Grooooooo!!!

Yesterday Jonathan brought home a copy of Square magazine, a local Provo/Orem magazine run by college kids. Inside was an "expose-A", as Jonathan called it, about Stephen Groo, a local filmmaker. Jonathan and I have enjoyed his movies for a couple of years now, and have shared his work with many of our friends and family. According to the article, he has made "about 109" films. If you visit his website, www.utahwolfproductions.com, you can view previews of his productions. My personal favorites have to be Tale of Mermaids, Shikito (which as Jonathan pointed out, is basically a rip off of the video game Final Fantasy), and of course Broken Hearts, which has been unfortunately removed from his website. That one basically destroyed a Journey song. Ooh, so horrible. He also makes music videos. Major Tom is a classic, Tribute to Utah is interesting. But whatever you do, don't watch Ride on a Meteor or Lollipop...It's amazing how awkward and awful those ones are...anyway. He is apparently oblivious to it. Now, keep in mind that Stephen Groo takes himself very seriously. Which just makes watching his films that much more hilarious. I almost feel bad for the guy...but at the same time, I want to make sure he keeps making films for all of us to enjoy. Here are a few excerpts from the interview in Square:

Interviewer: Would you be willing to explain why your film label is called Wolf Productions?
Groo: Yeah. Pretty much my nickname is actually "Wolf", and then, because of people that I've been friends with a long time; plus, it's pretty much my favorite animal, and I just decided to turn it into a production company name.

Interviewer: What's your favorite film of all time?
Groo: It's hard to say what my favorite film is. I have to break it into genres because I can't just say one ultimate film. For, like, sci-fi, I'd have to say X-Men, Armageddon, Lord of the Rings, Narnia. For drama, I'd probably have to say Gladiator. Action - too many to even say on that one. That just kind of gives a broad spectrum; I like pretty much all of the genres that are out there.

Interviewer: What are you ultimately hoping to achieve or accomplish through your films?
Groo: Energizing at least one person out there is one part, and a second part is just like what Stephen Spielberg said back when he did Schindler's List: "I don't care if anybody sees my film, but in the end at least I made the film." Pretty much making my dreams coming true -let's put it that way. I try to follow that philosophy almost every time that I make a movie. I really don't care if anyone sees any of my films, but I have enough fans out there that they want to see everything I make. (gee, I wonder why...)

Interviewer: You have quite a local following. Is there any message you would like to convey to your fans?
Groo: In a sense, mostly, it would be to just keep film real but keep the fantasy in there, too. No matter what it takes to make a movie, do it within reason. Don't let people keep you away from making your dreams become realities in film. (did that make sense to anyone out there?)

Wow. Amazing. Make sure you check out the music video for Nickleback's Save Me featuring Mr. Groo himself. You won't be sorry. Actually you probably will be. But do it anyway. Just for the experience...