Local filmmakers take on the Steelers

The Steal Phantom

Written and produced by Jason Georgiades and Trevar Cushing… The Steal Phantom

Written and produced by Jason Georgiades and Trevar Cushing

Public Health Building Room G23

Friday, Oct. 5

6 p.m.

It’s always easier to not do something. This is the mantra that carried filmmakers Jason Georgiadis and Trevar Cushing through over 1,000 hours of 4 a.m. road trips, belligerent football fans, eccentric mascots, sagacious homeless men, wizened sports legends and beer-drenched tailgate parties that became “The Steal Phantom.” The 64-minute documentary chronicles the journey of two amateur filmmakers on a mission to amend the official Pittsburgh Steelers playbook with their very own offensive play.

A project launched after minimal planning in September 2006, “The Steal Phantom” took about a year to complete. Filming took place throughout the 2006-07 NFL Season and was followed by a four-month editing process. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” said Georgiadis, then a 20-year-old Pitt student.

A Pittsburgh native, Georgiadis grew up supporting the Steelers; he knew football was deeply ingrained in the city’s culture. He became enthralled with the diverse ways in which fans related to the team and wanted to know just how much they could influence the game. “Everybody identifies with the Steelers in a different way. One person sees themselves as ‘the ticket holder,’ another thinks they’re the best mascot. Everyone has a unique way of contributing,” said Georgiadis. “Still there’s this kind of invisible barrier that separates the Steelers from their fans.” Creating the gimmick play became Georgiadis’ attempt to break through the red tape surrounding the organization.

As a Studio Arts major, Georgiadis was looking for a project that would require his artistic talent. He decided to combine his passion for film with his love for the Steelers in the form of a documentary. Encouraged by his friend Chet Vincent to pursue “The Steal Phantom” idea, Georgiadis dove into the project with nothing more than a logo, a vision and a camera he barely knew how to use.

He posted an advertisement on Craig’s list for a cameraman and 24-year-old Trevar Cushing decided to see what Georgiadis was all about. “He asked me to meet him at Ritter’s, this 24-hour diner in North Oakland. I got there, and here was this really skinny kid with a Steelers hat on, in a jersey that was way too big for him,” Crushing said. Afraid at first that Georgiadis was a “super fan” concerned only with infiltrating the Steelers organization, Cushing soon found out that his new partner’s goal was much deeper than meeting football celebrities.

“Once I started talking to him I realized that he actually had a lot of good story ideas,” Cushing said. “He didn’t want to do this just so he could [meet] Joey Porter.”

In search of ways to bolster his resume, Cushing liked the idea of pitching a play to the Super Bowl Champions. “[“The Steal Phantom”] was the kind of thing I wish I’d thought of. Like all good ideas it was simple and brilliant,” Cushing said.

Cushing brought perspective to Georgiadis’ ambitious vision, identifying what was and was not realistic from a cameraman’s perspective. “He wanted to interview Steelers in all of these crazy places,” Cushing said. “I was able to say, ‘Look, this is what you can do, this is what you can’t.'” The pair spent a mere two weeks in pre-production, sketching a rudimentary outline for tackling the project. “It was very spontaneous. We would see something on the Internet or in the paper or hear something from a friend and then build our schedule around that lead. It’s not like we planned out our schedule four months in advance,” Cushing said.

Their first day of shooting was also their most frustrating. The two optimistic filmmakers showed up to the first Steelers’ game of the season expecting to be greeted by a stadium full of fans, eager to take part in a grassroots endeavor. Instead, Cushing and Georgiadis wandered a parking lot full of black and gold clad tailgaters unsympathetic to their cause. Only about one in 20 people they asked were willing to be interviewed.

“I think they might have thought that we were somehow making fun of them. The Steelers for a lot of people are a really serious thing,” Georgiadis said. After the disappointing first day, the pair made it a priority to gain credibility through the media. They made phone calls to local news organizations and radio stations, hoping to grab someone’s attention with their story.

Their first big success came when they interviewed Rich Ehrenreich, the owner of minor league baseball team, the Schaumberg Flyers. The interview also marked a transition in Cushing’s role in the film. Because he was instrumental in extracting information from Ehrenreich, Georgiadis saw that he could be a huge asset in front of the camera as well as behind it. “I interviewed for a camera man position. I was never supposed to be co-director,” Cushing said. But they both decided to add Cushing’s voice to the documentary.

Georgiadis was just looking for a cameraman when he posted on Craig’s List, but found a friend in Cushing as well. “I’m still amazed that I found this dude. I couldn’t think of anybody better for this job,” Georgiadis said. “We were always on the same page. We became really good friends,” Cushing said. Their compatibility became essential to the success of the film. “We couldn’t have done it without one another. It just wouldn’t have worked,” Cushing said. When exhaustion, frustration or doubt consumed one of them, the other would pull him back into a positive mindset.

The quest to get the “Steal Phantom” into the Steelers playbook brought Cushing and Georgiadis into the perilous realm of opposing stadiums. They were immersed in a pregame culture that Cushing described as “a circus mixed with a death camp” and Georgiadis likened to “the old west.” Both Georgiadis and Cushing cited the Cleveland Browns pregame festivities as the scariest part of filming. Georgiadis sustained a punch from a Browns fan as part of a pregame ritual amid a host of supporters urinating and vomiting on Steelers paraphernalia.

“The whole process was a blur. There was no time to really reflect on what we were doing until post-production,” said Georgiadis. At the end of the season the pair was faced with a heaping stack of videotapes representing 40 hours of footage that had to be condensed into one hour. Exhausted from 17 weeks of filming, Georgiadis and Cushing felt overwhelmed at the task that lay ahead of them. Chet Vincent came in at a crucial moment. The pair had devised a letter and number system to organize the documentary into respective pieces. Vincent utilized the system to construct a story in sync with Cushing and Georgiadis’ vision and the message they wanted to convey to viewers.

The Sprocket Guild, the organization that provided a large portion of the funds for the film, is holding a premier of “The Steal Phantom” at Pitt on Friday, Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. in the basement of the Public Heath Building. The event will be hosted by Tony Clifton, an alter ego of comedian Andy Kauffman. There will be free food and complimentary stickers, emblazoned with “The Steal Phantom” logo. Because “Jason and Trevar regulations” prohibit the sale of “The Steal Phantom” because of the dangers of releasing media in the digital age, the premiere will provide a rare opportunity to view this revolutionary endeavor.

“The Steal Phantom” has been submitted to the Three Rivers Film Festival and the Delaware Valley Film Festival and Cushing and Georgiadis continue to look for opportunities to showcase their work. The two filmmakers alluded to a future collaboration, but wouldn’t disclose specific details. Their focus right now is clear – it’s all about “The Steal Phantom.”