I’m an independent filmmaker. And that means that lighting is critically important to me. For instance, if I can’t separate my foreground subject from the background that subject is in front of, I’ll have a muddy image that no one will want to look at. Well, it might be an artistic curiosity, but it won’t be a clear image. And most of the time, what I want is a clear image.
This is also true in my life as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »
The first of a 3-part series on an excellent day of location shooting, here in San Francisco. In this post, we visit John McClaren park (a gorgeous, relatively unknown piece of land in SF), and get beautiful, moody shots of the south side of the city, Mt. Davidson, Bernal Heights and more. Read the rest of this entry »
I finally finished my latest short screenplay! It’s called “28/5” at the moment – well, that’s the code name, anyway. The “working title,” or so it’s called. The movie is a meditation on the violent nature of love in the Christian era. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that at this moment! 
More to come.
I love writing. I always have. There’s a flow to it, for me, that feels so good. Dialogue has emerged as my favorite part of writing. When the characters I’m writing say something amazing, I love it. It lifts me up. Getting it right – having the characters – no, the people – come off the page, alive, because of words that they’ve spoken, through me, is a feeling like no other. Read the rest of this entry »
Haiti. So horrible, I can’t even look at it. I’m a little ashamed of that. There it is.
I say, wait to give money. Everyone is giving now; and that is righteous. I have never given money to the people of a disaster-impacted area (unless you include the US political system). I plan to this time. Read the rest of this entry »
Every April 1st the fools gather (our people!) and have a Day! This is some of the mayhem and wackiness that ensued in 2009. Meet Bishop Joey, Bishop of the Church of the Last Laugh whose patron saint is Saint Stupid.
Filmed in Standard Definition
When we had actual farmers, and not agribusinesses, the farmers would work a plot of land until it was time for the land to lie low and gather its strength (minerals and other plant nutrients) back into the soil. I feel like that plot.
I also think that a fallow “period” is perfect for a writer (of English, at any rate). Not only is it is an unspecified length of time, it’s the punctuation mark that signifies the end of a complete thought. Once upon a time, there was one space in between typed words, and two spaces in between sentences, occurring immediately after the period. A perfect place to lie low. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a “little” film meant to do very BIG things. It stars, among others, Adam Savage from The Mythbusters! This is the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s End of Year Appeal video for 2009. Visit them at www.eff.org.
Shot in High Definition
Happy New Year! Now let’s nap for a couple of weeks. That’s how I feel every January. I used to try and get things done in this time beyond time with disastrous results. One year I severely cut the index finger on my right hand. Holding your finger up in the air (to avoid painful throbbing) makes it look like you have some important point to make but it makes doing anything of importance impossible. Several years started with long drawn out colds or flu. And there are other forms of early year inertia that I’m sure I have conveniently blocked from memory. Read the rest of this entry »
It wasn’t until I was 33 years old (and I’d been living in San Francisco for 8 years) that I realized, “Hey. I’m a freaky artist type!” I’d always known I was interested in artistic endeavors, and so I set off to find out what particular art suited me best.
I studied guitar with a near virtuoso Berklee School of Music grad, and wrote a few songs. I studied drawing with world-renowned monumental sculptor Aris Demetrios. I studied acting at ACT, a nationally acclaimed school, and performance at the Marsh, a local guerrilla theater, where I wrote and performed my own shows. I wrote three novels and a handful of short stories.
For each of these arts, I studied and created with singular focus and vigor. Always, however, my passion would wan, and I would find myself asking the question, again and again, “What am I meant to be doing?” Read the rest of this entry »
This was the most traditional wedding we’ve filmed. The ceremony was at a Catholic Church in Sacramento. The sound was wonderful and the lighting was decent. Oh yes, and there was a Children’s Chorus and a Mariachi Band and a fantastic reception in an atrium of a library complete with whole roasted pigs and 300 guests!
Shot in High Definition
