FILMOGRAPHY

Announced February 21st as the first major starring role of Sarah Kellysen's since her departure on Drakoloid's ARTic, a comedy series which she spent nearly seven years on, Knock is the second feature film from Jarrod Van Hauen, slated for release in November 2022.

It was announced February 24th that Harry Scott, from Drakoloid's series Men of the House, would also be involved in the film to an extent, receiving the an "and" credit. That same day, a teaser poster was released as well as the first still of Harry Scott's character.

Much remains unknown about the film, aside from the fact that Barkhoff treated the script and came up with the idea in middle 2021 and at one point considered making the film for October 2021 but decided against it ultimately, as it would've been "majorly rushed".

The film follows 2021 release Death, My Darling as Van Hauen's sophomore film effort. Already a massive difference is that this film features three actors as opposed to his prior film's usage of one all but a cameo for one of its final scenes.

Knock is the first formally announced film for Live Free's 2022 slate, aside from the announcement that a "second Ron Gomes film" was imminent.

This is the first announcement of a Barkhoff collaboration with Sarah Kellysen following him inviting her to participate in efforts of Live Free's during her appearance on the podcast in January 2022. Similarly, this is Barkhoff's first time formally collaborating with Harry Scott outside of Men of the House, where they co-star, minus Barkhoff giving Scott's skit a shout out moment in an episode of The Live Free Sketch Show. This is Van Hauen's first time working with anyone outside of the Live Free or Barking Vans grouping on a directorial level.

The Live Free Sketch Show, released in January 2022, was created by Zach Delfs and Mike Barkhoff, when the duo were trying to come up with a good replacement for the former series, Unscripted, which they decided ultimately not to return to following a little more than a year's hiatus.

Barkhoff starred in every episode of the first season, consisting of four episodes that were eighteen to twenty-four minutes, and hosted two, while guest hosts handled the second and third episodes. The host setups is similar to Saturday Night Live's setup.

The series received positive reviews for bringing more comedy to Live Free's lineup. Every episode title but the third one was partially censored on it's YouTube release - but rating the episode on IMDb reveals it's full title.

Barkhoff announced after the show's run that a second season is a go, and may even be out in 2022 also in a later month, and revealed that an early idea saw a six to eight episode to also fit the channels' content into the month of February, an idea he scrapped when he became overly busy with securing other projects for the coming months, also.

Created by Mike Barkhoff, Living Free is a comedy web series that stars himself, Dylan Van Hauen, and Ron Gomes.

The show was written over the course of two days, plot and scripts, and features seven episodes. Inspiration from the series came from Donald Glover's 'Atlanta'. Originally planned to be released in the Summer of 2021, it was delayed to allow "Chapters: Bad Things Happen At Noon" to have more focus during it's release calendar.

After filming Season 1, Dylan Van Hauen offered his assistance in crafting any potential future episodes. As of July 2021, however, no such foreword has been delivered to anyone in the team about a second season.

The first season includes seven episodes after one of the intended six was decided to be split into two, and is set to release in September. It will also include guest star roles, some of which are new to the Live Free crew, others of which are guests who were brought on board to help craft the story.

Barkhoff sent the scripts to Ron Gomes and Drake Vegas of Drakoloid to hear their ideas on how to better accomplish the show. Both of which enjoyed the scripts, particularly for their blend of dry humor with over-exaggerated dramatic scenarios.

In May 2021, Barkhoff released three posters from the web series, when it was intended to be a July release. Each poster features a 'main character' - himself, Dylan, and Ron. Barkhoff has stated, however, that the show has no 'set' main characters rather than himself, asserting Ron to be in a 'couple' episodes and Dylan to be in a 'few', but stating that their characters are memorable due to the performances given.

The first season was entirely written and directed by Mike Barkhoff, though Dylan Van Hauen helped out with the camerawork 'a massive amount' for the episodes he appears in.

On November 11th, 2021, a second season of ten episodes was announced, with all primary actors returning as well as Conner Paulsen joining in a minor role - coming March 18th!

Initially completed in September of 2020, and then sat upon in the following month of the same year, Barkhoff viewed his attempt at his third feature film a failure, and decided against releasing it.

Rather, he cut out forty-seven minutes of the film, releasing it as an eight minute "short" that landed at Episode 9 of Chapters.' second season, "Atrocity Exhibitions". Though part of the original plan, the original plan would've seen the full length fifty-five minute film take place of what was instead the eight minute release.

In the early months of 2021, Barkhoff debated regrouping to try the film out again, after some pep talks from peers and supporters considering he was simply being "too harsh" or "self critical". At first against the idea, Barkhoff slowly began piecing the puzzle back together (he had deleted the fifty-five minute template back in September).

Using what saved footage he had and a basic grasp of his initial longing for the project, Barkhoff managed to concoct a new version of "Doppelgang", sitting at about forty-six minutes. He okayed the edit in April 2021 and allowed select peers to view it, all of whom enjoyed it but noted it's differentiation from 'mainstream' media.

During the Live Chat of "Death, My Darling" on April 30th, Barkhoff responded to viewers who were enjoying the films premiere with him. Near the end of the film, he made the statement: "It's been fun. I'll see you again, May 27th for my third film 'Doppelgang'. The full cut this time."

Due to the excitement of "Death, My Darling", this statement was largely overlooked - also potentially due to a viewer pointing out Barkhoff's announced plans for a home media release sat incomplete until Barkhoff released his third film, which was announced to sit in the collection. Barkhoff reiterated this statement not a week after "Death, My Darling", and amassed a new following for it, all prepared for release.

Barkhoff revealed a Documentary will also be released May 27th, prefacing the film.

Jarrod Van Hauen's debut feature film, "Death, My Darling", was written by Barkhoff.

Scheduled to premiere on April 30th, 2021, the concept began as Barkhoff wanting to explore usage of green screen, and the second half of the film, set in Hell, was initially the entire premise of the film - a man battling against demons on why he shouldn't be resting in Hell, as was unwillingly decided for him. It would have seen a film similar to "Memento" in set ups, very nonlinear and confusing.

Barkhoff decided against this tactic when Van Hauen took on Director's duty, fearing Van Hauen would suffer what he suffered after the release of his own debut feature film, "INFINITE.", which left audiences confused at the ending and left wanting more.

Van Hauen, not the religious type, suggested the duo implement a new strategy of telling the initial idea by use of foreboding sequences.

In the process of writing, the entire film layout changed. Barkhoff watched films such as the "Final Destination" films, "A Few Good Men", the Showtime series "Your Honor", "The Truman Show", "The Butterfly Effect", and "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" to prepare for the duty of creating the film.

Scenes would be sent to Van Hauen to perfect the camera work and performance of Barkhoff. The method of filmmaking is one Barkhoff became accustomed to while filming some still as-of-yet unreleased material for his web series "Chapters: Atrocity Exhibitions" the previous year, with COVID-19 having made the ability to collaborate more difficult.

The film was completed in less than a month. To celebrate the milestone of the Live Free YouTube hitting 500 subscribers shortly before the film, a prop from it's poster will be donated - signed - to one of the subscribers there before 500.

"Chapters." third season returned unannounced with an episode originally intended to fit in the middle of Season 2. Written and Directed by Mike Barkhoff, "Room 4" was filmed in 2018 - the last day of filming on "INFINITE." - and sat on his laptop for years before he decided to release it.

Interestingly, Barkhoff didn't edit the credit claiming it to be a part of Season 2's lineup. Rather, he told the audience to ignore it. Similarly to the above incident, a majority of Season 3 - primarily it's first half - is actually comprised of short films - filmed for "Chapters." and just for fun - that sat and were never released.

After Season 2's finale, it was revealed by Dylan Van Hauen that he had collaborated on three short films with Barkhoff for the season - none of which came out. Barkhoff's reasoning, simply, was to allow Season 2 to fit thematically together.

The wish behind Season 3 is to take the series back to it's roots, featuring less thematic connections and more collaborations before the camera, and behind it.

Season 2's episodes planned to release after Episode 4 were put on hold due to the COVID-19 quarantine, which saw Barkhoff reconfiguring the episodes and finding out it would thematically be best to tackle one of addiction, something he didn't want to do with misc. episodes in the mix.

