Meet Matt Dickstein of Ideomotion Films in Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Dickstein.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Matt. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was always doing little creative things as a kid – drawing or writing stories, or coming up, like, games or activities for my friends to do. I was always trying to use my imagination, there was no limit on what I could do or where I could go. I might have been in my backyard with my friends, but we could’ve been on another planet and we were astronauts or whatever.

I remember in first grade I became obsessed with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” so I asked my teacher if I could write a play based on it. She was cool with it, and we did auditions and made tickets and we spent all of our recess time getting it together, and then we performed it for the class. I guess I directed, and I also played Ichabod Crane.

I think that’s when the bug kinda bit me, that I wanted to tell stories, and it really came together when I saw Jaws for the first time, that’s when I knew- I was like, ‘Yup, movies. That’s the dream, now!’

I’d call my friends and steal my parents VHS camera, and we’d just come up with whatever we wanted right there. When it was late, or my friends couldn’t come over, I used my toys. My parents got tired of me stealing the camera all the time, so they got me my own, and I wore that thing out. My friends and I made a sketch show that we called “And Now For Something Completely Ridiculous,” which I totally ripped off from Monty Python, but we’d create characters, and come up with sketches, and we just had a blast. We had no idea what we were doing, but we knew we were having fun. Then we’d show the sketches to our parents, and they were just like, ‘…oh… okay… yeah…” Our sense of humor did not quite match theirs, but they were cool with it, and they always watched whatever we made.

We branched out from sketches and started telling longer stories, I got really into the Halloween series, and was Michael Myers for Halloween one year, so we did a parody of Halloween. We did a parody of Blair Witch. We decided to get serious and make a war movie. We got fake blood and camo jackets from the army navy store, and I got a rubber bullet wound for added gore. We’d seen a documentary about Saving Private Ryan, and Steven Spielberg talked about putting a stick in some dirt and kicking it up for explosions, so we did that, and it looked good, and we were like, ‘Hey! We have special FX now!’ We had a lot of fun, and were super proud of the footage we got! My friends and I had just fallen in love with videos, and yeah, I think I knew that was the career path I wanted to take.

The high school I went to – Heritage High School, in Conyers- offered a video production class. It was a class that got you more ready for producing corporate videos and industrials than telling stories, but I knew from others that’d taken it that if you wanted to get creative, you could, so I knew I had to take that class. I didn’t know any technical stuff, and I didn’t know anything about lighting or white balance or anything, but that class was able to turn what I wanted to do into something I knew how to do.

The guy who taught me, George Moll, ended up being one of my favorite teachers, and he’s still there, still teaching video.

I would always get ambitious with projects- one was a documentary, basically we could do any subject, just had to be true, and then use, like, pictures over narration, kinda like Ken Burns-light. I decided to do John Lennon- one of, if not my all-time biggest influences- but I couldn’t just sit down and talk about John Lennon, and throw some pictures in there that moved, I had to do something wild and creative and imaginative because HE was wild and creative and imaginative. So, I decided to shoot my talking head over green screen, and I was gonna put some moving pictures and video behind me, and it was gonna be kinda psychedelic. By the way, this is super easy to do, now in 2018, but in 2003, using VHS tape cameras, it was a nightmare! It was super complicated, and I’d just been editing for a few months, but I and my team were able to pull it off. I heard a year later, Mr. Moll had made the green screen a requirement on the project, but much simpler than what we’d done.

Graduated high school, went to Georgia State and studied film. I’d started writing a lot, in high school I’d written some, but in college, I just fell in love with writing. I found a program that did the over-under film script style and just took off.

I wrote a zombie movie, my freshman year, and put up flyers all around campus “Come, be a zombie in a zombie movie! Be here at whatever time!” I thought, sure, maybe two people will show up, and we’ll have some fun. We’d bought some makeup, and some blood, and a friend of mine, Cathy, has worked on a haunted trail, so she knew how to make wounds and gore look pretty good. Then, like ten people showed up, and this one guy that was, like, a real actor who, like, took bookings and stuff showed up. He’d messaged me, and I thought he was just a student who was interested, but, no, he was legit, and I was not ready for him! He brought wardrobe options, and was, like, asking me about the character, and his motivation and all this stuff. Oh my gosh, he had to have walked away like, who is this guy, he just wasted my time – like, I think he drove to Atlanta from… I dunno… but like, at least thirty minutes.

