User:KE3840J/FND Films

FND Films, also known as Fronk N' Dego Films, is a small group of friends who started their filmmaking career on Youtube and continue to work for other companies. . They have done work for companies such as Nickelodeon, Motorola, and Taco Bell although their focus leans more toward sketch comedy and short films.

Early Life
FND Films was initially started by childhood friends Vincent Degaetano and Aaron Fronk in their hometown of Twinsburg, OH. They started making videos in the fourth grade, but did not start putting their ideas on the internet until file sharing sites such as Youtube made it possible. FND Films' first formatted sketch, entitled "The Snowball Massacre", was recorded during their sophomore year in high school and can still be found on Youtube. After making this first sketch, FND Films decided to use a similar format for the rest of their videos adopting violence as a common punchline. As they grew in popularity and age, their use of violence diminished and their jokes slowly changed to become more dark.

High School Era
During their time in high school, FND Films made a lot of videos and quickly gained popularity within their school for doing sketches on the morning announcements. These short sketches were less than a minute in length and were called "The Vinny and Aaron Show". The content on this show varied from reviewing cute dog pictures to doing things to anger each other. During their time on the morning announcements, Fronk and Degaetano also played a joke on the school by playing a parody of the music video for the song "Grillz" by Nelly and subsequently were suspended for it.

More popular than the videos that they made for the morning announcements were the videos that they made for their website, which frequently used the techniques of slapstick comedy to get a laugh. Some of their early videos include "Mystery Prize Inside", "Cookie Mania", and one of their most popular videos "Magic Mentos."

Life After Graduation
After graduating from Twinsburg High School, Fronk and Degaetano moved on to attend the film school at Columbia College in Chicago. While attending school there, they met many people who they collaborated with but most importantly picked up their third member Cooper Johnson. After attending school in Chicago for only two years, they made the decision to drop out and focus on their Youtube channel. During this time, they were also getting deals from companies like Taco Bell who flew them out to Los Angeles to film a promotional video. These small outside jobs also helped them maintain their Youtube channel so they could continue to produce content.

Experience in Hollywood
FND Films had small job offerings in California that presented them with new opportunities. After being in California, they made the decision to create all of their own material without a big studio backing them. Their Youtube video "Lets Make a Movie" highlights some of the things that they saw in Hollywood such as producers who are only interested in making money rather than good content. Fronk and Degaetano also experienced the many limitations there are when working with a large studio because producing potentially offensive content could result in a lawsuit. Owning their own production company allowed Fronk and Degaetano to create content that wasn't censored. This became more possible with websites like Indiegogo. Recently, FND Films raised $10,000 in funds to make a short film called "Punching" after getting positive feedback on a fake trailer that they made for it in March of 2012.

Larger Productions
Up until 2010, FND Films only produced sketch comedy and other short forms of comedy but in 2010 they made their first short film "Action World." This was a fifteen minute film which parodied action movies, and was FND Films' most ambitious project to date. Shortly after making Action World, Fronk, Degaetano, and Johnson starred in a film called "Red Balls" although they did not have much to do with the production of it except acting. Red Balls was made by another Columbia College Chicago film/sketch group called "Born Ready Films". FND's friend and classmate Drew Morris of "Born Ready Films" directed "Red Balls". "Red Balls" featured many of FND's film school buddies and went on to win awards at small festivals and achieve praise from Chicago improv cliques. Morris and Born Ready Films are based in LA now. "Red Balls" was the collaboration of a crew of like minded comedy sketch groups at Columbia College Chicago that joined together to make an improv driven feature about an underground dodgeball league in Chicago. "Red Balls" also featured frequent FND peripheral member Jake Andrews. Jake is the founder of his own youtube sketch group called "Rubydog Films" and is also based in LA now. Another popular sketch group that collaborates with FND are the "Bass Brothers" Kris and Morgan of "Blue Jacket" films. The third short feature film that FND Films has made is called "Punching". It went into production in October of 2012 and was a shot on weekends through November on an indiegogo budget of 12k with an additional 3k for post funding. Almost everyone worked for free. The film was SAG indie and actors waived their fee to work with the group. "Punching" was released for the public on June 22nd of 2013 via youtube after a successful indiegogo campaign from their loyal YouTube fan base. The film was shot for 15k collectively with lots of free industry help from insider fans. Punching was co produced with the help of Chicago based writer/actor/director Paddy Houlihan and comedian/cinematographer Peter Stepnoski of Chicago's "Think Tank Comedy" sketch group. Stepnoski shot "Punching" and Aaron Fronk directed. Stepnoski and Houlihan also went to Columbia College Chicago. Houlihan, who also stars in "Punching" as "Nicky" is Cooper Johnson's brother in law. He began appearing in FND sketches sporadically starting in 2010. Before he met FND, Houlihan, had directed his own feature in 2009 called "Tapioca". Tapioca achieved cult status after a festival run and was distributed by Vanguard Cinema. It starred Broadway legend Ben Vereen and a slew of Second City actors including Tim Kazurinsky (SNL), David Pasquesi (Veep) and Gregory Hollimon (Strangers With Candy). After 'Punching" is complete, FND plans on seeking funding and a development deal to make their first feature length film..

Accolades
FND Films have been recognized for their work a couple times, including being the "viewer video of the week" on the Comedy Central TV show Tosh.0. They also entered their short film "Action World" into the Colombia University National Undergraduate Film Festival and won best directing and best movie.