The pattern for the season is every other episode is directed by Barkhoff and a guest director. A primary episode of Season 3, titled "Limbo" is based off of a script from Ron Gomes and was met with high critical acclaim, thus officially beginning the collaboration between Gomes and Barkhoff.

"I Give It A Year" was initially chosen to be Barkhoff's second film - after "Doppelgang" got delayed and "Windfall" was changed from it's intended web series format.

The film was written by Barkhoff over the course of a few days and hours of sitting down focusing on the script near the time of then President Trump's first impeachment. The development of a comedic script was motivated by Barkhoff's manager, Zach Delfs, who felt they were veering towards too tense of material.

Ironically, the filming progress was delayed by COVID-19, leaving only roughly a fourth of the film finished. It was then edited into a short film and released only a few weeks prior to the 2020 Presidential Elections after Barkhoff spent the entirety of quarantine debating whether or not to complete it.

Up until March 12th, 2021, the film was solely available on Amazon Prime since October 2020, the first - and thus far only - exclusive that Barkhoff has released.

Barkhoff released the script in full after it's initial Amazon Prime release, as well as a letter aimed at replying to the criticism of it's exclusivity where he discussed thoughts of leaving the film dream behind.

"Chapters: Atrocity Exhibitions" is Season 2 of the web series of the same name. The subtitle was added to differentiate seasons, and borrows it's name from the anthological novel of the same name by J. G. Ballard.

Comprising ten episodes, each released roughly monthly, this season flipped the narrative of Season 1 by remaining anthological in terms of story but actually dispersing themes throughout it's episodes.

The aforementioned theme is addiction - something Barkhoff struggled with prior to and during the first seven episodes, which fits it's way into each episode by driving the characters to say or do something they typically wouldn't do if in the right mindset.

All episodes were Written & Directed by Barkhoff, but this was almost not quite true, as UGK David and Dylan Van Hauen were brought in to handle a couple of episodes that have went so-far unreleased. Barkhoff also headlines each episode, making use of guest stars whenever possible. Due to COVID-19, all episodes after the fourth entry were rewritten and reconstructed. Darla Barkhoff guest stars in Episode 2, Skyler Neher in Episodes 3, 4, and 9, Jarrod Van Hauen in Episode 8, and Conner Paulsen in Episode 9. Archival footage of friends and family of Barkhoff's was used in the tenth episode, which wasn't ideal for handling his idea of the labeled episode - again, due to COVID.

Episodes 3 and 4 are the same plot but reversed, with one being from the Husband's perspective and the other the Wive's. Episode 8, "Invasion", is the second half of intended feature length film "Twisted Sibling", which was prepared for a 2019 release before filming halted, to be Directed by Shelbey Coy based off a script Barkhoff wrote which was in turn inspired by a short story penned by Coy. Episode 9, "Doppelgang", was intended to be Barkhoff's third feature film before he became overly self critical and decided to cut forty minutes off of the end result.

"Windfall" is the sophomoric feature film effort from Mike Barkhoff, surprised released on May 8th, 2020.

The release, due to it's surprise setup, didn't amass as many views as "INFINITE." but did receive wide acclaim on opening night. Originally intended to be a web series, it was released in four parts to replicate the intention of episodic installments for a first season. A second and third season were written, too, before a majority of the cast became uninvolved in Barkhoff's day-to-day life.

The film was debated upon by Barkhoff and many cast and crew, in terms of what to do with it, before COVID-19 and quarantine occurred and Barkhoff saw advantage of the staying at home situation as well as a type of universal sign finally telling him to release it. Prior, he had spent a year editing up some footage together before feeling discouraged about it and deleting it.

He had moved on to "I Give It A Year" as his second film, but the aforementioned COVID delayed that project. The finalized project was edited in a day by Barkhoff, and the soundtrack was conducted by him over the course of three days. On it's day of release, Barkhoff decided to swap a single scene around and due to this was unsure of it would be ready for release on that night. Surprising to him, it barely made the cut in time.

Following it's release, Barkhoff performed an entirely virtual Q and A to answer people's remaining questions about this film and, in general, all other projects, past and forthcoming.

Originally designed as a web series, "The Fakest News" was created by Seth Van Wert and Brett Mast in mid-2018 in an attempt to heighten their comedic play via an entertaining platform.

