History

Rock Ledge Studios, is a amateur-run film organization that strives to bring people together to create memories amongst people, as well as produce content for the Youtube channels Rock Ledge Studios and MoreRockLedge. The original Youtube Channel was created on Aug 21, 2016 by filmmakers Alex Johnson, Jasmin Kuykendall, and Riley Burgess. As of January 2021, the main channel has over 1.4k subscribers, over 115k views, and produced over 125 videos. Rock Ledge Studios has also become a conglomerate for several other Youtube channels, such as MoreRockLedge, Saggio Productions, Fisics Club, Hot Rod Studios, and Wreckers Productions. The corporation has production teams stationed in both Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

# **History**

## **Sodaman157 (2013-2014)**

### **Princess Rage**

In the Fall of 2012, 7th graders Alex Johnson, Connor Tatum, Connor Stimpert, Fox Chambon, and Ian Biggins-Weeden created a comic line called "Princess Rage". The comic featured a variety of fictional characters battling each other in wacky storylines. This comic soon developed into a concise story, which sparked the talks of a film project. In the majority of the film projects, Connor Tatum would both film and direct, while the others would take on acting positions. In Spring of 2013, the first ever Sodaman157 video was filmed, simply titled "Princess Rage Trailer". The following week, a short film called "Princess Rage" was shot. The video itself featured a leprechaun being interrogated by a man in order to find a rainbow, which ended in an epic chase scene. Two more sequel episodes were planned to be shot, but the group lost interest quickly after the first film didn't have a concise plot.

### **The Battle Series**

Despite Princess Rage's flaws, the troupe continued to make projects together, primarily shooting a new video every weekend. *The Battle Series* was a 5-part short video series on YouTube, following the 5 friend's battles against one another. The first battle was between Ian and Connor S. It was shot in a sand spit near Ian's house in Spring 2013. Both characters were "killed" during the duel, so no one won. The second battle, shot at Rock Ledge Ranch, featured Alex vs Connor S. It was a lightsaber battle and introduced Alex's character of "The Jedi" and Connor's character of "The Knight". Again, neither character won. The third battle evolved into a chase sequence between Ian's character "The Creeper" and Connor S's character of "The Knight", where yet again, neither character won. It was shot near Trailblazer Elementary. The fourth battle, shot in the suburbs of Colorado Springs, featured a new player to the troupe, as neighbor Jack Kremer volunteered to be the boy who was shot whilst riding a toy pony. Alex's "Jedi" fought and was able to fatally wound Fox's character of "The Assassin", but again, there was no definite victory. The fifth and final installment of The Battle Series featured all four characters coming back to battle it out once again, where "The Creeper", "The Knight" and "The Jedi" met their fatal ends as "The Assassin" was the one true victor.

In later years, both Alex and Connor S reprised their roles in two separate rematches of "Battle #2". Both characters died in "Battle #2 2" and "The Jedi" won in the meme-heavy "Battle #2 REMASTERED".

### **Bounty**

As the school year turned into summer, the film troupe continued to create short projects. Near the end of May 2013, Connor Tatum pitched a 10-part web series to the troupe, which featured a selection of superhuman Bounty Hunter characters trying to navigate their way through multiple assignments. *Bounty* featured a larger production value than the previous projects, with more actors, different locations, and more costumes/props being used throughout the series. The characters were loosely based off of the filming troupe's previous characters from *The Battle Series*. Alex primarily played a hooded character named Knox, who had puppeting abilities. Connor S played the part of a master swordsman known as Knight. Fox played an elf with super strength named Dobbie, and Ian played a creeper-esque character named Greenshadow.

Near the end of July 2013, Connor Stimpert moved states. This caused for his Knight character to be killed off in the show prematurely. The show was ultimately only able to complete 7 out of the original 10 episodes, as the filming troupe began to break apart near the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year. While the troupe was unable to complete all 10 episodes, three previews for future episodes were able to be filmed. As of 2021, only 6 out of the 7 shot episodes have been released on Youtube. In 2018, Alex Johnson had written a script for a "revival" episode, which would feature the old crew coming back together to train a new female hunter.

### **End of Sodaman157**

By the end of 2014, Alex Johnson, Connor Tatum, Connor Stimpert, Fox Chambon, and Ian Biggins-Weeden had gone their separate ways due to creative differences and overall lack of interest in filmmaking for Sodaman157. Alex kept in contact with both Connor Stimpert and Tatum throughout the years, and they still create film projects with one another to this day.

### **Legacy**

Alex Johnson has stated numerous times that Connor Tatum and Sodaman157 was the inspiration for him to pursue film. Alex went on to create Metalsnow Studios, and then Rock Ledge Studios later on, in which the original filming troupe has been involved, some more so than others.

