Speaking Out, a new film by Steven Andrew Reynolds, © 2006 Polka Dotted Productions.
Steven Andrew Reynolds is a young Independent Filmmaker based in Dallas, Texas. He currently working on his first feature, Speaking Out. I had the chance to interview the new filmmaker and learned some interesting things about an every day problem.
ME: The name of your film is Speaking Out, can you tell me exactly what this film is about?
SAR: Speaking Out focuses around Jacob Johnson. Jacob recently moved to a new home after his father had died. His mother uprooted everything he knew and placed him in a new environment. In this environment he was an old enemy, one might saw. This “enemy” recognized Jacob and slandered his name. It wasn’t long before the entire school hated Jacob.
Tyler Moore is watching his friend be cruel to Jacob and tries to reach out, however, Jacob pulls away. After endless days and over a year and a half of emotional and physical bullying at school, Jacob has had enough. In his mind the only way to fix the problem is to get rid of it. He brings a gun to school and shoots three students, killing one instantly. He threatens Tyler’fs life by holding the gun to his head. It is in this moment Jacob asks about why Tyler still believes in God, after all God had done to Tyler.
Tyler denies his faith, and Jacob withdraws the threat and places it to his head. Jacob was stopped from committing suicide and went through a strenuous media covered trial. From everyone’s point of view Jacob was guilty.
ME: That’s sounds very interesting. Have you ever had any experience with bullies that have helped to inspire the film or perhaps some of the events?
SAR: I have, I have personally been bullied, I have seen people get bullied, and I myself have bullied somone.
ME: It takes a lot of courage to be able to admit that. Obviously bullying is a problem in most schools of both sexes. How do you think bullying varies from boy to boy and girl to girl.
SAR: For girls it is mostly about how they look, “oh she’s too fat” “she is ugly,” etc. The pressure society puts on them is what girls use against each other; for guys it is sports. Throughout childhood and adolescent years boys are expected to be macho, play sport, get down in the dirt, and if he doesn’t abide by these things he is mocked; also, boys are more physical, they pick on the smaller guys.
ME: I’m guessing all the actors in this film are around your age and are probably in high school. In what ways have the actors in the film prepared for their roles?
SAR: Well, two of them are in high school, three have just graduated, and the other two have been out for a while. The actors seemed to just click with the roles. When they first read the script they immediately adapted to that character, i think for the most part the cast had been that character at one point in their life, and that is where they pulled their inspiration from.
ME: What kind of emotional effect does bullying have on a victim, and in what ways have you depicted that in your film?
SAR: Bullying can leave deep scars, and I think most of society doesn’t see that. Jacob is obviously hurt by his actions. He resorts to self mutilation, he burns a bible (depicted in the teaser), and he finally spins out of control bringing a gun to school. Jacob is an outcast in the film. For the most part he is a normal looking person. He wears abercrombie, american eagle, etc. His hair is the norm, nothing crazy. But he is emotionally withdrawn from everything, keeping to himself, rejecting Tyler, who tries to become jacob’s friend.
ME: What made you want to do this film, and why did you choose bullying out of many possibilities?
SAR: Well, bullying isn’t the only theme, we cover teen pregnancy (briefly), and self mutilation. Since I had personally been through a rough time when I was younger, I knew I wanted to tell my story. My parents urged me to write a book since I was already writing one. But I pushed off until November 2005, when I finally realized that I had overcome my pain and I realized that I was ready to tell a story. I began writing “Speaking Out” about two months after I filmed a documentary about high school cliches.
The documentary was titled “Status Quo”. My desire to make this film was also given to me by God. I believe God put me in my situation to reach out to the world and help others like me.
ME: I’m guessing you believe the best thing to do is inform these people, because that is the best kind of assistance you can offer. But what exactly are you going to be informing them on?
SAR: Well I am going to promote the film, encourage them to watch it, then I plan to discuss what I did to deal with it. I will tell them what not to do, what worked for me and what didn’t.
ME: Do you plan to enter this film in any film festivals or any other sorts of competitions?
SAR: Yes, we are looking into a few, we definitely want whatever gets it out there.
ME: Where there any any events or possibilites you wanted to put into the film, but didn’t get the chance?
SAR: Looking back at the script, it was only 52-pages, I would definitely probably make it longer. I can’t really say anything else until I see the finished product (next week).
ME: When you show the film to audiences, not matter who it is, what kind of impact do you expect, and what kind of impact are you hoping for?
SAR: I’m hoping to send several messages out, about how bullying affects people, how forgiveness is hard to find and give but once it is, it is an amazing feeling. I expect to see at least one or two people cry (haha). I expect to hear the audience talk about how they thought it was going one way but then goes another (the plot).
If you are interested in learning more about Speaking out or more about Steven Andrew Reynolds and his films, please visit the following links: