Tag Archives: film
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Film Mini-Reviews

In 2016, I began writing mini-reviews of every feature film I watched and, this year I decided I’d post them on my website. You can find these reviews by clicking here or by clicking on Film Reviews on the menu at the top of any page on the site. These reviews are all short, sweet, and […]

02 Courting Chaos

COURTING CHAOS World Premiere

It’s been a busy time, but one of the cool things I was able to do recently was to attend the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival where Courting Chaos had its World Premiere and was named Best Comedy Film of the festival. It was also nominated for the People’s Choice Award and the voting has […]

00 Shooting on film for the first time

My Fall Semester SFTV Film Projects

Last semester was a busy time. I worked on several film projects, for both my cinematography and directing courses, as well as those of my fellow film students. Cinematography — Short Film in 16mm Here is my first cinematography project. The initial assignment was to take seven outdoor stills that told a story. Then, we used those […]

19 Ready to Enter Nokia Theatre

2014 People’s Choice Awards

Awards Season is upon us and, once again, I attended the People’s Choice Awards, courtesy of Gotham Casting. The 40th Annual People’s Choice Awards were held last night at the Nokia Theatre, hosted by Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs. Plenty of A-listers were there to accept their awards like Sandra Bullock, Adam Sandler, Britney Spears, Robert […]

12 Expressionist Cinema - Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Other Great Art at LACMA

As if the Stanley Kubrick exhibit wasn’t enough of a reason to spend the day at LACMA, there was also another exhibit titled Masterworks of Expressionist Cinema: Caligari and Metropolis. The influence of filmmakers Robert Wiene and Fritz Lang through their revolutionary and iconic films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Metropolis (1927) respectively, […]

06 Eyes Wide Shut Masks

Stanley Kubrick at LACMA

One thing that I was looking forward to over my winter break was the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  I had heard terrific things about it and was eager to see everything for myself.  Everyone who has an interest in film or even just a love of Kubrick movies […]

06 Ready To Go Onstage

YES, That’s ME On Stage at the 2013 PEOPLE’S CHOICE Awards!

This week’s certainly been busy, in part, because I was lucky enough to score a gig as an onstage audience member (thanks, Gotham Casting!) for the 39th Annual People’s Choice Awards, Wednesday night at the Nokia Theater. As events played out, I ended up inviting a good friend, Shannon Wagner (who appeared in a couple of my early […]

Life After Film School (FXM): I Ask Valerie & Jonathan about avoiding the pitfalls of co-directing ...

LIFE AFTER FILM SCHOOL: RUBY SPARKS Directors, Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton

NEW:  VIDEO SCREEN CAPS ADDED TO PHOTO GALLERY (scroll halfway down) On Friday, I taped my second appearance as a student-host on FXM Presents’ Life After Film School. Our guests were Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton — the directing team of this year’s upcoming, Ruby Sparks, the much-anticipated second movie from the multi-talented co-directors of 2006’s Best Picture nominee and multiple Academy […]

David MacMillan at LMU SFTV

Oscar Winner David MacMillan Teaches Me About Sound

Last Friday, Academy Award Winning Sound Engineer David MacMillan, conducted a workshop at LMU and I attended. David is one of the most important sound department experts in the world, winning Oscars for his work on The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, and Speed.  He’s batting 1.000, going 3-for-3 at the Academy Awards.  Some of his […]

Zygosity screencap 10

ZYGOSITY (2010) — A Short Film, Director’s Cut

I’ve been writing, producing, directing, shooting, editing and even scoring short films since middle school. In 2010, I created the short film Zygosity for the fiercely competitive film school admissions process.  That submission was strictly limited to a running time of five minutes.  Naturally, a filmmaker wants to tell a story without artificial time constraints (and even […]