We shot some scenes- not the whole thing – and I made it into a trailer. It kinda fizzled out, but it was fun. I re-read that script a few years ago, I was going through some old stuff. It was not well written. Oh well.

So, here’s the thing about going to college for film – you don’t need to. BUT, I am glad that I went to college, because it meant I got to move out of my parents house, and meet some of my best friends, and grow up and all that crap and it meant I accomplished something, and I’m proud of that, and, I did learn a good bit about storytelling and I fell in love with writing, but mostly, I’m happy I went to college, because I met my wife. Lanae is a huge inspiration and influence and is the best person to show a draft too. She has no problem telling me when something should be changed or what works, or what doesn’t.

Another huge part of moving to Atlanta was that I met a dude named Nathan Mowery, another filmmaker. He said he lived with Isaac Deitz, who I’d met a few times. Isaac had started the Thunderdome and had been bringing in filmmakers to live with him, to build a strong community. His idea was faith, friendship, and film. It was awesome to be in company with Isaac and Nathan, and then Skyler, and then everyone else that came into the community.

Nathan and I decided to do a 24-hour film contest – basically make a film in 24 hours, using the rules and guidelines they give you. We needed a team name. I’d been putting stuff out as Matt Dickstein Film, and always thought that was boring, and I wanted something that could grow into something bigger than myself, something that someone could hear or see and go, “okay, yeah, cool!” So, I pulled up an online random word generator, and set it to obscure, and just clicked til a word I liked popped up. I’d get a result that maybe was ok, and look up the definition, and would be like, “ehh… nah…” until ideomotion came up. I thought it sounded cool, I wanted to know what it meant. It was motion brought on by an idea, rather than reflex. I thought that’s kinda what I want to do, create motion or movement from ideas, so Ideomotion Films, and I liked how it sounded.

Through my involvement with the Thunderdome, I was able to start freelancing- I’d been struggling, I was out of college, with very few credits to my resume, so it was hard at first, but I ended up working with a guy named Andrew Tucciarone, at Whistle Peak Productions (now Story First Creative Agency). I learned so much from Andrew, and it was my first steady paying gig. I couldn’t believe I was paying my bills doing what I loved, which was something many, many people told me I’d never been able to pay my bills doing.

Andrew was cool about me taking gigs on the side to build up Ideomotion Films, and after about a year, we parted ways. I dove into freelance full time, and I’d made a few fun shorts with some friends, who now were filmmaker friends, rather than just folks I pulled into shorts as I’d always done.

I wanted to step Ideomotion Films up in a big way though – I didn’t want it to be an industrial/corporate video company, I wanted to tell stories with it.

I started writing a short, and I was motivated and inspired as I’d never been before. Like, there was a fire inside me, and the only way to put it out was to make a bigger film than I’d ever made before. The story was about a Holocaust survivor trying to find his place in the world, 20 years after being liberated, ‘Numbers.’

The Holocaust, and Holocaust education, is deeply important to me, probably deeper than film, and I’d been researching a few ideas for a documentary I was thinking about making, and this short script came out of that.

I sent it to Isaac, just to get feedback. He called me up, said he loved it and he wanted to produce it and also be the director of photography. I could not have been more excited.

Isaac was one of the first people to ever give me a chance on set, and he’d become one of my best friends, was about to be a groomsman in my wedding, and it’d been a little bit since we worked together, so I was so excited to be able to work with him.

We started pre-production, and in the middle of pre-production, I got married! I don’t know if there’s ever been a sustained period of calm in my life, but summer 2014 was wild, for sure! I am very thankful for Lanae’s patience with everything in those early days. Also every day since then.

