Interview | Stebs Schinnerer of Paper Fortress Films
Early this fall, I had the pleasure of meeting Stebs Schinnerer of Paper Fortress Films. For those of you not yet familiar with his work, Stebs has long been producing consistently amazing videos for all genres of bicycling, as well as awesome work for fashion companies and blogs, cultural institutions, and bands. He is an incredibly humble and friendly person, who is simply psyched on life. He cares deeply about every project he takes on, and the people he works with. Aside from its aesthetic beauty, Stebs' portfolio is deeply engaging in narrative and conceptual drive. I had the chance to ask him a few questions about his inspiration and background, and I have included some samples of his work with our conversation.
Where are you originally from?
I grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts which is about 45 minutes from Boston, and I currently live in Somerville. I have lived in Massachusetts my whole life, with the exception of a year in Vancouver, BC.
When did you first get interested in filmmaking? Did you go to school for it?
I've had a camera in my hand since I was 13, and I put out a street mountain bike DVD when I was 18 years old. I went to school for film in central Mass, and when I moved to Vancouver I did an internship with this place called Rip TV. They did this mountain bike show called Drop In, where I learned a lot about producing things "on the reg". I left there and started working for a small wedding company, where I kind of had free reign in the business side of things; it was a photo guy who didn't have a video guy anymore. I stepped in at kind of the right time, and I was able to work with clients, and effectively run the entire video side of the company. It taught me a whole lot about the business side of the industry, and coming back from that, I had a very sound mind when it came time to opening my own business.
What and who are your favorite films, filmmakers, and/or photographers?
My love for actually making films started with watching Requiem For a Dream by Darren Aronofsky. Just his style of making films—machine gun editing, crazy colors, really intense angles, and just beautiful cinematography, really inspired me. I think I was most intrigued by that film because I used to work at a video store and we had this big, thick book, that was full of film reviews. I looked at Requiem For a Dream and it gave it a turkey, like below one star, but I read the description, and it sounded so cool. I got it and saw it — and it completely changed my world. To see that a film could be hated by critics, but still be such beautiful work...in seeing that, I decided that I was going to do my own thing and not care if critics or people didn't like it.
There's plenty of other directors I like, Danny Boyle is just unbelievable. The fact that he can make Trainspotting, and then make 28 Days Later, and then make Slumdog Millionaire, just these films that are so different from one another, but do them all so well, is really inspiring.
I think my main inspiration in terms of the overall film world is Spike Jonze, He's just the coolest dude ever, he does silly shit with Jackass and cool skate films, but he also does major motion pictures and commercials. Spike Jonze — if i could live a life, Spike Jonze has got it on lock: that's just what I want to do.
I understand you've been working on a feature film? What is it called and what is it about?
It's called We Are Friends. It's actually based around an idea I had for a shot of someone grabbing the camera as though it were a person and just beating the crap out of it. I just sort of thought, how could I that into a film? It's funny, but now that we are in draft 4 of the film, we aren't even using it anymore because it doesn't work with the plot, but it all stemmed from an idea for this violent shot.
I'm really inspired by the director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who did 21 Grams, Babel and Amores Perros. His films are all very similar in that they show people in the worst moments of their lives. I'm also inspired Harmony Korine who made Kids, and Gummo which are just raw and disturbing in the most real sense of the word. To be able to make someone really sad and really emotional has always struck me as being very difficult and interesting to achieve in a creative medium.
The hope is to make this film as raw and gritty as possible, incorporating things like all-natural lighting and very ad-libbed conversations. We've been struggling with making the film as realistic and understandable as possible while dealing with topics like people getting murdered,so we've been comparing different films that have dealt with the same topics and trying to learn from what made sense and what didn't, and it's been a crazy adventure for sure.
When did you start writing, and who else is involved?
I started writing it in late 2007, I finished it about a year later while working as a projectionist in a movie theater. I have had a writing partner throughout the creative process, his name is Trever Moore. He's been my best friend since I was younger, and he was sort of my sound mind on everything when I would get stuck on a part. I got most of the story down, but eventually when we got through draft #3, I handed it over to him and had him develop the characters further. He lives in Manhattan and we spent a lot of time on his roof just reading through this script, and it was eye opening to feel like we're actually getting somewhere. We recently finished draft #4 and sent the script out to an analyst for further review.
