Just a quick little update here on the goings-on around my part of town. Unfortunately, since I released Matchmaker I haven’t been able to get anything new out. Scheduling between actors and locations is a nightmare and generally makes any given short film that should normally take a day to shoot take months to shoot. RAGE!!

In any case, there are some films on the horizon. I’ve recently finished the script for a short film that I’m titling “The Right to Sadness”. It follows to people as they have to face the consequences of decisions they made in their past. It’s a short drama and hopefully if I can cast the right actors for it, will be shoot and released in the next month or two. I said HOPEFULLY.

The other bit of news is that “Shift”, my short sci-fi/drama/action, completed it’s first day of shooting a few weeks ago. Sadly, due to scheduling, we won’t be able to continue shooting until at least mid-February. The shooting schedule is 3 total days, so at least we’re 33% done! I can’t wait to get some more footage from “Shift” and release a teaser trailer for you all.

That’s about all there is for news right now. Stay tuned for some really exciting short films coming up! Until next time, over and out!

Though I’ve been releasing a lot of content for a while now, it’s been about two months since I’ve had a blog post. I figured since 2011 is coming to an end that it’s high time I update the whole world (all two of my readers) on the status of my affairs and what’s been happening in 2011. Where to begin?

2011: The Review

I started off 2011 with very few films under my belt. Of course in the fall of 2010, I started Gutter Trash with my longtime friend and actor Derek Turson, but I had only one actual short film under my belt, that was World View (released in July of 2010). I had a script for a short thriller that I had written and I was due to be shot in the early months of 2011, late January or February to be precise. Due to recasting, shooting, and reshooting, the film never got finished until September. Isn’t that crazy?? Though it took so, so long to complete, I was really happy with how this seventeen minute film known as Trust turned out.

Even though Trust may have taken me a half a year to get out the door, I did not spend the entire time sitting around. I gained experience creating a number of short comedy films such as Small Talk,  the High School Life trilogy, Stolen Property, Dr. Vincent, and many more. All of these films can be found in the comedy section of my main web site. I love how all of these shorts turned out, and what’s even better about them is that they were a great platform for me to gain experience as a film maker.

Amidst the slow production of the comedy sketches and Trust, I decided I would try my hand at my first feature-length project. It was a 20-episode web series. I got the first couple of episodes shot, but due to timing, schedules, and miscast roles, the series never came to fruition. I did, however, release the main theme that I composed for the series, it can be found in the Music section of the main web site. Even though I was never able to finish Light, it proved to be a tremendous learning experience for me. From the casting, to the shooting, directing, and everything else, Light was a tremendous experience for me that, even though it didn’t work out, I wouldn’t trade.

After Summer was over, I began another dreadful year at Albion College. This is my third year and I can’t wait til my fourth is over! Sadly during this time I wasn’t as productive, but I was still able to keep releases going. My long time friend and film maker Harrison Heller of Amorphous Blob Productions created my first ever real music video for me. I wrote a song called Waiting On A Miracle and Harrison approached me about the idea of creating a machinima music video for the song. He liked the song and he’s known for his machinima productions, what could be better? Harrison and I worked closely on the video and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I’ve also released videos for other songs such as my original tune Burn These Walls, and covers for the Christmas tunes Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and Silent Night. Check out all of these videos in the Music section of the main site.

Well, we’re coming to the end of the review for 2011. It’s been an exciting year. I’ve created a lot original content, I’ve learned a lot, and I feel like there’s place to go from here but up.

2012: The Future

I don’t want to say too terribly much about 2012 because a lot of things are still in development, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that even though things usually get done, it’s almost always not the way you planned or when you expected. That said, I’ve got some great scripts that I’m shooting this year and I can’t wait to get them out. One of my favorites is Shift, a scifi action/drama. It’ll be the next “big project” since Trust. Supposedly, we’ll begin shooting next week and hopefully wrapping by the end of January! I’m also looking to cast and shoot All Good Things, an original drama that I wrote that centers on a psychiatrist and his patent. Perhaps the biggest thing that I’m considering shooting in 2012 is a TV series pilot that I wrote. It feels like the natural progression after Shift and All Good Things, but right now that’s just speculation.

Anywho, that about wraps up this blog post. Thanks so much everyone for a great year. I’m looking forward to an even better 2012!

