NARRATOR
We are about to unfold the story of a man. A man of science, who sought to create a man after his own image, without reckoning upon God.

Ladies and gentleman, introducing Screen Genius’s self-proclaimed finest: Alekazam!

ZXQAOS
We'll begin with a standard introduction: how were you introduced to Genius? What attracted you to it and how was the coaching process with Heisenferg?

ALEK
I originally found Genius ages ago, long before I realized it was anything more than a lyrics site. It was when I wanted to add some kind of obscure stuff, (particularly a mormon rap duo called Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and a kiwi producer living in India named Mikey McCleary) that I really started to get into it. I think that was probably late February of last year. For a good month or two all I did was Scribe-a-Thon, and then I found the "List of Game of Thrones Deaths" page, Heisenferg noticed me, and the rest is history.

Forreal though, like a million different people coached me. Heisenferg basically put the finishing touches on my editing career by giving me some great pointers and introducing me to Screen Genius, but I’ve got to give shoutouts to ScopeY and Ewok for coaching me as well.

ZXQAOS
Knew Ewok just wouldn't be able to resist. So you graduated recently, how’d it go?

ALEK
It was pretty fucking great. I know I still have a lot to do in life, but at least at the moment, it feels like such a massive relief to have high school behind me. I’m especially happy that the guy reading out names got mine right, because no one ever does.

ZXQAOS
Straight flames 🔥🔥🔥

So it’s no secret that your forte is the Genius of Screen: photography is truth, movies are truth twenty four times a second. So as generic and simple a question it might be, what are your favourite films? Do you favour any particular film era, like the French New Wave and the rise of Westerns, or is there a decade/period that just had a lot of great stuff?

ALEK
This is honestly such a hard question. It’s like asking a parent which of their kids they like best. I’m sure I’m forgetting about a dozen, but these are some of my go-to answers:
• I’m a YUGE fan of "Lord of the Rings".

• One of my favorite cult movies is "Attack the Block".

• My favorite foreign film is "Troll Hunter". It’s still on Netflix last time I looked. You gotta check it out. It’s in Norwegian, (shout out ScopeY), but there are English subtitles, and even a bit of English.

ZXQAOS
On that note, why do you have such a fondness for Game of Thrones? Do you ever find the abundance of deaths a little excessive, or even boring? Don’t watch it myself, but heard there had been some drama in the show lately — any comments on that?

ALEK
Game of Thrones is just so well-written and so realistic. There are definitely a lot of deaths, but I very rarely feel like a death is unnecessary. And, as cliché as this sounds, there are surprises around every corner. #HoldTheDoor

ZXQAOS
One day I'll understand that reference. Who do you reckon has the best entry for the Dream Album Contest?

ALEK
You mean, besides mine? I really like Freeus’s Lady Gaga album. There are definitely a lot of good ones, but out of the good ones, Freeus’s feels the most real.

ZXQAOS
Listen, let's just cut the crap and get down to brass tags here: "Screen Scribes”, your attempt to revive the — as you say — comatose Screen Genius. To those who are unaware, which if you follow Alek is virtually impossible, Screen Scribes is one of the community’s most ambitious efforts in the realm of transcribing, that being screenplays of both TV series and films.

How do you feel in regards to having undertaken such a significant project? Where do you find your motivation to scribe the likes of, say, a two hour film? Where would you like to see Screen Scribes in a year from now, and how far do you intend to pursue it?

ALEK
We’ve unfortunately hit a bit of a lull with Screen Scribes at this point. The biggest consistent problem with Screen Genius is that it’s hard to motivate people to scribe stuff. I’d like to do it forever, hypothetically, but I can only go so far without people actually scribing stuff. I’m able to get myself to do it, but only because I have OCD. And not like, “lol I like to keep my desk neat I’m so OCD”, but like, “I need to spend five hours organizing my bookshelves so that they’re perfectly symmetrical” OCD. I write scripts so well because I literally can’t stop until they’re perfect. This was probably a more serious answer than you were expecting, but that’s how I manage to manufacture scripts on such an industrial, conveyor-belt, shit-out-two-scripts-a-day kind of way.
ZXQAOS
Another one of your Screen Genius-related initiatives is Screen News: what’s you methodology behind that? What classifies as something worth talking about to this extent?

