Graduating from New York's Hofstra University in 1988, Rubeo quickly found himself at the whim of a liberal arts education. After failed attempts at such diverse careers as set dressing in Los Angeles and database designing at a large New York law firm, "all the time doing carpentry work to make ends meet," Rubeo landed in Chicago in 1996. "Having failed on both coasts, I was thinking 'flat land and meat, that's what I need'." "Two things happened in Chicago," he remembers, "Digital Video finally broke, and I stopped procrastinating." Starting a video production company with some friends from his LA days, Rubeo began shooting lots and lots of video. Calling upon vast experience with what Woody Allen calls "kamikaze women," Rubeo started writing Hale Bopp in 1998. In 2000, he quit the video company to devote all his time making the film.