So, with Numbers, I got to work with Philip Justman, who I’d actually known since I was about 8 years old, and was one of the core group I made videos with as a kid. It was also a place where a lot of new friendships got started, that have had huge effects on my life- it was the first time I really spent time with David Nobles, first time I met Julian Fedele. There was this guy, Jon Selden, that Lanae knew that would send me Facebook messages, he’d comment on things I worked on and shared, an ask me questions about film, and sent me some work, that ended up shooting our wedding, and I wanted to see if he knew anything about sound, and he was just happy to get on set. It’s cool looking back at this two-day period because these are guys who are some of my best friends now. I’d met a guy, Jonathan Ludwikowski, a little bit before we did Numbers, and he said he wanted to act, and I was like, I need an actor! He’s now one of my best friends and is pursuing acting full time, and there’s always a place in everything I ever do for him.

We had a big premiere for the film, and people really seemed to like it. This summer it actually got put up on Amazon Prime, and I’m super proud of it. It was really this moment for me, that was like, ‘okay, let’s do this.’ I remember, after wrapping the first day, and just sitting up in bed with Lanae, feeling both exhausted, and also, like, so energetic, and I was just like, ‘okay, can’t back out now.’

I wanted to do my next short, ‘Black Balloons,’ right after ‘Numbers.’ I figured if I just cranked away, and kept cranking away, something would stick, and someone would want to produce a feature for me, but I was exhausted after ‘Numbers,’ and it was tough to get ‘Black Balloons,’ off the ground.

Which, it took about two years to get ‘Black Balloons’ made, and I’m actually really happy about that. The film is basically about this clown, and he’s having a terrible night, and he meets this girl, and he thinks being near her will make everything better, but really he needs to work some stuff out on his own. I was struggling with tightening up the script, and someone suggested making the woman kind of an antagonist, like, he has some money from a gig, and she goes along with him until he runs out of cash. That suggestion helped me get that draft done, but I hated the idea of having this woman be… I dunno, stereotypical, or a gold digger, or just… like not a good representation of the women I knew in my life. I’d made ‘Numbers,’ which had one woman in it, and she had no lines, and the actress, Donna Stewart, is an amazing actress, and she pretty much just stands there and looks scared, and Donna did an AMAZING job doing that, but I’d watch that, and I knew I never wanted to have a woman in my films just stand around, or be a plot device, or whatever. My wife is amazing, my mom is amazing, I have so many women friends who are badasses, and this woman in ‘Black Balloons,’ just felt wrong, like she was a plot device that only served to make the clown more miserable, and I didn’t want the film to have that kind of message.

In more and more drafts of the script, I started to see the clown as, kind of his own antagonist- its kind of his own fault that he’s in the situation that he’s in, and he sees this woman as someone who he thinks can help him be happy, or help make his life better, and she gets real honest with him and lets him down, but she says a lot of things he needs to hear, which, at the time, was kind of me writing to myself, ‘hey, you need to get your act together.’ Freelance was going okay, Lanae and I were just kinda getting by, and I was spending most of my time on the couch, just kind of waiting for the phone to ring for jobs or gigs or whatever. I wasn’t super satisfied with my work, it was just kind of a bleh time.

That all changed when I got an offer to go work at DDP Yoga, to help with their video crew. Nathan Mowery had worked there for a few years, and Neely Coe, another Thunderdomer, and they were looking for someone to help lighten the load, and I was ready for some consistency, so I started worked there, and told Neely about this idea for ‘Black Balloons.’

Neely and I were about to go down to Florida to shoot a feature called ‘The Sluagh,’ which is a super fun horror film, and it’s almost done. I was the director of photography, and we were pretty short on crew, so Neely would have me direct every now and again, and by the end, she put me up as a co-director, which really meant a lot. We had a blast, running around in the woods of Florida, and now the film is almost done, and its a lot of fun.

After we wrapped up shooting ‘The Sluagh,’ Neely was like, hey, let’s do ‘Black Balloons.’ It sounds easy enough to do over, like two nights, so let’s just do it. I’d already talked to Jonathan Horne about playing the clown, and at the time, didn’t know a ton of actresses, and he suggested Kate Kovach – I knew who she was, but I’d never met her, and, like a day after Jonathan told me he thought Kate would be good for the part, I met Kate, and we talked, and I sent her the script and she was in. So, we made ‘Black Balloons.’ Its kind of crazy how stuff works out.

We got a bunch of friends together for extras, and Neeko helped produce and AD and Jon Selden was on sound again, and Julian hopped on, and we had a lot of fun making this silly little film about a sad clown, and I was kind of at a point where I was super intimidated by talent, and I did not deserve how good Jonathan and Kate were!

I remember show Lanae an early cut of where Kate tells Jonathan that he needs to get his act together, and we were just like, blown away.

After ‘Black Balloons,’ I felt like I had one more short in me before I wanted to do a feature. And I wanted to just go all out- take everything I’d learned, and work with people I’d worked with before, and new people, and just have a blast making one last film before we went for the big one!

As with every film, I wrote a few ideas out, and threw them away, and wrote some more out, and threw them away, and then, I had this idea for a struggling, young married couple. In just a few years of being married, I’d learned a ton, and I know I still have a ton more to learn, but I wanted to make something kind of sweet, rather than dark, or sad, or whatever. A lot of my work is kinda… maybe a bummer? I dunno, but I wanted to make something that was… nice. So, I wrote this film, ‘Behind that Locked Door.’ My last short film until after my feature, just one more.

And then my brain was just like, ‘Hey, here’s another idea, like the other side of the coin to ‘Behind that Locked Door.” Another couple, in a similar situation, that ended in a… different way.

I was going to do two shorts, and present them as one project, call it ‘2 Short Films about Marriage’ or something. And then I wrote three more, haha!

I went through this whole thing, where I kind of drew inward, and was thinking a lot about the past, and a lot about the future, and was kind of scared, or kind of processing things, and the way I process best is through writing, whether its a script, or just writing for myself, poetry and just stream of consciousness, or whatever, and these five scripts just kinda came out of me.

I’d also been listening to a TON of George Harrison, and this phrase that kept going through my head during this season was ‘All Things Must Pass.’

I sent the five scripts over to my friend Weston Manders, who I’d been telling about all this writing I was doing, and he knew Kate and thought one of the scripts might be a cool opportunity to work with her again, and I’d had a blast doing ‘Black Balloons,’ and we’d actually become friends between the two shorts, rather than just folks who knew each other or worked together sometimes, and she liked it and I brought it to David Nobles to DP it, and we went up to a cabin in Ellijay fora weekend to shoot it.

It was one of my favorite shoots I’ve ever been on. We were just, like, a family for a weekend, Lanae was the assistant director, and Julian and Selden filled out the rest of the crew and Nathan took behind the scenes pictures, and when we weren’t shooting, we were just laughing, and bonding, and we stayed up til like 2 in the morning listening to storms and talking on the back porch, and I had this revelation: This is filmmaking. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Obviously, yes, make films, but LIKE this, where we’re friends, we’re a family, and when the camera isn’t rolling, we’re not just waiting for the camera to roll again, we’re bonding, and sharing, and having a great, not stressful time. That was ‘Time and Place,’ and I was so jazzed after shooting it that I finished the cut in, like, three days.

It took a minute to get the rest of the parts done, we shot ‘Time and Place’ in May, and the next, ‘Stay,’ with Christie Osterhus and Jason Williams in November. We actually shot two pats in one day… wow, that was A Day- sorry Christie and Blue. We were all super tired at the end of it, and ended up actually reshooting in February the second part, ‘All Things Must Pass.” Julian DPd the reshoot, and it was much better for it.

We shot ‘Behind that Locked Door’ a few weeks later, in November. Jon Selden had expressed a desire to DP more, so he came on for that, and Seth Kark came on to assistant direct, because Lanae had to split time between being on set, and being at work. Selden’s wife Aly helped out on a crew, and David Nobles and Isaac Horner rounded out our little crew. Hannah Hays and Jonathan Ludwikowski were the young married couple, and Mandy Corbett and Sean MacLean are the supporting cast. Rick Andosca, who is all of their acting teachers, and just the best guy, came on to help out with some of the heavier emotional stuff… and… like, I dunno, the set was like therapy, like we were all super emotional, and… I dunno, its kinda a ‘you had to be there,’ thing.

We finished off the series with ‘Junk,’ and I got to work with Isaac again, as a DP, and with Jonathan Horne again in the lead role, and I worked with Jessica Claire for the first time, and Meg Biddle and Matt Wallace for the first time, too. And, again, just such a blast. Oh my gosh, I don’t know how I got so lucky, but… my friends are so talented, like, it’s ridiculous.

After wrapping up the whole ‘All Things Must Pass,’ I took two months off – of like everything. I said no to every job that wasn’t DDP Yoga, I went off all my social media. I was exhausted and just needed a break.

I’d had a bunch of scripts just, sort of, tucked away, and during these two months off, A guy named Benjamin Valentin called me up, and was looking to getting into producing. He’d been talking to David Nobles, and they were gonna do a short together, ‘Trying,’ and wanted to know if I had anything in the can. I sent him some scripts, and he liked this one, ‘Room 72.’ He asked who I saw for the cast, and he’d reach out to them, and do all the legwork, and let me continue on my little two month fast. I told him I’d had a blast working with Christie Osterhus on ‘All Things,’ and there was this guy I’d seen at Act For A Change, Chris Mayers, who I thought was super funny.

Christie came on, and Chris was booked, and then some other things kinda fell through with it, and so we’re looking for another guy, and I’m texting with Ben about what we’re gonna do, and I was watching ‘Atlanta.’ We’re going back and forth- are we gonna find another actor, and keep our date, or are we gonna delay and hope that Chris may not be booked some day?

Well, Chris literally appeared on my TV screen, in a role on Atlanta. I was like, maybe G-d’s trying to tell me something here. So we pushed back, which worked or Christie better than our planned shoot day, and Chris came on, and Mick Hawkins DPd, and Marc Sugrue Gaffed, and Isaac Horner did sound, Lanae ADd, and Jacqueline Baker was our script supervisor, and we had a blast, and we got the whole thing done in like three hours.

I wanted to try my hand at directing an edit, rather than just editing, so I brought it to my friend, Robert Peak, who works at DDPY with us, and is an incredibly talented editor, and he did an amazing job on it. I really love it. It ended up not being called ‘Room 72,’ though, we called it ‘Montana.’ So, there’s that.

I put together a trailer for ‘All Things Must Pass,’ and I got a message from Alicia Kelley. We’d never met, but she wanted to share an idea for a film she had and wanted to know if I was interested. She wanted to make a short, and then hopefully get some interest and turn it into a feature. It was about a woman that works at a daycare by day and works as a stripper at night, and she’s struggling to maintain the balance between both worlds. I loved the idea and started writing.

We shot ‘Mary’ in August – Alicia in the lead role, Jessica Claire hopped on to help produce- and it was a huge learning experience – making something that someone else had brought to me, and… sort having the responsibility of raising someone else’s baby, so to speak. Its a lot of pressure, sure, but it was insanely rewarding. I just got the first cut of it, and I can’t wait to watch it!

So, in the midst of all of these shorts- one more short, right!? Haha. I started writing a feature. I went into 2018 with one goal: direct a feature, and I ended up doing a couple pretty big shorts.

But, the fun thing is, the feature is coming! It may not be shot in 2018- but also it may! We’re still working out the schedule and the kinks and everything, but the train isn’t stopping. Its called ‘The Family Portrait.’ I am IN LOVE with the script, and I am IN LOVE with the cast we’ve been putting together, Kate Kovach in the lead role, and I’m insanely stoked to be working with her, and everyone. Isaac is DPing and producing, and Jessica is producing and has a role, and her partner Nicky Knodle is producing, too, and it’s… it’s just family. It’s like the family is coming together and we’re making this thing, and I’m nervous and I’m excited, and… yeah. This is the dream and its just beginning. The sky’s the limit and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Look, film is tough. It’s the most amazing, rewarding thing in the entire world, but its also super tough.

Lanae and I have gone through periods where we didn’t know where our money was gonna come from, or if our bills were gonna get paid, and that’s hard, man. It puts a strain on a marriage and doesn’t do a lot for the confidence level. But we got by, and we’re getting by, and now we both have consistent work- I’ve got DDPY and a few other freelance things, and she’s the director of bands at Central Middle School in Carrollton, and… like, we’re thriving. We’re not, like, wealthy, but we’re paying our bills, and we put money in the can for emergencies, or taxes, or whatever, and we’re the closest we’ve ever been.

But, here’s the thing: I want to make a feature, and that means asking people to take time out of their lives, and away from their steady gigs for two weeks of work, and the producers and I don’t want anyone to regret working on our film, or miss a bill or be stressed out.

I’ve been so fortunate to make the stuff I’ve made off of favors and passion and being able to work for, like a day or two days, but making a feature takes money.

We’re raising funds through indiegogo, and I don’t want to be, like, an ad, or spam, or whatever, but… it’s scary. I struggle with vulnerability, and I struggle with anxiety, and I’m just like, what if we don’t get the money? And I need to be able to communicate that to everyone we’re working with. Maybe we don’t shoot in December, but I want to strike while the coals are hot, you know? Like, I don’t want to push back, and then push back, and then eventually just forget about it. I want to tell this story, and a lot of people have read and loved the script and the story.

Film is risky because there’s money involved… I mean, I guess everything involving money is risky, but I work in film, so I’m just aware of it there, I guess. Investors don’t really care how good a thing is, just that you can turn a profit, and I’ve never turned a profit, because I haven’t put anything out for a profit, but I know that I can do it… whatever IT is. Get me on a set, behind a camera, whatever, trust in me, and invest in me, and my crew and my friends and my family – it’s all the same people, haha, and we’re gonna tell a damn good story, and we’re gonna have a great time doing it, and there’s gonna be tons of high fives and thumbs ups and everything, and it’s gonna be fun. Sorry… haha. I just love doing this, and I don’t want to stop. I’m in love with film, and film has been so good to me, and I just want so much to take that next step – that next big leap forward.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Ideomotion Films – what should we know?
Ideomotion Films is sort of this revolving door of whoever happens to be available at the time. We work hard, but we’re not going to be jerks about making our film or telling our story or whatever we’re doing.

I’ve always felt like, working as a family, makes everyone want to work harder. We want to share in our success together, and it’s so much easier to work with people that you’re invested in. No project is worth losing friends over.

Personally, I love to write and direct, and I’ve been so blessed to be able to do that. I also enjoy producing, on a limited scope. I’ve dipped my toes in some larger projects, as a producer, and I enjoy it, but I also know my strengths and weaknesses. I love being challenged though, so I definitely want to expand, slowly but surely, that scope, and be able to bring larger projects to life for myself, or for others. I’d LOVE to do an Ideomotion Film that I didn’t write or direct, but I just produced. So, that’s definitely in the future for sure, just a matter of when.

I guess I tend to make… like pretty somber films. I’m attracted to heavier things, sometimes things that might be a little dark, and I think my work reflects that. But at the same time, I don’t want to be the ‘dark guy,’ or the guy that just makes sad movies, or tells sad stories. I love to laugh, like, laughter is the best way for me to bond with someone- if I can laugh with you, we’re gonna be solid friends. I also just love to surprise people, I like keeping people on their toes, throw them for a loop and keep them guessing a little bit. I think film is fun in that way – you may be expecting something a little dark, and you end up getting to people dancing in the laundry room. It’s fun!

You know, I’m so proud of how far we’ve come, and we still have a long way to go, but, wow, we’re doing things that I’m constantly amazed by. Just getting bigger and better. Some missteps along the way, sure- you may not be in love with all your work, but you should be proud of it.

