Imagine this - you stop by a big studio, maybe to try to get a few minutes with an exec to pitch your next idea. As you get back on the elevator to leave (with the no scheduled meeting), the door opens to reveal the Head of the Studio already riding down. “Great Zeus, this [...]

Ten cans of film have been turned in after the longest producing job I’ve had yet - six days of summer thesis kick-off. You get three days to shoot your thesis film, or you can team up and double your resources as the DP and Director did here and shoot for six days with twice [...]

I like presentations. Let me correct that. I like good presentations. People seem to have finally woken up and realize that good presenting requires a good story (and no bullet points).
Presentation Zen, both the book and blog, utilize the visual power PowerPoint/Keynote provide to make presentations better.
Of course you don’t have to be a Venture [...]

Lately I’ve been reading blogs about presentations, from Presentation Zen to Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero. They’ve introduced a new way of doing PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentations, one that draws a lot of parallels with filmmaking, such as using storytelling and visual images, rather than bullet points.
Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of chances to do [...]

While most of The Treasonist, the second film I produced, took place inside, the opening was supposed to have truckloads of shock-troops pile out of transports, ready to neutralize the hostage situation. I tried contacting the Army reserve, but by the time I got in touch with the right person (a week before filming), there [...]

Today is Director’s Prep for my film, and the last for the F3 cycle. Between Production Design and Directing, these past two weeks have been the busiest yet.
I feel slightly unprepared, mainly because I have no cast. But I do have locations, and they’re great, so that’s something. We’ll see how this goes.

Producing is like being the Chief Happiness Officer on set. It’s all about keeping the crew happy and the set flowing smoothly. After producing two films, my view is the 1AD works on a micro level, creating a detailed set-up schedule and working shot to shot, while the producer does the macro tasks of getting [...]

On Monday, my Producer and I finally got around to doing some pre-production work for my F3. The two main locations I need is an open cubicle area and a really nice corner office, one that is soul-worthy.
Most of the downtown area is either government buildings or law offices, with a minimal one [...]

With one producing job down, I’ve already picked up a few tricks to make things go easier for time two. Below are a few free web apps that help keep things organized (a lot were also used during documentary making). Most have a mobile option, which makes them very powerful for some on-set action.
Google [...]

January is going to be a busy month for me. As I said before, three films are down, four to go. These four are all ATL jobs, and are every Friday-Saturday for the next four weeks when school starts up again on the 7th.
Week 1 - Director of Photography
This is a sci-fi period film, taking [...]