After graduation, many Ohio State alumni become notable figures in society. Multiple students that graduate from the Fisher College of Business have become key leaders in Fortune 500 companies. Medical students have gone on to care for the sick and cure numerous diseases.
Buckeye athletes have joined various professional sports teams. Yet, not many can say they have dipped into the film industry.
Tommy Reid has broken that mold. After graduating from OSU with an economics degree in 1997, Reid decided to steer away from his goal to work in the stock exchange and become a filmmaker.
Reid took a theater class at Ohio State that first made him want to produce films. In that class the professor, Wes Patterson, inspired him to break into the movie business.
“He [Patterson] said that 99 percent of the class will fail in this industry. That automatically made me want to be that 1 percent. It was a game of mental stability. I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to make it,'” Reid said.
While working on various commercials, Reid had one idea in mind. He wanted to pay tribute to his roots at Ohio State and create a movie about real-life Cleveland mobster, Danny Greene. A college friend of Reid’s from the Cleveland area first introduced him to Greene’s story.
With a proud Irish and Italian background, Reid had always believed the mafia was only in New Jersey or New York. When he found out about Danny Greene and the Mayfield Road Mob, he quickly became interested, as he was able to relate not only to his heritage, but also to his roots in the Buckeye state. Reid began work on “The Irishman” soon after being told the infamous story.
Reid said that Greene’s death was one of the most important deaths of anyone in the mafia. Greene was responsible for a time when Cleveland was known as the “Bomb Capital” in the 1970s. He was known as a hard-to-kill troublemaker that battled in a power struggle in the Italian mafia. “The Irishman” chronicles the ups and downs of Greene’s life in Cleveland, ultimately ending with Greene’s death by a car bombing.
After 13 years of planning and researching for this project, the film is currently in postproduction, which involves the editing and distribution aspect of creating a film. Reid said the preproduction aspect was much more time-consuming than any other phase of the making of the “The Irishman.”
“It took years of research. The people involved, the families and their different stories, their pride; it was fantastic to hear,” Reid said.
The movie was filmed in Detroit this past summer. Reid said that there were many incentives to filming in Detroit, as opposed to Cleveland, because of the favorable taxes in Michigan.
“Being on set is the most fun. You really see the heart of filmmaking. You see all the collaboration. It is so much of a team effort,” Reid said.
Although Reid is happy just to have had filmed the movie in the Midwest, he hopes to bring more films into Ohio as well. As a strong proponent for the arts in school, he also said that he one day would like to donate to Ohio State’s film program in order to expand its capabilities.
Currently, Ohio State has a film studies major. This major offers a wide range of choices for students to study film in several different formats, according to Matt Swift, the academic advisor in the film studies program.
Since 2005, the film studies program has been available to students at Ohio State and continues to teach students the fundamental skills to study, analyze and critique film.
“Reading and watching is very important. To be a good filmmaker you have to know film. You need to take a little bit more from it and know what it is doing,” Swift said.
Along with knowing the fundamentals of film, both Swift and Reid agree that it is important to create a portfolio of work to succeed in the film business.
“Just get out there and do it. Do it by any means necessary: by borrowing friends’ cameras, borrowing restaurants, borrowing anything,” Reid said.
Along with making films, it is also important to “make sure people can see it. Get it out there!” Swift said.
When starting out his own career, Reid did just that. He was able to fund his first commercial, while he also used the resources around him. In his first film, “Strike,” three of his fellow Buckeye friends were actors in it. His second film, “Whistler,” had five Buckeyes as part of the crew.
His love for the traditions at Ohio State comes from the friends he has made over the years and the friends that he has ultimately relied on who have helped enhance his career as a producer.
“The friendships you make in college are the most valuable friendships you’ll ever have,” Reid said.
Reid will also release a short film named “Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of The Irishman,” this spring, followed by “The Irishman” in the fall.
He hopes to prove he will soon become part of the 1 percent that his theater professor once warned him about back when he was a student at OSU.
