As Barton Ct. Productions enters its 10th year of existence, directors Stephen Wolfe and Scott Lee reflect upon a past that has been long, filled with emotion, and has seen incredible feats of progress. Stephen Wolfe, the creator and director of the new Barton Police internet series and director of the feature length documentary I’m Not Gonna Lie first created Barton Ct. Productions in 1999. At the time, “Barton Ct. Productions” was a title slapped onto the opening credits of an amateur home movie starring children who had not even turned 12 years old. As Barton Police nears total completion for its first season, Barton Ct. is expecting a highly positive response from its new audience. Stephen Wolfe also thinks back to the very first movie created under Barton Ct., also a movie about police.
Stephen Wolfe and behind him: Scott Lee
Company Administrator Scott Lee, who stars in Barton Police as Commissioner Preston Leebo and acts as producer for the series joined Barton Ct. in 2002 and organized most of the company’s professional business structure. While Stephen’s forte is completely geared around film making, Scott has proven to be a child immersed in deep thoughts and knowledge of some of the strangest kinds. Scott’s entrepreneurial spirit first reared its head with his own signature brand of t-shirts and novelty merchandise, Dirty Mechanism Apparel, which has sold thousands of dollars worth of merchandise since first opening in April of 2006. Today Scott focuses on Barton Ct. by being the head manager behind most of the marketing and promotional efforts for Barton Ct. films.
As a group, Barton Ct. Productions consists of far more than Scott Lee and Stephen Wolfe and has truly maintained almost a family-like structure as it has evolved over the past decade. While some, such as Stephen himself, Tyler McGrew, Justin Herman, and Charles Green all grew up with the company culture many different people have passed through in association. The company has seen various different eras, according to Wolfe and Lee, as the different areas they pursue tend to focus on different parts of Houston, Texas. The difference, they say, will be that in the coming months and years Barton Ct. will be extending its reach outward beyond Houston into cities such as Austin, Dallas, and possibly even Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City.
“I really miss the Pearland days,” Stephen Wolfe can often recall the company’s history during the years of 2003 to the final end of 2005. “It’s just weird now that so many people work with us and have no idea who some of the most important people were in the company just a few years ago. Barton Police has brought a few of the old ones back, though, like Kayla [Murray] and James [Monaghan].”
“Exactly,” Scott will always agree with the mutual sort of experience they both had during that time. “James Monaghan was deemed our ’spokesman’ at one point and we thought he was going to be with us forever. But things change, and you can never really predict it. Justin Herman was honestly one of the last people I’d expect to be with us years later as one of our biggest supporters while others like Charles leave the company for religious reasons. It’s just crazy.”
Justin Herman, who now stars as the role of AJ Jenkins on Barton Police, has a knack for being naturally highly theatrical. His character, AJ Jenkins first appeared in Stephen Wolfe’s Doomsday series during the early 2000’s. Years later in 2009, AJ Jenkins could be said to “return” but to most audiences that character is just beginning.
“When people watch this series they have no idea the amount of work that has gone into it. In a way, this is not just a year’s worth of filming… this is everything we’ve done up until this point building up to now,” says Stephen Wolfe.
While all the Bartons’ lives have changed dramatically over the years as they have grown up and left high school it would appear that their lives are still not changing. Today, Stephen Wolfe spends much of his time with his girlfriend and fellow filmmaker Tracy Collins while attending classes at college and working on his films. Meanwhile, Scott Lee maintains a constant slew of drama surrounding the women in his love life while drinking Red Bull and continuously pulling all-nighters to get through his bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Houston. For some, it could be said that the primary difference between the lifestyles of the two biggest minds behind the Barton Ct. artistic community is simplicity and sanity - Scott Lee remains the more eccentric of the two.
Everyone in Barton Ct. Productions who has ever associated with the company to any degree is largely diverse and different in terms of background and mind. Yet, it would appear ever more increasingly that with the release of Barton Police and an increasing momentum behind public relations and promotion that one thing has brought the company together for ten years in a way never thought possible. The love of film making and of storytelling continues to keep the artists that comprise Barton Ct. alive and kicking with their dreams and visions.
Here’s to another 10 years!
