When I came to the part in our reading last week on parasocial relationships, I felt a sting of truth in the authors story about her mother. In the same way she felt a connection to Tim Russert, I felt a deep love for the work of Red Letter Media and it's founder Mike Stoklasa . Back in my freshmen year of High School my good friend Burns turned me on to this little film studio after he saw one of their videos and told me that it was like listening to me talk for twenty minutes about movies. Being a kid who's interest included film theory and production (which limited me to gaining friendships) , the possibility of finding people like me (even if it was online) was something I desperately wanted. The first video I found was a review of The Phantom Menace, and after ten minutes I was hooked.
What struck me so was how Mr.Plinket (Mike with voice manipulation) talked just like me. He was concerned with camera movement and character growth in the writing of films. It was realistic to me, in my own twisted way, these were people I wanted to be/hang out with. Watching one of their reviews was as close as I came to being with people like me in high school. Slowly as I began to become a part of RLM forums and watched more videos I started to get more into the lives of those who worked there. Mike was just like me, a kid from a small town who just love the art of film and filmmaking. Through his work I got to know the man behind the screen and felt let into this private world. I felt the struggle it took to make films and how hard everyone worked just to make one.
In the end though I knew that Mike and the crew never heard of me, never knew how much their videos meant, but I feel like the parasocial relationship I had with RLM wasn't completely one-sided though. The videos showed me what a career in film might be like and put me on the path I am on now here at Ball State studying TCOM. And for that I have to think that some parasocial relationships can lead to better things, as long as you know where to draw the line.
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