Scott Siepker

Since my last blog entry there has been a up tick in progress that our film company, Iowa Filmmakers, has made. With the release of Hawkeye Nice and Cyclone Nice, ESPN’s Dari Nowkhah and Baron Miller took note and asked us to produce original content twice a week for the ESPNU show College Football Daily. You can view all these here.

This ESPN development resulted in not only national exposure but local interest as well. The CBS affiliates in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids each did stories on the progress we have been making as a film company and what our plans are for the future.

So what are our plans for the future?

1) We have released our new web series, a campy comedy called “Animal Justice League.” You can watch it now by clicking HERE. We are already in the pre-production stage for episode two.

2) Though we are committed to staying in Iowa, we are looking to get representation to enlarge the reach of Iowa Filmmakers through the country and the world. More on this to come soon.

3) Our TV pilot, Marooned, is still the flagship project of Iowa Filmmakers. We are pursuing a distribution model that allows us to produce the entirety of season one.

4) Exciting news to announce that company member and my good friend, Brendan Dunphy, has signed deals to host a variety of science based television shows with both Discover Science and the BBC.

You can check out the first of his Discover Science show, “Insects and the City” on December 8th. In this episode, Brendan travels down to New Orleans to search through the city for the creepiest, deadliest insects around.

Brendan’s BBC specials will be airing shortly as well: One about insect dissection and the other about the ant world.

5) Emmy nominated Iowa Outdoors has now received funding for a THIRD SEASON. I am very excited for this one, it will be our biggest and best yet.

This last month of 2012 will propel us into an even more eventful 2013. Thank you to all those that support three guys with a dream to make dreams come true in Iowa.

Are you ever doing a sequel to Iowa Nice?

Since the moment Iowa Nice exploded onto the scene, people have wanted its follow up. Paul and I are very hesitant to pull out the ‘Iowa Nice Guy’ character again unless the script, cause, and timing are all good enough. We have written a handful of sequels, but when it comes to deciding to produce, we conclude that these three elements don’t meet the Iowa Nice standard.

However, I would recommend you stay tuned, for we are very close.

What’s going on with Valentine Road?

This project is at the top of our list to produce. However, while filming Valentine Road: Prologue last year it was evident that VR would require a much larger sum of money to complete than originally thought due to the time period the story takes place in. We made the difficult yet necessary decision to put this project on hold.

Our path to completing VR is through producing other great stories (like Marooned) that prove to “the industry” we are worth investing in.

In the meantime, we will be releasing Valentine Road: Prologue via our YouTube Channel in the coming weeks.

What’s the deal with Marooned and when can I see it?

The very funny pilot episode is completed and we are in the process of finding a “buyer” for the series. Because of the big names and production studios we are courting, we are currently keeping the wide exposure to the completed episode to a minimum. Your next opportunity to see the completed pilot is at the Landlock Film Festival in Iowa City.

As soon as we close the deal on producing the first season, you all will be the first to know!

Will there be a third season on Iowa Outdoors?

The hope is YES, but in this industry nothing is for certain until a contract is signed, which at this point has not occurred.  I have more confidence in the future of show since our EMMY nomination last week (we find out if we take home the EMMY on September 29^th). This should help the show continue into 2013 and beyond.

What other projects are you working on?

1)      There is BIG career changing news coming very soon about one of the members of Iowa Filmmakers, though I have no comment on which one of the three of us it is at this time.

2)      In late September,  we will be releasing our new campy web series called Animal Justice League about two unorthodox hero’s who rescue adorable animals from great villainous overlords.

3)      In early October, I am expecting to release my first single. It’s a cheesy love song I wrote called Colby Jack. A video for the song will follow sometime after that.

4)      We are currently developing a new history series that will be focusing on Iowa’s great stories. There are very few details available at this point  but I can say that I am very excited to explore history and be able to retell it our unique Iowa Filmmakers’ way.

5)      My TEDxDesMoines Talk rekindled my love for public speaking. I have already booked a couple speeches and have more on the horizon. While my schedule currently won’t allow for acting or directing in the theater, this will hopefully hold me over until I can return to the stage.

The choice is ours, Des Moines. We can choose to allow the artistic spring to flow freely through the coming decades or to dam up the colorful waves, pushing back years of hard work by so many.

Recent decisions give me hope that we are living in Des Moines during a time that will be smiled upon by the generations to come as the “Des Moines Renaissance,” when the people of this city warmly welcomed music, theater, film, and art throughout its renovated downtown.

This is a golden age in Des Moines where corporations, small businesses, non-profits, and artists work together toward the self-fulfilling prophecy of progression through innovation.

The dawn of this golden age has crept over the horizon with the creation of artistic lofts in the Crane Building, the Pappajohn Sculpture Park, and the Simon Estes Riverfront Amphitheater, just to name a few. However a key phase is needed to continue the rise.

That phase is the selling of Fire House #1 to the Des Moines Social Club.

The DMSC is exactly what this city needs to usher in this new age. They can bridge the divide between artistic and non-artistic people. They can create a space where ideas can explode out of talent. They can facilitate a network that can be woven into the fabric of this city.

I can testify, in fact, that this has already materialized: My growth as an artist and the success it has garnered is connected to the supportive nature of the DMSC’s idea stoking. And the DMSC has managed to do this for me and many others with modest resources and even more modest property.

Imagining what the DMSC could foster with more resources and a home to call their own makes me grin wider than the I-235 expansion.

If we want Des Moines to proudly be the place where we live, work, and play then we all have a responsibility to usher in a fully fledged renaissance. Many steps have come before, many steps will come after, but the next step is supporting the Des Moines Social Club in acquiring Fire House #1 in the same way they have supported all of our artistic adventures for the past three years.

The simplest way to support is to sign this petition. Just click right here!

Find out more about the Des Moines Social Club and more ways to help visit there website: http://desmoinessocialclub.org/

As of March 15, 2012, Mooncoin Entertainment became the ONLY theater company to produce the entirety of the Martin McDonagh theatrical canon.

Looking back over the last three years proves again that when you add old fashion hard work, a commitment to excellence, and the volunteerism inherit in Iowans you will achieve a grand goal.

[This truth is what Paul D. Benedict, Brendan Dunphy, and I have founded Iowa Filmmakers on, but that will be a blog for another day.]

Quick back story: Brendan Dunphy fell in love with the works of Martin McDonagh and decided that he wanted to produce every single one of McDonagh’s plays under the moniker of Mooncoin Entertainment (named after the small Irish village his grandfather hailed from in County Kilkenny.) To do this, he would have to buck the advice of many who said he NEEDS to move to LA if he wants to pursue an acting career.

When most people first heard Brendan’s idea to produce all seven plays, they thought: “Brendan, you are crazy.” This reaction is certainly understandable. Knowing Brendan from those early acting days in Pearson Hall on the campus of Iowa State, however, I had a slightly different thought:  “Yep, he’s crazy, but he will do it.”