Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Melo.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
As of right now I’m a working actor and writer in Boston, Massachusetts. I’m currently a showrunner and lead actor for an ongoing web-series called The Web of Spider-Man. The pilot episode is currently at fifty thousand views in its first couple of months on YouTube. I’ve gotten the chance to collaborate with some extraordinary people who’ve worked on Netflix and other mediums that have helped push my career forward. I couldn’t be happier with my life than where I’m at only 18 years old. I’ve had the opportunity to do some incredible things, but how did I reach this point in my life you’re asking? I’ve always wanted to portray Spider-Man, it’s what got me into acting in the first place. I remember in second grade in my school’s recess yard I would pretend to be Spider-Man and re-enact scenes from the films with my childhood best friend, Sammy. The thought of someday being able to portray my favorite character was enough motivation to become an actor. I began looking into agencies and acting schools when I was about 8 years old. I was driven to become an actor by going from places like Model Club Inc. to John Robert Powers. I learned different techniques and grew as an actor over the years. Trying to learn every aspect about film that I could at the time. It was tough managing my artistic life along with my academic life, especially when I was constantly being bullied verbally and physically. Eventually the bullying got so bad that multiple students broke my leg. I put a majority of my focus on my artwork and writing since I wasn’t able to continue with sports because of my injury, which was making me gain a lot of weight. I began writing a Spider-Man screenplay on a typewriter that I found at a garage sale, because at the time I wasn’t able to afford a laptop. Eventually when I got my cast off, I weighed about 200 lbs. at only five feet tall and I was only 11 years old. I was so passionate about my screenplay that I decided to put myself on a crash diet over the summer of 2012. Over that same summer, as I was finishing up my screenplay, I approached my acting teacher, David Letendre, and asked him if he was interested in directing and creating a Spider-Man short film with me. He agreed and that small idea grew into a full length feature screenplay. I wrote a 200 page long professional screenplay when I was only 12 years old and by the end of the summer I went from 200 lbs. to 120 lbs. and came back to my school with a new confidence. Over the summer, I was also creating artwork and storyboards to present to David. I was always an artist, but I honed and increased my skills by practicing daily. I quickly became one of the best artists in my middle school without any formal training. Earning countless awards for not just being an artist, but a writer as well. As the years went by the screenplay kept evolving, I eventually decided to make it more streamlined and turned my feature into a series. Spider-Man has always been serialized because of the nature of comics. I felt there was so much more story to tell through my interpretation of this famous icon that we should do the same. By the time I was 15, the screenplay to The Web of Spider-Man was completed and we entered pre-production. I wanted to test out what it was like working with David before we got on the set for the series. I decided to make YouTube videos and vines with him, in order to learn what it’s like working on a set and being in front of the camera. Those disposable vines began grasping a lot of attention and with only twelve vines out I gained seven million loops (which translates into views for those that are not familiar with the platform). My academic and my creative lives constantly interfered with each other, so I came to the conclusion that homeschooling would be a better option for me in order to keep the two lives in harmony. This gave me the option to concentrate more on being a professional actor and giving myself enough time to get my school work done. So from my sophomore year until my senior year, I had to create my own curricula and go through the supervision of a school district, I have found that being a homeschooled student is much harder than being an average student that attends a high school due to the one on one session. You have to be much more independent and responsible in doing your own work, much like college. I’ve lived with just my mom for a majority of my life, she wasn’t able to help me out academically so we had to hire a tutor, David the director, to help me out with my school work. Directly after this a certain individual gave me the opportunity to audition for Spider-Man in the upcoming Marvel film, Captain America: Civil War. I went in and auditioned for the part and they enjoyed my audition so much that they called me up to audition for the lead in another film called 20th Century Woman. I didn’t end up getting the part, but the experience made me stronger as an actor. It pushed me to do better in my own series. We finally moved into shooting the pilot during the summer of 2016. That meant I also had to bear a lot of the responsibilities that would be normally given to other people on set. It was tough shooting a blockbuster spectacle like Spider-Man at a low-budget plus being a student, but it all paid off when it was finally released mid-2017. From that point I was known for my work in the pilot, which helped me tremendously in landing countless other jobs. Spider-Man helped my reputation as an actor and a filmmaker. Spider-Man was the reason I got into acting, but the more I matured and the more I delved into the acting world, the more I began to fall in love with filmmaking. I wouldn’t have been able to get this far into my career without the help of my mom, she’s the best person I know and the best mom I could’ve asked for to have in this unusual life. Growing up with a single mom helped me mature at a very young age. Honestly, I was expected by everyone to fail at such a young age, except for my mom of course, but through it all, I was able to create a unique path for myself and look forward to a bright future!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Plenty of struggles, as does any filmmaker. If you’re the type of person who’s conflicted as to whether or not you want to be in this industry, then this is not for you. There’s tons of sacrifices you’re going to have to make before you reach any sort of recognition or creditability. You need to obtain patience in order to pull through the amount of rejection you’ll receive as an actor, or even the amount of people that’ll let you down. For example I have one specific scenario that occurred when I was shooting first episode of my series, there’s a critical scene where the protagonist was revealing the amount of wounds he has around his body. The whole cast and crew were all prepared, but then last minute we had a cancellation from the makeup artist. One of the struggles I had to deal with was simply just being able to find a makeup artist to do some of the more extravagant SFX makeup scenes. The director lost hope in shooting the scene, but I kept pushing to have that scene shot because I knew how important of a moment that was. That scene ended up being among one of the most popular scenes with our fans. So as a filmmaker you need to keep constantly being on your toes and be very flexible in being able to overcome challenges as last minute changes are always happening.
Genius Films Productions – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I began my production company when I was about 16 years old, legally everything was put under my mom’s name. Simply, what sets my productions apart from others is the environment we’ve created for ourselves. I love having my productions feeling like a family rather than a machine. I love creating an environment of comfortability and equality. I’m always open for suggestions and listening to others because at the end of the day we’re all creators here.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career? That’s tough. Last December we were shooting for my Spider-Man series, Mike (my stunt double) came out in the Spidey suit and we saw so many families running out of their own homes to simply meet him. For those children they were talking to Spider-Man, their favorite superhero, unlike myself and the crew who knew it was just goofy ol’Mike in the suit. Seeing those children happy that day is a satisfaction that can’t be verbally communicated. That feeling is so much greater than winning an award. Being able to impact people’s lives is the beauty of film/entertainment in general. Cinema was made for escapism. It is our job as filmmakers to decide what type of experience you want to give your audience.
Contact Info:
- Website: brandonmelo.com
- Email: brandonmelobusiness@gmail.com
- Instagram: _brandonmelo
- Twitter: _brandonmelo
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLvn2cg7jAk&t=748s
Image Credit:
David Letendre
Dorothy Shi
Cameron Cretney
Lensey J. Alerte
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