Mike Paprocki

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Mike Paprocki is one of the founding members of The Gang. Like most of the crew, he has spent an equal amount of time both in front of and behind the camera. Over time, he has settled into the role of The Gang's primary post-production editor, as well as the official archivist for the group's work.

Before The Gang Edit

Michael Joseph Paprocki was born July 3, 1985. He grew up in Chicago, IL with his parents, Joe and Joanne, and his younger sister, Amy. After attending St. Mary Star of the Sea middle school through 4th grade, Mike's family moved to Evergreen Park. He transferred to Southeast Elementary School for 5th and 6th grade, where he first met his future Gang associates, Terry Mulrenin and Bill Pappas.

Junior High Edit

Though Mike first met Terry and Bill at Southeast (where the three of them played on the 6th grade basketball team for a year), his friendship with them was not solidified until they moved on to 7th and 8th grade at Central Junior High. It was the 7th Grade field trip to Springfield, IL that saw Mike paired up with Terry for the bus ride, setting the stage for their epic first pointless conversation. When they returned to Central for their 8th grade year, their friendship solidified based on the unique sense of humor that emerged when they were together.

A group began to form around the two over the course of that year, starting with Bill and continuing with new friends like Eric Pietkiewicz and Ben Palacios (who first joined thanks to being assigned to the same lunch table as Bill and Mike). At some unknown point, they began referring to themselves as "The Gang." Their experiences together at Central only contributed to their growing style of humor. Recess was spent reflecting on the day's events and twisting them around into something outrageous to make it interesting. Mike and Terry especially had time to dream up crazy ideas as they waited after school at the Evergreen Park Library for a ride home, and later on as they walked home from school together. When they graduated in May of 1999, The Gang promised to stay together despite going separate ways.

High School Edit

While most of The Gang moved on to Evergreen Park High School, Mike went on alone to St. Laurence High School in Burbank (due in part to the fact that his mom was a teacher at the next-door Queen of Peace High School). The first few months of high school saw Mike drifting apart from The Gang, until one day he reunited with Terry, Bill and Eric for a trip to the mall to get caught up. Having spent several weeks apart, Mike and Terry went into a humor overload, at one point literally bouncing off the walls. It was then that they first proposed the idea of documenting all the crazy things they had thought of in Junior High with a movie.

It wasn't long before Mike pulled out his family's VHS camcorder, popped in a fresh tape, and had Terry and Bill over to begin shooting "Doin' Stuff," a compilation of ideas based on their experiences in junior high and high school. In the opening scene, it was stated that the purpose for the movie was mostly sentimental value - so that they have something to look back on in case they ever lost touch with each other. Little did they know that the act of making the movie would solidify their friendship for years to come. Mike would continue making Doin' Stuff with Terry, Bill, Eric and Ben throughout the rest of their freshman year of high school. As their sophomore year began, Mike and Terry decided they wanted to keep things going and started right away on "Doin' Stuff 2: Ulta Foovin'." The production screeched to a halt, however, as The Gang once again found itself drifting apart after a disastrous group outing to Queen of Peace's 2000 Homecoming Dance involving Mike's cousin Vickie and several of her friends. It was during this "dark time" that Mike and Terry abruptly ended production on Doin' Stuff 2 and decided to hang up the video camera for good.

Despite the grim situation, Mike and Terry simply weren't able to stop their creative juices from flowing. During the downtime after DS2, Mike set to work writing a story called "The Search for Pappas," based on Bill's growing absence from the group. He sent new chapters of the story each week through e-mail to the rest of The Gang as a way to keep things somewhat alive. At the same time, Terry learned how to use the RPGMaker program and set out to make a game based on Mike's "Search" story. Finally, the opportunity to shoot a new video presented itself when Cloudchaser Media (a now-defunct video game website) announced a commercial sweepstakes. Contestants had to dress up as Sonic the Hedgehog and produce a short commercial to promote the release of Sonic Adventure 2 for Sega Dreamcast. Mike and Terry jumped at the chance, creating Sonic and Eggman costumes for themselves and shooting the short video. Despite their goal of winning 2nd place (which would have won them a truckload of Sonic merchandise), they ended up winning the grand prize (a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog for Mega Drive autographed by Sonic creator Yuji Naka).