Barkhoff began by meeting the duo to discuss story and begin work on a Pilot script. After completion, Barkhoff helped the duo by writing the starting path on followup episode scripts.

The trio met to begin filming shortly after Barkhoff's debut feature film "INFINITE." released and managed to complete the essential backing of it's Pilot, minus some key portions.

Thereafter, Mast and Van Wert decided that the web series was missing something and, due to feeling it being 'incomplete' in feel, decided to delay the project.

Regardless of this, Barkhoff never heard further from the duo, and therefore, the project never managed to catch formation of all legs.

Following COVID and quarantine in 2020, Barkhoff decided to edit together the minimal of a Pilot and release it on April Fools. His decision was inspired by Delfs' interest in widening their productions to welcome more comedy as well as trying to relieve stress from those stuck at home with a comical, fun movie.

The minimalistic Pilot amassed positive reviews from it's audience who saw a lot of potential. Barkhoff has expressed desire to be able to continue but brushed it off as "highly unlikely".

"Down" was a 6 part miniseries written by Barkhoff and O'Rourke based on a written and unfinished started-filming Pilot by Barkhoff.

Barkhoff had the idea to take "The Sopranos" first episode and introduce a comedic twist in it and filmed it almost immediately. Upon showing it to O'Rourke, the duo decided to take the idea further and turn it into a series.

Van Hauen was brought on board to complete the Pilot before the then trio decided that it would be best to complete the remaining five episodes later down the road to have a better setting and the ability to have more fun with the concept - in this case, when they moved in together in months.

Surely enough, the web series was completed alongside "INFINITE.", "Windfall", and more various projects. Barkhoff edited all of the episodes, many of which were done on the fly and improvised, especially when Sydney See was brought in to portray the therapist that wasn't shown in the aforementioned Pilot.

Intended to be released in March 2019, Barkhoff took all hopes of release away when he revealed he would be going on an artistic hiatus. However, later on in 2019, Barkhoff announced the web series' release was reconfigured - to occur in November on Barking Vans. A move that seemed odd due to the conception of Live Free having occurred.

As of 2021, this is the last project released on Barking Vans since Live Free's inception.

Barkhoff's 2019 hiatus ended with the release of "Candlelight II." Similar to a musician referencing a previous song in a new one, Barkhoff treated this 'sequel' in that matter, opting not to relate the story to the original, but rather, the idea of trying to create something that defined his career in a similar limelight.

"Candlelight II" saw Barkhoff compare and contrast the pros and cons of having released "Candlelight" - how it built a fanbase but made people expectant of similar outcome every single time he made something.

Notably, Barkhoff denied making a faithful sequel to the film even though a YouTube production company offered to pay the costs to do just that.

This short film also saw Barkhoff change his style from making films that were more focused on the world around him and their flaws to being more personally about him and his flaws.

The film opened to less than expected views but nonetheless gained acclaim. In part, the former is largely due to the fact that it was the debut film premiered on his newfound production company, Live Free.

Prior to this, Barkhoff intended to release "Drown" but decided against it due to the topic matter of that short film and him fearing it would "disconnect" with his already lost audience.

In this short film, Barkhoff confirms a legitimate "Candlelight" sequel will never happen.

"INFINITE." is the debut feature film from Mike Barkhoff, accomplished at the age of eighteen.

Barkhoff began filming in the last two months prior to his graduation in High School. The script began as an ode to Eminem's song "My Fault", following a similar story - a party gone horribly wrong. In keeping with the tribute to his idol, Barkhoff decided to title the film "INFINITE." after Eminem's debut album of the same name.

The change from short film to full length film followed after a misunderstanding in a conversation between Barkhoff and a musician contacted to lend a song to the film, when the musician mistook it as a full length film. Notable, Barkhoff found ways to include a majority of the actors he had worked with thus far into the film, as well as creating three soundtracks - an instrumental by himself, an instrumental by O'Rourke, and a Soundtrack featuring up-and-coming rappers. The latter included some personal friends of Barkhoff's.