In the Spring of 2019, Fox Chambon, a member of the original five, passed away. A memorial video entitled "Dobbie Tribute" (which was originally a response to Fox's decision to leave the filming troupe in 2014) was published to the channel. Alex Johnson paid tribute to Fox at the end of the Rock Ledge Studios 2020 Channel Trailer.

## **MetalSnow Studios (2013-2017)**

While the original Youtube channel MetalSnow Studios was created on December 12th, 2012, the first MetalSnow Studios video was not produced until Oct 10, 2013. This was Alex's personal Youtube channel. The channel itself had more of a diverse collection of videos (as opposed to Sodaman157, which was entirely live-action films). The channel featured a mix of live action content, slideshows, and animatic content.

### **Departure from Sodaman157**

Until late 2014, Alex worked closely with Connor Tatum to produce videos together for both MetalSnow Studios and Sodaman157. In the days of *Bounty*, MetalSnow Studios was both a second channel for Sodaman157, as well as Alex Johnson's personal channel.

### **Videos**

MetalSnow Studios featured a variety of videos, which included short films, Total Drama ORG's, Top 10 slideshows, toy reviews, livestreams, and other various content. There was no official "team" outside of Alex, who produced all of the content. *Total Drama Pahkitew island: The evolution of the contestants* is currently the most watched video out of the three channels (Sodaman157, MetalSnow Studios, Rock Ledge Studios), with a whopping 64,000+ views as of 2021. The majority of the videos did relatively well, as the content was targeted towards children.

#### **Total Drama Camps**

In February of 2014, Alex hosted the first of four Online Reality Game's, entitled Total Drama Beta. The camp featured 12 contestants, made up of characters both fan made and originally from the show. It spanned for \_ A year later, in February of 2015, a second season titled Total Drama CYOC was held, which featured another 12 contestants. This season spanned for \_ A third season, titled Total Drama QSOD, spanned from \_ to \_. It featured 6 contestants. On January 1st, 2016 the final season began to air, called Total Drama Globerace. It featured 12 contestants with both a mix of new and returning players. It aired until \_ in a climactic finale, which was almost entirely animatic. Ideas for a fifth season was tossed around- but ultimately scrapped because of the return to live action competitions on Rock Ledge Studios.

### **End of MetalSnow Studios**

While the channel is still active to this day, videos have significantly reduced since the creation of Rock Ledge Studios in 2017. The channel has become a housing unit for several memes, by being regarded as Alex's "cringy past" by any of his friends. The videos still accumulate thousands of views per year, but there hasn't been any talk of reviving the channel as of late.

### **Legacy**

On May 5th, 2015, the verified Youtuber CheekiiChaps uploaded a video entitled Poptropica is the greatest Online game which featured the Poptropica Hamburger pocketeer review. While it did give MetalSnow Studios some negative flack, CheekiiChap's video lended itself to the meme, bolstering its view count.

In 2017, a montage video celebrating 10 years of the show *Total Drama Island* was released.

The Online Reality Games competitions was the catalyst for the Live Reality Games competitions which would later be done on the YouTube channel Rock Ledge Studios.

## **Rock Ledge Studios** (2017-Present)

### **A New Beginning**

During the Fall of 2017, Alex Johnson attended Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As a Junior at the time, Alex joined an Intro to Video Production class, where he and fellow classmates Riley Burgess and Jasmin Kuykendall bonded over their love for film. This desire to create, pushed by Alex's own personal motives for wanting to move past MetalSnow Studios, sparked the creation of a new YouTube channel, and on Aug 21, 2016, Rock Ledge Studios was born.

### **First Videos**

Alex, Jasmin, and Riley began to create projects for their film production classes, but none of these projects were saved/uploaded. The first full short film project to come out on Rock Ledge Studios was a short film project for the Fall 2016 All Pikes Peak Reads video contest, entitled "Dearest Mommy". The plot focused on a young girl and a cop solving the murder of another young girl. The film, as well as the blooper reel, screened at the 2016 All Pikes Peak Reads video conference. Both videos did not place among the others, but the word that a film organization was forming inside Coronado High School, caused the Coronado Theatre Department to hire Rock Ledge Studios as their official production team for their Fall 2016 play, "Peter/Wendy". This, as well as a Behind-the-Scenes Documentary was released later that Fall.

### **Gaining Traction**

Following this, Rock Ledge Studios began to gain lots of traction in school and online, which opened up a multitude of actors who joined the new group. This kicked off a new era of filmmaking, with multiple people getting involved with the projects from 2017-onward. In the Spring of 2017, Alex Johnson ran for the STUCO position of Student Body Vice President, and he used Rock Ledge Studios as a platform to produce campaign ads. This ended up getting him elected in a 70%-30% majority, over his opponent.

Near the end of the 2016-2017 school year, the Rock Ledge Studios team produced their first large scale project, "*Camera*", which utilized a "found footage" style of filmmaking. This film was later submitted to the 2018 D11 Video Contest, for which it won Best Picture. Following the production of "*Camera*" the team began to create Live Reality Games, starting with a fan made version of The Amazing Race (*see The Amazing Race: Colorado*) in the summer of 2017. They also made a Pirates of the Caribbean-esque film in the summer of 2017 (*see Shipwrecked*).

### 2018-Present

Since the Fall of 2017 until present day, Rock Ledge Studios has been uploading semi-consistently, with new videos and projects coming out as they are finished. New formats for videos, in the form of Vlogs, Reaction Videos, and Muckbangs have since become popular on the channel, while also keeping in the form of the larger-scale cinematic projects. In May of 2018, Alex, Riley, and Jasmin graduated high school, and subsequently released their senior project, "*Wordgirl: A Superhero Fan Film*", to the channel. Wordgirl has since become the most popular video on the channel, with an accumulated 35k views as of January 2021.

During the Summer of 2018, both Survivor Colorado seasons 1 & 2 were filmed. This also began the trend of two new Live Reality Games being filmed per year, with Big Brother 1 and Survivor 3 filming the summer of 2019, Big Brother 2 and Survivor Colorado: All Stars being filmed in 2020, and at least two competitions being slated to film in the summer of 2021.

Following the success of Wordgirl, the idea of fan films sparked interest among the now-expanded Rock Ledge Studios team. This spurred the first large-scale fan films (Career: A Hunger Games Story and Scavenger: A Star Wars Fan Film) to be filmed in the Summer of 2019. Several other fan films have been shot, including a parody of NBC's The Office, a Monty-Python inspired medieval film, as well as a Harry Potter fan film.

On February 2nd, 2021, the Rock Ledge Studios wiki was launched, along with an Official Instagram account, an Official Website, and an Official Merch line.

## **MoreRockLedge**

On January 9th, 2020, a second channel titled MoreRock Ledge was revealed. The official description reads:

*"The official SECOND channel of Rock Ledge Studios! This channel is where the creators have fun! On here we will be posting bonus content from Rock Ledge Studios, as well as let our team create individual content and explore in new areas! Be sure to check back often for new videos!!"*

The channel was marketed as having a "bonus" approach to it, with more behind-the-scenes content and exclusive videos releasing often.

## **Controversies of Rock Ledge Studios**

Every Youtube channel receives their fair share of dislikes and hate comments, but Rock Ledge Studios has gone through several controversies in the past that have shaped the face of the company.

After the finale of The Amazing Race Colorado season 1, an anonymous Youtube user commented on multiple episodes, arguing that the series was "too similar" to videos from Los Metates Studios (a popular LRG channel who had done a fan version of the Amazing Race.) Although Los Metates Studios was a known-inspiration to the team before the Amazing Race Colorado season 1 was filmed, the two seasons were virtually nothing alike aside from a few shot similarities and some of the music choices. The anonymous user prompted to dislike every video on the channel, including new releases, with up to 9 accounts from Spring 2018 until Early 2019. To be compared to an inspiration's work and then be tarnished by that fact, sent creator Alex Johnson into a long period of depression, causing a temporary halt on uploads in Spring 2018. By the time of Spring 2019, the hater had been discovered in real life. Alex and this anonymous user have since made peace.

The film "*Wordgirl: A Superhero Fan Film*" has also received its fair share of hate, with arguments made that the film "White-Washed" the character of Becky Botsford. In the original Wordgirl cartoon, Becky is Lexiconian, a humanlike alien race, but the cartoon doesn't specify what ethnicity she is on earth. Director Alex Johnson has stated that "as it is a fan film, the casting for the character was based purely on talent for portraying the cartoon character, rather than ethnicity."

## **Future and Legacy**

Rock Ledge Studios has continued to put out a multitude of content over the years, and will continue to both create and release new videos for years to come. (For more information on upcoming projects, see: Upcoming Projects. As of January 2021, creator Alex Johnson had plans for another Survivor season, as well as up to 2 more competitions after that. A Luna Lovegood and the Wand of Ice sequel was also officially announced after the filming of the first film, with Johnson stating in an Instagram post: "And yes- I am sooo keen on making a sequel already, that’s just how much fun I had!"

In the Spring of 2020, Alex unveiled a second Rock Ledge Studios team, this one based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The team's first project together was "*Suite 111",*which was filmed mere days before the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.

In the Summer of 2020, Survivor Colorado: All Stars was filmed, which featured 16 returning contestants from all 6 previous seasons. It was regarded by several original Rock Ledge Studios team members to be "the closest thing we'll get to a high school reunion until then."

The films themselves have been described as being the "highlight of summers" and "a summer camp where you actually have fun." Alex Johnson has stated that he cares more about the idea of bringing people together to create memories more than anything.

What started as a five person student film troupe has since grown into a larger organization from people of all walks of life, where memories and adventures are created. There are no immediate plans to stop making projects, and the Rock Legion continues to grow on each video.