Grant Steinfeld

Grant Steinfeld, a.k.a. Bukanator was an early participant in Lonelygirl15, and shot some still photography of the filming of the first episodes of Lonelygirl15. He was an employee of the creators rather than a creator himself, in charge of designing some of LG15's online content.

Steinfeld is a San Fransisco area software engineer who also very briefly played the role of Bukanator, who was a fictitious early fan on YouTube who started LonelyGirl's first fan site, lonelygirl15.com.

Dismissal from the project

In July 2006, Steinfeld was shut out of the project, but still had access to Bukanator's e-mail accounts. Without informing the creators of Lonelygirl15, he went to Candace Murphy, a reporter with Inside Bay Area, and told her that Lonelygirl15 was a production and encouraged her to hack into the Lonelygirl15 e-mail accounts to learn the identity of the creators.

He later told a different version of the story to Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times. Steinfeld claimed that he grew tired of running the site and dropped out of the project after fans discovered that the site had been registered before the first Lonelygirl15 video was posted on YouTube.

Some of Steinfeld's photography of the shooting of the early Lonelygirl15 episodes was published in the New York Times, and was briefly available on Steinfeld's personal web site. While both interviews he gave to Inside Bay Area and the New York Times violated his Non-Disclosure Agreement, the specific terms of Steinfeld's NDA are unknown, and it is unclear if his release of the photography violated the NDA.

Full permission to release his photos to Reuters/AP was given on the morning of the 12th of September 2006, by his best friend, Mesh Flinders. No NDA breach has been made as far as Grant is concerned. As far as future plot revalations? I can't say? Do NDA's last for life? Bukanator is dead as far as a real character goes that I was, but really the original Buka does still lives on ... Check out his fan site :)

With apologies to Richard Brautigan

If I were to live my life

in catfish forms

in scaffolds of skin and whiskers

at the bottom of a pond

and you were to come by

one evening

when the moon was shining

down into my dark home

and stand there at the edge

of my affection

and think, "It's beautiful

here by this pond. I wish

somebody loved me,"

I'd love you and be your catfish

friend and drive such lonely

thoughts from your mind

and suddenly you would be

at peace,

and ask yourself, "I wonder

if there are any catfish

in this pond? It seems like

a perfect place for them."

There are many catfish in this pond.

Signed, your catfish friend.

References

Candace Murphy, insidebayarea.com

Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times