All stories have unique beginnings and REBEL REELS is no exception. It all started with a photograph of my grandpa standing next to his 1950 Mercury. This photograph and car held my fascination for years, not knowing the connection it had to the infamous James Dean. It was always mentioned that my grandpa got this car because of the 1955 blockbuster “Rebel without a Cause” which starred James Dean.

I ended up watching this movie for the first time in high school and saw the car being driven around by the rebel himself in his red windbreaker. Like other classic movies such as “Frankenstein” (1931), “Robin Hood” (1938), “Rear Window” (1954) and countless others, “Rebel without a Cause” quickly became a favorite of mine for its remarkable storytelling, the beautiful esthetic of old film and in this case, the coolness and edginess of James Dean.

Years later after graduating college with a degree in broadcast television production, I found myself struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with media production and anything camera related. A part of me knew I wanted to start my own production company, but I didn’t want to just go with “my name” productions and call it a day. I wanted a catchy, cool name for it… something that stood out and caught the attention of others.

One summer I had family over at my house for a cook out. Before leaving my house that day my grandpa made a comment about my black Toyota Camry parked in the driveway. He said it reminded him of his black ‘50 Merc with how sleek it looked. “You could be James Dean driving that thing around town,” he said laughing.

The word “rebel” immediately hit me like a ton of bricks. This had to be the name, or at least part of the name… but it needed another word to give it some zing. Alliterations were something I liked and names with the double “R” like “Roles Royce” or the guitar legend Randy Rhoads’ business card from the ‘70s looked cool. These mixed with the attitude of rock n’ roll would later become inspiration for the name, logo and vibe of the brand.

After a few months of writing what seemed like hundreds of word combinations using the letter “R”, I began throwing any word after “rebel” like productions, films, etc. For some reason “Rebel Films” seemed like a cool name, but it wasn’t the alliteration I wanted. I pondered this for weeks, but still nothing. I kept thinking about all the old films I grew up with and how I wanted to incorporate those elements into my work. My mind soon went to the thought of “what are films played on?” Instantly I wrote down “film reels” and thats when I saw it! I erased the word “film” and moved the word “reels” next to “rebel”… the rest is history.

-AJ Thiede (Founder & DP)