Batman documentary, soldier gives a surprise visit to his family and Ti West gives ghostly chills

Here are three examples of my journalism writing from my career.

'Legends Of The Knight' Premieres In Tampa

Batman documentary explores the positive impact of heroes

by BRYANT L. GRIFFIN, posted Sep-25-2013

Source: Airlock Alpha / The Tampa Tribune

Batman is renowned for his ability to unsettle and overpower his opponents. But it's his power to uplift and inspire his fans that captivates "Legends of the Knight" producer-director Brett Culp.

Financed independently by two crowdfunding campaigns, “Legends of the Knight” is a 75-minute documentary exploring the power of storytelling and how it impacts real lives, using Gotham City's Dark Knight as a lens. Culp, a Tampa, Fla., native, is launching the world premiere at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at Tampa Theatre.

"Legends of the Knight" kicked off production in April 2012, with Culp conducting 64 interviews in 15 cities across the United States. There are 13 stories profiling Batman enthusiasts, whose love of the character provided motivation in their lives, spurred them to undertake community improvements and helped counter traumatic obstacles.

Also interviewed are such Dark Knight authorities as Michael E. Uslan, executive producer of every Batman film since 1989, and Batman writer-editor Denny O'Neil.

Culp built his filmmaking career telling documentary-style stories for not-for-profits and corporations, and he found the impact of the format compelling.

"I've spent two weeks filming in Haiti and then shown people a five-minute film about the experience and had it changed them, the way they view the world, and the way they viewed Haiti and their desire to get involved," Culp told Airlock Alpha at San Diego Comic-Con this summer. "And I wanted to investigate why. Why does that happen? Why are we drawn to that?

"And as I was going through the process I realized we ought to talk about heroes and hero stories."

A lifelong Batman fan, Culp sees today's superheroes as worthy counterparts to many heroic characters of the past and that "loving these characters and celebrating these characters is a very human, wonderful, beautiful thing to do."

Although Batman's stories can sometimes embrace darker themes, Culp points out that there are often "very bright" messages attached.

"I think that has changed as society has changed, and Batman has kind of become the hero that people can relate to," he explained. "So we live in a time today that is very gray and where it's kind of cynical and dark. And so Batman has become a darker character for more contemporary, adult stories in our generation.

"But the heart of Batman is a very hopeful, very positive message, which is that one man can make a difference."

For Uslan, executive producer of the upcoming Zack Snyder film "Batman vs. Superman,” that message is what makes Culp’s project so fascinating and emotional.

“We all have to believe that one person can make a difference in this world," Uslan recently told The Tampa Tribune. “We have to believe in ourselves in that regard, and I think Brett, through this documentary, is certainly proving that he is making a difference in the world too.

"He is really someone who gives a damn about people and about social causes. And to see him with such dedication and passion commit himself to making this happen and seeing it through to fruition despite overwhelming odds … I think in that sense Brett becomes a real-life superhero.”

Cary A. Friedman, who provided Culp inspiration for "Legends of the Knight” with his 2006 book “Wisdom from the Batcave: How to Live a Super, Heroic Life,” was also profiled for the documentary and, in the process, found the heart behind the project stirring.

Two fundamental lessons, which took center stage in Friedman’s book, are a core part of the documentary: That there is no end to what someone can accomplish in the world and that life's tough moments can be turned into triumphant victories.

"It's fabulous, you can't watch it without being all choked up,” Friedman said. “It's such a poignant, powerful kind of presentation. You can't help but walk away from the movie with some sense of: 'I got to incorporate this into my life. I could do things. This could be me.' I think there can be no greater accomplishment."

Culp's choice for Tampa as the premiere site is rooted in his family history, which stretches back four generations in the city. In fact, his great-grandfather, Lloyd Copeland, served on Tampa’s City Council for two decades and as acting mayor of Tampa in 1974.

And using Tampa Theatre was also a natural choice for Culp.

“I grew up going to the Tampa Theatre and loving that theater,” he explained. “So when I first started making this film, and started down this road, part of my dream was to play it there.

“It’s such a beautiful, gothic, historical location that in many ways expresses the heart, the beauty and the style of Tampa. I actually saw my first onscreen Batman there."

"Legends of the Knight” is a not-for-profit project. Proceeds will benefit charities, and the Tampa premiere will support Metropolitan Ministries, a local charity that provides food and other services to the needy.

“I'm overjoyed that we are partnering with Metropolitan Ministries on this event,” Culp said. “Growing up here in Tampa, their efforts and their work, particularly around the holidays, was always part of my life and my world volunteering there.

“I think there is something very Batman about what they're trying to do there, which is to work for the everyman and help the people that are struggling to get back on their feet.”

Tickets for the premiere cost $12 and are available at TampaTheatre.org.

About the Author

Bryant L. Griffin is managing editor for Airlock Alpha, 1701News and Rabid Doll, and a writer for the entire GenreNexus network. He works at a major-metro newspaper and served as a journalist in the U.S. Army. In 2002, he joined Nexus Media Group Inc., contributing to many early design concepts before shifting his focus back to writing. Bryant hails from Tampa, Fla.

Sometimes the best gifts come in camouflage

U.S. Army Col. Peter Quinn returns from deployment in Afghanistan just in time for the holidays, surprising his children on stage in front of 200 classmates at Saint Anthony School in San Antonio. The officer’s wife Kelly, left, joins him along with two of his children: Gabriel, 13, and Grace, 11.

(Courtesy of Bryant L. Griffin)

JANUARY 8, 2015 BY SPECIAL TO THE LAKER/LUTZ NEWS

For three unsuspecting siblings attending Saint Anthony School in San Antonio, a student assembly marking an early start for Christmas break on Dec. 19 was more than it seemed.

It actually was cover for a carefully orchestrated holiday surprise: The return of their father, U.S. Army Col. Peter Quinn.

Quinn, who just returned from Bagram, Afghanistan for a two-week leave, was determined to give his children a present they wouldn’t forget, especially since the deployment — his second to the region — resulted in nearly a year of separation from his Wesley Chapel family.

Working with the Army Intelligence and Security Command in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Quinn currently serves as a senior contracting officer’s representative providing linguistic support to U.S. forces in Afghanistan. His deployment ends next May, when he plans to return stateside and retire from the Army after 30 years of service.

His secretive homecoming came together with help from his wife Kelly, and the school.

“When I cooked up this idea several months ago and presented it to Kelly, she said, ‘You’re crazy,’” Peter Quinn said. “I said, ‘We could make this happen. We can make one of those special moments for Saint Anthony’s.

“I wanted to do something special for my kids. Every military dad wants to do that.”

However, meeting the surprise’s tight schedule after 20 hours of flying during two days of transit was tricky. His 10:30 a.m. Tampa arrival only allowed him a little more than an hour to reach the school.

The students assembled in the school’s parish center were set to head home at noon after prayers and announcements. Like Peter Quinn’s children, the students also were unaware of his imminent homecoming.

“I was a little bit worried because I almost missed my connecting flight,” Quinn said. “I was five minutes out from it taking off. I was running to my gate … because I wasn’t going to miss this.”

His children — Grace, 11; Faith, 11; and Gabriel, 13 — were seated amongst their 200 classmates when Quinn, dressed in his camouflage duty uniform, suddenly emerged from the curtained stage. The reveal left them stunned.

Quinn, bearing the widest of grins, met their dash to the stage with a long-awaited embrace. The hugs were prolonged and repeated as cheers and applause quickly swept through the assembled students.

“It’s just really exciting,” said Fran Shiver, a Zephyrhills parent of a fourth-grade daughter at the school. “I think it’s something that just goes back to family. It’s so exciting to see the smiles on the kids’ faces. We really appreciate his service.”

For the school’s principal, Sister Alice Ottapurackal, the homecoming represents the very heart of Saint Anthony.

“We’re grateful that he is safe and coming back to us,” Ottapurackal said. “We do pray every day for him, and all the military people who are serving the country.

“We’re like a family, so we’re truly excited to see the children’s expressions.”

Indeed, as the hugs and tears continued before the school’s students, Quinn couldn’t have imagined a more poignant homecoming.

“This is the longest time we have been apart,” he said. “And they have been doing great helping mom out, and great in school. They have been a true blessing.”

Kelly Quinn couldn’t agree more.

“I just stood back there and I just wanted to see their reaction,” she said. “It was awesome.”

By Bryant L. Griffin

Published January 7, 2015

Ti West Mines Chills, Respect For 'The Innkeepers'

EXCLUSIVE: We talk with the 'House of the Devil' director about his latest supernatural film, upcoming projects

by BRYANT L. GRIFFIN, posted Apr-23-2012

Source: Rabid Doll

Deftly orchestrating bone-chilling scares like a maniacal maestro, director Ti West feels it's just as rewarding to present audiences with a sincere measure of respect.

His latest film, "The Innkeepers," arrives on Blu-ray and DVD from MPI Media Group and Dark Sky Films on April 24. West wrote, directed and edited the film, which follows two hotel employees, Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy), as they attempt to unlock the mystery behind their employer's haunted New England business. Meanwhile, a psychic, played by Kelly McGillis ("Top Gun," "Stake Land"), offers a grim warning about their investigation.

After shaking up the horror genre with his 2009 film "The House of the Devil," West gained considerable attention for his style of slow-burn horror, which involves long takes and deliberately paced scenes and takes cues from the spookier side of Roman Polanski ("Rosemary's Baby") and Stanley Kubrick ("The Shining").

But part of his work's appeal for audiences may come from the genre's tendency, especially with mainstream films, to aim for the lowest common denominator, according to West.

"I like to think that I really respect the audience and don't have to give them a lot of extraneous information or I don't have to spoon feed them things, and we can all just wait for the things to happen," West told Rabid Doll in a recent interview. "That is my taste … And I'm really just trying to make sure that everything that I'm doing is authentic and feels realistic. If it's appealing to me I just imagine it will be appealing to other people."

