Today we talk about Jeff’s work habits. Eighteen-hour days, writing via Skype with his two partners, organizing the episodes of the web series using his own digitial version of the Foolscap Method. Jeff also takes me on a tour of his house and workspace. It’s like Van Gogh’s tiny room at Arles, only with graphics-power computers, music synthesizers, a micro-recording studio—and Jeff’s bed, tucked into the only leftover space like the pallet of a fourteenth-century monk. This is what “saving all the money and putting it up on the screen” is all about. (The transcript of today’s video is below.)

Today I talk with Jeff about the actual filmmaking—casting and shooting Jeff’s web series, Camp Abercorn. Jeff talks about his first day directing (“I’m a learn-by-doing kind of guy”) and how he and his partners are working up to a full-on eight-week $500K shoot. To me, this is what being an artist in 2014 is all about and I salute Jeff and his team for doing it, on their own, not waiting for permission from anybody, taking their dreams and making them happen. (The transcript of today’s video is below.)

“What is the intent of Camp Abercorn?” In today’s conversation, Jeff speaks from the heart about his painful separation for the Scouts after 16 years because of the organization’s prohibition of gay adult leaders. (You can be a gay Scout but not a gay Scoutmaster.) Jeff talks about how much he learned from scouting and his intentions for Camp Abercorn, the show, as a sort of alternative universe that can both show the world as it is and as it might be in a less restrictive and more open future. (The transcript of today’s video—#6 of eight—is below.)

“I’m a learn-by-doing kind of guy.” In today’s conversation, Jeff tells me how he plunged in to writing Camp Abercorn with his partners Matt and Meg. We talk about the theme of the series—“coming out,” in the sense of sexual identity but also in the larger sphere to self-discovery and self-actualization. Jeff talks about his 16-year-tenure in Scouting and the experience of camp, particularly when he was working there as a counselor, as a world apart from the everyday world, where the individual is forced to learn by doing, sink or swim. (The transcript for today’s video is below.)

The big question for any creative project, whether it’s a novel, a film, whatever: How do you get the word out? Today Jeff explains to me how Indiegogo works as a marketing platform as well as a crowdfunding platform, and how he and his team use YouTube to draw further attention. And Jeff starts to talk about scouting (he was a Boy Scout for sixteen years, an Eagle Scout) and how the experience helped shape his character—and planted the seed for the web series he’s now developing, Camp Abercorn. (The transcript for today’s video is below.)

In today’s conversation with Jeff Simon, Jeff explains how he and his partners put together their new web series, Camp Abercorn; where the series will run; what it’ll cost; and how the team is trying to raise the money. Jeff and I talk about Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Jeff explains how crowdfunding works and opens my eyes to a world that was unthinkable “back in the day.” (This video is the third of eight, which run in this space on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The transcript for today’s video is below.)

Continuing my safari among the creative young people of the millennial generation: In today’s conversation with Jeff Simon, I ask Jeff what brought him from Chicago to L.A., how he got started in the movie business, what networking is like today among twentysomethings in Tinseltown, and what he learned working for eighteen months with Tom Cruise and Doug Liman on the sci-fi film, Edge of Tomorrow. Jeff talks about his own career arc and how and why he began to “think bigger” about his aspirations for himself, artistically as well as commercially. (The transcript of today’s video is below. This…

I promised last Wednesday that we would be presenting several new video series on the blog. Here’s the first one, starting today. (There’s a transcript below the video, in case you’d rather read than watch.) This series is me interviewing Jeff Simon, our blog’s 28-year-old tech guru, about the new web series he is developing called Camp Abercorn. I’ve been wanting to do this for years—sit down with the young millennial generation and ask about their creative process. Do they think differently from Old School guys like me? How does their tech-savviness help them? What do they want? What are…