As the title says, it’s been like two months since I’ve had a blog post! Crazy, right? Well, anyway, I was headed off to bed and I thought to myself: “what the heck, I should write a blog post!” So here I am!

The first order of business is to say that while I have not been too active on the blog, I have indeed been keeping busy. While my studies at Albion College are fervently exciting (sarcastically, he said), they do keep me busy. In the off-time, though, I’ve been hard at work creating and releasing films and music!  So, let’s talk about the releases!

The first thing to say is that I’ve released two singles that are now available on iTunes, both of which are accompanied by videos on YouTube. Waiting On A Miracle has a great machinima music video filmed by Harrison Heller of Amorhpus Blob Productions. Burn These Walls has a video filmed by my friend Joel Worsham.

In the realm of films, I’ve finally released Trust, my short thriller that I was working on for EIGHT MONTHS, as well as several short comedies!

In the future, there is much good news! I’m putting the finishing touches on Honeymoon, a short film that’s told with images, sound, and music. No dialogue. Beyond that, this Saturday I’m officially commencing shooting on Shift, my next major film project. Shift is a short sci-fi action film about time travel. Sounds fun, eh? I can’t wait to get going on that one!

Anywho, I suppose the reason I don’t post too terribly often is because it’s been two months and I still don’t have a ton to say. Thanks for reading, everyone! Stay tuned for future film releases coming very soon!

It is with great dismay that I announce the cancellation (or perhaps postponement) of Light, my 20-episode feature-film-length web series. Why, you may ask? Well let’s get into it…the tragedy that is Light.

I started writing Light back in probably February of this year (2011). While working on this project I knew that it was going to be long…but not necessarily incredibly difficult. I’ve done a lot of short films before, so I figured this would be an extended short film project in the way I’d produce it. But…that didn’t quite happen. During writing I made sure to use locations I knew (or thought) would be available to me. I planned to shoot extensively at Albion College, where I am a music major.

Of course the very FIRST thing I had to do before scheduling locations was casting. I assumed this was going to be the hardest part. I was wrong. I had the cast of ten or so major characters assembled in a matter of weeks. I found people via craigslist, MichiganActing.com, and local schools where I have friends.

I wanted to wait until after the school year to start shooting, I figured this would be best for everyone since I’m not the only college student involved. I got in touch with some people at Albion College around the end of the school year which happened to be early-to-mid May. I wanted to start shooting in early June with the hopes of being done by the end of July at the latest.

Suffice it to say, Albion College gave me the run-around. Despite me being a student, they would not let me shoot on campus. I really couldn’t get them to work with me much at all. When I was asked “how long would it take you to shoot? An hour?” I knew things weren’t looking good. For some reason, it took the college a good month or so to deliberate and get back to me, all to tell me that if I wanted to shoot on campus I’d have to pay a $500 dollar insurance fee AND on top of that, they may not be able to accommodate all the time I needed.

In the meantime I was able to shoot a few scenes for the first episode at Joel Worsham’s house (he stars in a number of comedy shorts that we’ve done) and at Huff Auto Group, a local car dealership. I went to high school and graduated with Gary Huff’s (the owner) daughter. He let me shoot at his dealership and even let me use some of his cars, that was pretty awesome! A few days later I was able to shoot a number of car scenes in my own garage…but the fun ends there.

I had done all the scenes I could do without the assistance of Albion College. It was now July and it became clear that I couldn’t use the college, so I had to find other locations. I found a couple local factories and my uncle happens to be one of the co-owners of Keyes Produce, a local produce store, and he was going to let me shoot there. However, these locations didn’t open up until probably mid-July. By this point Rodney Rice, my lead actor, had been committed to a local production of Grease and he couldn’t do any shooting on Light until August.

By mid-August Rodney had finished Grease and we were able to shoot at one of the local factories. Now I had MOST of the first five episodes finished…of twenty. By this time I was supposed to be heavy into post production. Sadly, it was during this time that I realized something…I really was not happy with some of my casting choices.

I could sit here all day and defend myself by saying “it’s no budget local film, of course I can’t be picky!” That is mostly true, but now after the fact, I wish I had been picky. Casting makes or breaks a film. I just was not happy with my choice of actors for the leads, they didn’t really work for the roles. Much akin to when Geneviève Bujold was cast as Captain Katherine Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager. She’s a highly respected actress, but she just did not work for the role.