For "The Innkeepers," West also wanted to contrast the scares with an additional dimension: some laughs. He set out to make a workplace comedy that turns into a horror movie.

"The real goal of this movie is that I wanted to make a charming horror movie," West explained. "I don't really know if I've seen many … And I wanted to make a movie about minimum wage jobs and … the feeling of being stuck in minimum wage jobs. Your not digging ditches, but it kinda sucks. But you get kinda apathetic because of it. There is really no room for growth and there is nowhere to go. And you find yourself not really having any real aspirations. And you feel stuck. I thought that was a good juxtaposition to a ghost story, because it is the same.

"I felt like I had something to say about that, and I think it was relatable to a lot of people. … And it would be a good way to like and really relate to the characters so when the ghost story kicks off you feel attached to them and it elevates the horror elements because you care."

West found inspiration for "The Innkeepers" while he and his crew stayed in the The Yankee Pedlar Inn in Connecticut during the filming of "The House of the Devil." The inn, which opened its doors in 1891, is supposedly haunted, and a ghost tale was just what West sought for his next project. After completing the script, he secured permission to shoot the film at the inn before the tourist season rush.

"So we kinda lived our own ghost story when we were there; so it was kind of easy to write it pretty quickly, and it was easy to know that the real location existed," he said.

But bringing his story to life hinged on his casting choices. He knew Healy's work, but was not familiar with his key lead, Paxton.

"What was fascinating about that was when she showed up I didn't have a bunch of expectations," West said. "And then this really goofy, awkward, clumsy girl showed up. And it was like totally jarring because I did not anticipate that at all. It was the last thing that I thought she would have been. But it was very endearing and I was fascinated by it.

"And I watched her movies and she wasn't like that in her movies, and I was like 'Oh my god, these people really missed out by not exploiting her most charismatic trait.' And I thought 'I better go do it.'"

With Paxton comfortably slipping into her role, West now looked to the use of audio and music to shake up her character's quest to contact the hotel's supernatural presence.

"Music is really important for any genre, but horror specifically," he explained. "It definitely helps to elevate it. I've worked with the same composer and sound designer forever; so I actually leave a lot of space in the movie, in the soundtrack to like continue the narrative, which a lot of people do not do.

"In this movie particularly I wanted to do things where you go into a character's perspective, but just from an audio standpoint. Because I have never seen that before. And I was tired of movies setting up video cameras in the Paranormal Activity model. I felt like if I did something like that I would just be derivative of that. So I thought when we watch these ghost hunting shows they are always trying to record EDP, and I was like well 'Why don't we make a movie where that is the main tool and not the video camera.'"

"The Innkeepers" marks West's fifth horror production since his directing debut with the 2005 film "The Roost." He finds the experimental nature of the genre attractive.

"The way you tell that story can be done in an infinite amount of ways, where like a romantic comedy you can't so much," he said. "I think that it's a genre that leaves for a filmmaker the room to explore whatever you want.

"The problem is that I think that most people don't do that. They are just derivative of every successful horror movie that has come out previously. For me, what is appealing is that there are kinda no rules in the genre. It's freeing for a filmmaker."

However, pitfalls continue to plague the genre, some more than ever, West said.

"I think that things are pretty grim," he explained. "It's not very exciting. There is not much original content out there.

"I have not seen 'The Cabin in the Woods'; I know it's an original horror film, and I hear that it's doing pretty well. It's nice to hear that an original horror film does well. Or just in general, any original film."

West is pushing forward with his own original productions, but don't look for him to cling to the horror genre for much longer.

"My days are numbered, for sure," he said. "I've made six horror movies in six years."

In the meantime, he is participating in the anthology films "V/H/S" and "The ABCs of Death." West will follow those up by writing and directing "The Side Effect" -- a science fiction film starring Liv Tyler ("The Incredible Hulk") -- and a werewolf film called "Bad Wolf."

"They are like personal movies for me," he said. "It's just weird that they are genre. Like the science fiction movie I wrote is about a weird experience that I had with an insurance company. And it just drove me crazy. And it gave me an idea for a horror movie in space. And like the werewolf movie that I have is … a comment on like male, female relationships.

"I am very adamant about not wanting to repeat myself. I feel like these two are solid. … For the most part after one or two of those it's time to try something else."

But what about a sequel to his hit "The House of the Devil"?

"My passion in life isn't to make 'The House of the Devil 2,'" he explained. "It's not something that I want to spend years struggling to get made. I'd rather just do something new.

"It's a silly movie to make a sequel to, I think. But I thought of something; I got an idea."

See our review of "The Innkeepers" here.

About the Author

Bryant L. Griffin is the news editor for Rabid Doll and a writer for the entire GenreNexus. He was a journalist in the U.S. Army and currently works as an editor and news reporter in the civilian world. In 2002, he joined Nexus Media Group Inc., contributing to many early design concepts before shifting his focus back to writing. Bryant hails from Tampa, Fla.