You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. This is Season 3. If you want to connect with us or grab some merch, visit us at 7minutestories.com. That's the number 7minutestories.com. This episode, Disclosure.
It's the late '90s, I'm in high school. I'm walking down the hallway and things had changed for me. People recognized me. Seemed like everybody did. "Hey, what's up, man?" "Hey, how are you doing?" Friendly smiles, waves, recognition, appreciation. The ladies, girls that I only dreamed would talk to me were coming up to me and being like, "Oh, my gosh, that was so awesome." "Oh, my gosh, I saw you in that thing. Let's make sure and hang out, okay?" I'm like, "Hey, of course. I live to serve."
Things couldn't be better in my mind. I had finally been seen. I had finally had that shining moment, and I couldn't wait to what was going to happen the next day. But before we get to that, let me tell you how I got here.
A few months before this, my buddy Jay, who's still in the film industry, by the way, comes up to me in the hallway and he says, "Aaron, I'm making a movie and I want you to be in it." I was like, "I'm listening."
My ego is on fire, ears perked up. I'm like, "Talk to me, Goose." He was like, "I'm making this suspense action film called Disclosure." By the way, I think we broke all copyright laws with that because there's 16 films called Disclosure. It doesn't matter, it was a high school film.
And he tells me the plot. He sells me on this plot, which was classic '90s. There was this unknowing guy who finds this disk with government secrets on it. He's got to go on the run. There's this rogue agent who got out of the government and is now guiding him to expose the truth. Then there are these evil agents who are corrupt, chasing them both down, trying to kill them and to cover up the truth.
I was going to be leading the agents. I was like, "This is awesome. I love the idea." He said, "Listen, man, I know you're in a band," and I was at the time. I was in a band called Downward Spiral. I played guitar. Gave me a lot of stories about Downward Spiral and the Downward Spiral that happened with this band. But it wasn't going the way it was supposed to. We weren't getting the attention that I wanted. So I was like, "This could be an awesome opportunity to go from being a rock star to a movie star." This was my thought process at the time.
He said, "Listen, I know you're in a band, but if you're going to be part of this project, I need you to commit 100%. Can you do that?" I said, "Yes." And I learned something, not just then, but through this whole process with Jay, about what it is to be committed to a project. To say you're going to do something and follow through and make something, to create something.
This guy, this kid at the time, created something out of nothing. He had very few resources. He got the school behind him to support the idea. He got local law enforcement to support us. He got people to lend him buildings. We were filming in warehouses. Guys were like, "Go ahead, film in the warehouse."
We were in government buildings, local government. It was amazing the type of persuasion and force that he had to make this thing happen. Then people bought into the idea and contributed. The school let us use the editing software, which was emerging at the time. They let us use digital cameras, which were really expensive at the time. We couldn't afford film, 60 millimeter. But they let us use this equipment.
You have to understand, we didn't have iPhones at the time. Hell, I didn't have a cell phone. This was the late '90s. So this type of equipment, there was a barrier to entry to get it, and Jay singlehandedly, created a film experience, a film set.
I remember being on these sets around the county, and I'm doing my own stunts, and I'm flexing my acting muscle, and I'm having fun with my friends, and we're laughing. And it was just one of the best experiences I ever had. I remember when the film was completed, we screened it privately, we watched it. It was awesome to see.
That's usually how it ends for a high school film. You watch with your friends and family, you have some laughs and that's it. But not for Jay, because Jay wanted to premiere this film in front of every single student at our high school. That's what he did. Jay got the principal to let every student in the high school skip class during the first four or five periods of the day. They could pick one of the periods and they could miss class to come and see the screening of the film. So of course, they're going to come see the film.
So we had the entire high school for the first half of the day view our film. Thousands of people. We had posters plastered all over the high school. I was right in the middle of it. Amazing job. It was just a surreal experience. Then before we screened, we got to introduce ourselves. It was like a James Lipton Inside the Actors Studio moment where we introduced the film and our roles.
Then people watched it and you got to see them laugh and enjoy themselves. And then afterwards, going full circle to the beginning of the story, I'm walking through the hallways, people are bumping my fist, giving me high fives. Girls. Man, the ladies that I've always wanted to talk to, they were finally paying attention to me. I had my one shining moment.
But here's the thing. The attention was intoxicating. That attention was intoxicating. All I could think about was, what is it going to feel like the next day after that and the next day after that? I remember the night before the next day, I didn't really think about much of what I would wear to school all the time, but I was thinking, what should I wear because I got to be presentable to all the people that know me now?
And something funny happened. The next day when I go into school, and I've talked about this in other stories, this has happened. A similar scenario has happened in previous episodes. But the phenomenon is the same. It's called high school amnesia. When I went to school the next day, nobody cared. The high fives were gone. The attention was gone. It is as if it never happened.
I learned something critical in that moment. The first thing is that you can build something really special if you have conviction and you can persuade people to believe in your idea. You have to deliver. But if you have conviction and you can persuade people, you can build something with very little resources. Jay taught me that. That's the first thing. Carried with me to this moment in my career.
But the second and the most important thing is, if your attention is set on getting attention, it will be a very sad life. And it could have been for me. I learned in that moment that where the attention should be is on the process, is on the love of the art, is on the expression, is in the collaboration, is in the making of something, is in the creation. And if your attention is there, and I've always tried to make my attention there, then attention after that is great.
But it shouldn't be the focal point because if it is, you could be a very lonely person. Thankfully, so far, I've been able to keep the attention nowadays on the right thing. But, man, it was good to be a movie star for one day.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Our Senior Audio Engineer is Ken Wendt. Our Resident Artist is Pete Whitehead. Original music by TJ Duke. If you or your company needs help starting a podcast, Aaron and Ken's company, Valley View, does just that. Reach out to them at valleyview.fm. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
