Ten years ago, my good friend Ian approached me with an idea for a script. He had an idea to cast our high school friends in a musical and he wanted me to write the script. The resulting epic story of a pirate who gives up his pillaging ways for love, two fighting Siamese twins, a Pope who befriends a squid and a dastardly Canadian plot to destroy the world never saw the light of day, but it did spawn the creation of my film company, Obscure Studios.

For a decade, Obscure Studios has churned out short films and webseries. We’ve made 150 videos. We haven’t been as prolific since our college days and especially not since a few of us have moved across the country, but filmmaking is still near and dear to my heart. I hope to find the time to create more shorts in the coming year.

In the meantime, I decided to commemorate 10 years of silliness by finally finishing “Poverty With a View.” This pilot episode for a webseries starring myself, Ian Olsen and Will McDonald was filmed in the summer of 2013 in the weeks before I packed up and moved to Washington. We had originally intended to complete a 12-episode story arc, but ran out of time and only just barely squeezed out the first (and only) episode. It tells the story of three college graduates who discover that the world outside of school is harder to navigate than they ever feared. It’s a comedy that I think resonates with those of us who came into the workforce during the recession. It’s also a little love letter to one of my favorite places, Flagstaff.

It’s rough. We never had time to grab pick-up shots. But in its flaws, I am reminded of why I love film. It has a special power to pull us into another world. For a few moments, we can walk in the shoes of the characters. I hope you’ll enjoy watching our effort come to life and I hope you’ll stick around for more videos in the future.

— 30 —

Jonny Eberle is a writer and erstwhile filmmaker in Tacoma, WA. You can follow him on Twitter. His newest project with Obscure Studios, Poverty With a View, was shot entirely in Flagstaff, AZ except for two shots. See if you can spot which ones and let me know in the comments! Thanks for watching!