And we’ve been so lucky to work with others outside of shorts. I’m a huge Cubs fan, and the last couple years have been so fun watching the Cubs do these really great things. Through DDP Yoga, I got to know Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, and in 2016, there was like a meme for Jake Arrietta- Cubs pitcher- that people would photoshop his head onto old pictures of Jake Roberts from wrestling. They’d started calling him Jake the Snake. I had a few ideas brewing, about how to, sort of, do something with that, put those two worlds together. Then, the Cubs get into The World Series.

I told Jake Roberts about the whole Jake Arrietta/Jake the Snake meme, and Arrietta was gonna be pitching- the Cubs had had kind of a rough start in the world series – down three games to 1, and it was done or die for them. They came back in one 1, and the next night, Jake Arrietta would be pitching, so I pitched to Jake Roberts this idea for, like, a… like a pick me up, or a hype video or whatever. We shot it, and it put it out on Dallas’s youtube, and it just took off! Like MLB.com picked it, and all these other sports outlets, and then the Cubs won that night, and they showed the video on the World Series Postgame Show! And then, of course, the Cubs went and won the World Series. It was this whole crazy thing, it was nuts!

And now, we’re trying to get this feature off the ground, “The Family Portrait.” The train is rolling, and I could not be so excited to do this.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Oh my gosh, so many people. First my wife, Lanae- she’s my biggest fan, cheerleader, supporter, confident, whatever- she’s the person who reads every script draft before anyone else, who see’s every film draft before anyone else, the person I tell my craziest, sometimes dumbest ideas to, who has no problems whatsoever telling me that the idea doesn’t work. Sometimes, it’s like she knows my goals or ideas or style more than even I do, and can help reign me in when I may be trying too hard to make something work that was never going to work in the first place.

Isaac Deitz was the first person to ever pay me for video work. He’s supported my career, and taken chances on me and stuck his neck out for me, and helped me out and been an amazing friend throughout all of it. He put this whole community together, of filmmakers just looking for like-minded friends, and we’ve all grown together. He’s hugely encouraging, and so often, so unselfishly put his own things aside for his friends. We talk deep, and we tell jokes, and we laugh til we cry or sometimes we just cry together. He’s taught me so much about being a filmmaker, and also about just being a human being. I’m not thankful to know him.

My office mate/work wife Nathan Mowery. He stuck his neck out for me and got me a job at DDP Yoga, and its just been a blast. We spend pretty much all day every day together, he’s so supportive. We love trading off and helping each other out on projects. He’s good due to having in your corner and an insanely talented artist.

My parents have always been hugely supportive, but never unrealistic. I was always unrealistic until it kicked me in the ass. When I was 19, I had this plan that I was gonna drop everything and go to LA with the greatest script ever, and knock on Steven Spielberg’s door, and I was just gonna be set, like, I’d put some stuff on youtube, and he was gonna see that, and that was gonna be it- here’s the next Batman movie, and here’s an Oscar, and all that VERY 19 year old shit. I told my parents, and they were like, how are you gonna live? Eat? How are you gonna even get into Steven Spielberg’s office? Which, I knew it was a dumb idea, but I had no idea how you broke into the film industry. But the thing they never said was that I wasn’t gonna do it. They only told me I’d have to work harder than I’d ever worked before. I want to be that kind of parent.

I’ve mentioned the Thunderdome- everyone I’ve met through that- David, Jon Selden, Jon Gabriel, Julian, Seth, Skyler, Joe Peed, Marc Sugrue- everyone’s wives or girlfriends or anyone that ever went to a Fourth Wall. Such a good community.

And then everyone at DDP Yoga is just the best- the whole crew, Dallas, Steve, Dylan, Robert, Will, Tyler, Garett, Chad, Pat. Good, solid dudes. It’s so rare that you can work for a company that understands that you do stuff outside like I’ll take a day or a few days to work on a project here and there, and they’re so supportive of it. They get that we have goals, and they want to help us out as best as they can.

Look, the list can go on and on. No one gets into film on their own, there are so many people that have been so instrumental in how far I’ve been able to come, and I need to figure out a way to thank everyone because they deserve to hear it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ideomotionfilms.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattdickstein/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideomotionfilms/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattdickstein

Image Credit:
Drew Dawson, Nathan Mowery

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