The title of the film We Are Friends is also indicative of the crew that we're going to be having, because we like to bring in anyone that's creative around us. Michael Dacy of Repeat Press is going to be printing our dvd sleeves and flyers. Justin Keena is actually going to be director of photography alongside of me.
Trevor and I were also really inspired by this one DJ out of London, who made this mix, so we emailed him and told him we really wanted his mix in our movie and he was super psyched on it, so we're just trying to bring all these powers together and try to make this film with a bunch of cool, creative people.
What is your anticipated release date?
We plan to begin filming March of 2011. Hopefully it should be out by November of 2011. If not, the beginning of 2012.
How did you get involved in fashion work, namely Highsnobiety?
The Highsnobiety and Selectism work came through a friend of mine named Jeff Carvalho who runs Selectism. He had never seen my work before and then I put out a video that he really liked, and he asked me to film their coasters being made by Michael Dacy, here at the Fringe Movement, and he ended up being really impressed with that.
I do a lot of work for him now, and it's really awesome because the stuff that comes through that is so different and varied, like I filmed an exhibition that KAWS did, and I filmed a paper exhibit that had all kinds of interesting stuff. I try to dabble in anything that needs this creative medium, and it gives me the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and experience a lot of different things.
You're also a cyclist, what kind(s) of riding do you do?
I used to do street mountain biking for a long time, and then my bike got stolen, so my friend let me borrow his BMX, and I realized how much more fun it was. I started riding and I just fell in love with it. I've been riding since 2007. Aside from riding BMX, I also ride a fixed gear. I ride that around the city, it's just so much fun. I used to ride a road bike, but my friend got me on one of those: you feel so much more connected with the bike. I'm also getting a motorcycle soon, so that will be another type of bike I'm riding.
You've done a lot of work for bicycle companies: could you tell me about some of those projects & people?
My work for bicycle companies all started with an edit for Open Bicycle. They were just a group of my friends who opened a bike shop, and we just ran around for a weekend filming. It was literally the coldest weekend of the winter, like zero degrees. Everyone was just killing themselves, it took me 5 straight days of editing, and 4 straight days of filming. But through that, I got recognition some recognition around Boston, like with Marty Walsh from Geekhouse who actually used to sponsor me for street mountain biking, before he did only road stuff.
When he asked me to do a build video for him, I jumped on it since he and I have been friends for a while. So I ran over to his place in Allston, and filmed him building a few frames and just made a video out of it for a day.
It was through HighSnobiety, and knowing Jeff Carvallo, that Rapha asked me to cover a few events and they are just all super, super good dudes.
What are your favorite Cycling and BMX films or parts?
As a mountain biker, the Cranked series of films inspired me when I was younger, but the one that was really just awesome for me was this video called Killing Time of this guy Life Cycles which looks unbelievable.
As far as BMX films, there was this Odyssey film called Odyssey Video and the whole intro was hand drawn. All the Props videos are sweet, because who doesn't like road trips & BMX? My three favorite BMX parts are Dakota Roche's from the first Fit video, Aaron Ross' section from Chill Bro to Rick Ross's Hustlin', and Ruben Alcantara's part from the Etnies Grounded video was just so, so good.
What are your hopes and plans for your future and the future of your business? Do you hope to focus on feature film making? or continue doing commercial and documentary work?
Hopefully I kind of stay doing what I'm doing. The thing about getting into only feature films is that they take a while, so you have to devote a crapload of time, and you really only work with a select few people. I really like just traveling and meeting new people, and I think doing smaller commercial work, or really any work that allows me to do shorter films, allows me to do that.
My current work offers me the ability to travel around the country, and the world, meeting cool new people that are just doing what I'm doing, or running their own business. To be able to film small businesses and artists is really inspiring to me because you're just doing things with these people that they love so much.
Do you have any advice for other aspiring filmmakers?