So, I thought to myself: “already I’ve spent a good eight months on this project and I have barely five out of twenty episodes done…this could actually take years.” It’s then when I really began to think about it. I love making films, and I really like this story and these scripts, and I don’t even mind taking years to produce it! But…if I spend years on this project, I don’t want to look back on it and think “man…that could have been WAY better.” Of course, there’s a certain degree of imperfection to ANY film. There’s no such thing as the perfect film. However, if I had continued Light I would have settled for way less than simple a “imperfect” film.

What does all this mean? Do I hate the people I’m working with? No, certainly not. But, my perogative as a storyteller is to tell a good story and to tell it well. It is my RESPONSIBILITY to tell the story well. If I finished Light the way it is now I’d be doing it just to do it. The passion is then taken away and it becomes very clear in the finished product when that happens. To all those involved who may have been passionate about this project, I’m truly sorry, but know that this decision does not come easy for me. Hopefully in the future, Light will once again resurface and I can do it the way I want to do it and do it right.

Thanks everyone for reading. As always, weekly shorts are released on Mondays. The previous short was High School Life, Part I: Stapled. The next will be High School Life, Part II: Jenny.

It’s amazing how much there is to say yet how little there is to say at the same time. The biggest thing to talk about, of course, would be Light, my feature-length web series. There have been a lot of developments with Light which all add up to one succinct sentence: it’s taking forever! Upon embarking on this journey, I never thought it would be this difficult to actually produce. Between scheduling conflicts, uncommitted people and locations, and the fact that some actors live up to three hours away, shooting this series has been incredibly difficult! On the bright side, I have learned a lot about what goes into producing something of this scale. All that to say, Light will eventually be finished, it’s just taking a lot longer than I had planned.

In other news, I’ve begun what will hopefully be a weekly release schedule that will last for quite a while. Every Monday I plan to release a new piece of content. I know the word “content” is rather vague, that’s because I’m intending to release different types of content on this weekly schedule. I’ll be having short comedies (which is the bulk of the release schedule), short drama/action films, even some music videos, and of course eventually, more Gutter Trash!

I was a little late getting the first short film uploaded due to problems with my internet and YouTube. However, I’ve finally managed to get it out there. This short is called Things to Know – Livingston Steadworth. The synopsis is as follows: “Though the networks are full of reality and educational TV shows, none are quite as popular and informative as ‘Things to Know’ with Livingston Steadworth. Watch as Mr. Steadworth takes us on an up-close look at the human body in slow motion.” I’ll post the link to Livingston below. Next week we’ll be releasing Stolen Property, a short film starring the one-and-only Jeremy Moore (he played in my first short, World View, opposite Derek Turson), and Tommy Diablo (who has played previously in Small Talk as Drew).

Thanks everybody for reading and be sure to check back soon for more updates and shorts, music, and other content! Below is the link to Things to Know – Livingston Steadworth:

Things to Know – Livingston Steadworth – Watch on YouTube

I’m having one of those nights. My mind is racing. All I can do is think about Light and how shooting is going to play out. I suppose I should give the most current news. The good news is that I finally managed to gather locations for the entire series. This is fantastic news. Sadly, it took me a month which also meant a month of not shooting. However, every silver lining has a rust spot! Unfortunately, do to not getting the locations I had originally hoped for at Albion College (I will go on a soap box about that stupid school later if I’m in the mood), I had to get some other places. Thankfully, some local manufacturing places have agreed to let me shoot, the facilities look awesome and will make great locations. However, the drawback is that they don’t fit all of the scenes, so I’m having to make sacrifices. I’m having to cut some episodes down and combine them, it’s looking like Light may become an 18 or 17 episode series, which still isn’t bad.

All that aside, there is yet still more bad news. I can’t shoot most of the scenes until August. My lead, Rodney Rice, is in a local stage  production of Grease which unfortunately, yet understandably so, is taking up all his time. However, I am going to go shoot some scenes that he’s not in this week which should be great fun! I can’t wait! These are the major pitfalls of no budget film making. It’s so discouraging and frustrating. All I want to do is shoot, but something always keeps getting in my way. Oh well, I shall press on.