In winter of 2000, Mike acquired the Dreamcast game Shenmue. Fascinated by the amount of freedom the game offered, Mike and Terry played their way through the story - and ripped it apart at the same time. During these sessions, the idea for doing a full-length Shenmue spoof movie was first conceived. They were reluctant to try tackling such a big movie project after DS2's failure, but Shenmue turned out to be just what The Gang needed to pull itself back together.

Filming on Shenmue took an entire year, all the way up through the end of The Gang's junior year of high school. By then, Mike had finally found his place at St. Laurence high school, appearing as the TV news anchor for the morning announcements and recruiting several new friends to help out with The Gang's movies. At the same time, Mike began working at a local Dominick's grocery store as a utility clerk, all the while spreading the ways of The Gang. While production of Shenmue was continuing, Mike and Terry were also shooting short nonsense videos for fun on the side (along with a recently reappeared Bill Pappas and Terry's neighbor Jay Slykas). These videos would eventually be put together as Doin' Stuff 3: The Gang Adventures, which focused on the new core fellowship of The Gang (Mike, Terry, Bill and Jay).

During their senior year of high school, with Shenmue and DS3 finished, Mike and Terry realized that they wanted to go on making movies. It was at this time that Terry invested in his first editing software, Dazzle's Movie Star 5. With this, The Gang's movies were taken for the first time onto the computer, re-edited, and put on DVD. More importantly, it allowed the movies to be rendered for online streaming. Mike decided to take the now-finished Shenmue: TGE and send it to Shenmue Dojo, a fansite dedicated to the series. To everyone's surprise, fans on the site's forums loved the movie. For the first time, Mike and Terry realized that perhaps there was an actual audience out there for them.

After graduating in 2003, Mike teamed up with the rest of The Gang for one last romp before heading off to college. Having given up for the time being on trying to film a sequel to Shenmue, "The Search for Pappas" was developed based on the original story and split into 3 different parts (with the first part used by Terry as a stand-along project for class). They worked all summer on the movie, which was the first to be completely edited by Mike on the computer. After it was finished, it quickly became a favorite among the rest of The Gang (at this point, the movies were not available online and were made only for their personal amusement).

UIC Edit

Deciding to pursue a career in film, Mike applied to the University of Illinois @ Chicago, enrolling in the School of Art & Design's Moving Image program. Freshman orientation placed him with 3 fellow art students: Tyler Ventura, Eric Weber, and Kelly Perry. As the school screwed up one thing after another for them during their registration, they quickly banded together and became fast friends. When classes began in the fall of 2003, as chance would have it, they wound up together again. Joining them along the way was fellow film major Joey Bigio, along with Han Huynh to round out the new "UIC Gang."

Mike's first film-related project at UIC came, oddly enough, in a sculpture class during his first semester. Seeing the opportunity to shoot something new, he asked Joey and Han if they'd be interested in a collaboration. They threw together "The Jerksquad," which became the first Gang video to hit UIC. At the same time, several new workers had transferred to Mike's Dominick's. Among them was Vicky Paraskevopoulos, who (after seeing The Search for Pappas) expressed interest in being in a movie. Mike saw the opportunity for Shenmue II had arrived.

By teaming up with Terry and bringing his new friends from UIC and Dominick's together, Mike bungled through production of Shenmue II: The Gang Edition during the summer of 2004. This time, however, Mike was able to use The Gang's growing popularity at Shenmue Dojo to promote the movie throughout production, posting screenshots and set reports all the way up to the movie's release. Eventually, Mike helped get The Gang's website online at a real server (a crappy free-host site with barely anything on it had been up since the Doin' Stuff days) where all the other movies could now be downloaded for free. Most exciting of all, The Gang began offering their movies for sale on DVD through the site, and much to their surprise, people were actually buying them (with Shenmue I & II selling the most).

Mike, Tyler and Joey entered their second year at UIC riding high on the fact that they had an established internet fanbase and had sold DVDs to places as far away as Spain and Italy. They were brought right back down, however, as they began their trek through the core video & film production courses of UIC. Their first encounter with department head Jennifer Montgomery was not a pleasant one, and the three quickly discovered just how difficult it was going to be trying to produce mainstream comedy work in an experimental art environment. Nevertheless, they persevered and continued making the work they wanted to make. These projects were then taken and put together as Doin' Stuff 4: The College Years.

