Twitter Just Helped This High Schooler Land A Major Opportunity With Jordan Peele

Image via Because Of Them We Can

Written by Tonja Renée Stidhum

We may have heard the adage, “you never know who’s watching,” but it’s true! Especially in today’s social media age, where people of influence are easily accessible -- just an @ or a retweet away. More often, we are seeing cases in which people are provided opportunities via social media that they otherwise wouldn’t be afforded.

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This was certainly the case for one Isaiah Howard (@isaiahxavier10 on Twitter), a high schooler who posted a deftly edited and rhythmic series of super short films onto his timeline, accompanied by autotuned vocals he incorporated via the musical.ly app.

See for yourself!

Here's another vid since people seem to like them 😅😂🙌🏾 http://pic.twitter.com/Rc71sWNajm

— Isaiah Howard (@isaiahxavier10) May 18, 2017

He’s got skills, right?!

Filmmaker and former NFL player Matthew Cherry saw the videos and decided to promote them to his 60,000 followers to "encourage (Isaiah) to get into directing." Cherry’s presence is mostly known for memes, but he’s also always down to support talent, using his access to the industry’s community to uplift others in their careers. To Cherry, there’s far too much “undiscovered talent” in the world and there’s no excuse not to give them a larger platform and further opportunities.

So this video belongs to @isaiahxavier10. On behalf of #FilmTwitter I encourage you to get into directing. This was 🔥http://pic.twitter.com/K7ZJ0l5878

— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) May 18, 2017

And it worked! Cherry made a concerted effort for other people in the film industry to hire Isaiah for large scale commercial and music videos. In a response to fellow director Nick Childs, who asked how he could be of assistance, Cherry said: "If there's any way you can help him get work that would be (good). Really want to see a production company hire him to direct a similar style video/commercial, instead of just stealing his style and hiring someone else to do it," said Cherry in response to fellow director Nick Childs.

Cherry’s Twitter call accumulated over 7,000 retweets and more than 16,000 likes. And Hollywood responded, including Rian Johnson (Star Wars: the Last Jedi) and Jordan Peele (Get Out)!

@MatthewACherry @isaiahxavier10 Good lookin' out Mr. Cherry! Isaiah, let's talk.👍🏾 http://pic.twitter.com/S33j8tlGLj

— Jordan Peele (@JordanPeele) May 18, 2017

"If y'all don't know who Jordan Peele, Matthew A. Cherry or Rian Johnson are, y'all better look them up! I am straight beside myself right now," said Isaiah's mother Simone in a Facebook post. "There are so many tweets, I couldn't capture all of them!"

This is so dope and it’s just another example of how powerful social media can be! Given Isaiah Howard’s superb talent, I’m pretty sure we’re going to be seeing his name more often. Hey, one day, he may be in the position to do this for another young up and coming filmmaker and will always remember this day.

What do you think? Should Jordan Peele hire Isaiah?

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Tonja Renée Stidhum is a writer/director living in Los Angeles by way of Chicago. She is the co-host of the movie review podcast, Cinema Bun Podcast. She is made of sugar and spice and everything rice... with the uncanny ability to make a Disney/Pixar reference in the same sentence as a double entendre. You can follow her on Twitter @EmbraceTheJ, on Facebook FB.com/tstidhum, and Instagram @embracethej. You can find more of her work on her About Me page, http://ift.tt/2n7OHKw.

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