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COCA Spotlight: Stacy Brown Jr. “Filmmaker wins contest with Bigfoot”

“Finally, a crystal clear photo,” posted filmmaker Stacy Brown Jr. on one of his social media accounts. Attached was an image of a hairy, silhouetted being that he neither confirmed nor denied as the Apalachicola…

“Finally, a crystal clear photo,” posted filmmaker Stacy Brown Jr. on one of his social media accounts. Attached was an image of a hairy, silhouetted being that he neither confirmed nor denied as the Apalachicola Skunkape. As the 2016 Bigfooter of the Year, Brown’s photo set online bigfoot culture abuzz as they believed he had finally captured the elusive creature.

Brown later explained his only intention was to create hype for his newest project, a Bigfoot-themed commercial for the Kia Drives Creativity Video Contest. The figure in question was none other than a friend in costume, and the video received over 4,000 plays on Facebook alone.

Brown was overjoyed when he got the notification that his commercial was selected by Kia of Tallahassee as the first place winner, reaffirming his path in film and undeniable draw towards the world’s most mysterious figures and vast unknowns.

“It’s stuff that I loved as a kid,” admits Brown, who recently created a documentary, “Roswell: 70 Years Later,” after feeling dissatisfied with other films on the subject. “The problem with these films is that they’re always trying to lead you to believe that it is aliens or the government. It is never here are the facts, believe what you want. We just wanted to get the truth out there, whatever the truth may be, and whatever you may want to believe.”

Growing up in Crawfordville, Brown remembers making films with his father’s VHS Panasonic camcorder. He most enjoyed making stop animation films with his action figures and other toys. In high school, Brown acted in theater and was part of a TV production class.

“Filmmaking was something I always wanted to do,” says Brown. “I fell into an acting career a few years back and I learned a lot about how they were doing it. I thought, ‘I can make movies myself,’ and that’s how I got my start.”

Brown is one of the Panhandles’ most notable Bigfoot hunters. Propelled into the national spotlight in 2012 when a video he and his father filmed together in Torreya State Park snowballed, Brown was asked to be a part of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot.” He was also the winner on Spike TV’s “Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty.”

With these career experiences on television shows and the advent of usergenerated sites like YouTube, Brown was able to teach himself a lot about cameras and filming. He says vision is what sets artists apart nowadays, and having a strong point of view when it comes to the filming and editing of a project.

“That’s not something that’s taught in a school, that’s something you either have or you don’t,” states Brown. “My vision will change based on the project. We just did a documentary that was very guerrilla style, and a horror flick that doesn’t fit into a genre. For me, it’s about experimentation, no rules, and just making a good film.”

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