Let's start with my name, Steven Lebowitz. I started getting called the name "Lebo" in day camp when I was about 5 or 6. I believe many people with the last name of Lebowitz get that nickname at one time or another. I was only called by that name during camp, back at school I was Steven again. When I attended Ithaca College the name was used again. There were 4 or 5 Steven's in my small dorm so other names were needed.
I've been writing creative stories since the second grade, but Lebo Productions wasn't born until my senior year in High School. They offered a TV I and TV II class to seniors which I took. During these classes was the first time I was able to film(tape) the scripts I wrote. At the end of TV I I wrote and directed Manic Monday. I had a little help with the writing, but mostly it was all me. It ended up being a 17 minute feature and remains one of the longest and most popular production made in Glen Cove High School. It was during this time that I started making videos under the Lebo Productions banner.
Anything I made in college always had a "Lebo Productions Presents" before the feature started. One of my biggest accomplishments was my 35 minute senior film, Manic Monday II: Mission Mayhem. When I attended the senior film screening my junior year there were plenty of good films, but they were all dramas and most of them depressing. When I walked I knew I wanted to do a comedy for my senior film. I decided to take the main character from the first Manic Monday film. The story of MMI was just a typical day in the life of a high school student name Judd. I thought I'd bring Judd to college and give him an adventure in college. 35 Minutes was considered a pretty huge undertaking at IC, and many people thought I wouldn't finish in time, but it got a fantastic response at the screening. Unfortunately, it also sparked a few new policies at IC. Films can not be longer than 15 minutes unless you get your professor's permission, there are certain locations you can no longer film in, and there is a limit the number of weekends in a row you can take out film equipment. Sorry about that.
I've been writing screenplays since I was 15. My first screenplay I wrote was a version of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. New Line Cinema didn't buy it, but they did like it enough to continue to read my work without the aid of an agent and they got me a PA job on Texas Chainsaw Massacre III when I got to college. My last screenplay, Shy, is a combination romantic comedy and horror film. So far there haven't been any takers on it. The mixing of the two genre's scares people off. I'm currently working on my next screenplay, No Dopes.
I made one more film after college. It was a small 2 and a half minute film called ...or sanity based on the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. I got the film shown at tournaments for the game in half the country, and it too, got a great response. The showing in the New York City got a standing ovation. I was hoping to one day make a film based on something short Stephen King wrote, but I wasn't given permission to do so. If I ever get the proper funds I will make another film under the Lebo Productions banner. News of that one day film will be posted on this site.
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