To recuperate from the harsh barrage of art, Mike teamed up with the rest of The Gang for a new original movie, The Gang Wars, during the summer of 2005. Later, in the fall semester, Mike and his companions received a welcome boost from their other production instructor, Jennifer Reeder, who took quite a liking to their work in her Video I class. Armed with new self-esteem, they were well prepared to go another round with Jen Montgomery in Video II and Documentary Media in 2006. During this time, they continually perfected their craft and slowly started to find their place in the scheme of things at UIC. They also started to fall into their respective niches within the group, with Mike taking the role of post-production. The projects they produced during this time, which would be collected in Doin' Stuff 5: Hoopin' and a Doppin', would be considered some of their finest.

In the summer of 2006, Mike sat down with Terry and plotted out their own ending to the Shenmue saga (seeing as a third game was never released). Production was an even bigger blunderfest than Shenmue II, but somehow they managed to get through it and release what most fans consider to be the best conclusion the Shenmue series could ask for. Later in 2006 and 2007, Mike, Joey and Tyler would have their first experiences with 16mm film production. Though it was a tough medium to work in, they managed to crank out some great projects (to be collected and released as Doin' Stuff 6: The Final Countdown in December 2007).

With graduation approaching, Mike, Tyler and Joey entered the final leg of their journey at UIC, which consisted of a 2-part thesis class that gave them the freedom to produce whatever they wanted. For the spring semester, they teamed up to create Viral Video, an original movie that was quite a departure from earlier Gang productions yet still retained many familiar elements. The movie was premiered at UIC in a public show that spring, which was an unprecedented success for them. Even former nemesis Jennifer Montgomery, who was a part of the project, couldn't help but congratulate the boys on a job well done.

Over the summer of 2007, Mike helped develop the story for The Gang's final project, The Final Jerkoff. Though Viral Video had been a great success on campus, Mike strongly wished to give "The Gangverse" a proper send-off in this final project. Drawing from the real life experiences of shooting Viral Video and combining them with the infamous "Stalker Boy" incident, the story for The Final Jerkoff was born. Mike once again starred in and edited the movie, which brought down the house at UIC's Fall '07 BFA Thesis Show. He finally graduated from UIC in the summer of 2008 with a Bachelor's Degree in Photography / Film / Electronic Media.

Outside The Gang Edit

When not slaving over The Gang's latest flick, Mike is pursuing his career in the video world. In 2007, he joined Alkaye Media Group, a videography studio in Westmont. As their main producer, Mike is the main shooter and editor on almost all projects - from weddings, graduations, and stage productions to corporate commercials and web videos. If all else fails, he hopes to one day open a comic book store with Tyler.

Mike moved out of his parents' house in 2008 (leaving behind The Gang's iconic basement set) and got an apartment with Joey in Oak Park. While hanging out with his friends from The Gang remains his favorite activity, he also keeps busy with plenty of nerd-related hobbies (which those same friends often mercilessly make fun of him for). Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings...he follows all of it. An avid Marvel reader, Mike's got over 4000 comics in his collection. He mostly models his life of Seinfeld and the movies of Kevin Smith. And as often alluded to in the movies, he has a possibly unhealthy obsession with Sonic the Hedgehog...

As A Character Edit

Like most of The Gang, Mike often simply plays himself in the movies.

In The GangverseEdit

The "character" of Mike that appears in all of The Gang's original stories is based pretty much entirely on the real person. He's introduced in Doin' Stuff as a member of The Gang and close friend to Terry and Pappas. Throughout the first Doin' Stuff, he is portrayed as disgruntled about high school life at St. Laurence and is somewhat referenced as the more rational, nerdier, "brainy" member of the group. He is shown to harbor a secret identity as Super Sonic, and a possible future depicted at the end of the movie suggested he would go on to become the creator of an ongoing Gang comic book series.

He returns in Doin' Stuff 2 and 3 in mostly the same role, usually accompanying Terry on some wild scheme (such as pursuing the Blair Pappas) or having some rough luck in strange situations (like being stuck and a never-ending red light).

In The Search for Pappas, Mike joined the other members of The Gang in looking for their missing companion, Pappas. He was beaten repeatedly by a group of thugs before finally paying them off in return of Pap's location. Unknown to Mike and the others, the entire situation was the scheme of the Dark Gang, evil versions of The Gang from another dimension out to conquer the world. Mike sensed that something was amiss, but realized it too late as he was captured from his job at Dominick's and replaced by the Dark Mike. He was held captive until rescued by Jay, and together they managed to find the real Terry and Pappas and put a stop to the Dark Gang's plans.

