Theo Schear

Ann Arbor

In his final semester, Schear contributed to an independent theatrical production by Ellen Sachs and Jacob Axelrod titled Doing White Nights,^[7] where he met future collaborators Gabriel Mizrahi Wilk and Peter Littlejohn. Wilk and Littlejohn would go on to form a band called Rooms, for which Schear played a major, although non-musical role. Schear lived with members of the band for several months and documented every public performance along with many hours of rehearsal and behind-the-scenes action. Schear and Littlejohn also produced a series of live music videos called Live in Peter's Attic.

Detroit

Schear’s first job after college was with the National Documentary Unit at Detroit Public Television. As a Media Producer, Schear was responsible for shooting, editing and producing short segments while managing Doc Unit media and archiving. Schear produced segments on a variety of subjects including Jim Johnson of Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, Alvin Ailey dancer Tsehaya Smith, and Juan Atkins, “the originator” of techno. Schear served as Associate Producer of The Ethanol Effect, an hour-long special examining the human, environmental and political costs of growing and refining corn for ethanol in America hosted by Scientific American editor David Biello. Schear also worked on external projects such as ReDream, which won a Mid-America Emmy for Best Program Promo - Single Spot or Campaign (Non-News).

Outside of the National Documentary Unit, Schear served as Director of Photography on various projects for Washington D.C.-based production company Spark Media and as Camera Assistant for Oscar-nominated cinematographer Eric Saarinen on the production of the PBS American Masters production, The Architect Who Saw The Future. Schear also returned to California for the product of Drive Green With Eloise, a web-exclusive promotional video for Ford, SunPower and The Sierra Club.

Screen

In 2015 Schear designed Screen, an iOS mobile app for movies featuring showtimes, trailers, watchlists and other movie info. Although Schear entered negotiations with Gathr, a "technology-based specialty theatrical distributor for documentaries and issues-oriented films", talks fizzled out quickly.

San Francisco

In the fall of 2016, Schear and his former partner Lauren Iverson moved back to the Bay Area and lived with his parents. During the first few months, Schear and Iverson produced a promotional video for Yuba City-based company Iverson Orthodontics.

In early 2017, Schear began working as a Video Producer for PhotoWings, a non-profit promoting photography as a means for social change. As of May 2018, he has been elected employee-of-the-month a record-setting 14 times in a row. Schear also produces content for Oakland-based culture publication Wine & Bowties including subjects such as Syd,^[8] Mannie Fresh, DJ Dodger Stadium^[9] and Junglepussy (for whom he was technically a backup dancer^[10])^[11]. Despite having moved back to the Bay Area, Schear still contributes work to Ann-Arbor based creative groups including the Threads All Arts Festival team and Anya Klapischak's The Hosting. He also shoots and produces short videos for the Gizmodo Media Group (formerly Gawker Media Group) websites such as Kotaku^[12] and Deadspin^[13].

During a secret show at RS94109 headlined by Spanish experimental electronic composer Nicolas Jaar, Schear spontaneously collaborated with Jaar by casting his shadow onto the performer from the other side of the folding table.^[14] In July 2017, Schear leaked a clip from an alternate music video for M.O.B. by Bay Area rapper Husalah.^[15]

Schear currently resides in a rent-controlled apartment in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Before moving to the first floor unit, Schear lived in second-floor 5-bedroom apartment with two housemates that are mortal enemies. There were frequent confrontations between the two, the last of which resulted in the other subtenant being taken to the hospital and the master tenant facing four felonies. During the year of 2017, the police visited the apartment 22 times. Schear is said to be creating a documentary about the unusual housing situation.

In 2018, Schear completed a music video for rapper Kool A.D. using a 3D scan of the artist conducted at NYU's Laguardia Studio in Manhattan. The video was eventually canceled due to allegations of sexual misconduct against the rapper. Schear has also shot footage for an unreleased documentary on emoji produced by Jennifer 8. Lee.

Carpe 3Diem

In 2018, Schear was introduced as an artist-in-residence at The San Francisco Center for Spiritual Living. His residency surrounded the production of a series of portraits of the congregants, accompanied by Wikipedia pages that document the stories of their lives. The project, titled Carpe 3Diem, contests the subjective notion of Notability included in the Wikipedia guidelines^[16][17] and encourages the public to take control of their digital legacy. The presentation given on February 18th, 2018 at 1PM will include the unveiling of darkroom-printed photographs, congregant's Wikipedia pages, and various demos of emerging technologies. The project was included in the curriculum of a 2018 Virtual Installation class taught by Sara Ludy at School of Art Institute of Chicago.

