From soap opera extra to crew director, Steven Barber has had every job in the “biz” over the past 25 years.
But Barber, 53, who launched his Santa Monica video production company, Vanilla Fire Productions, in 2007, considers his documentary projects on paraplegic athletes his true passion.
“I have been called to tell these stories,” he said. “I’m the guy.”
Barber’s interest began after a neighbor’s quadriplegic friend asked him to help raise money for a 267-mile wheelchair race in Alaska. The story became the inspiration for his documentary “Unbeaten.”
His newest project follows double-amputee runner Blake Leeper, whom he met at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. Leeper, who trains in Chula Vista, is one of five finalists in the Wheaties Next Challenge, which gives fans the chance to vote for an athlete to be featured on the cereal box’s front cover.
Barber, who is also Leeper’s manager and agent and has been boosting Leeper’s Wheaties campaign, said the documentary will be out in January 2016, just in time for the next Summer Olympics. But he says to stay tuned because he has plenty more to share.
“I’ve got 50 Paralympics stories I could tell tomorrow,” he said.
Under the Hood
The only magazines you’ll find in the waiting room outside of P. Vincent Mehdizadeh’s office are Entrepreneur; Smokeshop, a trade publication for tobacco retailers; and Christophorus.
Haven’t heard of that last one? It’s the official magazine of Porsche. Suffice it to say Mehdizadeh, the 35-year-old founder of West Hollywood medical marijuana dispenser maker Medbox Inc., is a huge Porsche fan. When he cashed out some Medbox stock earlier this year, one of his first splurges was to trade in his Porsche Panamera for the more classic Porsche 911 Turbo.
But he’s almost equally enamored with another high-end car he bought at the same time: a Tesla Model S. He sprung for the P85 performance package, which comes with about 100 additional horsepower. It’s advertised as going from zero to 60 miles an hour in 4.2 seconds.
“It’s very quick,” Mehdizadeh said. “But it’s a whole different experience.”
The biggest difference between the two cars? Noise.
“There’s no motor sound in the Tesla,” he said. “It’s almost Zen like. You just feel this push forward.”
He’s tested out the Model S on road trips to Santa Barbara and Las Vegas, and said he loves driving it – but don’t expect him to cancel his Christophorus subscription.
“If I had to choose, the Porsche is my hands-down favorite,” he said. “It’s a mean machine.”
Staff reporters Melissah Yang and James Rufus Koren contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
