Full Sail Stories

Full Sail students recently had the chance to watch the pilot episode of Revival, Peacock’s new supernatural drama about a small Wisconsin town where the dead mysteriously return to life. The exclusive screening was hosted on campus by the show’s Co-Creator, Showrunner, Executive Producer, and Lead Writer, Aaron B. Koontz, a Full Sail Film grad and a recent inductee into the Full Sail University Hall of Fame. Joining him was fellow Hall of Fame inductee Larry Katz, and together they led a Q&A for students both in person and online, offering insight into the making of the series and the world of television production.

For Aaron, the event was about more than just showcasing his work. It was an opportunity to connect students directly with a working showrunner, a role he says is still underrepresented among Full Sail graduates.

“I was like, 'Look, get me in front of [students who want to be] writers.' Because that’s what showrunners really are, they’re writers first. And I would’ve wanted access to [a showrunner] when I was in school at Full Sail,” he said.

As the credits rolled on the final scene of Revival’s pilot, students applauded and leaned into the Q&A portion of the evening. They wanted to know how Aaron chose his directors and cast, what it was like to sit in a writer’s room, and how he and his team tackled adapting such a beloved comic. For students, the exchange offered more than just answers; it gave them a glimpse into the collaborative, sometimes unpredictable process of bringing a series to life.

Aaron’s journey with the series began years before cameras rolled. Based on Revival, the acclaimed Image Comics series by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton, the show adapts a story that was both a New York Times bestseller and one of Image’s most successful titles.

“This was a very, very long time coming. It took many, many years to get made. My partner, Luke [Boyce], had the rights to the comic and was trying to get it made, and he couldn’t for probably eight or nine years," shares Aaron.

“And then Luke was about to give up, and he said, 'Can you help?' I was like, 'Well, I haven’t made a TV show yet, but I can try.' And then here we are.”

What started as a producing role quickly became something more. “Originally I was just going to produce it,” shares Aaron. “But I fell in love with the comics so much that I wanted to write and wanted to be the creator and the showrunner, so Luke and I kind of took over the thing.”

While the press tour for Revival is keeping the grad busy, he’s also preparing for the October release of Shelby Oaks, a found-footage inspired horror feature directed by Chris Stuckmann and produced by Aaron.

“We had made [Shelby Oaks], and then I sold it to [film production and distribution company] NEON, and then NEON read the original script and said, 'You didn’t get to film these scenes... would you guys like to do it?’ And so it’s actually a new ending now from our original cut,” Aaron explains.

He shared that the film’s chilling first moments were a hands-on, bare-bones shoot: “Literally, the opening scene of that movie is, it’s a girl sitting on a bed, and then she’s scared and crying into a camera. And then you hear a banging on a door, and she gets scared. That is me banging on the door. That is Chris [Stuckmann] behind the little camera sitting in the corner."

Picked up by NEON and bolstered with new scenes, Shelby Oaks is already generating strong anticipation ahead of its wide release in theaters.

For Aaron, sharing both his successes and challenges with students is just as important as promoting his latest projects. By pulling back the curtain on the creative and production process, he hopes to show future filmmakers that big opportunities can come from persistence, passion, and adaptability — lessons he’s carried from his own time at Full Sail to the sets of his biggest projects yet.