My Best Cover Letter Ever

Dear XXX,

First and foremost, you should know that film is my life. Twice, I have faced starvation and homelessness to make my career in Hollywood. While that career has been volatile, it has also been marked by unique and exemplary accomplishments. Mine is an optimism borne of hard lessons, and I’d love to put my relentless positive attitude and resilient focus to work for some good people. My origins are in the theater, and my creative focus is consistently on people rather than any one point of spectacle.

Financially, my market knowledge and research skills are as strong as they come. For the last seven years, I’ve raised private investment dollars for independent feature films. My most recent contractee, Unified Pictures, also afforded me the opportunity to run all company social media, as well as conduct extensive development duties from market research to scriptreading. When I left, it was to develop features for a consortium of Russian investors interested in American film. That work has kept me busy for the last six months, and now we have a mid-budget film with a very well-known action director moving through the financing process.

Meanwhile, I’ve been developing content of my own. Currently, I have a science-fiction script and a horror script both in front of acting and directing talent – as well as seeking financing in China and India. On a smaller scale, I’ve been organizing a microbudget independent fantasy with a social-media based audience called Sam Bailey. Based on the online support of our audience, Sam Bailey is currently in negotiations for a platform release with independent exhibitors – prior to the attachment of either star cast or financing.

My resourcefulness and my eye for marketable content that defies expectation are my greatest strengths, and I’m very excited about every opportunity to leverage those qualities in a way that challenges and inspires my film community to grow and thrive. My more selfish creative needs are being satisfied, and what I need most right now is the opportunity to show the rest of my community how flexible and open I am when it comes to empowering those around me.

My eye for both content and opportunity is affording me the chance to lead some very ambitious projects very early on in my career, and to balance the scales and support my growth I need to show the community how selfless I can be. Give me that opportunity, and I promise you service and collaboration that will elevate your company and your creative efforts to a new level.

Yours truly,
Tennyson E. Stead

Sam Bailey and Me

On Friday, I had something of a realization regarding Sam Bailey's meaning in my own life. Here's my thoughts:

The Hard Truth about Breaking In

Writer and director Tennyson E. Stead observes a recent lesson about breaking into Hollywood.

Video Blog - What is Modern Fantasy?

Writer and director Tennyson E. Stead discusses the genre of modern fantasy, and what makes Sam Bailey unique:

Video Blog: Why produce your own films?

Tennyson E. Stead discusses his reasons for producing Sam Bailey as a writer/director.

The Stormcrow is coming...

This announcement marks the breaking of a new age for 8 Sided Films, and is one of the big developments I’ve been alluding to on Twitter.

Until we can announce the names of everyone involved in the press, I’m going to be very tight lipped about who is contributing to this project… but it’s time to let you know about the project itself.

Two weeks ago, 8 Sided Films received a commitment with regard to the financing of The Stormcrow:

Three thousand years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Medo heard the call of an entity ancient beyond measure and vast beyond all comprehension. Driven mad by unspeakable visions, Medo entombed himself alive to chronicle the words of his cosmic master. In the year 1099 AD, a crusading monk by the name of Antonius Cato discovered the ancient tomb of Medo. In solitude, he recorded Medo’s etchings before succumbing to madness himself.

In 1932, a professor of the arcane known as THE STORMCROW uncovers the tomb of Medo and the bones of the monk Antonius. Medo’s tomb has long since fallen into ruin, and much of Medo’s original text is lost… but the manuscript of Antonius is missing entirely.

Four years later, the Stormcrow follows the disappearance of a young girl to the thick, removed backwoods of South Carolina. Using Antonius’ missing manuscript, a cult of devout practitioners have carried out Medo’s ritual for generations. Now, the time has come for a being of ancient, otherworldly power to cast unspeakable horror across the Earth...

In the rich, pulpy tradition of H.P. Lovecraft, The Stormcrow is a story about the dark terrors quietly lurking between the stars, about the hopeless insignificance of mankind in the face of true, infinite power…

…and about the mad, reckless desire all men share to know and master this power, in spite of their limitations. Like Freddy Krueger and Hannibal Lecter before him, The Stormcrow is a villain forged by the horrors in which he finds himself - with an endless sea of monstrous terror to explore. As an occult investigator and adventurer in the classic style of a 1930’s pulp novel, The Stormcrow has uncovered many of the world’s forgotten mysteries. He will uncover many more on his epic journey into the deepest horrors of the universe.

From film, television, and video games to transmedia, The Stormcrow honors a subgenre of horror that has thrived since the days of Lovecraft himself, and which has never been faithfully brought to the screen… until now.

Fans of horror, rejoice! Your dark prayers have been heard by the Other Gods, and the breaking dawn brings with it a horror beyond all imagination!

Video: Why make Sam Bailey?

Writer and director Tennyson E. Stead discusses what makes the story behind the independent feature film Sam Bailey so unique: