That very dashing young man in the header photo is my friend Max. As a film student, he produced both of the videos for Finder Not Keeper. We go back a long way. Late last year, he baited his Facebook hook with a very juicy worm of an opinion and the following conversation ensued through texts and Facebook messages. Max's commentary is gray. Mine is green and blue. We both use swears. 

A couple weeks later: 

Max Ginkel is a Chicago filmmaker who freelances in TV and commercial production. He studied cinema at Columbia College Chicago. He’s an aspiring producer whose first student film, "Our Little Secret", won best drama at the international student film festival. Max also wrote as a film critic for the Columbia Chronicle, an award winning student newspaper. Recently, Max started a screening series, the Spotlight, as a way to showcase student work. He enjoys watching anything HBO is forcing you to watch these days and writing about semiotics in advertising. In his free time he’ll get into heated debates about contemporary films with people who have no academic background in the medium.

Mithra Ballesteros is a blogger and shopkeeper. She has a degree in English from the University of Illinois from before the time of the Internet. She worked in the fashion industry for many years and left that glamorous life to raise four children, none of whom learned how to shut doors. When not at the keyboard, Ballesteros is bravely scouting flea markets for props that might someday be useful to her aspiring producer friends.  

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