We recently connected with Jacob Stargrove and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jacob, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have worked on is “The Grounders”. I developed the characters and idea for “The Grounders” about seventeen years ago. It was during a time when I was happiest. I had just finished making a short feature with a fun cast, it was near Christmas (my favorite time of the year is October through December), I had a wonderful girlfriend, you name it… Then shortly after I made a feature which was what I thought was the beginning of the the end. When filming began, my girlfriend and I split, I lost my job, I had a health condition, a lot of drama between the film crew happened, I was in a horrible car accident… I could go on. After the feature was complete I had distribution and lost it three times. After that I just gave up.

However, through the years after that I had kept “The Grounders” in my head as the bad things continued to happen to me. To sum those things up, I lost everything I had. I just kept working and kept developing this show. About a year ago, something I took as a sign made me stand up and decide that I was going to finally make “The Grounders”.

Making this show with this cast and crew was the absolute best time in my entire life. I felt like I finally had my voice I’ve been trying to convey all of these years. The characters that I have loved the most came to life from the best actors I have ever worked with. I wanted to make a horror series that honored all of the the horror sub-genres whilst bringing original comedy content with action and drama. I brought everything I love across all genres and put it into this series. We made two episodes and are currently shopping it. We are completely proud of it and it has changed my life for the better.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started filmmaking when I was about twenty five years old. I went to college for criminal justice because a film degree wasn’t an option. After I received my degree, I didn’t love the field, I wanted to do what I loved. Throughout my childhood and college I wrote stories and scripts regularly. I studied making movies through books, audio commentaries, watching movies, watching making of documentaries, and talking with people in the industry. I decided to make a short to see if I could make something watchable. I worked with a crew of two and completed it. I was happy with how it turned out. After that I didn’t stop until the breakdown after the feature I elaborated on already.

After the breakdown I changed. I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and work on “The Grounders” every single day. I also took a refresher course on the craft. I used the course as both a refresher and to learn new things. I did a lot of testing for months to make sure I still had it. One thing I always practiced over the years is editing. I was able to get both episodes fully edited and completed rather quickly. The best practice for myself is to keep doing what I do and to be disciplined in actually doing it.

The thing I’m mostly proud of is “The Grounders” series. It is a series about a group of misfits that work for the government. Their job is to stop all types of monsters from destroying the world but they do it with their own way of muscle, humor, snark and wit. Their pasts come back to haunt them as they proceed through their assignments. Their assignments consist of finding vampire kidnappers, battling a sinister demon, stopping a slasher from killing campers, and many otherworldly problems.

I created an entire world full of great characters and everything I love across all of my favorite genres. I have ten seasons planned out and it can go into many different avenues. I want people to have a fun time watching what my team and I have created. I want to also bring something new to the world and to give them something that feels familiar but is completely original with its own voice. I believe what we have made with “The Grounders” is something both young and old generations can embrace.

I am currently developing another project that is part teen drama, part horror, part romantic comedy. It is a bit more serious than “The Grounders” but that’s all I can say about it right now.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There are so many rewarding aspects to being an artist or creative but I’d say people’s enjoyment of the creation that I made is what matters the most.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had planned on continuing my film career shortly after a debacle with the distribution of my feature. What came next was something I couldn’t have imagined. A burglary occurred and I had about ninety percent of everything I owned taken from me. That included all of my scripts and the backups. After a shutting down for a few weeks I decided to keep working, saving money and rebuild what I had lost. I turned back to writing to get through the tough times. I had the hope that one day I’ll be able to film what I wrote. That day came many years later. I sold my house and used the money I made from that to make the show I always wanted to. I figured those characters gave me happiness through the hardest moment of my life so why not bring those characters to life and give people that happiness.

Contact Info:

• Website: thegrounders.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobstargrove
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@886productionsllc
• Other: linker.ee/thrgroundersseries