Doin' Stuff 4 shows Mike moving on to UIC and introduces his new friends. He teams up with Joey, Han and Charlie to form "The Jerksquad," a lame super team in which he wields "The Hammer of Death" in his super form. It is shown that he is still a member of the Jerksquad after retirement in the year 2070, where he wields a much bigger hammer. We are also shown his preference for cartoons over real-world events, his insecurity as personified through his massive toy collection, and his inability to beat his friend Vicky at putting back overstock in Dominick's.

In The Gang Wars, Mike is reunited with Terry, who had been away for a year at Western Illinois University. But Mike is soon struck with nightmares about the destruction of The Gang. These nightmares start to come true when he is attacked at Dominick's by Vicky, who is under the control of the Council of Elders. Mike loses the lightsaber duel and is imprisoned by the Council along with Terry until his new friends from UIC are able to rescue them. He and Terry are then able to thwart the Council's plan to destroy the rest of The Gang.

In Doin' Stuff 5, Mike continues his journey through UIC with the others. He is nearly run over by a rogue shopping cart at Dominick's and is also plagued by a mysterious video of a robot Terry. Later, he ends up feeling pretty disgruntled about his life at UIC thanks to some tough critiques from his teachers and fellow art students. A video to the head prompts a flashback to remind Mike of why he started making movies in the first place (to see himself on TV...) and he leaves with Tyler and Joey with a new sense of purpose.

Anxious to graduate, Mike and his friends are sent on a wild goose chase in Doin' Stuff 6 by the Council of Elders to find their film degrees. Instead, they miss their advising sessions and must proceed through their senior year with no idea of what classes to take. Along the way, Mike takes a trip to Europa with Terry, Tyler and Joey and inadvertantly thwarts another of the Council of Elders' outlandish schemes. By the time The Gang begins working on their senior thesis project, "Viral Video," the group is on the verge of collapsing. Mike's control issues push Terry, Tyler and Joey farther away until The Gang finally disbands. Having been expelled from UIC, they go their separate ways.

About a year later, Mike finds himself working as a wedding videographer when Tyler tells him of Stalker Dude's plans to reunite The Gang to film Shenmue IV. Persuaded by the outrageous some of money, Mike reluctantly agrees to round up Terry and Joey for the project. As production begins, it becomes evident that Stalker Dude's plans need to be stopped, so Mike and the others go to the Council of Elders for help in sabotaging their own production. The plan works, and The Gang escapes Stalker Dude's set...but the momentary cooperation between old friends quickly dissolves back into arguing as Mike and Terry blow up at each other. They go their separate ways once again, seemingly for good, until Stalker Dude reveals that he's captured Joey and intends to go ahead with his production. Putting their differences aside once and for all, Mike and Terry join with Tyler to infiltrate the set, rescue Joey, and stop Stalker Dude once and for all. Having finally reunited, The Gang decides to go ahead and release Shenmue IV. At the movie's premiere, the Council of Elders arrives to present Mike and the others with honorary film degrees from UIC.

With college finally behind him, Mike decides to finally move out of his parents' house. He is reluctant to leave the familiar confines of the basement, which had been The Gang's home for over a decade, but was eager to head out on his own. He moved into an apartment with Joey, having finally put aside [most] of their differences. Shortly after moving in, Mike and Joey discovered the apartment was haunted by the ghost of Detective Otto Royben, who briefly took over Mike's body before apparently being exorcised by the Ghost Getters. Mike soon found himself sucked into the weird and wild world of Terry and Pappas, who had also moved in together. He barely managed to escape with his sanity. Most recently, Mike was seen competing with Tyler and Terry for Kelly's affection in an attempt to convince her not to get married and move to Canada. While none of the boys succeeded in winning Kelly's love, she nevertheless ended up breaking off her engagement.

In UIC AdventuresEdit

In the UIC Adventures universe, the character of Mike is again based pretty much off the real thing, but with subtle differences due to the more fantastic nature of the series. He befriends Tyler and Eric (and later Joey) at UIC's freshman orientation. Their shared hatred for the hypocrisy of the Art & Architecture department helps them band together to survive the various perils of college life.

