Writer/Director
I took a long walk in the snow and ice today (one of my favorite things in the whole wide world to do). I had my iPhone Camera with me and I took some pictures. My moment of zen was finding myself in the middle of a field of frozen grass breakers.
When we started Pre Production on Paradise Recovered, I hadn’t heard of the new en vogue term to describe films made with virtually no money, Micro-Budget. At the time, I was calling it a no-budget film. Truth is, it has a small budget. If my math skills don’t fail me, the budget for Paradise Recovered is about two tenths of one percent of the budget for Avatar. Or, as one friend so eloquently put it, most films have more money allotted for cocaine and hookers than we had for our entire film. But we got to shoot a film and that’s awesome. It’s just not that kind of movie.
We didn’t have much in the way of Craft Services, Transportation or Catering. We didn’t even have much in the way of Boom Operators, Grips or PAs. We had a small crew. The DP was often his own Gaffer and always his own Focus Puller. The AC was also a Grip as well as the Data Wrangler for the Red Camera. The Location Sound Mixer was also the Boom Operator. The Producer and Director also taped windows. Everyone pitched in. And it was fun. And we got great stuff. And hopefully, in the end, we’ll have a great film. One that everyone who worked so hard on it, few as we may have been, can be proud of.
So what kind of film is it? It’s a film with a lot of heart. Made with love. Made because it was a story that needed to be told. And these days, thanks to advances in the ways and means of filmmaking, you don’t need a lot of money to make that kind of a movie.
I’m currently working really hard editing Paradise Recovered, which we shot and I Directed this past summer. I downloaded Timelapse to check out on the iPhone and wallah! Watch me do the same things over and over. In other words, edit 
.
We’re currently in post-production on the feature film Paradise Recovered and are excited to see our listing for the film on IMDB!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1523979/
My first IMDB credit for Directing, yay!
Shooting Test footage for the film Paradise Recovered on 12seconds.tv
We broke out the Red for the first time today. Too cool. We were checking out how it did with just the natural light at one of our locations. Big thanks to David J. Neff for the location and for standing in for us today. We begin full on production for Paradise Recovered on Monday!
I am Producing and Directing my first feature film this summer. We’ll be shooting in Austin Texas and Bloomington Indiana and we’re gearing up to shoot right now (starting July 6th).
Paradise Recovered is a modern-day retelling of the parable of the Good Samaritan and a coming of age story about a young woman’s discovery of what it means to have faith. It was written by the very talented Andie Redwine who is also Producing.
Here’s how you can keep to date with everything that’s happening as we embark on this adventure.
Follow my updates on Twitter
Become a Facebook fan of the movie by Clicking Here
Check out the movies blog and site Here
Look for photos and videos from the set on my Flickr account Here
The 2009 Vampire Prom was a big party thrown by the Alamo Drafthouse to celebrate the release of Twilight. My friend David J Neff of We Say So Media helped throw and promote the party in conjunction with the Alamo and Austin’s Mansion of Terror. I just showed up with a camera and then cut this together with great music from The Brakes and Ravens and Chimes (a big thanks to Dave Brown of Holiday Matinee for getting us permission to use the songs). Austin is a super cool place to be.
Twestival was a worldwide Twitter organized festival to raise money for Charity: Water. Charity: Water is all about getting clean water to the 1.1 billion people on earth who are currently forced to drink muddy, parasite filled water. I was lucky enough to be a part of the Austin Twestival. I even shot and edited a video about it which you can see here.
That’s why I’m really really excited to see that the drilling has commenced on the first Twestival wells in Ethiopia:
I love to speak and teach about my passion for video and film. Lately, I’ve been getting more and more opportunities to do so. Last week, David J. Neff invited me to be a guest speaker for a PR class at the University of Texas. I graduated from UT in 2001 and so jumped at the chance to return to campus and share some of what I’ve learned since leaving.
Up first, David gave a great talk on Social Media. Engaging, funny, and informative. Towards the end, he spoke about the importance of video in Social Media and that’s when he introduced me. I gave the class practical tips for shooing good video. Tips that they can use to go out and start producing their own videos for their social networks, their clients, their classes, or their selves.
Liz Kelley, a member at Texas Tower PR, blogged about the class and what we had to say. Check it out HERE.