Just keep grinding and keep doing it. Don't give up. Learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. Get your own style—figure out what you love to do, and just go for it, don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
For more of Stebs' work, check out his website Paper Fortress Films.
Filming Myself #4 from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
Where are you originally from?
I grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts which is about 45 minutes from Boston, and I currently live in Somerville. I have lived in Massachusetts my whole life, with the exception of a year in Vancouver, BC.
When did you first get interested in filmmaking? Did you go to school for it?
I've had a camera in my hand since I was 13, and I put out a street mountain bike DVD when I was 18 years old. I went to school for film in central Mass, and when I moved to Vancouver I did an internship with this place called Rip TV. They did this mountain bike show called Drop In, where I learned a lot about producing things "on the reg". I left there and started working for a small wedding company, where I kind of had free reign in the business side of things; it was a photo guy who didn't have a video guy anymore. I stepped in at kind of the right time, and I was able to work with clients, and effectively run the entire video side of the company. It taught me a whole lot about the business side of the industry, and coming back from that, I had a very sound mind when it came time to opening my own business.
What and who are your favorite films, filmmakers, and/or photographers?
My love for actually making films started with watching Requiem For a Dream by Darren Aronofsky. Just his style of making films—machine gun editing, crazy colors, really intense angles, and just beautiful cinematography, really inspired me. I think I was most intrigued by that film because I used to work at a video store and we had this big, thick book, that was full of film reviews. I looked at Requiem For a Dream and it gave it a turkey, like below one star, but I read the description, and it sounded so cool. I got it and saw it — and it completely changed my world. To see that a film could be hated by critics, but still be such beautiful work...in seeing that, I decided that I was going to do my own thing and not care if critics or people didn't like it.
There's plenty of other directors I like, Danny Boyle is just unbelievable. The fact that he can make Trainspotting, and then make 28 Days Later, and then make Slumdog Millionaire, just these films that are so different from one another, but do them all so well, is really inspiring.
I think my main inspiration in terms of the overall film world is Spike Jonze, He's just the coolest dude ever, he does silly shit with Jackass and cool skate films, but he also does major motion pictures and commercials. Spike Jonze — if i could live a life, Spike Jonze has got it on lock: that's just what I want to do.
KAWS Museum Exhibit Opening from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
I understand you've been working on a feature film? What is it called and what is it about?
It's called We Are Friends. It's actually based around an idea I had for a shot of someone grabbing the camera as though it were a person and just beating the crap out of it. I just sort of thought, how could I that into a film? It's funny, but now that we are in draft 4 of the film, we aren't even using it anymore because it doesn't work with the plot, but it all stemmed from an idea for this violent shot.
I'm really inspired by the director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who did 21 Grams, Babel and Amores Perros. His films are all very similar in that they show people in the worst moments of their lives. I'm also inspired Harmony Korine who made Kids, and Gummo which are just raw and disturbing in the most real sense of the word. To be able to make someone really sad and really emotional has always struck me as being very difficult and interesting to achieve in a creative medium.
The hope is to make this film as raw and gritty as possible, incorporating things like all-natural lighting and very ad-libbed conversations. We've been struggling with making the film as realistic and understandable as possible while dealing with topics like people getting murdered,so we've been comparing different films that have dealt with the same topics and trying to learn from what made sense and what didn't, and it's been a crazy adventure for sure.
When did you start writing, and who else is involved?
I started writing it in late 2007, I finished it about a year later while working as a projectionist in a movie theater. I have had a writing partner throughout the creative process, his name is Trever Moore. He's been my best friend since I was younger, and he was sort of my sound mind on everything when I would get stuck on a part. I got most of the story down, but eventually when we got through draft #3, I handed it over to him and had him develop the characters further. He lives in Manhattan and we spent a lot of time on his roof just reading through this script, and it was eye opening to feel like we're actually getting somewhere. We recently finished draft #4 and sent the script out to an analyst for further review.
The title of the film We Are Friends is also indicative of the crew that we're going to be having, because we like to bring in anyone that's creative around us. Michael Dacy of Repeat Press is going to be printing our dvd sleeves and flyers. Justin Keena is actually going to be director of photography alongside of me.