During their first battle against the Esoteric Order of Onmoraki at Club Inferno, Mike is given a brown winter hat which, when he pulls it completely over his head, grants him the powers of UIC's legendary guardian, Brownface. Mike's alter-ego is kept secret from his friends, and despite the glaringly obvious clues to Brownface's true identity, the others are unable to connect the dots. The true nature of the Brownface mask has yet to be revealed. Even without the powers of Brownface, Mike is able to occasionally call upon several Sonic-like powers, like the ability to spindash, when needed in a fight.

In Viral VideoEdit

Though still playing himself, Mike's character is radically different in the story of Viral Video. In this alternate universe, Mike had been friends with Tyler and Joey for years, and together they had made loads of outrageously stupid viral videos. Upon reaching UIC, Mike and the others were brainwashed into becoming video artists by the Council of Elders in an effort to suppress the radical ideas put forth in their videos.

As a video artist, Mike ventures into the world of physical manipulation of the mediums of film and video, producing work by taking a roll of film and casting it into a lake for example. However, about a year after their brainwashing, Mike and the others are contacted by the mysterious Terry, who reveals their forgotten past. Mike is reluctant to believe his story until Terry leaks one of their old viral videos to the world. Now hunted by the Council of Elders, Mike, Tyler and Joey have little choice but to join Terry in his quest to overthrow the Council.

After Terry's training fails to restore their lost sense of humor, Mike, Tyler and Joey decide to infiltrate the Council's laboratories in an effort to regain their lost memories. They are confronted by Rex, the Elder's chief of security, who destroys the disc containing their memories and easily defeats them in battle. However, when their lives flash before their eyes, their memories are restored, allowing them to once more tap into their Power Realities and defeat Rex. With his memories and friendships restored, Mike joined with Tyler, Joey and Terry to continue fighting the Council of Elders from within the system of UIC's Art Department.

Filmography Edit

Presented here is a complete listing of the characters Mike has portrayed in each of The Gang's movies.

Doin' Stuff: The Story of The GangEdit

Himself
The News Anchor
O.F.T.S. Agent
Chinese Guy #1
Mr. Forberg
Miss Dorgan
Prosecutor
WWF Announcer #1
Teacher
Bill Pappas (Nightmare Version)
Old Lady Russell
Corporate Guy
The Manlady
Mrs. Mulchrone
Crazy Assistant

Doin' Stuff 2: Ulta Foovin'Edit

Himself
The News Anchor
Corporate Guy
Sonic the Hedgehog

Shenmue: The Gang EditionEdit

Fuku-San
Tomato Mart Guy
Yamagashi-San
Goro
Security Guard #1
Old Bum
Chai
Asia Travel Guy
Mad Angel #3
Nayouki

Doin' Stuff 3: The Gang AdventuresEdit

Himself

The Search for PappasEdit

Himself
The Dark Mike

Shenmue II: The Gang EditionEdit

Chai
The Mo Meister
Zhang Yu
Fuku-San
Yuan
Arcade Man
Photographer
Scout
Yamagashi-San
Thug

Doin' Stuff 4: The College YearsEdit

Himself
PMTV Cribz Host
Detective Otto Royben

The Gang WarsEdit

Himself
Elder #2

Doin' Stuff 5: Hoopin' and a Doppin'Edit

Himself
Brad Vickers
Corporate Guy
Pvt. Jenkins
Ponce de Mike
O.F.T.S. Agent
Detective Otto Royben

Shenmue III: The Gang EditionEdit

The Mo Meister
Chai
Yuan
Yamagashi-San
Fuku-San
Thug
The Mike Army

Viral VideoEdit

Himself
Elder #2
Pizza Delivery Guy

Doin' Stuff 6: The Final CountdownEdit

Himself
Pvt. Jenkins
European
Zombie James Clark
Referee
Bob Geldoff
Yon Irlichtenstein
William Valares

Freedom Fighters 2Edit

News Anchor

The Final JerkoffEdit

Himself
Ponce de Mike
Added by The Gang
Elder #2
Captain America
Stalker Boy (Voiceover)
Ponce de Mike
Yuan

Day WulfeEdit

News Anchor

Oh, Video! Vol. 1Edit

Himself
Otacon
Ponce de Mike
Faggy Vampire

UIC Adventures (Voice Credits)Edit

Himself
Professor Davis
Professor Keith Green
Hugo Ball
Professor Krauser
Chroma
Misc. Students

LinksEdit

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