Film Criticism

Under the name T. Anthony Schear, Schear writes and produces movie reviews and related content for Oakland-based collective REELYDOPE and the notorious Anti-Hollywood publication Film Threat. At Sundance Film Festival 2018, Schear attended with press credentials for the first time, conducting interviews with prominent personalities such as Lauren Greenfield, Phil Burgers and Caveh Zahedi. Schear filmed his entire interaction with Zahedi for a short film titled The Show About The Show About The Show, a reverent response to Zahedi's The Show About The Show.^[18] Schear has also covered the San Francisco International Film Festival, Crossroads Film Festival, CAAMFest, and the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the oldest experimental film festival and fourth-oldest film festival in North America.

Emoji

In 2018, Schear's proposal for a juice box emoji, co-authored by Unicode Consortium Emoji Subcommittee Vice Chair Jennifer 8. Lee was approved and set for release in 2019. The proposition was predicated on the fact that the emoji lexicon, which is used commonly by children, included eight representations of alcohol but no emoji for juice, which could have potentially lead to a global childhood virtual alcoholism epidemic.^[19]

Athletics

Schear was a co-captain of his high school tennis team, amounting to half of the #1 doubles duo with Evan Thomas under the name "The Cream Team". On March 15th, 2018, Schear hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer on a pass from Pomona Basketball standout Greg Wright to send his team to the playoffs of San Francisco's Sports4Good Pro Am League.^[20] Schear was also part of the team that won the 2014 University of Michigan A League Intramural Basketball Championship (won by teammate Joey Fox's buzzer-beater three-pointer).^[21]. Recreationally, Schear's well-documented preference is for full-court one-versus-one.

Rio de Janeiro

While studying in Brazil for six months, Schear worked with Ives Cesar and Casa Branca Models such as Amanda Fenelon and Mari Saldanha. According to popular legend, Schear partied with Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey and attended bi-monthly ceremonies at Ceu Do Mar, an indigenous/Christian syncretic church located in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro. It is believed that these ceremonies involved the consumption of ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic blend of plants often referred to as “the spirit vine”. Although there is legal amnesty for the use of ayahuasca in religious contexts in Brazil and in Oregon, United States, the substance is considered a schedule 1 drug by the majority of the world’s governing bodies. Schear has described the experience as “transformative”.

Costa Rica

During a vacation to Costa Rica in 2007, the Schears connected with a local family based in Nicoya, Guanacaste Province. The connection led Schear’s father Stephen to return to the region on several occasions, eventually resulting in the construction of a house shared by the Schears and the Briceño family. Schear is thought to be a supporter of local futbol club Deportivo Saprissa, but has also been seen cheering for rival team Liga Deportiva Alajuelense.

Volvos

Schear is a dedicated Volvo enthusiast and has owned four Volvos to date. In 2013, he traveled by train to Virginia to buy an automatic 1973 Volvo P1800 ES, one of only a couple thousand ever made. His devotion to the P1800 ES was inspired by his mother who talked to him about the P1800 ES, her dream car, at a young age. Schear was a member of the Bay Area Volvo Club and a contributor to Volvo magazine. According to an article he wrote about the journey to buy the P1800 ES, Schear purchased the vehicle from a convicted cocaine kingpin. The car broke down twice along the way, yet he managed to make it to his parent’s house in Oakland, CA by Thanksgiving day.^[23]

Tattoos

As of May 2018, Schear is known to have seven tattoos. One of the first is a drawing by his niece Eloise on his upper left arm in the style of a Crayola crayon. The interpretation of the design is fluid, but the artist has described the tattoo as a whale with coral in a pink ocean and as a figurative representation of Schear himself. Another early tattoo was the smaller tattoo is a crescent moon on the left side of his rib cage. The moon symbol is believed to represent an affiliation with a cult, but reliable information about the nature of the cult has not been publicized. Later tattoos include a rendering of his mother's sculpture that has armature revealed, his father's motto in his own handwriting ("Paradise Now"), a sketch by his step-father Oscar Bernal, a Mexican painter, and a sketch by his cousin Eliza. His most recent tattoo is a cucoloris rumored to have a secret message within the design.

Art Collection

The Schear Collection includes early works by several of his most prodigious contemporaries. Most notable are a print by LaTurbo Avedon, a skateboard by Jeffrey Cheung, and paintings from the studios of Dennis Wornick, Tyler Finnie, and Brem Finnie.

OG Thunder

In 2017, Schear resurrected the Golden State Warriors retired mascot Thunder, appearing in public as “OG Thunder”, the geriatric equivalent. OG Thunder’s return was first reported by notable sports gossip writer Terez Owens.^{[24] [25]}