ALEK
I put in the biggest news of the week, but I also try to balance that with weird, obscure news. I want to give people a reason to actually check Screen News out. My favorite bit of news so far has been the lawsuit about Klingon, and whether the people making Star Trek have the right to copyright it.

ZXQAOS
Lately you’ve been annotating to the likes of NYT’s crossword puzzles: you even made your own guide. Do you have any thoughts on such a unique way of utilising the power of annotating?

ALEK
I think sometimes Genius can get wrapped up in a bit of a circle jerk. The spirit animal page is fun and all, but for Genius to be successful, we have to give the people what they want. Primarily that’s lyrics. News Genius also has that potential, but the people who use it most tend to be the same three dozen people who have always, and will always use it.

The crosswords are my way of trying to attract people to the site. I have yet to find a guide with the capability to go into as much depth as Genius does. My hope is that people, (people who potentially would never otherwise cross paths with Genius), will look up ‘Crossword Guide’ or ‘Crossword Answers’ and stumble upon Genius.

ZXQAOS
What are you listening to these days, and what upcoming projects are you hyped to the af for?

ALEK
Lately I’ve been listening to Gorrillaz, mainly Plastic Beach. I haven’t looked into it all that much, but I hear the occasional rumor that they’re coming out with a new album in the foreseeable future, which is pretty lit. I also listen to Talking Heads a lot, but I’ve been listening to them since I was about three, so that’s old news. Disclosure and Mastodon have also been on my radar lately.

ZXQAOS
Do you see yourself pursuing something in the realm of visual media at all, like scriptwriting (lol), directing, casting, set design… making coffee?

ALEK
No, not at all. Lol. That might be surprising, but honestly, I’ve only ever been interested in any of that stuff from a kind of outsider viewpoint. Like, “Woah, that’s sick!” but never, “I wanna learn how to do that!” At the moment I’m looking at getting a degree in Education. I used to want to be an Engineer of some kind, but about eight months ago I had an epiphany that I really wanted to be an elementary school teacher.
ZXQAOS
“Fam I SWEAR you finna make me catch a body”: why your infatuation with Cuba Gooding Jr.? Do you even listen to Young Thug? And rate Snow Dogs!

ALEK
In the words of Murkman,LMAO, I never knew Gooding was with that shit though, I never seen a celebrity who has a Tiger Woods image, go street on Instagram nobodies, crying rn.I don’t even listen to Young Thug, lol. Snow Dogs was actually one of my favorite childhood movies, but I haven’t seen it in like seven years. Like Murk said, I just think it’s hilarious that a celebrity with such a straight-arrow image was beefing with some punk on Instagram about Young Thug.

ZXQAOS
Do you bleed? Also, kinik.

ALEK
Lmao, I don’t know where you were going with this question, but yes, I do bleed. I actually have type 1 diabetes, so I bleed multiple times a day.

ZXQAOS
#Doyle4Mod?

ALEK
#Doyle4Mod

Honestly a travesty that he hasn’t been made a mod yet. I know he was M.I.A. for a few weeks there, but he had good reason to be, and he should have been modded ages ago anyway.

I also want to be a mod, but I don’t think I fit the bill yet. Maybe one day. Doyle first.

ZXQAOS
If you had to make a series about Genius who would you star and what would you call it?

ALEK
It would be a rip-off of Phineas and Ferb. “Finesse and Herb”. Lehman as the dad, Liz Milch as the mom, Murk as Phineas, Ewok as Ferb, ScopeY as Perry the Platypus, streetlights as Doofenshmirtz. Idk who Candace would be. Probably Slickk.

ZXQAOS
Thanks for speaking with us! Any closing remarks?

ALEK
#MakeScreenGeniusGreatAgain