All of that to say that Light is indeed getting back on track, slowly but surely. I just can’t wait to really dig deep into this project. Once it’s finished it will be my first completed feature-length film project which is something I am so incredibly excited for!

That’s about all I have to say this time around. Thanks for reading. There will be more news soon!

Hey everyone,

As shooting for Light is in a bit of a lull, I wanted to take some time to outline the process of events for the series and the challenges of shooting such a large production on no budget (well, almost no budget). First, let me give a little bit of background. I started writing in the winter of 2010/2011. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to produce what I was writing, but I enjoyed the story I was getting so I kept writing for what I thought would be fairly easy to do on no budget. After maybe a month or so I finished all the scripts, of course I continued to touch them up for a while after that.

Once the screenplay was finished it was onto casting. During the writing process I thought this was going to be the most difficult part. The cast for Light is quite large. I contacted people I know and posted on craigslist and michigan.com and within a month or so I had the entire cast completed. I never imagined I’d be able to find talented people so easily.

It was then onto what I thought would be the easiest part: getting locations. I intentionally wrote the show to take advantage of locations that wouldn’t (hopefully) be too difficult to get. However, I soon discovered that so many people are against helping no budget film makers. If my name were Steven Spielberg and I had Dreamworks contacting locations I’m sure I could have gotten them easily, alas that is not the case. I’ve had to search endlessly for new locations. As soon as I think I’ve found one, they tend to come back with something like “well, if this wasn’t such a busy time of year we’d be glad to help you out.” This of course means: “not a chance (unless you pay us more than your life is worth).” So, I kept searching. I recently found a location that would be great to use and it is hopeful that they will help me out. However, I’ve certainly learned not to count my chickens before they hatch! Due to all the location madness, shooting has slowed down considerably. I shot two days in the week of June 4th, and haven’t shot since then because I’m having such a hard time nailing down locations. So, let’s just hope this latest one pans out.

When I started this project it was very important to me that I do it as low budget as possible. To be quite honest, I don’t have much of a choice. I simply don’t have the money to produce a high budget production. But, I wanted to prove to the indie film making community that something of this scale can indeed be done on no budget or a very low budget. I emptied my savings account for this project, that is I spent around $1,000 dollars. I bought some green screens, some tactical vests for costuming, some prop weapons, a crane for the camera, some more lights, and a preamp for the shotgun microphone. That’s all the money I’ve spent on this project and it’s all the money I’m going to be able to spend!

It is my hope that Light will turn out to be a cinema-quality production. I’ve already spent countless hours on it and I’m certainly ready to spend more. In the meantime while I’ve been waiting for the locations to shoot Light I’ve been shooting a number of unrelated short films that I’ll begin releasing within in the next month or so. It is my hope to have a large amount of content in the can to begin releasing weekly for quite some time. I’ll have more on that soon.

Anywho, all of that being said, I really don’t have much news. I just wanted to give a pseudo-update on the production whilst giving some information about how things work around here. Also, be sure to check out the first released still image from Light! That’s all for now. Thanks for readin’!

Things are getting busy with the film shooting going on around here! I just wrapped my second day of shooting for Light yesterday (Wednesday). We shot all of the car scenes for the first ten episodes. It was a great (and incredibly long) day of shooting. I got to meet Liza Perricone, the wonderful actress playing Ellie Jasinowski (the female lead) as well as work in-depth with some of the other wonderful actors on the show.

I was supposed to continue onto the third day of the shoot today, however scheduling issues arose and I had to postpone. I was upset, but life goes on. While on this scheduling topic, just let me say that scheduling for an indie project of this scale is absolutely insane! This is a low budget indie production, that means everyone is working for free, which also means planning around people’s schedules! Let me show you my basic workflow for setting up a shoot day:

1. Call the actors, see when they’re available
2. Call the crew, see when they’re available
3. Call the location, find out it’s not available when the actors and crew are available
4. Find another time with the actors and crew
5. Schedule with location
6. Schedule with actors

I’m sure you’re thinking “that doesn’t seem too bad!” but imagine doing that for 5-10 actors and crew or more. It’s especially difficult because much of my cast is driving in from up to 3 hours away in all directions. One of the big challenges I’m facing right now is gaining permission to shoot at Albion College (my current place of education). I’ve been emailing back and forth and calling between at least three different people trying to figure out if I can get the okay. It’s madness! However, once that is all worked out, life should hopefully get a lot easier. Once everyone is on set and filming, everything is hunky dory, it’s just the scheduling to get us there that’s a killer!