The film was released September 9th, 2018, after a heavy marketing campaign that featured over fifteen posters, three trailers, multiple clips, numerous Behind The Scenes and interview segments, a Release Party, and more. On September 10th, Zach Delfs discussed the making of the film with Barkhoff in great detail.

The release of the film saw highly positive reception and brought in over 20,000 views in it's first weekend.

Inspired by "The Twilight Zone", the bare concept of "Room 104", and even more of the basic concept of "American Horror Story" before it, Barkhoff and O'Rourke set out in 2018 to produce an anthological web series filled with short stories they were thriving to tell that all categorically seemed like they could tie together.

Despite this, the duo wanted to make sure that the thematics didn't blend into story to too much of a degree, intending to keep the stories separate and each with their own namesake. To master the feat of making so many similar short stories so close to one another, the decision was made to make their own "Twilight Zone"-esque web series. Along came "Chapters."

Notable, the duo ended up going against their initial wishes when the sixth episode came to a standstill in production and they both had the idea to quickly tie all the stories together using the final episode's story.

Also notable, "Chapters." contains the debut short film from O'Rourke in "$pree", which was acclaimed upon release, as well as the sophomoric, aforementioned final episode "The Typewriter", which was, too, acclaimed upon release for tying all episodes together. It also features Josey Davis' sophomoric effort, "TBD", which was again acclaimed upon release for it's camerawork and story.

The remaining three episodes were mastered by Barkhoff - "b&w" tells the tale of a irresponsible babysitter, "Silence" was the only directed short film featuring a script not done by Barkhoff until 2021, and "Shrink" battled the surge of #MeToo movement responses, many of which Barkhoff felt were false narrative. Containing two rarities for Barkhoff, an adapted production on a script not of his own, and a political response, are enough to make "Chapters." first season memorable, but the feat is stomped into the ground even more so by it's high acclaim, especially in regards to the aforementioned episodes done by O'Rourke and Davis.

After it's final episode, the show was renewed for a second season, set to premiere in 2020. Barkhoff stayed true to his word, despite a hiatus in 2019, with "Atrocity Exhibitions", which was just as acclaimed.

"Candlelight" is the debut horror short film from Barkhoff, written and filmed in a day.

Since it's release in 2017, when Barkhoff was seventeen years old, this project has been dubbed his magnum opus by many. He has expressed grief in the effort of trying to continuously "one-up" the project, and has even stated on occasions he feels relatable with Eminem having to face similar criticism over "The Marshall Mathers LP".

Notable, O'Rourke and Kendrick are the two sole actors inhabiting Barkhoff's space. A broom appears that previously appeared in Barkhoff and Van Hauen's school project, "The Moderate Gatsby". The camera used to film, Barkhoff's then-new DSLR, died about halfway through filming and required him to continue using a subpar camera in comparison.

The story is simple - a writer working on her latest novel continues to hear noises and decides to get to the bottom of it.

Barkhoff has expressed confusion in the film's laud. Regardless, he has experienced great surprise over this film numerous times. Upon initial release, the amount of views shocked him. Upon re-release in 2020, for it's three year anniversary, when it was remastered, it accomplished the same feat, again, this time with new audiences. It was also his first film to get accepted and published on Amazon Prime.

Happy with the release and experience of "Bond V Batman: Age Of Vengeance", Barkhoff quickly began working on ideas for a sequel.

Involving Zach Delfs and Jarrod Van Hauen as Producers after their work ethic towards it's predecessor, Barkhoff's idea for a sequel was basic - tilt the focus to Bond to begin working on a spin-off based on his solo outings and say goodbye to Batman in the process.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The first episode was filmed rather quickly and easily, but Barkhoff found himself overworked with personal life - homework stacking up and the search of a job becoming more and more of a reality.

This paved the way for a turmoil in filming Episode 2. Many of the actors decided not to commit to the project. Due to this, Barkhoff broke tradition and began filming as much as he could, even if it was out of place, to finalize a majority the best he could prior to going back and redoing some of the smaller elements. This left the production finalized with Batman actor Grant R. Weldon's scenes, but left a lot for him, Van Hauen, and Delfs to do alone.

The trio conceived a concept - release the first two episodes and go unannounced with the others, opting to comment that the project is being "worked on" over an extensive period of time so that they could show how better they get as they become better in the field.

