advice of their family, friends, professors, and the succession of failures that filmmaking inevitably brings. And we all collided in a situation which caused us all to doubt and dream in ways we hadn’t before…

I tried to capture some of that story in The Making of Escape! from Robot Island. I hope you enjoy it.

My “EPK” received a lot of praise and its share of criticism when I showed it in class. The professor said that if I could cut it down to twenty minutes he would show it to every incoming Workshop class. But I was gearing up for my thesis, so I didn’t follow up on his offer.

And here is the “making of” video…