All that being said, episode 1 is nearly completed (save for a sequence that can’t be finished until I wrap principal photography). We’re making steady progress and I’m SO excited for this series!

In other news, my main website has gotten a major facelift. It’s so much prettier and easier to navigate now! Go take a look at any of the pages, it’s gorgeous! Alas, this is about all I have for news this time. I’ll be releasing promotional photos and behind-the-scenes videos soon to gain interest for Light. That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Until next time…UNDER AND IN (the reverse of “over and out” for the people who don’t understand my warped sense of humor!)

It’s at times like these when I really do not enjoy being a one-man band. Sometimes it can be kind of nice; you get to call all the shots and make sure things get done the way you want. In this case, though, it’s just maddening. Light in total will be about two hours long (give or take), which basically means that I’m shooting a feature by myself. Of course, I have a crew, but they’re skittish! Actually, the people on my crew are pretty reliable, just not a lot of them!

I’ll be releasing more information Light soon, including launching the official website and beginning promotional work. I’ll begin releasing cast photos and behind the scenes footage and interviews. This series is going to be huge, I can’t wait to get started and show it to the world at large!

In other small news, I’ve released episode 20 of Gutter Trash this evening, in which Derek Turson discusses YouTube’s opinion on Whoopi Goldberg. It’s a fantastically hilarious episode, check out the link at the end. Also, I shot a good number of comedy shorts with Joel and Sam (the guys who did Catsup, Chapel Hill, Frank Stevens, and RLS; links below). My plan is to create a metric nut-ton (one U.S. crapload) of content that I can begin releasing weekly in order to create (hopefully) a year of continued content when factored in with the series.

That’s about all I have for this update! Things are really beginning to kick into gear over here and I can’t wait to show the content off. Thanks everyone, until next time, over and out!

Gutter Trash – Episode 20
Chapel Hill
Frank Stevens: Weatherman
Catsup
RLS

Trust, my short thriller film has once again hit upon delays and I still have not been able to conclude shooting on it. The amount of rage I feel is indescribable! Alas, there is in fact bright news! Light, my web series, is officially in pre-production. The scripts were completed a few months ago (though I still make little changes here and there) but I’ve just recently kicked it up a few notches. I’ve put out some casting calls and gotten some good people who’ve responded. The cast is being built which means that hopefully (though I do not plan on this) production could begin within the month! Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Light marks a huge step in my film making career. While I’m completely confident in my ability to make this into a wildly successful venture, it is my first time doing a project of this scale. All of the episodes when played back-to-back will eventually equal a feature length film (probably around 2 hours). I’m hoping to turn this blog into sort-of a production blog to keep track of all the developments and goings-on with the series as time progresses. This summer I really want to kick into production mode and get to shooting a lot of stuff. Plans are being made to shoot quite a few short comedies, Light (obviously), and of course the continuing adventures of Derek Turson in Gutter Trash!

Speaking of Gutter Trash, the new episode is finally out (I’ll post a link below)! I know, I know, there have been a lot of delays lately. However, I have a perfectly reasonable excuse! My lovely girlfriend Amelia Mitchell (who you can see in Small Talk, a short comedy film I co-wrote and directed) flew back to Germany on Friday for the next four months, so I had been trying to spend as much time with her as possible before she left and on top of that I was insanely busy with school and work! Alas, my fair maiden has flown to…fairer shores, and school is finally over. And so henceforth therefore, I will have plenty of time to develop a whole slew of projects this Summer that I can have in the can to begin premiering this fall!

That’s about all I have for now. Which is actually a lot as I look back on it. I hope all is well with all two of my readers! The Gutter Trash link will be below. Until next time, over and out!

Gutter Trash – Episode 18: Rebecca Black (YouTube)
Gutter Trash – Episode 18: Rebecca Black (Vimeo)…Coming Soon, WE’RE STILL UPLOADING HERE!