—A Passionate, Seasoned, Battle-Tested Writer of Features, Shorts, Pilots, Teleplays, Novels, Short Stories, Articles, Essays, Songs, Poems. —
—(Full-Blooded Screenwriter, Director, Actor, Voice Actor, Film Editor, Producer, Script Consultant, Story Analyst, Multi-Crew Member)—
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There are two types of creatives in the world of words: Writers and Storytellers. The writers think there are two types, and the storytellers know there are. But they are not always mutually exclusive. The truth is, they can peaceably coexist in a single pen. And I’ll prove it for you.
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Like all wordsmiths incurably afflicted with the compulsion to order linguistic chaos, the writing is what defines me, at least as much as it is what I do.
Hemingway dubbed the novel idiom “a movable feast,” and I would extend his descriptor to the collective art of writing itself, all of it, and every letter of the process, no matter its format, genre, or length. As food fuels bodies, words set the soul ablaze. Humbly, I admit I cannot feed the fire fast or full enough.
What I love is the perpetual difficulty in honing the craft. It is at once an odyssey of joy and pain, sadness and euphoria, misery and happiness, dusk and dark and dawn alike. For reasons I can't fully explain, arranging the words is a quest I value above all others. Because I do, what finds itself on the page lives and breathes life all its own.
In the end forever, the toughest choices are deceptively simple: The pattern you leave is the sign for what you value and how much, what you can do and how well, what you can live with and how long. This is the foundation of my work. The truth is, I would rather file a desert of pebbles by shape than smear empty words on blank pages.
My mission is to scour the boundless territory of language for uncharted truth, and then drop a pin for you.
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Pins Dropped (Project Highlights):
Two short features produced.
A dozen feature screenplays.
Three dramatic pilots.
An original series bible.
Four feature teleplays.
A handful of Hollywood pitches.
Countless pieces of script coverage.
A bildungsroman novel series.
Dozens of pan-genre poems and songs.
More than twenty articles for news, media, and content outlets (e.g., Digital Journal, HubPages).
Hundreds of research papers and scholarly journal pieces.
Ten legal briefs and memoranda.
More than a dozen packages of SEO marketing copy.
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As Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers confirms, a writer must devote ten thousand hours at the keys to clear the threshold of mastery. My stopwatch melted years ago, but not before it proved the value of my work. Nevertheless, the final word on quality is for you.
What I’d like you to know is the nature of my commitment: I devote a rare ethic of quality control to the craft, and I pride myself on writing beyond the standard. As Super Bowl Champion Mike Tomlin, head coach of our Steelers suggests, “The standard is the standard.” To this adds the shover Paul Skenes, a staff ace of our Pirates, “The standard never sleeps.”
For the words, the standard is as it should be: The pursuit of greatness. At the peak of that precipice, every letter lives and dies by the standard. And ever thus, the writer. The journey is where we live, in that flux state of hurtling evolution at the confluence of love, passion, and dreams. This will always be the place where the end is the beginning and beginnings never end. And that's where you can find me until then.
Please know you’re always free to reach out with your project details. I'll be happy to discuss them with you.
See you in the pictures,
—Matthew, IconFire Entertainment, 8.8.24—
Unique traits: Insightful, Intuitive, Empathetic, Original, Driven, Laser-Focused, Accountable, Undaunted, Prolific.
Dodge College of Film and Media Arts — Pankey Scholarship Winner
(2018)
Chapman University School of Film and Television
(2016-2018)
Syracuse University
(2005-2007)
Washington & Lee University
(2000-2004)