Trevor and I were also really inspired by this one DJ out of London, who made this mix, so we emailed him and told him we really wanted his mix in our movie and he was super psyched on it, so we're just trying to bring all these powers together and try to make this film with a bunch of cool, creative people.
What is your anticipated release date?
We plan to begin filming March of 2011. Hopefully it should be out by November of 2011. If not, the beginning of 2012.
How did you get involved in fashion work, namely Highsnobiety?
The Highsnobiety and Selectism work came through a friend of mine named Jeff Carvalho who runs Selectism. He had never seen my work before and then I put out a video that he really liked, and he asked me to film their coasters being made by Michael Dacy, here at the Fringe Movement, and he ended up being really impressed with that.
Letterpress Coasters from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
I do a lot of work for him now, and it's really awesome because the stuff that comes through that is so different and varied, like I filmed an exhibition that KAWS did, and I filmed a paper exhibit that had all kinds of interesting stuff. I try to dabble in anything that needs this creative medium, and it gives me the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and experience a lot of different things.
Papermania from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
You're also a cyclist, what kind(s) of riding do you do?
I used to do street mountain biking for a long time, and then my bike got stolen, so my friend let me borrow his BMX, and I realized how much more fun it was. I started riding and I just fell in love with it. I've been riding since 2007. Aside from riding BMX, I also ride a fixed gear. I ride that around the city, it's just so much fun. I used to ride a road bike, but my friend got me on one of those: you feel so much more connected with the bike. I'm also getting a motorcycle soon, so that will be another type of bike I'm riding.
You've done a lot of work for bicycle companies: could you tell me about some of those projects & people?
It Aint That Serious from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
My work for bicycle companies all started with an edit for Open Bicycle. They were just a group of my friends who opened a bike shop, and we just ran around for a weekend filming. It was literally the coldest weekend of the winter, like zero degrees. Everyone was just killing themselves, it took me 5 straight days of editing, and 4 straight days of filming. But through that, I got recognition some recognition around Boston, like with Marty Walsh from Geekhouse who actually used to sponsor me for street mountain biking, before he did only road stuff.
Geekhouse Bikes from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
When he asked me to do a build video for him, I jumped on it since he and I have been friends for a while. So I ran over to his place in Allston, and filmed him building a few frames and just made a video out of it for a day.
Rapha Continental | B2B | Boston, MA to Windsor, VT from RAPHA on Vimeo.
It was through HighSnobiety, and knowing Jeff Carvallo, that Rapha asked me to cover a few events and they are just all super, super good dudes.
What are your favorite Cycling and BMX films or parts?
As a mountain biker, the Cranked series of films inspired me when I was younger, but the one that was really just awesome for me was this video called Killing Time of this guy Life Cycles which looks unbelievable.
As far as BMX films, there was this Odyssey film called Odyssey Video and the whole intro was hand drawn. All the Props videos are sweet, because who doesn't like road trips & BMX? My three favorite BMX parts are Dakota Roche's from the first Fit video, Aaron Ross' section from Chill Bro to Rick Ross's Hustlin', and Ruben Alcantara's part from the Etnies Grounded video was just so, so good.
What are your hopes and plans for your future and the future of your business? Do you hope to focus on feature film making? or continue doing commercial and documentary work?
Hopefully I kind of stay doing what I'm doing. The thing about getting into only feature films is that they take a while, so you have to devote a crapload of time, and you really only work with a select few people. I really like just traveling and meeting new people, and I think doing smaller commercial work, or really any work that allows me to do shorter films, allows me to do that.
2010 Moon Ball from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.
My current work offers me the ability to travel around the country, and the world, meeting cool new people that are just doing what I'm doing, or running their own business. To be able to film small businesses and artists is really inspiring to me because you're just doing things with these people that they love so much.
Do you have any advice for other aspiring filmmakers?
Just keep grinding and keep doing it. Don't give up. Learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. Get your own style—figure out what you love to do, and just go for it, don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
For more of Stebs' work, check out his website Paper Fortress Films.
posted by Alex Bloom at
2:41 PM
