Is it really September already??? Where the Hell did 2010 go? It is flying by and I’m not sure what has happened to all my time…
Well, I never planned to neglect my Blog for as long as I have. In my defense, I have been a little busy. In fact, I have been busier this year, than ever before. Let me try and catch you all up to speed with what has gone on this year so far…
Of course, January had me traveling back out to Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. It’s hard to believe this was my 11th year working Sundance. I know I posted most of my adventures, but my reviews still need to go up.
February just might have been one of the worst months I have had physically. I came down with some really bad flu bug, and was down for about two and half weeks. In that time, by laptop died, needing to be re-formatted. I had to start over and reload software. There was A LOT of catching up I had to do in order to recover from that. To round out the month, I got food poisoning which lasted the last 3 days of the month. That will teach me to eat late at night from a gas station.
Now, March came in fast and hard. With a last minute phone call, I was whisked away to Charlevoix, Michigan for the month to work on the Feature Film, ‘The Frontier Boys’. After my 11+ hour drive I jumped straight into my job as 1st Assistant Director. It was certainly a challenge as my first day was day eight for the shoot. I had a lot of catching up to do, but we had an amazing cast and crew to help everything finish on schedule.
While in Michigan, I had a few offers come my way, but I decided to return home and work on a film shooting in Alton, Illinois, ‘Joint Body’. It was Brian Jun’s (‘Steel City’, ‘The Cover Up’) Third Feature Film. After a little crew juggling, I served as the 2nd Assistant Director. I got to work with several friends and colleagues, and return home to sleep in my own bed every night. The down side was I had about an hour drive every day, if not longer. It was a quick, short shoot, but took me through April after a few down days.
May seemed to slip away. I had a few weeks of down time. I spent my weekend working at Bobby’s Place (my friend’s bar) and trying to regroup. I did travel to Columbia, MO to work on the re-shoots for my friend Aaron Crozier’s feature film, ‘Mil Mascaras: Aztec Revenge’. It was only a few days of shooting, but definitely fun. I served as the First AD on the re-shoots. Plus, this got me down to Columbia, MO where my brother owns a new bar, 1839 Taphouse. If you get a chance, drop in and check it out.
June took me back out of town. I started in Chicago, working as 1st AD on the Short Film ‘Left Alone’ with Cinematographer Pete Biagi and several friends and colleagues. The shoot was predominantly nights, but a lot of fun, except for the serious storm we had to avoid getting blown away by. The day after wrapping the short, I left for Grand Rapids, Michigan to 1st AD the Feature Film ‘All You Can Dream’ with several of my Michigan colleagues. The film was a true challenge, but I survived. All I’ll say is NO more pigs!
I made it back to St. Louis for the 4th of July, but didn’t have much down time. Within 72 hours of getting back to St. Louis, I was off to Bloomington, Illinois to take a job as the Production Supervisor on the Feature Film ‘Using’. My Key Set PA from ‘Leading Ladies’ a year prior was serving as First AD and asked me to come help him smooth the production out. The project was built as an apprenticeship project so about 2/3 of the crew were students and recent graduates, while 1/3 of us were working professionals helping teach while we worked. I was amazed at how quickly the crew learned and how great we all worked together. Now, the shoot had a number of challenges, but we saw it through, even with two days of shooting in Lincoln, IL and a week of shooting in Chicago.
August was supposed to be a month to work on some of my own projects while regrouping and collecting myself. Well, I did get to focus on my own projects for a bit, but I did serve as Second AD on the short film ‘The Bloodfest Club’. It is the precursor to the feature of the same name, and the next major project of Crunchy Cool Films (Hooch and Daddy-O). It might have only been two day of shooting, but we all had a lot of fun. Especially for me, getting to ride a 4-wheeler almost all Sunday.
And now, we are into September! What does this month hold in store for me? I can admit I have received word of a few possibilities, but I’m still in a slight holding patter while things get worked out. And of course, if you have not heard, I am set to produce a few projects, including the werewolf Feature Film, ‘Hallow Pointe’, with Bobby Ray Akers, Jr. directing. I’ll be sure to post more often and keep you all up-to-speed with how things continue to move forward.
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back for more news… The way things are shaping up, there will be some good stuff ahead…
