To be more specific on Kyle's education: He was a theatre major during undergrad, at the start of Brows Held High, then in 2013, he got his M.A. in Film & Video from the American University School of Communication.
While I'm talking about his M.A., now's the time to introduce
Election Cycle to the thread. Election Cycle was Kyle's M.A. thesis film, the culmination of his years of film production studies, a requirement for the degree.
"Why should we care about this?", you may ask. Because it's a good example of how, at his root, he's nothing more than a self-serving man-child with a big ego, and I find it funny and pathetic. The major details are:
1. He made
a fucking Kickstarter, with a $9,000 goal, to get his fanbase to fund it. I understand the temptation to e-beg, since equipment rental alone costs a huge chunk of change, but $9,000 is way overpriced.
2. Most of this money was meant to go toward making it a SAG production, because he didn't have faith in actors without a SAG membership to "bring the script to life". Because apparently beggers
can be choosers now.
3. His fanbase pledged over $16,000, but to my knowledge, nobody got their promised rewards. The rewards, by the way, included arrogant shit like a Twitter shoutout from Kyle, a phone call from Kyle, props and behind-the-scenes junk, and an invitation to the premiere screening (which wouldn't be like a major ceremony, because again, it's a student film).
TL;DR: Kyle Kallgren thought so highly of his thesis film that he turned it into an overpriced spectacle, asked outsiders to fund it, and when they pledged almost twice as much as he asked for he didn't give them so much as a "thanks" in return.