Yet again, misfortune bestowed. Barkhoff found himself uncommitted to the character and story, especially after seeing the twenty-fourth James Bond film, "Spectre", come to fruition and after loosing a friend that connected to many of the actors in the predecessor.

Due to this, Part 3 was released as a quick short film Barkhoff made in 2018 entitled "Bond's Day Off", a comedic effort, and Part 4 was assigned as a subtitle to a loose Bond Vs. Generic Enemy project Barkhoff and O'Rourke made in Summer 2017 for fun, "SANDSTORM".

Finally, in December 2019, Barkhoff released what was done for Parts 5 to 7 in a snippet entitled "Part 5 (INCOMPLETE)" and, in the description, admitted that the project had run it's course.

"Bond V Batman: Age Of Vengeance" was made for a Film Production Class in 2015. Written by Barkhoff and four other classmates, Barkhoff handled Directing Duty.

The title is a joking reference to popular superhero films at the time, "Batman V Superman" and "Age Of Ultron".

During the writing of the script, Barkhoff and the classmates decided to make a project that had a light tone but was also featuring very tense moments - namely in the fight scenes.

All stunts were done by Barkhoff and Weldon. Weldon arrived to set one day with a broken leg and forced the quad writers to include it into the story.

Several elements were not figured out until last minute, including the inclusion of Alex Sealman as the Joker and Jarrod Van Hauen's appearance as Barry Allen. Adam Kaufman's scene in the chase was totally accidental, but he appears multiple times in circumstances where, scientifically speaking, he shouldn't be. This captivated Barkhoff to find a DC character and cast Adam as that, namely in the sequel (which he, eventually, wouldn't do, but was agreed to initially).

Barkhoff and the classmates received an A+ and thensome for the project, and it received acclaim from the classmates at the end of it playing on Premiere Date. The teacher especially enjoyed the comedy and fight sequences.

After this, Barkhoff and the aforementioned teacher would keep in touch as Barkhoff worked on his films. This lead to 2017, when the teacher made a cameo in the Into The Wild trailer. Prior to this, he had made a cameo in "Timeline" from 2015, but wasn't as aware of Barkhoff's enjoyment for the potential career.

Zach Delfs saw the film during the creation but was unfortunately too busy to make an appearance. He lauded Barkhoff for the blend of comedy and seriousness, and insisted on a role in a sequel if Barkhoff did so. Delfs' help of support lead him to receiving an uncredited nod as a Producer and Barkhoff consulting him on the fourth quarter of the film.

Displeased with the debut short film of the same name in 2013, made for Tech Class in Middle School, Barkhoff decided to give "Timeline" another chance, heartset on one of his earliest film ideas coming to fruition in a way he was happy with.

Branded as a web series of seven parts, "Timeline" was released just a mere month before "Bond V Batman: Age Of Vengeance", another seven part entry in his career. Notably, both done while he was fifteen, they both read time limits close to thirty minutes. This wasn't an unheard of feat for Barkhoff's work, but for two to be done so close to one another is something he still hasn't quite managed to do again.

Much like it's original incarnation, "Timeline" follows newly promoted Police Chief Harry White trying to chase down a group of street criminals. After numerous failed attempts, he is finally given his grasp at making their incarceration a reality, using time travel. But upon traveling back in time, to the day the group formed, he finds that the date matches that of his first outing with his wife, which is also where they struck for the first time.

Barkhoff liked the idea of merging childhood favorite series "Back To The Future" with Ben Affleck's 2012 effort "The Town", and loved the concept of making the street criminal's work personal due to Harry's wife being pregnant at the time of their attack during their first date.

Barkhoff wrote this film's plot at the age of eleven, and expanded upon it at the age of twelve when the project was mentioned in class.

Despite reworking the project with advanced cameras, experience, and actors, Barkhoff still wasn't fully satisfied with the 2015 effort. Though he has revealed this project saw the usage of the most amount of cameras they have used on set. He also noted that the experience of filming this was one of "his most pleasing ideas of a film career".

Also notable is that this was the first film Barkhoff worked with eventual manager Zach Delfs and Emmett Kendrick, the latter of which would go on to appear in Barkhoff's first two debut feature films.