Mission
Pop Screen aims to shine a light on the lives and aspirations of those who work behind the scenes in any creative industry. Inspired by true events, the film intimately explores the fickle nature of fame, suggesting that luck, not talent, determines who becomes a star and who remains in the shadows.
I know you feel
Alone in a world gone black and white
When you lose the fight
Director’s Statement
Pop Screen is a backstage story.
Most backstage stories follow a superhero trajectory: gifted young person is discovered,
questions if they’re good enough, suffers, works hard, and gets one shot at glory…
In 2012, I had my own big shot as an actor and, after that gig, I thought I had ‘made it.’
I auditioned tirelessly for years, took increasingly worse jobs, and felt I had failed. Because I
love music, I applied (on craigslist) to be a recording studio receptionist almost as an escape.
To my surprise, the legendary Conway Recording Studios hired me.
I began catering to the ‘real’ stars.
Pop Screen came out of a fellow receptionist’s run-in with a music producer who heard her
testing the mic, gave her his card, and promised they’d work some ‘demos’ together.
He never called back.
The recording studio, with its gated entrance, high-stakes clients, and soundproof
glass divisions, became the perfect backdrop for a story of longing, power,
and unfulfilled promise…
I noticed, though, that this place that epitomized creative power dynamics was also
becoming a second home:
there, engineers taught me how to make beats,
other receptionists pulled me aside for songwriting co-writes,
and at night, after clients left, we’d all run to an empty studio to
play and dance to our own music.
I felt my creative virility resurface.
Now, it is the setting for my first film as a writer, director, and songwriter.
I hope people will see their own dreams in this film. The characters are real people,
not superheroes,
and I hope they’ll love them even more for that.
With Pop Screen, I hope audiences feel the yearning, but also begin to recognize
the moments of possibility that exist on both sides of the glass.
